Making Music in the Polish Tatras: Tourists, Ethnographers, and Mountain Musicians

by Timothy J Cooley

Challenging myths that mountain isolation and ancient folk customs defined the music culture of the Polish Tatras, Timothy J. Cooley shows that intensive contact with tourists and their more academic kin, ethnographers, since the late 19th century helped shape both the ethnic group known as Gorale (highlanders) and the music that they perform. Making Music in the Polish Tatras reveals how the historically related practices of tourism and ethnography actually created the very objects of tourist and ethnographic interest in what has become the popular resort region of Zakopane. This lively book introduces readers to Gorale musicians, their present-day lives and music making, and how they navigate a regional mountain-defined identity while participating in global music culture. Vivid descriptions of musical performances at weddings, funerals, and festivals and the collaboration of Gorale fiddlers with the Jamaican reggae group Twinkle Brothers are framed by discussions of currently influential theories relating to identity and ethnicity and to anthropological and sociological studies of ritual, tourism, festivals, globalism, and globalization. The book includes a 46-track CD illustrating the rich variety of Gorale music, including examples of its fusion with Jamaican reggae.

• ISBN10: 0253344891
• ISBN13: 9780253344892
• Publish Date: 14 April 2005
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 20 February 2016
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Indiana University Press
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 320
• Language: English

Reviews

[nannah]

This is definitely one of my favorite books -if not my Most Favorite Book- on the Góral (Polish Highlander) people of Southern Poland that's ever been published. My college dissertation/lecture & composer's recital was on Górale music, and this book was an invaluable asset. It covers so much, and Timothy J. Cooley talks about it all in layman's terms, too. I actually read it for fun now; I'm a nerd, though, so maybe that doesn't mean much.

The book covers the people of Skalne Podhale (a small area in Southern Poland, right above Slovakia), a little bit behind the history there, a little bit of the geography; it covers some of the famous people from Podhale - and the music they've made, like the famous composer, Szymanowski - and it covers how tourism has changed the little "isolated" area of the mountains and what the difference between the music is like on stage and backstage. There's also so much more, plus a CD to listen to while you read, which makes understanding things a lot easier.

I don't know what it is about the Góral music that just draws me in (maybe it's because I have some Góral ancestry in me, too), but it has a sound that you either love or hate. And if you love it, I think you love it something fierce.

It's also a really good read if you're at all interested in ethnomusicology.