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

3 Making Mountain Music: A History of Ethnography in Podhale

3 Making Mountain Music: A History of Ethnography in Podhale giewont: I góralskiej muzyki żaden z kompozytorów nie mógł napisać. Bo to był ksia ˛dz Chybiński w XIX wieku, który napisał góralska ˛ muzyke ˛, ale w tempie mazurka, oberka, w takim tempie. Pierwszy dopiero kompozytor, który 130 zapisał melodii góralskich . [ . . . ] To chodził z Bartusiem Obrochta ˛. Kompozytor dwa lata grał po weselach; Mierczyński, Stasiu Mierczyński [ . . . ] cooley: Pan zna go, nie? giewont: Znałem go, bo on już nie żyje dawno. Bo to, on chodził z Bartusiem Obrochta ˛ po weselach dwa lata, jako sekundzista bo był skrzypek super i kompozytor. I dopiero on napisał w tempie takim jak powinna być góralska muzyka. giewont: And no composer knew how to write Górale music. Well, there was this priest Chybiński in the nineteenth century who wrote Górale music, but in mazurka and oberek time [in triple meter]. The first composer who wrote 130 Górale melodies [ . . . ] traveled with Bartuś Obrochta. The composer played at weddings for two years; Mierczyński, Stasiu [Stanis ław] Mierczyński [ . . . ] cooley: You know him, no? giewont: I knew him, because he has not been alive for a long time. He went with Bartuś Obrochta to weddings for two years and played accompaniment, because he was a super violinist and a composer. He was the first one to write the meter 84 Making Music in the Polish Tatras cooley: To dobre, co on pisał? giewont: On dobrze napisał muzyke ˛ góralska ˛. Tak samo, jeszcze pamie ˛tam Szymanowskiego. Bo Szymanowski jak przyjeżdżał to wieczór [ . . . ] był Obrochta zawsze . Pamie ˛tam Szymanowskiego. Pamie ˛tam dobrze Witkiewicza, bo przecież . . . im graliśmy. —Tadeusz Ga ˛sienica-Giewont and Timothy J. Cooley as it should be for Górale music. cooley: It is good, what he wrote? giewont: He wrote Górale music well. In the same way I still remember Szymanowski. Because Szymanowski arrived in the evening [ . . . ] and Obrochta was always there. I remember Szymanowski . I remember well Witkiewicz because . . . we played for them. —Tadeusz Ga ˛sienica-Giewont and Timothy J. Cooley1 Past musical folklorists, ethnographers, composers, and others who took an active interest in Górale music-culture are alive today in the memories of Górale musicians. Tadeusz Ga ˛sienica-Giewont was a maturing boy when many influential Polish artists, classical musicians, and ethnographers were active in Podhale, including painter and writer Stanisław Witkiewicz (1851–1915), composer Karol Szymanowski (1882–1937), and musical folklorist Stanisław Mierczyński (1894–1952). These individuals have entered the historical narratives Górale tell about themselves. But Ga ˛sienicaGiewont did not, and other Górale do not, accept uncritically what visitors have written about their music-culture. For example, he was critical of a nineteenth-century priest he called Chybiński (probably meaning a priest named Janota)2 for transcribing Górale music in mazurka and oberek time—in 3/4. With extremely rare exceptions Górale music is represented today in duple time. Another senior Górale musician, Józef Styrczula-Maśniak, preferred the transcriptions made by a later musical folklorist, Włodzimierz Kotoński (fieldnotes 1992, IV:22). These comments were not isolated . Time and again Górale musicians would mention past and living musical ethnographers when we talked about muzyka Podhala . This is just one indication of how musical ethnographers— usually part of the new migration to Podhale considered in the previous chapter—are implicated in the making of the modern mountain music called muzyka Podhala. Like Górale ethnicity, Górale music-culture responded to the changes in society brought on by the new migration of tourists to Podhale and the musical ethnographies that were a by-product of this trend. Ga ˛sienica-Giewont’s criticism of a nineteenth-century Making Mountain Music 85 writer who represented Górale music in triple meter raises an interesting question. Oskar Kolberg and others, as I will show, also documented many triple-meter tunes in Podhale. Has the repertoire of musicians in Podhale changed from mazurkas and obereks —styles common in much of Poland—to the more distinct genres of muzyka Podhala, or have representations of Górale repertoire changed over time? Of course, any living music-culture is in a constant state of change, but what motivates musicians to move from general and widely popular styles to a rarefied style recognized...