Uccelli [née Pazzini], Carolina Uccellini, Marco

(e) Czech and Slovak.

The history of Czech American and Slovak American music is as diversified as the many ethnic groups that have occupied former Czechoslovakia. Inherent in the changing ethno-national identity was ethnic, religious and linguistic diversity, which renders the identification of a national ‘Czechoslovak’ music almost impossible. Moreover, the nation and sense of nationhood that emerged only in the 20th century was quite unknown to many immigrant Czechs and Slovaks, who left their homelands when they were under the political, and often cultural, domination of foreign powers. As the culture of Czechoslovakia underwent patterns of consolidation during the 20th century, so too did the musical traditions of Czech and Slovak Americans, but to a lesser degree. By the late 20th century, public performances of mixed ‘Czechoslovak’ traditional music were rarely encountered, whereas individual Slovak and, to a lesser degree, Czech traditional performing arts collectives are still active, particularly in urban areas.

Czech and Slovak immigration to the USA falls into four periods. During the colonial era small religiously motivated groups, largely from German-speaking areas, established settlements in Pennsylvania and the Carolinas. During the second period, from the late 19th century until World War I, the most significant numbers of Czechs and Slovaks came to the USA. Immigration for political reasons occurred during the mid-20th century, and following the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia during the ‘Prague Spring’ of 1968. Further immigration and travel outside the homeland has occurred since the so-called Velvet Revolution of November 1989 and the subsequent emergence of independent Czech and Slovak republics in January 1993.

During the 19th century both Czech and Slovak immigrants came primarily from agricultural backgrounds. The first Czech settlements were in the agricultural states of the Midwest and in Texas; urban Czech settlements also sprang up in Midwestern cities, although New York, the port of entry, retained many immigrants. The plentiful land of the Midwest offered both economic and linguistic advantages, for it allowed Czechs to settle near the dominant German groups, whose language most of them knew better than English. Slovak immigrants settled predominantly in Pennsylvania and Ohio in industrial cities and rural coal-mining areas. High concentrations of Slovak Americans are found in industrial centres such as Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Chicago and Detroit. Many Carpatho-Rusyns, or ‘Rusnaks’ from eastern Slovakia and subcarpathian Rus, which was annexed from Czechoslovakia and incorporated into the former Soviet Union after World War II, immigrated to the USA, mixing with and frequently identifying themselves as Slovaks. Rusyn influence on Slovak culture, song and music in the USA is quite significant.

The community structures of both Czech and Slovak immigrants were extremely strong. Family and religion provided the foundations for this structure, and a variety of social organizations provided the superstructure, which further served to link communities to each other. The traditional music of Czech and Slovak communities reflects this tightly organized structure, for those musical genres that have been retained the longest are the ones deriving from family and community participation: music associated with specific holidays and festivals, songs celebrating life-cycle events, and music related to religious celebrations. Ethnic radio programming, a tradition still supported by Slovak Americans, has played a prominent role in preserving ethnic awareness and disseminating musical culture, particularly to the newer generations born in the USA.

The Moravians were the earliest immigrants from the Czech lands (Bohemia and Moravia). Settling in closely knit communities as early as 1741, the German-speaking Moravians brought a rich musical culture to colonial America. Not only did they maintain rich choral traditions, but they combined these with instrumental traditions, making theirs the first American concert music. The Moravians were also among the first instrument makers in the colonies. The importance of instrumental music to the Moravians is a distinguishing characteristic of Czech and Slovak immigrant musics as well (See Moravian’s, music of the.)

Although Czech and Slovak folksongs form different repertories, they share certain characteristics that distinguish them from the songs of other eastern-central European cultures. Transposition (the repetition of an entire phrase or section at a higher or lower pitch) is used extensively in Czech and Slovak folk music. For Slovak songs the predominant interval of transposition is a 5th (the interval also common in Hungarian melodic transposition); Czech songs more frequently transpose by 2nds or 3rds, reflecting their more customary diatonic scales. Related to transposition is the frequent use of sequence, which is also shared by Czech and Slovak songs. Both Czech and Slovak folksong and instrumental genres depend heavily on prosody, another unifying characteristic in the two repertories. Czech and Slovak folksongs are heavily accented, and Slovac melodic phrases, as well as those Czech ones that predate Germanic influence, rarely begin on an anacrusis; most are lyrical.

Folksong texts make both regional and local references, and love songs, soldier and conscription songs, songs of social commentary, life cycle events and religious holiday songs, ballads, agricultural and shepherd’s songs, children’s songs and songs of immigration are included in the repertory. References to the homeland have in some cases been replaced by references to the USA, rendering the songs more pertinent to immigrants.

Czech and Slovak traditions of instrumental music are tenaciously maintained in the USA. Both rural and urban communities have supported folk ensembles that play favoured dances such as polkas, čardašes, karičkas and waltzes, and perform at weddings and traditional music festivals such as the Pittsburgh Folk Festival. These bands have become a part of social institutions such as ethnic clubs and churches. Eastern European instruments, such as the bagpipe, have largely been replaced by more common American instruments, but the interrelationship between folksong and instrumental music has caused the fairly conservative retention of traditional repertory. Instrumental ensembles serve as a symbol of Czech and Slovak community solidarity, and with song are a principal means of preserving and possibly reviving their musical culture.

USA, §II, 1(iii): Traditional music: European American: Eastern