Belarusian-Russian mixed speech in modern stage performances

This article analyses the typical features of the influence of the Russian language on Belarusian stage speech. Contemporary theatre, concerts, and other cultural events have played an important role in the popularization in the Belarusian language of misbalanced bilingualism. According to the transcripts of modern actors, emcees, and musicians recorded in theatres, music clubs, literature museums, and culture centres between 2012 and 2019, different fragments and types of mixing of Belarusian and Russian are revealed. Firstly, we notice switching of language code, which is used for famous phrases from literature, cinema, etc., or shows someone else’s speech. Secondly, we have examples of Russian language interference in Belarusian at the lexical, grammatical, and phonetic levels. So-called trasianka-distorted Russian language according to the special features of the Belarusian orthoepyis observed as a specific kind of interfered speech. In addition, various variants of hard mixing of systems and subsystems, functional styles of two languages (especially including of dialect words and forms), jargon lexis, and special units of alternative norms of the Belarusian language tarashkevitsa are shown. This research notes that mixed speech is a result not only of bilingual interaction, but the decline in the standard of stage speech. It is noted that trasianka helps to create a comic or negative character image on stage.

THE HISTORY OF ART DESIGN OF MUSIC CLUBS AND TAPESTRY IN INTERIOR DESIGN OF A CULTURAL CENTER

The paper displays the history of the emergence and development of music clubs in Tsarist Russia in the 18th and 19th centuries and the post-revolutionary period of the clubs' existence in Soviet Russia, examines the artwork of carpet makers (artist of tapestry, according to the accepted international terminology) who shape interior design of the concert halls, and provides an integral description of the concert hall in culture as a unity of the concert venue and a specific concert space. Owing to a significant historical event — the entry of Crimea and Sevastopol into the Russian Federation, the carpet becomes a means of self-identification for the people. In our time, the relevance and viability of tapestry is proved by the experience of modern architects, who do not abandon this type of creativity that has a thousand-year tradition and successfully use it in the interiors of modern architecture aiming to create a positive image. The involvement of cultural elements into modern the art is extremely relevant. Having entered the Russian legal and economic space, Crimea is at the same time included into the cultural area of Russia. A group of Russian artists, musicians, writers and environmentalists came up with the idea of creating a universal, multifunctional, innovative, cultural center of the new time in Crimea. The paper represents an attempt to give a comprehensive analysis of the activities of artists engaged in creating carpets and interiors of music clubs, in particular, clubs in the Crimea, in Yalta.

Words and Music Ladies

Women’s clubs networks supported the careers of composer-performers Frieda Peycke (1884–1964) and Phyllis Fergus (1887–1964). Both women presented herself not as an elocutionist, but as a composer of a musical art form and publicized the spoken word genres in which she performed with a unique label: Fergus’s “story poems,” and Peycke’s “musically-illustrated readings.” Fergus appeared before women’s music clubs in Chicago, groups that had readers as members into the 1940s, and gradual assumed leadership positions. Peycke’s performances in private homes suggests an ongoing women’s salon culture that supported spoken word performance. Never released, Peycke’s recordings, as well as her published articles, were unable to create a lasting audience for her compositions, though she performed successfully in Los Angeles for fifty years.

Effects of musical training and culture on meter perception

Western music is characterized primarily by simple meters, but a number of other musical cultures, including Turkish, have both simple and complex meters. In Experiment 1, Turkish and American adults with and without musical training were asked to detect metrical changes in Turkish music with simple and complex meter. Musicians performed significantly better than nonmusicians, and performance was significantly better on simple meter than on complex meter, but Turkish listeners performed no differently than American listeners. In Experiment 2, members of Turkish classical and folk music clubs who were tested on the same materials exhibited comparable sensitivity to simple and complex meters, unlike the American and Turkish listeners in Experiment 1. Together, the findings reveal important effects of musical training and culture on meter perception: trained musicians are generally more sensitive than nonmusicians, regardless of metrical complexity, but sensitivity to complex meter requires sufficient exposure to musical genres featuring such meters.

The Re(Public) of Salsa: Afro-Cuban Music in Fin-de-Siècle Dakar

This article explores why, despite its diminished popularity, Afro-Cuban music remains among the most performed musics in Senegalese music clubs. Since the Second World War, many Senegalese have associated Afro-Cuban music with cosmopolitanism and modernity. In particular, Senegalese who came of age during the Independence era associate Latin music with a new model of sociability that emphasized ‘correct’ behaviour – elegant attire and self-discipline. Participating in an emerging ‘café society’ was especially important. The rise of m'balax music in the late 1970s, deemed more culturally ‘authentic’ by a younger generation coming into its own, challenged many of the values associated with Senegalese salsa. As an enlarged Senegalese public embraced m'balax, the older generation stopped going out to Dakar's nightclubs where they felt increasingly uncomfortable. However, the model of sociability this generation has championed calls for public displays of distinction and refinement. In fin-de-siècle Dakar, a number of venues emerged where Afro-Cuban music is played and powerful older Dakarois congregate, even if less frequently than formally. This article describes these venues and documents their patrons and the performances that take place there.

A Case of Contagious Legitimacy: Kinship, Ritual and Manipulation in Chinese Martial Arts Societies

When he wrote his oft-cited work, Lineage Organization in Southeastern China (Freedman 1958), Maurice Freedman could say little about the nature of Chinese martial arts societies. ‘The boxing and music clubs were, as their names imply, groupings of recreation. The structural significance of these associations is not altogether clear’ (Freedman 1958:93). This paper aspires to make that situation somewhat less opaque. Chinese martial arts students under the same teacher are brothers. I don't mean this in a metaphorical sense, that they are ‘like’ brothers. They, at least in some Chinese martial arts groups, consider themselves to be kin.