France Marolt's Enduring Legacy

• France Marolt was associated with folklore and folk groups, mainly due to founding the Academic Choir (APZ) in 1926 and forming dance pairs to recreate musical-dance traditions, which later became the Academic Folk Group in 1948.

• Both ensembles embody Marolt's artistic expression and research, presenting scientific findings through art.

• Marolt initiated and led the Folk Institute, now the Institute of Ethnomusicology ZRC SAZU, established in 1934, that facilitated his vision for ethnomusicology.

• Marolt's legacy extends beyond "folklore" and "APZ," as his institutions continue to operate in choral music, research, and musical-dance tradition.

The Legacy of France Marolt

• France Marolt's legacy is housed at the Institute of Ethnomusicology ZRC SAZU, encompassing more than just his personal collection.

• As the institute's leader and long-time collaborator, much of the documentation pertains to its early years.

• His personal archive reflects his multiple roles and intertwined activities with organizations like the Glasbena matica and the Academic Choir.

• Materials related to Marolt are also found in the archives of the Academic Folk Group France Marolt and Academic Choir Tone Tomšič, as well as in the Glasbena matica.

• The Marolt legacy was only partially organized after his death and received limited research attention until a digitization project in 2022.

• The project's focus is the digitization of the legacy, primarily through scanning paper materials, along with some personal items and a collection of gramophone records with early institute sound archives.

• These include non-commercial recordings of the Academic Choir under Marolt with compositions by Marolt himself.

• Marolt passed away in 1951; his legacy offers insight into his life and work through his extensive collection of papers.

• The papers reveal Marolt as a person, artist, and researcher despite the challenges of documenting them.

France Marolt - Artist

• Marolt's artistic and research pursuits were intertwined, with it being difficult to determine which aspect prevailed.

• Marolt was a passionate researcher, conductor, and composer.

• The Academic Choir (now Academic Choir Tone Tomšič) and dance pairs (Academic Folk Group France Marolt) were significant artistic ensembles.

• Marolt's choir set high standards in Slovenia and beyond, with innovative "stylistic concerts" showcasing folk music, such as Anton Foerster and Jakob Gallus.

• Marolt provided extensive concert programs with ethnomusicological, ethnological, linguistic, and historical context, functioning beyond just an artist.

• Marolt demanded high standards from choir members, assessing vocal range, tone, musical expression, and requiring medical examinations.

• Though not a prolific composer, Marolt contributed arrangements of folk songs.

• Works include "Flosarska," "Ribniška," "Pojdam u rute," and "Mrliška”, also included the cycle of wedding songs "Ziljska ohcet" and "Visoki rej pod lipo."

• Marolt reconstructed folk dances, music, and rituals.

• Before preparing dance and musical traditions for his folk group with his wife Tončka Marolt and her sister Marija Šuštar, he organized folk festivals in Ljubljana, Maribor, and Črnomelj.

• The groups presented in local traditional clothing with adapted dances and music.

• Marolt's artistic interpretation was influenced by his theoretical framework and artistic adaptation, with ensembles serving as public demonstrations of his findings.

• The themes were presented in choral arrangements, musical-dance adaptations, articles, radio programs, and lectures.

The Impetus Behind Marolt's Research and Artistic Work

• Marolt's extensive and diverse work is revealed through articles, lectures, critiques, sketches, notes, transcriptions, arrangements, field recordings, and administrative documents.

• These materials illustrate his many interests and ideas as well as his position in cultural circles.

• Marolt extracted folklore "motifs" which he then presented, from the musical-dance traditions of Bela krajina, Prekmurje, and the Ziljska Valley in Austrian Carinthia.

• As for songs, he focused on the koleda and narrative songs while adhering to specific principles.

• He sought folklore elements that confirmed Sloveneness, antiquity, and authenticity.

• He aimed to exclude foreign elements, especially German, as well as elements from other cultures, including "Western" culture, popular culture, jazz, classical ballet, and church music.

• Marolt's work was marked with affirming Sloveneness and cultural nationalism as well as the study of primitiveness, authenticity, and domesticity.

• He worked against "Western decadence" and bourgeois cultural forms by focusing on »genuine« indigenous forms.

• Marolt also engaged in music folklore at Radio Ljubljana, and lectured at the Academy of Music.

• He held positions on committees and contributed to program development and plans such as the curriculum of Academy of Music and choir of Radio Slovenia.

Lepa Vida and Motivation for Self-reflection

• The story of Marolt's Lepa Vida is a public legend now.

• In 1923, Lenka Šmon sang nineteen songs to Marolt in Hraše including the song about Lepa Vida with its melody and dance steps.

• The discovery of the song with dancing validated Marolt's hypothesis that Slovenes (like Balkan states once did) connected dancing with singing.

• In the 1960s, researchers learned the singer never existed, and nor did the Lepa Vida song.

• Marolt created a version of the song in 1941 to demonstrate an appropriate rendering.

• After Marolt's death, successors revealed his adaptations and falsifications of field recordings.

• This story raises questions about Marolt's motivations.

• He sought to confirm pre-determined theses with in-depth research, needing to adapt sources to his ideas.

• As such, all researchers are "Marolti" and creators of "Lepe Vids" to a certain extent Research requires using sources, and interpreting it per professional and personal leanings, with a view towards set theories.

• Marolt was professionally active during turbulent times after World War I, between and after World War eras.

• This epoch was defined by state formations, while distancing from "German" heritage-identities challenged traditional-neighbor nations near and far; Marolt looked for Slovenian motifs and phenomena from the past-in this he explored the nature and origins past Slovenians.

• It is unclear when Marolt recorded on sites, but it's factual he documented love, narrative and childhood poetry with dance tempos.

• For further study, songs from Austrian Carinthia, Bela krajina and Prekmurje need to be recorded for comparisons. His main topics include Carnivals and the Zilja area dance forms.

• Marolt used material and information to look at languages across all levels in recordings, supplementing dialect and diagrams.

• Selected subjects were a focus of his scientific work while contributing to modern dance and musical traditions.

• Marolt left detailed answers behind, but the questions also offer an understanding of Slovene history.

• By making it available, students can access the details of Marolt's works for artistic insight.