Ethnomusical codes of the jew’s harp creativity: a bridge between nature and culture

Abstract

The article focuses on the phenomenology of jew’s harp music art in traditional and modern cultural practices. The theoretical framework for the research were the works in the field of philosophy of culture, the concept of a symbol as a cognitive memory of culture, musical and psychological anthropology and a comparative approach to the study of cultures. On the basis of the cultural model of ethnomusicological codes, the authors have identified, typologized and analyzed intonation symbols of jew’s harp practices. The intonation-sound level of jew’s harp music art is revealed through the following elements of the symbolic field: the overtone scale as a natural sound invariant; the symbol of support; the symbol of the spiritual vertical; the symbol of prayer. At the visual and plastic level of jew’s harp music art, the following components of meaning formation are revealed: the symbol of the “external vocal cords” as a transcending voice; the symbol of the sound life of nature; the symbol of circularity. Special attention is paid to the understanding of the overtone scale as a comprehensive original musical sphere, concentrated in the sound of the jew’s harp and allowing performers to return to the lost integral connection with culture and nature. The revealed intonation symbols allow us to consider the jew’s harp as a “bridge” between nature and culture, and traditional and modern jew’s harp practices — as forms of transmission and actualization of the intangible cultural heritage of the peoples of Eurasia.

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