"Folklorní mejdlo": Contemporary Folklorism in Prague

Prague as space, inside of which music of various genres is being created and performed, linked to different values, being created on foundations of distinct concepts and serving as a medium of various strategies, is characterized by fluid and difficult to grasp soundscape (Shellemay 2006). This environment allows the creation and negotiation of traditions (Glassie 1995), moving into different directions. One of them, which have a recursive character and serves its actors as the construction of meaning and carrying out sociocultural change for its actors, is connected with the concept of folklore. The presented fieldwork examines this part of contemporary Prague soundscape in the field, framed by one of the music and dance events. The regular event, named by the organizers "Folklorní mejdlo", defines itself as a connection of the world of modernity, which is currently offered in the metropolis, and the world of traditions, authenticity and folklore. The fieldwork aims its focus on the way the concepts of authenticity and legitimacy are negotiated, its assigning to individual actors and objects and generally how the actors of the event undertake the construction of folklore and how the final product looks like. This work, with its approach to music as a social act (Turino 2008) endorses the..