Folklore Movement as a Bridge between Folk Music and Other Worlds

Folklore movement in the second half of the 20th century played several roles. It was a tool of propaganda but at the same time a means to preserving tradition or original art form. One of its roles, however, remains somewhat aside the main focus. As the original forms of folk music and dances were disappearing, the revival of them through performance by folk ensembles became the main, and often the only way of bringing the traditions to wider public. This was contributed to by interconnection of folk movement with mass media and recording industry. Through these channels the folk music reached musicians of various genres, who were thus introduced to the sound of folk music from Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia. Based on their impressions, some of these musicians then decided to include the folk components in their own compositions. The result is a number of projects and recordings, where folk elements are mixed with jazz, rock, ballads or electronic music. The paper attempts to present possible answers to the question to what extent the folklore movement, as an institutionalised form of reviving traditional culture, influenced acceptance of this culture in other areas of music. The research, which forms the base of this contribution, analyses recordings and presents interviews of musicians from varied areas and of different generations