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slovakia: Slovakia Art / Culture Profile 2012

2012/04/04

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Slovakia Art / Cultrue Profile 2012

History of Slovak music
Music has long occupied an important and distinguished place in Slovak cultural life. In the first half of the 19th century, a national musical tradition began to develop around Slovakia’s impressive folk heritage. Modern Slovak music has drawn from both classical and folk styles. Well-known works from the 20th century include the compositions of Alexander Moyzes and the operas of Jan Cikker.
 
Traditional Slovakian music is one of the most original of Slavic and European folklore. Its oldest form is liturgical (in Slavon) from the time of Great Moravia (9th century) which is the origin of the sacred music of the 15th and 16th centuries. National Slovakian music was heavily influenced by liturgical and chamber music.
Today, music is one of the most significant aspects of Slovakian culture. Some of the most renown orchestras are : The Philharmonic Orchestra of Bratislava and Kosice, The Symphonic Orchestra of Bratislava Broadcast and The Slovak Chamber Orchestra.
Due to long-term political ties, Hungarian music has some common development with Slovak music.
Slovakia also strangely enough had a crucial role to play in the development of Hawaiian music, Blues music, Country music and Bluegrass music, as the birth nation of John Dopyera and his brothers, the inventors of the resonator guitar (DOpjera BROthers-Dobro).
 
Popular music began to replace folk music beginning in the 1950s, when Slovakia was a part of Czechoslovakia; American jazz, R&B, and rock and roll were popular, alongside waltzes, polkas, and czardas, among other folk forms. By the end of the '50s, radios were common household items, though only state stations were legal. Slovak popular music began as a mix of bossa nova, cool jazz, and rock, with propagandistic lyrics. Dissenters listened to ORF (Austrian Radio), Radio Luxembourg, or Slobodna Europa (Radio Free Europe), which played more rock. Czechoslovakia was more passive in the face of Soviet domination, and thus radio and the whole music industry toed the line more closely than other satellite states.
After the Velvet Revolution and the declaration of the Slovak state, domestic music greatly diversified as free enterprise allowed a great expansion in the number of bands and genres represented in the Slovak market. Soon, however, major label brought pop music to Slovakia and drove many of the small companies out of business. The 1990s, American grunge and alternative rock, and Britpop gain a wide following, as well as a newfound popularity in musicals.
 
Slovak language

The Slovak language (slovenčina, slovenský jazyk), sometimes referred to as "Slovakian", is an Indo-European language belonging to the West Slavic languages (together with Czech, Polish, Kashubian and Sorbian). Slovak is mutually intelligible with Czech.

Slovak is spoken in Slovakia (by 5 million people), the United States (500,000), the Czech Republic (320,000), Hungary (20,000), Northern Serbia (60,000), Romania (22,000), Poland (20,000), Canada (20,000), Australia, Austria, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Croatia (5,000) and elsewhere.
 
The primary principle of Slovak spelling is the phonemic principle, "Write as you hear". The secondary principle is the morphological principle: forms derived from the same stem are written in the same way even if they are pronounced differently. An example of this principle is the assimilation rule (see below). The tertiary principle is the etymological principle, which can be seen in the use of i after certain consonants and of y after other consonants, although both i and y are pronounced the same way. Finally there is the rarely applied grammatical principle, under which, for example, there is a difference in writing (but not in the pronunciation) between the basic singular and plural form of masculine adjectives, for example pekný (nice – sg.) vs pekní (nice – pl.), both pronounced [pekniː].
 
Meat
Pork, beef and poultry are the main meats consumed in Slovakia, with pork being the most popular by a substantial margin. Among poultry, chicken is most common, although duck, goose, and turkey are also well established. A blood sausage called jaternice also has a following, containing any and all parts of a butchered pig, it is an acquired taste. Game meats, especially boar, rabbit, and venison, are also widely available around the year. Lamb and goat are also available, but for the most part are not very popular. The consumption of horse meat is generally frowned upon.

Drinks
Wine is common throughout all parts of Slovakia. Slovak wine comes predominantly from the southern areas along the Danube and its tributaries; the northern half of the country is too cold and mountainous to grow grapevines. Tokaj wine from the Tokaj region is among the best-known varieties. Traditionally, white wine was more popular than red or rosé (except in some regions), and sweet wine more popular than dry, but both these tastes seem to be changing.
Beer (in slovak language Pivo) is also popular throughout the country. In most of the country, the Pils is predominant. There are many Slovak beer brands - for example Smädný mních ("thirsty monk"), Šariš and Zlaty bazant (Golden Pheasant). A number of regions have varieties of local beer.
Two brands of soft drinks made in Slovakia stand out. Vinea is a unique grape soda made from grape juice with no aromatic or synthetic coloring additives, stabilized by pasteurization. It has won several awards at Slovak and international food fairs. Kofola is a cola soft drink developed in former Czechoslovakia in the 1960s. Both these drinks gained a huge nationwide popularity, partly because of their good quality and partly because of the relative inaccessibility of larger brands. Nowadays you can buy them in supermarkets or order them in pubs, either bottled or draught.

Eating habits
Traditionally the main meal of the day is lunch, eaten around noon. However, changing working habits have forced this to be changed in recent decades; today, it is not uncommon for many Slovaks to eat their main meal in the evening.
It is a habit in Slovakia to bring a bottle of wine or spirits if you are invited over somebody's place