Leperiben/Remembering

Romani Musical Remembering in Today’s Prague

Abstract

According to Jan Assmann (2011), storytelling about the past (including an imaginary past) represents one of the axes of collective identity. Given music’s place in the culture of Romani people in the Czech Republic, and given the stereotypical association of Romani people with music by the majority society, it is not surprising that music plays a significant role in their events of public remembering. The “Leperiben” presentation introduces the dynamics involved in the formation of such remembering during the last decade, from the spectacular Requiem (2012), dominantly organized by pro-Roma organizations (which also determined its form), to contemporary projects collecting songs about the Holocaust of the Roma (Porraimos) which have been designed and instigated by Romani activists. The collected material not only confirms several existing concepts about how collective memory works (e.g. the concept of “Archive versus Canon,” Aleida Assmann 2010), but also gives rise once again to the eternal questions in ethnomusicology, e.g., those about intervening in a field situation and the disbalance of power relations.