The Venetian Slovenia Song Festival as Factor of Revival of Poetry in Dialect

Abstract

Let Us Plant Flowers in Our Way (in three volumes, published in 1983, 2000 and 2013) is a series of Slovene poems written in dialects (of Natisone, Torre and Resia valleys), textual traces of 30 Venetian Slovenia Song Festivals. By means of annual performances that have taken place since 1971 the cultural society Rečan in the village Lese (community Grmek), have stimulated writing, composing and singing of people who had not been socialized into elite art forms, as they had never participated in Slovene language education and are therefore able to communicate only in local dialects. The very music performance has encouraged them, given them self-confidence and later enabled the development of an important segment of literary creativity (gatherings of poets The Moon Floats in the Sky, publication of collections of poetry and of records with the original music by singer-songwriters Francesco Bergnach-Kekko, BK Evolution group). During more than four decades the festival has grown into several days event, has been rejuvenated, modernized, differentiated its textual and music genres, invited groups from Trieste, Gorizia, Tolmin and Ljubljana, from 1985 onwards tape-recorded the events and released music on regional radio stations. Although the Festival has been and still is designed for entertainment and sociable gathering at singing, it has had an important role in strengthening and social diversification of the microsocial system of culture and literature. Namely, the first decades after the World War II saw a lack of Slovene intellectuals and institutions in the region, therefore the entire field of culture has grown out of amateur creativity (local choirs, theatre) which is from the perspective of elite and dominant culture valued as inferior, marginal, undeveloped and archaic, but for the people concerned it has meant the prospect of survival and recognition of ethnic minority that deserves legal protection. The paper presents thematic and formal analyses of songs and music performances focusing on both conserving the tradition and introducing modern tendencies stimulated by contacts with Italian popular music.