Nearly fifteen thousand songs from all regions of Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia are now freely available through a new online library called Písňovna.cz. The project was created by the Institute of Ethnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, whose archives hold most of this unique collection. The digital catalogue is also aimed at teachers, making it easier to bring folk songs into the classroom. I discussed the project with the Institute’s musicologist and ethnologist, Matěj Kratochvíl.
What inspired you to create this online library, and why did you decide to launch it now?
"This project is the result of a very long development and a very long history of our institute — the Institute of Ethnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences — which is full of archival records of folk songs dating back to the 19th century.
"The main inspiration was our feeling that we should make all those records available, as they represent an immense richness of what we can call cultural heritage, something that should be made accessible to the broadest possible scope of users.
"Another important motivation was the need to protect those sources, which are very old and exist mostly on paper. We needed to digitize them, and once they were digitized, we felt they should be made publicly available.
"That was the reason for the creation of what we called Písňovna, which could be translated as 'songbrary,' or song library."
The songs date back to the early 19th century. Can you highlight some of the most interesting or important ones from that period?
"Coincidentally, the launch of our database comes exactly 200 years after the publication of the so-called Rittersberg Collection, which was published in 1825.
"We also have this collection included in our database. It is the oldest printed collection of folk songs published in Czech, and there we can find some of the earliest examples of Czech folk music.
"Another important collection is that of Karel Jaromír Erben, which is also very large. Together, these early collections form the basis of what we call today the Czech folk song."
If I visit Písňovna.cz, what kind of information or materials will I find there?
"We tried to make the website as intuitive as possible. There is the option to browse particular collections — for example, the Erben collection or collections by almost unknown collectors from the early 20th century.
"You can browse through the songs as if you were paging through a book, or you can search by lyrics — just type in the first words of a song, and it will show you if we have it in our database.
"You can also input a tune, either by clicking on a virtual keyboard or whistling into the microphone of your phone or computer. Thanks to the digitization of the tunes, the system can compare what you whistle or play with our database and tell you if we have something similar.
"You can also search by musical content and geographically — for example, if you want to find songs from your home region or village, you can browse by locality and see if we have anything from that area."
You have your phone here in the studio — so could you walk us through, step by step, how to use Písňovna on a phone or on a computer?
"If you go to písňovna.cz, the first thing you will see is the ‘song of the day.’ We decided to go through the entire year using the calendar and find an appropriate song related to the current date.
"For example, today is St. Martin’s Day, so we recall the birthday of the famous folk singer, song collector, and dancer from Moravia, Martin Holý, and feature one of the songs he collected. Tomorrow, a different song will appear, related to whoever was born, died, or whatever saint’s day or important event falls on that date.
"Otherwise, on your phone, you’ll see the typical magnifying glass — the search symbol — and you can go to the label písně (songs), where you’ll find the full list of songs. You can either search in the search bar or simply browse through the list.
"Then you can go to the personalities section, where we have created custom portraits for our database, and read about the collectors. For instance, one of the first is Josef Aul, a lesser-known folk song collector and teacher from the Plzeň region. He collected about 27 songs, which are in our archives and had never been published before. You can open his virtual collection and look at the songs."
And as you mentioned, if I only remember the melody but not the title, the website can still help me find the song. All I have to do is whistle or sing it into the microphone — is that right?
"Yes, there is a tab or button called Zapískej hledej — ‘whistle and find.’ You just activate your microphone and whistle a simple melody, like a major triad, and the system will show you how many songs match that tune.
"This is the beginning of the famous Ovčáci čtveráci song, but there are hundreds of songs that may pop up, and it will show you which collections they come from and which melodic shape they contain."
The website also includes resources for teachers. What prompted you to create these, and how can teachers use them in practice?
"We met several times with groups of teachers. We organized workshops to show them what we have, but we also wanted to learn about the current situation with folk songs in schools — how they are used and what teachers need.
"We found that folk songs are still very useful, especially for small children, but the available material is often limited to commercially published songbooks. Teachers also told us they would appreciate having ready-made activities, since school time is limited and they cannot spend too much time preparing lessons.
"So, we prepared activities that show how to use specific folk songs in music or art education, but also in Czech language lessons, history, or even zoology — since many songs are about animals — and botany, since we have songs about flowers and their dialectal names or symbolic meanings.
å"We also have historical ballads that refer to real historical events, which can be used in history classes. Teachers can download PDFs, song recordings, and classroom-ready materials.
"We even invited child singers to record selected songs for use in the classroom, knowing that not every teacher has a piano or can play and conduct at the same time. We also created karaoke versions, so children can sing along with instrumental accompaniment."
Is the website currently only available in Czech, or are you also planning an English version?
"Currently, the main page of Písňovna is only in Czech. However, we have another version of the site called Badatelská Písňovna, which could be translated as the 'Researcher’s songbrary', and which is aimed more at academic users.
"It includes detailed analyses of the songs, including structural, lyrical, and dance analyses when available. This research version is already available in both Czech and English, so it can also serve international users."
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