6 - A Place of Her Own: Gendered Singing in Poland's Tatras

Summary

Hej kie jo se zaśpiywom,

puscem dolinom głos;

Hej usłysys mnie chłopce,

Ale mnie nie poznos.

[Hey, when I sing,

I'll let go of my voice in the valleys;

Hey, you will hear me, fellow,

but you will not recognize me.]

In this song from southern Poland, the women singing engage in a first-person narrative in which they position themselves discursively within a surrounding mountain landscape of the Tatra Mountains by sending their voices into this land (see fig. 6.1). At the same time, depending on where they are singing, they may or may not actually be placing themselves—through their singing voices—physically into the hills and valleys that this text describes. What is the significance of this song and this singing within the experience of place? What is the relationship between singer, landscape, and song? How is this affected by gender, age, and modernity? This chapter addresses such questions in considering gendered musical performance among the Górale of Podhale, Poland (map 6.1). By locating women's singing within its environment, this chapter aims to show how singing, place, and gendered identity coalesce. It also elaborates on the individual experience of singing by examining one exceptional singer's negotiation of gendered performance practice and her ongoing attachment to the landscape.