Statistická analýza rytmického zúžení jako příspěvek k otázce rytmické stavby lidové písně u západních Slovanů

Rhythmic narrowing (Rhythmusverengerung) was first described by Hungarian ethnomusicologist and composer Béla Bartók. It is the specific structure of the melody of a song which is usually connected with rhymes repeated twice with the same syllable (aabb), while on the 1st and 4th rhymes have a larger number of bars than the 2nd and 3rd rhymes. A number of bars could be assigned to particular rhymes according to the scheme 3–2–2–3, 4–3–3–4, etc. Béla Bartók considered this phenomenon typical for Slovak folk songs. Similar ideas were proposed by Slovak musicologist Jozef Kresánek, who also proposed a hypothesis about the evolutional connection between the genesis of this structure and the development of harmonic thinking. The author of this study presents, on a larger body of statistically analysed material, that rhythmic narrowing is typical, not only for Slovak, but also for Czech song. The area whith the most abundant distribution is from Eastern Bohemia through Moravia to the Central and Eastern Slovakia border. Polish Silesia could be also added to this area — the part which was not settled by German speaking people before 1945. Rhythmic narrowing is much less widespread among the neighbouring nations — the rest of Poland, Hungary and the Ukraine. It has not been found at all in German, Sorbian, Lithuanian and Serbian folk song collections.