Songs about the Lisbon Earthquake, or the Slovenian Response to Stories about Someone Else’s Misfortune

Abstract

This article focuses on the Slovenian songs about the devastating 1755 Lisbon earthquake and on the context revealed by these songs. It is based on two songs about this earthquake that were published in the first collection of Slovenian folk songs from the mid-nineteenth century. The songs draw attention to the impact of this event in the media and the reception of these types of songs among the Slovenians. Studying the genesis of both songs, it reveals the role of organists and also the mindset that comes to the fore in the song narrations. The traces lead to a song leaflet that brings Slovenian songs closer to the general European tradition, with certain basic differences: the Slovenian song published on the leaflet contains a prayer for the victims of the Lisbon earthquake, which means that it provides special spiritual assistance. The article also reveals the reasons why the songs about the Lisbon earthquake were excluded from the subsequent standard collections of Slovenian folk songs, although the memory of both the songs and the Lisbon earthquake was still attested at the end of the nineteenth century. The Slovenian songs about the Lisbon earthquake therefore not only show the Slovenian response to the misfortune of the unknown people of Lisbon, but also question the social role of folklore studies.

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Prispevek se osredotoča na slovenske pesmi o uničujočem lizbonskem potresu leta 1755 in na kontekst, ki ga razkrivajo. Izhaja iz objav dveh pesmi o tem potresu v prvi zbirki slovenskih ljudskih pesmi iz sredine 19. stoletja, ki opozarjata na odmevnost tega dogodka in sprejetost pesmi med Slovenci. Išče genezo obeh pesmi, pri čemer razkriva vlogo organistov, hkrati pa predstavlja tudi miselni svet, ki se razkriva skozi pesemske pripovedi. Sledi vodijo do pesemskega letaka, kar slovenske pesmi zbližuje s splošno evropsko tradicijo, ob tem pa se kažejo temeljne razlike: slovenska pesem, objavljena na letaku, namreč z molitvijo za žrtve lizbonskega potresa pomeni posebno duhovno pomoč. Prispevek razkriva tudi razloge, zakaj so bile pesmi o lizbonskem potresu izločene iz nadaljnjih normativnih zbirk slovenskih ljudskih pesmi, čeprav je spomin tako na pesmi kot na lizbonski potres izpričan še ob koncu 19. stoletja. S tem slovenske pesmi o lizbonskem potresu ne kažejo le slovenskega odziva na nesrečo neznanih prebivalcev Lizbone, temveč se sprašujejo tudi o družbeni vlogi folkloristike.