TRIZULJAK, Samuel: “May I sing for you...“: A pilot analysis of the oral-historical materials regarding the phenomenon of Catholic youth choirs in Bratislava in the Normalization period

In the 1970s and 1980s, youth choirs in Bratislava represented a small independent phenomenon on the borders of church affairs and popular culture in Slovakia. Alongside other more significant social phenomena in the context of the Catholic Church in Slovakia, such as the network of small Christian communities led by Vladimír Jukl and Silvester Krčméry, religious pilgrimages, petitions or the publication of samizdat on the one hand, or the pro-­regime movement Pacem in terris on the other, the choirs in Bratislava represented a smaller but still noteworthy manifestation of religious activism and youth creativity in the grey zone tolerated by the Communist regime. The article is an attempt to provide an initial synthesis of the material gathered through eight oral history interviews conducted by the author with leading choir members. Based on the testimonies, the paper chronologically reconstructs the activities and describes the common features and special characteristics of four of the most famous youth choirs active in Bratislava during the period of normalization: Céčko, Ursus Singers, Káčko and Kufríkovci (Suitcase Singers).