Phonographic Research (Non-Commercial) Recordings of Serbian Musical-Folkloric Material: Foreign Contributions and the Context оf Their Creation

Sanja Radinović

doi:10.5937/10.5937/newso2566035R

Sanja Radinović University of Arts in Belgrade, Faculty of Music, Department of Ethnomusicology and Ethnochoreology

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5937/10.5937/newso2566035R

Keywords: phonographic recordings, phonographic collections, phonogram archives, Serbian musical folklore, guslar epics, Western Balkans

Abstract

The importance of using the phonograph was recognized by musical folklorists from across the region that, after the First World War, became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929). However, the introduction of this device into their research practices was not implemented everywhere in accordance with that awareness. The varying pace of improvements in fieldwork through the use of the phonograph was only one indicator of the uneven development of musical folkloristics throughout the Western Balkans. Conditioned by numerous unfavorable circumstances, its advancement in Serbia progressed at a visibly slower pace than in the former parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a fact reflected as well in the belated acquisition of the first phonograph in 1930. Under such circumstances, a kind of compensation for the historically very important yet modest domestic results in this field was provided by foreign researchers, through their own phonographic recordings of Serbian musical heritage in Serbia, in the broader region, or among Serbian populations in both near and distant diasporas. This paper offers a comprehensive chronological overview of these known research contributions, made between 1907 and 1940.

Author Biography

Sanja Radinović, University of Arts in Belgrade, Faculty of Music, Department of Ethnomusicology and Ethnochoreology

Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Ethnomusicology at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade. At this same institution, where she has been employed since 1988, she earned her Magisterium (1993) and Ph.D. in ethnomusicology (2007). She has served as a visiting professor on several occasions at other universities in the Republic of Serbia (Priština/Varvarin; Kragujevac) and the Srpska Republic (East Sarajevo), where she has likewise been engaged in this capacity over the past several years (Banja Luka). She is the author of four books (including two single-authored volumes, one co-authored, and one co-edited) and several dozen scholarly articles published in reputable national and international journals, conference proceedings, and scholarly monographs. Her principal areas of interest include the morphological characteristics of Serbian vocal heritage, analytical methodology, old Serbian two-part singing. Her book Oblik i reč (Form and Word) received the prestigious Mile Nedeljković Award in 2012 as the best study in the field of contemporary Serbian folkloristics published in the previous year. She has been a member of ICTMD since 2007.