Abstracts

StubickeToplice
Croatia

13-17 April, 2011

at the invitation of

Institut za etnologiju i folkloristiku

Panel Discussion

Mirjana Zakić,
Faculty of Music Belgrade
mira.zakic@gmail.com
Rastko Jakovljević,
Institute of Musicology SASA, Belgrade
ralefy@yahoo.com
Danka Lajić-Mihajlović,
Institute of Musicology SASA, Belgrade

The Presence of Rural Instruments in Serbia Today

General abstract
This presentation is focused on the treatment of specific aerophone and cordophone instruments svirala, gajde and gusle, typical of rural music practice in Serbia, and placed in the contemporary social setting. Different types of representation will be discussed through the aspects of media and music production, public music performances and individual experience. Rethinking this particular problem includes questions of creativity and musical meaning materialized in the public domain as well as implications of private – public dichotomy. Examples which will be presented show current positions and stages of their appropriation, such as technological innovations and placement in classical orchestra (svirala), but also specific suppression of solo interpretation and integration into ensembles (gajde). Emphasizing individual expression through competitive forms of public performance and recordings, as well as their consumption, refers to different treatment of a rural instrument (gusle). The discussion aims at presenting current or actual conditions of instrumental practice, also treatment, position and specifics of music played on those rural instruments that are still present in the contemporary Serbian social milieu.

Mirjana Zakić, Faculty of Music Belgrade
Case of svirala

Svirala (or more popularly – frula) is the most typical and widespread aerophone folk instrument (end-blown type of folk flute) in Serbian music culture. The technical potential of this instrument, encouraged by innovative constructional steps in the past few decades (in the sense of the realization of Western intonation or tuning), has contributed to enormous popularity of svirala in the contemporary music practice in Serbia. New construction features are the consequence of the tendency towards a more virtuous demanding – both technically and musically – performance, which crucially ensures the introduction of frula in the rank of classic orchestra instruments. So unlike the dominantly solo function of svirala in the past practice, musically the potential of this instrument in contemporary circumstances is manifested through its acoustic cooperation with the classic orchestra assembly. Moreover, it is particularly important that the sound of svirala does not carry the semantics of a marginalized, but acoustically and stylistically expressive section of orchestra sound. High individual potentials of svirala performers also contribute to the broadening of the repertoire played on this instrument – from folk melodies to those belonging to the genre of artistic music.

Danka Lajić-Mihajlović, Institute of Musicology SASA, Belgrade
Case of gusle

Although considered a traditional music instrument of the rural culture, gusle (a single-stringed musical instrument, typically used to accompany the voice of a singer called guslar which performs an epic song) has existed for a relatively long time in the urban environment as well. The specific position of this instrument in contemporary culture is represented through the existence of guslar associations whose activities are of a partially closed, "private" type, but primarily turned to the public domain, through performances before wide audience. One of the key institutions in the "urban" life of this instrument are competitions. As a specific type of communication, this form of the public performance event implies a great influence of the social and cultural context on all the factors in the process: guslar, the jury, the audience and even the very treatment of the instrument and the music performed on it. Another aspect of the gusle presence in the contemporary culture, chosen as a paradigm, is the production of recordings of gusle performances. This production was already on a high level in the Socialist period, whereas it has grown into hyper-production lately. In the modern life of gusle the relative stability of constructional features of the instrument is accompanied by changes in the aesthetics of music performed on it. On the level of the function, it can be observed that besides basic rapprochement and gathering of people, gusle performances show significant separation of the competencies of the performer and the audience. Gusle-playing has retained its ethnic symbolic meaning on the general level, but it has also acquired a more pronounced individual dimension in the recent times (on the level of "specialized" audience).

Rastko Jakovljević, Institute of Musicology SASA, Belgrade
Case of gajde

Bagpipes (gajde) in Serbia were extremely widespread and popular among people. However, the influence and the appearance of the modern and further globalization threatened this ancient practice, subsequently suspending the instrument and music itself into a state of uncertainty in terms of survival. Although instrument in very small amount still exist, upheaval of individual, artistic expression and eventually institutionalization caused proliferation creating new authenticity that do not possess substantial relations to the tradition. New context on one side induced marginalization of rural instrument identity, but also transfer to the public domain on the other. The order of specific treatment is also evident in the aspects of social status, politics and economy that majorly amplify these two polarities. Such segregation led to the state where one instrument is present, used and perceived in two different manners: (i) marginal individual experience and instrument use, and (ii) appropriation and dominant integration into various kinds of modern ensembles. With lack of firm cultural policy and true understanding this instrument tends to extinct as the last authentic performers disappear.