Abstract
In his seminal comprehensive history of music(s) in the Balkan region, Jim Samson avoided the term “Balkan music” in favor of the less-binding title Music in the Balkans (Leiden: Brill, 2013). This, however, should not hinder us from probing the term “Balkan music” and its many connotations. In this editorial article for the Special Issue Balkan Music: Past, Present, Future, I aim to dissect the umbrella term “Balkan music” and its actual and presumed meanings and implications, while overviewing many different music traditions and styles that this term encompasses. I will also make a case for the establishment of Balkan Music Studies as a discipline and attempt to outline its scope and outreach.
Highlights
IntroductionThis Special Issue on Balkan music gathers together scholars from several disciplines (historians, historical musicologists, ethnomusicologists, ethnochoreologists, cultural theorists, and composers) from seven countries (Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, North Macedonia, Portugal, Finland, and New Zealand) who have studied the music of the Balkans
This Special Issue on Balkan music gathers together scholars from several disciplines from seven countries (Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, North Macedonia, Portugal, Finland, and New Zealand) who have studied the music of the Balkans
As one of the first among the many “ethnic musics” that broke into the world music markets; not to mention commercial pop-folk and various modern interpretations of traditional music that are absorbed into the vast global market of world music
Summary
This Special Issue on Balkan music gathers together scholars from several disciplines (historians, historical musicologists, ethnomusicologists, ethnochoreologists, cultural theorists, and composers) from seven countries (Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, North Macedonia, Portugal, Finland, and New Zealand) who have studied the music of the Balkans. There are many genres of “Balkan music”, some of them more obvious than the others: Art music created in the Balkans, with or without folklore influence This category could absorb everything—from the nineteenth century salon music and patriotic choral songs, to the present day post-avantgarde; Religious/sacred music from the Balkans, encompassing all major religions that have been present in this region throughout the centuries—mainly Orthodox Christianity and Islam, as well as Judaism and Catholicism, not to mention paganism and other indigenous practices; Folk music from the Balkans—this term has a very wide usage and it is the most frequent association when speaking about the Balkans, encompassing such diverse practices as rural folk music, urban folk music, various modern arrangements of rural folk music, new/authored songs utilizing folk music intonations, the so-called newly-composed folk music from the second half of the twentieth century, contemporary folk-pop hybrids, etc.; This designation is without prejudice to positions on status and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence. This observation matches Samson’s previously cited remark that the Balkans have long served as a hunting ground for scholars interested in pre-modern rural music-making and exoticism, instead of being treated as equal to the rest of Europe
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