Serbian church chant in the service of national ideology

Abstract

In this paper we investigate the process of the creation and embodiment of the concept of Serbian folk church chant throughout the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century among Serbian intellectuals and scholars. In order to indicate its main dimensions we focused on church music narratives of that time. Due to a detailed analysis of discussions and writings in periodicals as well as the published chant collections themselves, we were able to assess the dominant interpretations of the historical development of church singing in the Serbian Orthodox church. Looking closely at suppositions made about the origins and formation of church chants through the history of the Serbian church we could unveil their character e.g. whether they were the result of previously done research or were just a product of speculative thinking. In addition, we formed assumptions on the embeddedness of the concept of Serbian folk church chant in influential narratives on national identity and culture developed among the Serbian political and intellectual elite. The aim of our investigation was to show that the concept of Serbian folk church chant was not only determined by socio-political strivings in the Serbian state but that it was also a product of the wider political and cultural goals of the Serbian elite. Finally, we sought to suggest the important role played by 19th and early 20th century Serbian church music scholars in the process of imagining the Serbian nation.