Writers and chanters in the nineteenth century as keepers of the tradition of Serbian church music

Abstract

In this paper, parts of the memoir literary works from the second half of the nineteenth century are presented as important sources for the research of Serbian traditional church chant. The testimonies on church music from diaries, memoirs and autobiographical notes by famous Serbian writers, statesmen and politicians, namely Jovan Subotic, Jakov Ignjatovic, Milan Savic, Milica Stojadinovic Srpkinja, Todor Stefanovic Vilovski, Vladimir Jovanovic and Kosta Hristic, were analyzed. Those writings bring to light a time when church chant was appreciated as an important part of the spiritual, folk heritage and had an important role in everyday culture of Serbian people both in the Habsburg Monarchy and in the Principality and Kingdom of Serbia. The authors wrote about musical skills of chanters from clerical, church circles and about the practice of chanting among school teachers. They also described different kinds of musical performances of church chant among laymen and children. These sources testify to writers? general and musical education and experiences, to their environment and its relation to the aesthetics of spiritual folk tradition. This paper also analyzes sources in the context of the history and theory of literature, having in mind the authors? commentary techniques and narrative style. Those issues are discussed in relation to the poetics of romanticism, Biedermeier and realism in Serbian literature.