| Summary: | This study concerns the relationship between verbal and musical components of
Serbian epic songs with rhythm seen as a morphological dominant. My aim is to
enrich the musicological inquiry of this issue and provide a contribution
that complements existing folkloristic and philological research outcomes. In
terms of methodology, the study promotes the necessity of recording the
performers’ recited versions of songs for the purposes of investigating the
relationships between verbal and musical communication, as well as an
interdisciplinary approach to these issues. Two paradigmatic examples are
examined, each performed by the guslar representative of his respective
period of guslar practice: Tanasije Vućić (1883-1937) and Boško Vujačić (b.
1947). The observed periods span less than one century, yielding an
insignificant passage of time in terms of epic historicism, but nonetheless
indicate significant differences between these two guslars’ sung and narrated
rhythms. Compared to Vujačić, Vućić’s singing demonstrates a considerably
smaller range of the absolute duration of the sung syllables (and therefore
of an entire verse), and subsequently a much stricter syllabicity.
Furthermore, Vućić’s singing reflects the ideal type of “isochronous pulse in
duple meter” in a rather high degree, while Vujačić more consistently refers
to narration, whereas the trochaic tendency is noticeable only at the initial
part of the verse. The connections between these focused individual styles
are discussed through the lens of guslars’ transition from amateur to
professional capacity and the changed function of epics. Considering the
consequences of the policy of invalid representation and experiencing epic
song as poetry (void of musical component), and on the other hand, the
effects of the strategy insistent on “citatory” (verbatim) treatment of
poetic templates that leads to suppressing poetic creativity, I intend to
draw attention of the responsible authorities in the areas of education,
culture, and science. This is of particular importance in the context of
ongoing endeavors towards preservation of singing with gusle as part of
Serbian inherent cultural heritage. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike
Srbije, br. 177004: Identiteti srpske muzike od lokalnih do globalnih okvira:
tradicije, promene, izazovi]
|
|---|
