Recordings of traditional music from the archive of the institute of Musicology SASA as the sources for history of the folk culture of Kosovo and Metohija region

• Main Authors: Mihajlović-Lajić Danka R., Jovanović Jelena Lj.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Institute of Serbian Culture Priština, Leposavić 2018-01-01
• Series: Baština
• Subjects: kosovo and metohija; traditional music of serbs /albanians/ turks; audio recordings; field research; the archive of the institute of musicology sasa; milica ilijin; dr radmila petrović
• Online Access: https://scindeks-clanci.ceon.rs/data/pdf/0353-9008/2018/0353-90081845447M.pdf

this study represents almost unknown sound sources - recordings of traditional music from the 1950s and 1960s, made on the territory of Kosovo and Metohija region by Miica Ilijin and Dr Radmila Petrović, fellows of the Institute of Musicology of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Belgrade. This huge collection consists of several corpuses that arose as results of documenting traditional music in different occasions: from field research, on the one hand, to representative situations, such as concerts, on the other. Thus, the collection shows private and public musical practice in geographically and socio-culturally different settings of Kosovo and Metohija (Prizren, Sredačka zupa, Leposavić and surroundings, Zvečan, and numerous places whose representative performers took part at concerts in towns). Besides, the collection is marked by a multicultural quality: it consists of recordings of music of different ethnic/national groups (on the first place of Serbs, Shqiptars/Albanians, and Turks; it also documents involvement of Roma people in musical life, traditional musical culture of Goranci ethnic group, etc.). Numerous folklore genres witness a plenty of functions that music used to have in traditional life of local inhabitants (from ritual rural music, to music making in towns - singing and playing for entertainment, as primarily artistic expression), while the stylistic features of these musical expressions point to isolation of communities, e.g. to cultural pervasions. The collection shows a trace of extremely important historical period in the process of changing the cultural landscape of Kosovo and Metohija that appeared as a consequence of accelerated industrialisation and urbanisation, as well as of influence of the media and cultural industry. Referring to those, here the collection has been discussed at the first place as a material / substance for fundamental research of traditional music of Kosovo and Metohija, for areal studies, and for cultural history of this region. The interested readers have been directed to other scientific readings of this collection (see: Lajić Mihajlović and Jovanović, in print). Its applicative potential has been recognized widely - from the field of revitalization of traditional music, to engaged projects of overcoming conflicts through arts.