BETWEEN TWO WORLDS
BETWEEN TWO WORLDS

Approaching Balkan Oral Music Tradition through the use of Technology as a Compositional and Performing Medium

Summary/Abstract: This text explores the problems of interpreting musical identity, meaning, and socio-cultural value of a compositional work influenced by two traditions with different values: the modernist tradition based on Western European classical heritage, and the oral tradition of the Balkans. It also follows the process of transformation and re-creation of the author’s musical language: from classical, notation-oriented to a more intuitive, improvisational and live-performance based. Through detailing some of the experiences of the author as a composer and a performer, it also discusses some observations on the ways in which this discrepancy between two traditions and practices has affected and still influences those creative practices in Serbia and the former Yugoslavia that relate to traditional music and its derivations. In this study, the oral tradition from the Balkans was approached not only as a purely acoustic phenomenon, but it also included a raised awareness of the nature of the continuous fusion of various cultures in the region, as well as existing cultural and religious antagonisms. This study investigates the problems of constructing musical identity as well as the meaning of an author’s creative practice in relation to the sociocultural environment of its origin, whilst observing its reception by audiences outside the Balkan region.

• Details
• Contents