By Enes Kujundžić PhD
Director of the National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo
The history of musical tradition in Bosnia and Herzegovina has yet to be written. In addition to its own authentic contribution to the world of Music Bosnian musicians, singers and performers are well known all over Balkan area. The appreciation of the traditional Bosnian Music in our days has been given new impetus by the use of modern reproduction technology making it available to the wide audiences. The popularity of Bosnian Musical tradition may be at least in part also atributed to the fact that many Bosnians living abroad are trying to keep in touch with the culture of their home country.
The Academy of Music, which is associated with the Sarajevo University, publishes its own journal entitled Muzika = Music, appropriately devoted to the study of various aspects of the musical arts in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the fifties there was short lived Institute of Folklore in Sarajevo, which published three issues of its Bulletin devoted to the study of various aspects of folk arts including dances, folk-songs, popular games, etc. Its activity unfortunately was discontinued and folklore research now is carried out on somewhat limited basis witihin the activities of the State Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Important corpus of folkloric material orginating from Bosnia and Herzegovina and surrounding regions is housed today at the Milman Parry Collection at Harvard University (www.harvard.edu/mpc). It is a result of the activities of several American scholars and researchers who, particularly between two world wars, traveled throughout former Yugoslavia to collect and then publicize folkloric material. It is one of the largest collections of this kind in the world. There are museums, research institutions and journals dealing with the above mentioned material in Belgrade and Zagreb and international Slavic studies centers.
World Wide Web has been instrumental in spreading the information and musical scores of the most popular Bosnian song – sevdalinka which still enjoyes wide popularity not only in B&H, but also abroad.
Mostar Sevdah Reunion ensamble is one good example of revied interest in Bosnian traditional Music. There is also hope that the Musica Academy in Sarajevo and elsewhere will open their doors to this rich but sadly neglected Bosniak musical heritage.
Recent establishment of Sevdah Institute in the village of Mulići near Visoko by Omer Pobrić also araises hopes for the survival of this musical genre.
From: Kujundžić E. Bosnian Memory: Resources for the research and study. 2nd ed. Sarajevo: International Peace Center, Sarajevo; 2003, pp 139-140
Thanks to our translators:
Tayfun Kesgin (Sarajevo, Bosna i Hercegovina)
Nina Karić (Sarajevo, Bosna i Hercegovina)
Sylvia Parnell (London, UK)
Besmir Fidahić (New York, USA)
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