(Serb.-Croat Republika Bosna i Hercegovina).
Country in eastern Europe. Located in the Balkan peninsula, it has an area of 51,129 km2 and a population of 4.34 million (2000 estimate). It emerged as an independent state in the late 12th century, becoming a kingdom in 1377. It was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in the second half of the 15th century and remained under the Ottoman rule until 1878 when, following the decision of the Berlin Congress, it was occupied by Austria-Hungary and then officially annexed in 1908. At the dissolution of the Habsburg monarchy in 1918, it became a part of the kingdom of Yugoslavia. In 1945, on the formation of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, it became one of its constituent republics. Following the breakup of Yugoslavia, it was proclaimed an independent state in 1992.
BOJAN BUJIĆ (I), ANKICA PETROVIĆ (II)
Little is known about the cultivation of music in medieval Bosnia. Its territory was exposed to the influences of both Western and Eastern Christianity, Catholicism being, on the whole, better represented. Catholicism was more efficient, particularly after the 1340s under the influence of the Franciscans, while Orthodox monasticism lacked the organizational force of its Catholic counterpart. In addition, a Bosnian form of dissenting Catholicism, the Bosnian Church, attracted a sizeable following, including some members of the ruling class. Nothing is known about the specific musical aspects of worship in the Bosnian Church. There are only a few surviving fragments of chant in late Byzantine notation that refer to dignitaries of the Orthodox church in Bosnia. Though small in number, fragments of Western chant are more numerous and have survived through the efforts of the Franciscans who, throughout the period of Ottoman domination, were the custodians of the Bosnian medieval heritage.
Although no sources of secular music survive, the activity of various musicians, especially instrumentalists in the service of the king and various aristocratic families, is well documented in Dubrovnik archival sources of the first half of the 15th century. The sources mention ‘piffari’, ‘lautarii’ and ‘tubicines’ who often came to play at important festivities in Dubrovnik and were paid for their services. Likewise, Dubrovnik musicians are mentioned taking part at Bosnian state occasions. A late 15th-century inventory of the household belongings of a refugee Bosnian aristocratic family, Hranić, includes an ‘organić’ (a portable organ). It is not known whether the composer of lute ricercars and Petrucci's editor Franciscus Bossinensis (Francis of Bosnia) came to Italy as an already educated musician, but it is safe to assume that he belonged to the wave of Bosnian refugees who settled in Dalmatia and Italy during the late 15th century.
During the period of Ottoman rule, from the late 15th century to 1878 (for details of which see Ottoman music and Arab music), musical activity of both the Catholic and Orthodox communities was severely restricted. Nevertheless, since the Franciscans tended to receive at least some of their education, including musical education, in Italy, there is some evidence of the continuity of musical activity among them. In 1687 Matheus Bartl (Mato Banjalučanin) wrote his Regulae cantus plani pro incipientibus, and during the 18th century several Franciscans wrote mass settings (Marijan Aljinić, Augustin Soljanin, Vice Vicić). Stjepan Marjanović continued this tradition in the 19th century with his Missae novissimae sanctorum (1846). The first modern organ in Bosnia was installed by the Franciscans in Fojnica in 1801.
Although mainstream Islam discouraged music as a part of the religious ceremony, a particular contribution to music among the Bosnian Muslims was made by the Sufi dervishes. The Qadiri, Naqshabandi, Mevlevi and other orders were active in Bosnia and their religious songs, referred to by the slavicized Turkish term of Arabic provenance ilahija, represent a tradition, still insufficiently researched, that stands halfway between the provinces of folk and art music. Some poetry for the ilahije was written in Turkish, but a great deal of it also in Serbo-Croat, especially since the late 18th century by, among others, Abdurrahman Sirri, Muhamed Mejli and Omer Humo.
The Austro-Hungarian administration after 1878 ushered in a period of lively cultural and musical activity and opened links with the other parts of the Dual Monarchy. At first the backbone of organized musical life was provided by numerous military bands, which, apart from their traditional duties, acted as centres of musical activity in civilian circles, often transforming themselves according to need into full symphony orchestras. Some of the military bandmasters left a broader impact as conductors and educators in the areas in which they served. Among those were Franz Lehár, father of the composer of operettas, the popular composer of marches and waltzes Julius Fučik, active in Sarajevo between 1897 and 1900, and, especially, Alexander Zellner and Josip Chládek. Frequently they were Slavs from other parts of the monarchy who, in addition to discharging their regular duties, felt the need to contribute to Bosnian culture inspired by a sense of Slavonic solidarity. Visiting artists started appearing in the 1880s; the young Fritz Kreisler gave his first recital in Sarajevo in 1893.
The first opera performance dates from 1882, when the company of the Deutsches Sommer-Theater in Sarajevo performed Flotow's Alessandro Stradella. This was followed in the 1880s and 90s by the seasons provided by the troupes directed by Julius Schulz, Emil Berle and Leon Bauer. After that opera performances were given mainly by visiting companies from Zagreb and Osijek. The Sarajevo Männergesangverein was founded in 1886 and continued its activity until 1929. Local communities, divided on religious grounds, founded their own choral societies. Among the earliest were the Serbian societies ‘Njeguš’ in Tuzla (1886), ‘Sloga’ in Sarajevo and ‘Gusle’ in Mostar (both founded in 1888), the Croatian societies ‘Trebević’ in Sarajevo (1894), ‘Majevica’ in Tuzla (1896) and ‘Nada’ in Banja Luka (1898), the Muslim ones, ‘Jedinstvo’ in Derventa and ‘Gajret’ in Sarajevo (both 1903), and the Jewish society ‘La Lira’ in Sarajevo (1900). The first music school was opened by Franjo Matějovský in 1908.
The impetus created during the Austro-Hungarian period continued after the formation of the kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1918, although the period between the two World Wars was comparatively less vibrant. A belated copy of the Central European music societies, the Sarajevo Philharmonic Society, founded in 1923, was the main organizer and inspirer of concert activity, supporting chamber ensembles and maintaining a semi-professional symphony orchestra. The society, along with the Sarajevo Music School and the Sarajevo National Theatre (founded in 1921), were the only bodies that disregarded the division along the national grounds which continued to be made by the choral societies. These societies achieved a considerable degree of artistic maturity, but on the whole the Croatian and Serbian ones tended to cultivate music by the composers of their national groups active outside Bosnia, which had a detrimental effect on the development of Bosnian composers. This established a pattern that persisted until after World War II, whereby the musical life of Sarajevo, and of Bosnia-Hercegovina in general, was characterized by a high level of achievement in the areas of instrumental and vocal performance which was not adequately matched by the activity of local composers. In addition, during the Austro-Hungarian period, as well as during the kingdom of Yugoslavia, music was seldom seen as an art in its own right, having been taken mainly as a vehicle for the advancement of various national causes.
After the slow development during the inter-war period, musical life received a considerable boost when in 1945 Bosnia and Hercegovina became one of the constituent republics of Yugoslavia. The socialist state discouraged the activity along the lines of religious denominations and the stress was laid on the state support of central musical institutions. The Sarajevo Opera became a permanent company in 1946 and within a short period of time established a wide repertory under the directorship of Cvjetko Rihtman and Tihomir Mirić. Its orchestra formed the nucleus of the National SO, founded in 1948 (renamed the Sarajevo PO in 1953). Sarajevo RSO was founded in 1962. While the Philharmonic concentrated predominantly on the standard international repertory, the orchestra of the radio inclined towards a more modern repertory and the new Yugoslav music.
Several music colleges were founded – in Sarajevo, Mostar, Banja Luka and Tuzla – and the Sarajevo Music Academy established itself from its foundation in 1955 as the main centre of artistic and academic excellence. A number of composers and conductors who had already established their reputations elsewhere in Yugoslavia, primarily in Zagreb, settled in Sarajevo and greatly contributed to the lively and diverse musical activity. Boris Papandopulo, Mladen Pozajić and Ivan Štajcer raised Sarajevo Opera to a standard comparable to the older Yugoslav companies. Though not neglecting the standard repertory, during the 1950s and 60s the opera and its affiliated ballet ensemble became particularly known for its attention to contemporary repertory, performing works by Britten, Egk, Menotti, Shostakovich and Henze, as well as giving first performances of operas and ballets by contemporary Yugoslav composers.
Croatian composers Boris Papandopulo, Ivan Brkanović, Mladen Stahuljak, Ruben Radica, and Schoenberg's Berlin pupil Miroslav Spiler, the Serb Božidar Trudić and the Slovene Dane Škerl were all active in Sarajevo at various times between 1940s and the 1970s. The concentration of talent and of performing forces in Sarajevo tended to diminish the activity in other centres, although Banja Luka and, especially, Mostar succeeded in maintaining permanent ensembles.
For a while after World War II the presence in the region of composers from outside Bosnia tended to overshadow the activity of local composers, among whom several nevertheless demonstrated individual voices. Vlado Milošević (1901–91) was inspired by folk music to which he added a dose of neo-classicism. Avdo Smailović (1917–84) started with a nationalist inspiration and gradually assimilated more modern tendencies; a similar shift from neo-classicism to modernism is evident in the work of Nada Ludvig-Pečar (b 1929). Vojin Komadina (1933–97) combined a variety of influences ranging from a modified 12-note system to aleatory techniques and created an individual style in which discreet suggestions of Bosnian folk music were transformed into musical utterances firmly based in an avant-garde idiom. From the mid-1960s Sarajevo gained within Yugoslavia the reputation of a centre of pop and rock music, and several Sarajevo-based bands developed individual experimental styles.
After the breakup of Yugoslavia, the destruction caused by the war of 1992–5 dealt a severe blow to the musical life and institutions in the whole of Bosnia, and especially in Sarajevo and Mostar. In addition, unique documents for the study of the country's musical past were lost with the burning of the National Library in Sarajevo.
Z. Kučukalić: The Development of Musical Culture in Bosnia-Hercegovina (Sarajevo, 1967)
Z. Kučukalić: ‘Bosansko-hercegovačka muzika’, Muzička enciklopedija, ed. K. Kovačević (Zagreb, 2/1971), 230–33
H.C. Ryker: ‘New Music in Yugoslavia’, Numus-West, i/3 (1973), 37–45
B. Bujić: ‘Pedeset godina Sarajevske filharmonije’ [50 years of the Sarajevo Philharmonic Society], Zvuk (1973), no.3, 288–96
Z. Kučukalić: ‘Počeci razvoja profesionalne muzičke djelatnosti u Bosni i Hercegovini’ [The beginnings of the development of professional musical activities in Bosnia-Hercegovina], MZ, xvii (1981), 61–8
Z. Miletić: ‘Iz biblioteke franjevačkog samostana u Kraljevoj Sutjesci’ [From the library of the Franciscan monastery in Kraljeva Sutjeska], Sveta Cecilija, liii (1983), 8–9
S. Strik: ‘Ilahije’, Šebi Arus, xviii (1987), 149–52
T. Polomik: ‘Quellen zur Erforschung der Tätigkeiten und Rollen von Militärorchestern in Bosnien und Herzegowina zur Zeit der österreichisch-ungarischen Verwaltung (1878–1918)’, SMH, xxxii (1990), 383–408
T. Polomik [Polomiková]: ‘Českí hudebníci v Bosně a Hercegovině’ [Czech musicians in Bosnia-Hercegovina], OM, xxiii (1991), 68–71
B. Habla: ‘Das Repertoire von Militär-Blasorchestern von dem Ersten Weltkrieg: Gezeigt am Notenbestand der “bosnisch-herzegowinischen” Infanterie-Regiments Nr.4’, Festschrift zum 60. Geburtstag von Wolfgang Suppan, ed. B. Habla (Tutzing, 1993), 349–76
N. Bekić: ‘Zapisi o muzici u mostarskoj “Zori” (1896–1901)’ [Essays on music in the Mostar periodical Zora], Zbornik Matice srpske za scenske umetnosti i muziku, nos.16–17 (1995), 203–12
Bosnia-Hercegovina, §II: Traditional music
This subsection examines the traditional music of Bosnia and Hercegovina before the beginning of the 1992–5 war. It does not consider the drastic effect of the extermination of traditional music forms or the musical trends provoked by the recent war, ‘ethnic cleansing’, forced migrations of Bosnian ethnic groups and the destruction of countless cultural artefacts. While attempting to highlight the relevant socio-cultural processes that have influenced the development of particular forms, genres and repertories of folk and popular music, it is not yet possible to analyse the turbulent changes in musical expression and the redefinition of musical forms by the national groupings still in conflict.
Cultural sources from the medieval period are scanty, offering insufficient information to promote serious discussion or to draw conclusions about the music of the time. During the long rule of the Ottoman Turks in Bosnia and Hercegovina (from 1463 to 1878), the musical traditions of the region included religious chant of the three major ethnic-religious groups: the Roman Catholic Croats, the Orthodox Christian Serbs and the Bosnian Muslims.
During the Austro-Hungarian annexation (from 1878 to 1914), Bosnia and Hercegovina began to follow Western mainstream cultural trends. The Bosnian people have, however, retained a definite propensity for their traditional musical styles.
The music of Bosnia and Hercegovina is best understood in the light of a multicultural heritage, with divergent older and more recent folk music styles. Although some Bosnian traditions are very specific in origin and style compared to others (such as Sephardic Jewish practice), all of them can be recognized as parts of a complex cultural entity. Cultural confluences and tolerance, which existed until recently, were the result of long-lasting multi-religious and multi-ethnic life. The recent nationalistic efforts to separate strictly ethnic cultures and musics have no historical foundation.
A major divergence can be observed between the forms, repertories and stylistic features of rural and urban musical practices of the area. Further distinctions of style and repertory may be drawn between different ethnic groups and the sexes, specific regions (most relevant for rural music forms) and older and newer forms and genres. There are also many differences between the secular and religious musical traditions of existing religious-ethnic groups.
Bosnia-Hercegovina, §II: Traditional music
Because of the geographical and socio-economic isolation of the area, the rural music of Bosnia and Hercegovina is generally regarded as the oldest and most conservative in the entire region. It retains very rudimentary stylistic features and is mostly associated with archaic ritual functions. Some of the most typical archaic musical elements reveal similarities with the traditional music of other parts of the Balkans: Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Bulgaria and northern Greece.
Village people of all ethnic groups performed music in a similar style. Only some ritual forms associated with particular ceremonies, for example the Muslim wedding, were stylistically distinct from the ceremonial songs of other ethnic-religious groups. An example to the contrary involves songs and rituals of pagan-Christian origin for St George’s Day, which survived until recently in both Christian and Muslim tradition. Until 1992, differences in traditional rural music styles were based on regional rather than ethnic-religious lines. These usually corresponded with the dialect regions of the Serbo-Croat language and with other specific factors of traditional social, economic and cultural life, including folk costumes, folk architecture etc.
Vocal forms dominate the rural musical tradition. They are the sole form of musical expression for rural women of all ages. In the past, many musical forms were related to particular annual and life-cycle rituals, especially those of the pastoral population, which dominated the central part of the Dinaric Alps. Ritual music forms were experienced as more codified and less exposed to change, which explains why they were considered the most conservative and ‘ancient’ music forms in the region. In the 20th century, especially after World War II, most of the ‘ancient songs’ disappeared as the corresponding rituals and contexts vanished. Some of them continued to be performed outside their original function, surviving in the memories and reminiscences of the older performers.
The most numerous ritual music forms were svatovske pjesme or wedding songs. They were sung by either women or men but always separately. Female wedding songs were very distinctive in character, function and musical-poetic features, and they covered the most ritualistic actions of the ceremony. An omission of some part of the ritual would require the elimination of the corresponding wedding songs.
The various forms of the female wedding repertory were performed by groups of girls or women. In Hercegovina, they were named kolarice after the kolo circle dance performed while singing. Male wedding songs were usually sung as zdravice (‘toasting’ songs) and putničke pjesme (‘travelling’ songs; ex.1). In Bosnia and western Hercegovina these songs were performed by a group, while in eastern Hercegovina they were sung alternately by two individuals using an extended and trembling singing style. This typical male style was named potresanje (‘trembling’), ojkanje (singing with an emphasis on the exclamation ‘oj’) or turčijanje (singing in an extended Turkish-like style). A similar vocal style was applied to travellers’ songs and kiridžijske pjesme, the songs of travelling merchants (fig.1). These forms disappeared in the 1930s along with the activities they accompanied.
Other ritual songs were part of Christian and pre-Christian ceremonies, including lazaričke pjesme (St Lazarus songs), čarojičarske and vučarske (songs of the masked rituals). Lazaričke pjesme were performed by groups of women on St Lazarus Saturday, eight days before Orthodox Easter. In the 1980s, these songs were only performed by Karavlah women (a marginal group of Romanian-Roma origin) for Serbian people in several villages in north-eastern Bosnia. The other two ritual forms were performed exclusively by groups of men in the winter season and during weddings, and they disappeared shortly after World War II.
Many other traditional rural songs accompanied or followed certain communal activities, including vlačiljske, žetela’ke and kosa’ke pjesme (flax combers’, women reapers’ and haymakers’ songs respectively). The textual content of these songs was directly connected to the corresponding action, but only vla’iljske were performed during work, while the other two song types were performed before and after it.
Uspavanke (lullabies) and tužbalice (laments) were very common forms of female music expression. Muslim women, however, did not perform laments because of their religious and philosophical attitude to death. These song types were intimately connected to ritual situations, yet some Muslim lullabies were elaborated into more lyric and musically expressive forms. Laments were performed by either female family members or professional mourners and they included narrative text which was improvised in performance. Accordingly, their musical structure was limited to short repetitive formulas with occasional opportunities for variation and the presentation of contrasting musical patterns that closely followed the dramatic textual content. Similar compositional principles were used in other narrative songs, that is in female ballads and male epics.
Lyrical rural songs, female and male, mainly performed within single-sex groups, were the most common and appropriate for entertainment. Various rural music forms were recognized and named according to their functions, formal structure, polyphonic vocal organization and their use of specific kinds of melismatic notes. Different stylistic factors were recognized in particular regions as the crucial stylistic determinate in naming of song types. Singing style might be further distinguished according to gender designation, territorial characteristics, association with a specific geographic or former administrative-political region, or even with a single village.
Melodies are based on descending diatonic or chromatic note rows whose range rarely exceeds a 4th or a 5th. Their narrow melodic intervals do not correspond to the tempered system. Tonal relationships are generally unstable.
Melismatic notes are used liberally and with great diversity. The most typical are grace notes, here named sjecanje or jecanje (cutting or sobbing). They are recognized as an important characteristic of the ganga (ex.2), the most common song type of Hercegovina and south-western Bosnia. Upward- and downward-moving ‘slicing’ notes at the end of melodic lines or strophes are common in the older songs, especially when performed by women. Extended melismatic groups were also used in male wedding, travelling and toasting songs. Melisma is considered an essential feature in rural music practice and the most important factor in defining song genres and specific musical forms.
Polyphonic singing in two or, more rarely, three parts, within single-sex groups of two to five singers is most common. Within the polyphonic structure the interval of the major 2nd is the most characteristic. It is used at the ends of phrases and as the most dominant vertical interval at cadences. Aesthetically, the major 2nd is experienced as a consonant interval, as opposed to the treatment of the same interval as a dissonance in the Western musical tradition.
The metre of the verses and the rhythm of the music are adaptable. Rural people recognize two major kinds of rhythm in their music: podkorak, with a fixed rhythmic unit; and uravan, in which the rhythm is flexible. The most common verses in rural folksong are based on lines of eight (5+3, 4+4) or ten (6+4, 5+5) syllables.
Formally, vocal music is divided into kratke and duge pjesme, or songs with ‘short’ and ‘long’ musical lines. Kratke are songs with a narrative character. Musical interpretation is subordinate to poetic expressiveness and verses are usually sung to a short, repetitive musical line. Occasionally, exposed and contrasting musical lines are added to make the musical structure more dynamic. The most typical forms based on kratke are epics performed by males, ballads and laments performed by females, and potrkuše, or ‘running’ songs. This latter type is typical for northern Bosnia and is performed polyphonically with two interdependent parts creating an unbroken flow of sound. Unlike kratke, the textual component of duge pjesme is subordinate to the musical expression. These ‘long’ songs may be very short in textual content, but extremely elaborate musically. They normally involve the exposition and repetition of refrains, exclamations, and one or two verses made up of repeated shorter verse units and repeated single words.
Emphatic dynamics are used for outdoor singing and for artistic communication across large distances. The middle voice register is predominant in both male and female vocal styles. Only grace notes and melismatic slicing upwards may be performed in the upper register, in a falsetto voice.
All these stylistic features are typical of starinske pjesme (‘ancient’ songs), which survived until recently. However, some newer forms including the ganga have absorbed these older stylistic components and shaped them in a new and original manner. Na bas, or bećarac, is an example of a new kind of polyphonic song that explores a wider melodic frame than the older forms. This singing style rapidly spread from Croatia into the rural environments of Bosnia and Hercegovina before and after World War II, replacing many of the older polyphonic songs and songs with ritual functions like wedding songs. As a result, the interval of a minor 3rd is slowly replacing the major 2nd, and the perfect 5th has become an obligatory final resolution for na bas songs.
Bosnia-Hercegovina, §II: Traditional music
During the period of Ottoman Turkish rule, urban folksongs with an oriental character became a specific genre in the newly established urban environments. In the cities of Sarajevo, Jajce, Mostar, Travnik and Banja Luka, transplanted elements of oriental-Islamic culture strongly influenced the formation of specific attitudes towards all aspects of life and culture, and the Ottoman model became generally accepted and locally expressed among Islamicized south Slav people. Musically, this Ottoman influence meant the introduction of new stylistic elements, forms and instruments to the previous local cultural traditions. It also led to the formation of new urban attitudes about music distinct from the experiences and values of rural people, both Christians and rural Muslim converts, who maintained a cultural distance from the Muslim mainstream
Bosnian music and musical interpretations adapted to fit the more intimate atmosphere of indoor urban performances. Vocal music of a lyrical character became the preferred and predominant form. These Muslim lyric songs were called turčija, meaning a song in Turkish style, but they different significantly in style and form from the rural turčija. At the beginning of the 19th century the urban term was replaced by sevdalinka (pl. sevdalinke), from the Turkish word ‘sevdah’, meaning passion, love and amorous yearning. Sevdalinka songs have a wide melodic range and a modal character related to the Turkish makam (pl. makamlar), including hidžaz, usak and nahvan. They are performed by a solo singer in mainly free and asymetric (aksak) rhythm, allowing for considerable melismatic interpretation. Sevdalinke with very elaborate melismatic formulas at the beginning and the end of the melostrophes are called ravne pjesme, or ‘plain’ songs, and they require a very soft dynamic and timbral presentation (ex.3).
During the Ottoman era, this type of music was favoured by local Muslims. Near the end of the 19th century, the sevdalinka was a shared musical heritage for most Bosnian urban populations, and it remains one of the strongest Bosnian cultural symbols and one of the most popular traditional song types. However, the general socio-cultural changes of the 20th century transformed sevdalinka performance practice in significant ways. The oriental, non-tempered modal system of the early sevdalinka was replaced by the Western tonal system, and the melodic and rhythmic structure of songs became more fixed and less conducive to elaborate melismatic interpretations. The intimate nature of early sevdalinka performance – solo or voice accompanied by saz, a long-necked lute – was augmented with the modern instrumental accompaniment of tamburica orchestras or Western instrumental ensembles.
In the 1950s the sevdalinka found wide popularity through radio and television programmes and concert performances. The most successful modern interpreters of the sevdalinka were Zaim Imamović, Nada Mamula, Himzo Polovina, Safet Isović, Zehra Deović and Emina Zečaj.
Bosnia-Hercegovina, §II: Traditional music
The traditional instruments and instrumental music of Bosnia and Hercegovina may also be divided along rural and urban social lines. The drastic differentiation between the sexes in all traditional society created a taboo against women playing or even handling musical instruments, although listening to instrumental music by women was accepted.
Rural instrumental music was performed as accompaniments to dance and song or as improvisational forms. Interestingly, until the 1940s there existed in rural practice a unique phenomenon called nijema kola, or ‘silent’ dances, that had no instrumental or vocal accompaniment. Only the jingling sounds of women’s jewellery and the steps of the dancers provided rhythmic accompaniment for the ‘silent’ dances for different functions.
Instrumental improvisations were named čobanska svirka, literally ‘shepherds playing’. Aerophones were the most common type of instrument used in traditional pastoral culture for improvisations, including a variety of end-blown flutes: svirala, slavić, jednojka (all single flutes) and dvojnice (double flute). Also common was a single-reed droneless bagpipe with a double chanter, called a diple. The placement of finger-holes on these instruments reflected the specifics of local tonal practice rather than definite pitch relationships. The instruments with two melody pipes, dvojnice and diple, followed the patterns of local polyphonic practice (fig.3).
These aerophones were commonly used by indigenous peoples of all ethnic-religious origins. Only the zurna, a double-reed instrument introduced by the Ottoman Turks, was played exclusively by gypsy and local Muslim professional musicians of the lowest social class. An ensemble of two zurne and drum often played during Muslim weddings and other festive occasions. In the period after World War II, these ensembles were found only in a few Muslim villages in north-east and north-west Bosnia. The zurne used in Bosnia were about 30cm long and tuned to the same pitch, but they played different parts according to the local rural polyphonic practice.
The most outstanding bowed string instrument was the gusle, with one or rarely two strings. The singing of epics accompanied by the gusle, referred to as guslarske pjesme (guslar songs), was a common tradition among all indigenous ethnic groups until the 1930s. Later, the guslar songs became identified as the exclusive cultural heritage of the Serbs. Consequently, most epic singers of Muslim origin had to abandon their tradition since their historical interpretations of the epics did not conform to the official construction of historical events dictated by the Serbs.
A variety of long-necked lutes, generically referred to as tambura, reached Bosnia from the East during the Ottoman period. Examples of these instruments, with from two to eight strings, include the tamburica (the smallest type of tambura), bugarija, karadžuzen, šargija and saz. The saz was the most elaborate of these lutes and was used exclusively in urban Muslim practice to accompany the sevdalinka. The pivačka tambura (‘singing tambura’) was used to accomany epic singing. Until the middle of the 19th century, the tambura was played primarily by Muslim people to accompany songs and dances. Near the end of the Ottoman period, Christians adopted the practice as well. In the second half of the 19th century, the tambura spread from Bosnia to Croatia and to Vojvodina, the northern province of present-day Serbia. Soon after the tambura was transplanted to these regions, it was adjusted to the Western tempered system and fashioned in many different sizes and registers. These adjustments led to the formation of tambura orchestras, or tamburaški orkestri. At the end of the 19th century, the tambura became the most popular instrument in Croatia and one of the strongest national symbols. In Bosnia, however, the tambura remained in the local tuning and continued to accompany rural songs and dances. In the 20th century, rural people of northern Bosnia added the violin to form an ensemble that included tambura and šargija.
Most membranophones were imported by Turkish military bands, or mehterhane, and were predominantly in Muslim musical practice. Small kettledrums called talambas or dulbas were often played at public occasions to announce important events. The bubanj was the traditional drum to accompany zurne. Female Muslims and Sephardic Jews used a narow frame drum with or without jingles, call def or daire by Muslims and pandero or panderico by the Sephardim, in their musical traditions. The members of the Bosnian Sufi orders Naqshabandi and Kadiri also played a kind of small kettledrum and frame drum with rings, called kudum and binbir halka respectively.
Large and small cymbals, called zile, were also imported with the Turkish military bands and were used extensively in Muslim wedding ceremonies. Several kinds of idiophone were also played by children, but they were generally treated as toys rather than as musical instruments.
The Austro-Hungarian annexation introduced many Western instruments into the region, including the accordion, the clarinet, the violin, and the guitar and bass guitar. These instruments were used by professional and semi-professional groups to perform kola folkdances, instrumental accompaniments for the sevadalinka and newer popular songs. Some effects of this Western influence on local performance practice included the adoption of Western tempered tuning and harmonic progressions, the amplification of the musical sound, the creation of new musical mannerisms, which diminished the creative role of the solo singer, and a tendency towards virtuoso playing by the leading instruments, with the accordion usually having the most prominent role.
Bosnia-Hercegovina, §II: Traditional music
Islamic religious chant was introduced during the process of Islamization in the early period of the Turkish occupation. It was the first musical genre of an Islamic-oriental character to serve as a basic model for the development of Bosnian Muslim music, both religious and secular.
The Bosnian mekam, the Bosnian version of Islamic religious chant, underlies the total local musical complex much like the Turkish makam or Arabic maqām. However, the Bosnian form was exclusively applied to the forms of religious chant: the cantillation of sura (chapters from the Qur’an; the interpretation of ezan (call to prayer); and the chanting of dova (prayer or blessing), kasida (ode) and ilahija (hymn). The parallel musical term for secular Muslim songs was kajda. Some concepts of the Bosnian mekam have also been applied to the religious chants of the Bosnian Sephardim.
The modal concept of mekam (or makam) was known among Bosnian urban Muslims and Sephardim until the beginning of the 20th century. Bosnians living on the periphery of the Islamic world, however, used only a small number of makams. Conservative chanters nowadays still base their chants in some degree on the Turkish makam, but they have no theoretical knowledge about the modal system. Younger Muslim clergy who received their religious education in Arab countries have adopted to some degree the Arabic maqāmāt, but it has not been widely accepted.
All religious chants are performed in Arabic, except the religious hymns of ilahije, which are sung in the Bosnian and Turkish languages. Ilahije were popular within the existing Sufi brotherhoods of Naqshabandi, Kadiri and Mevlevi. They were also sung in secular situations, primarily by women, as long narratives. Mothers would often sing ilahije instead of lullabies to their children in the cradle (ex.4). Many ilahije melodies become so popular that they were transplanted to Bosnian Sephardic liturgical chants and to sevdalinke.
The Muslim chants of Bosnia, however, were not unified in style and treatment. Chants in the villages were more influenced by the rural folk tradition. Urban people with more religious education performed more elaborate styles of chant but referred to them exclusively as čitanje, or readings. Rural Muslims, however, treated their style of chant drenched in local performance practice as a true form of musical expression.
Bosnia-Hercegovina, §II: Traditional music
From the 16th century until World War II, Sephardic Jewish music had a distinctive tradition in Bosnia, existing alongside indigenous musical styles. Bosnia was an important site for Sephardic Jewish music within the Sephardic diaspora during this time. After World War II, Jews were almost completely assimilated with other local ethnic groups, and most of their musical traditions were lost. Only a few Sephardic interpreters of Bosnian origin living abroad – hazan Eliezer Abinun (1912–92), who lived in England and Israel, and singer Flory Jagoda (b1924), who lives in the USA – maintained through their interpretations a Bosnian version of Sephardic sacral chants and secular singing. Some older Bosnian Sephardic Jews kept these music idioms alive in memory, but they did not perform them.
Bosnian Sephardic music is primarily urban. Bosnian Sephardim first settled in Sarajevo and by the 18th century they had populations in several other cities, including Travnik, Doboj and Višegrad. Religious music was performed in Hebrew exclusively by men, while secular songs were sung by women in the Judeo-Espanjol language (locally named Djideo), which is now called Ladino.
Both religious and secular Sephardic music practised until the beginning of the 20th century was strongly influenced by local Muslim music. Only the cantillation of the Bible retained a fixed musical presentation, although it absorbed some local musical nuances. The local dialect of Bosnian Sephardic religious music, expressed in psalms, hymns, bakhashots and piyyutim, incorporated many aspects of the modal patterns, elaborated melismas (ex.5), predominantly free rhythm, and nasal timbre of Muslim music in general. Songs from Sephardic secular repertory (romances, wedding songs and lyric songs) were also strongly influenced by Bosnian Muslim music.
In the 20th century, Bosnian Sephardim became exposed to socio-cultural changes in Central Europe. They found new musical models in the religious chants of rival Ashkenazi Jews, who started to settle in Bosnia after the Austro-Hungarian annexation. Younger Bosnian Sephardim also came into contact with reformed Judaism and modernized chants during their education abroad in Vienna, Graz, Budapest and Prague. At this time, Westernised Sephardic chants coexisted with traditional Bosnian style chants, which remained important among the older and more orthodox Bosnian Sephardim.
Secular Sephardic songs also came into contact with external musical influences at this time. In the 1930s, the Sephardic upper class and intelligentsia introduced into their romancero and song lyrics elements of popular Spanish and Latin-American music (e.g. a tango rhythm). The Western guitar began to accompany female songs, which previously had had only pandero (tambourine) accompaniment. Its introduction brought with it many non-traditional, Western-influenced melodic and rhythmic patterns.
Bosnia-Hercegovina, §II: Traditional music
The massive urban migration of rural populations after World War II created a certain disorientation in musical expression in Bosnia, Hercegovina and Serbia. Resettled people lost their ties to rural musical culture and were confronted with unfamiliar urban and Western-influenced musical styles. Only after the 1960s did the new musical phenomenon called muzika u narodnom duhu (‘music in the folk spirit’) or later novokomponovana narodna muzika (‘newly-composed folk music’) compensate for the previous loss of rural musical forms. In style, it was a selective hybrid of rural and urban songs, reflecting a search for a new urban identity. These songs signalled a break from ‘authentic’ folk music, which is communally composed and transmitted, since the authors of these songs – poets, composers and arrangers – were individuals seeking profit and fame.
Oficially judged by policy supervisors as a corrosion of traditional music culture or as an unwanted subculture, the commercial success of this newly composed folk music genre since the 1970s has been both surprising and controversial. The major venues and media channels for this music are cafés, music festivals, recordings and, most recently, radio and TV programmes.
Since the 1980s, this musical trend has moved further towards internationalization through the linkage of contemporary Near Eastern music (predominantly Turkish) with Western pop music and Bosnian sevdalinka. In the most recent conflict in Bosnia and Hercegovina, this Bosnian-oriental idiom of ‘newly composed folk music’ was heralded as the most appropriate musical expression for the endangered Bosnian Muslims.
Bosnia-Hercegovina, §II: Traditional music
F. Kuhač: ‘Turski živalj u pučkoj glazbi Hrvata, Srba i Bugara’ [Turkish elements in the folk music of the Croats, Serbs and Bulgarians], Glasnik Zemaljskog muzeja u Bosni i Hercegovini, x (1898), 175–217
L. Kuba: ‘Pjesme i napjevi iz Bosne i Hercegovine’ [Songs and melodies from Bosnia and Hercegovina] (Sarajevo, 1906–9, 2/1984, ed. C. Rihtman) xviii (1906), 183, 355, 499; xix (1907), 103, 244, 405, 629; xxi (1909), 303, 581; xxii (1910), 513
C. Sachs: ‘Über eine bosnische Doppelflöte’, SIMG, ix (1907–8), 313–17
M. Murko: ‘Die Volksepik der bosnischen Mohammedaner’, Zeitschrift des Vereins für Volkskunde, xix (1909), 13–30
M. Murko: Bericht über eine Bereisung von Nordwestbosnien und der angrenzenden Gebiete von Kroatien und Dalmatien behufs Erforschung der Volksepik der bosnischen Mohammedaner (Vienna, 1913)
M. Murko: Bericht über phonographische Aufnahmen epischer, meist mohammedanischer Volkslieder im nordwestlichen Bosnien im Sommer 1912 (Vienna, 1913)
M. Murko: Bericht über eine Reise zum Studium der Volksepik in Bosnien und Herzegowina im Jahre 1913 (Vienna, 1915)
M. Murko: Bericht über phonographische Aufnahmen epischer Volkslieder im mittleren Bosnien und in der Herzegowina im Sommer 1913 (Vienna, 1915)
G. Gesemann, ed.: Erlangenski rukopis starih srpskohrvatskih narodnih pesama [The Erlangen manuscript of old Serbo-Croat folksongs] (Sremski Karlovci, 1925)
G. Gesemann: Studien zur südslavischen Volksepik (Reichenberg, 1926)
M. Murko: La poésie populaire épique en Yougoslavie au début du XXčme sičcle (Paris, 1929)
B. Širola: Fućkalice: sviraljke od kore svježeg drveta [Pipes made from the bark of green wood] (Zagreb, 1932) [with Ger. summary]
B. Širola: Sopile i zurle (Zagreb, 1932) [Two oboe-like folk instruments]
L. Kuba: Cesty za slovanskou písní, 1885–1929 [In search of Slavic song 1885–1929], ii (Prague, 1935, 2/1953)
T. Maretić: ‘Metrika muslimanske narodne epike’ [The metre of Muslim folk epics], Rad JAZU, no.253 (1935), 181–242; no.255 (1936), 1–76
B. Marić: Volksmusik Bosniens und der Herzegowina (Vienna, 1936)
P. Brömse: Flöten, Schalmeien und Sackpfeifen Südslawiens (Brno, 1937/R)
G. Gesemann: ‘Prolegomena povodom gramofonskog snimanja bosanske narodne pesme’ [Introduction to the gramophone recording of Bosnian folksongs], Prilozi proučavanju narodne poezije, iv (1937), 222–40
A. Schmaus: ‘Pevanje uz tepsiju’ [Singing to the rolling of a metal tray], ibid., 240–55
B. Širola: Sviraljke s udarnim jezičkom [Wind instruments with a beating reed] (Zagreb, 1937)
B. Bartók and A.B. Lord: Serbo-Croatian Folk Songs (New York, 1951)
M. Murko: Tragom srpsko-hrvatske narodne epike [On the trail of Serbo-Croat epic songs] (Zagreb, 1951)
C. Rihtman: ‘Čičak Janja, narodni pjevač sa Kupresa’ [Čičak Janja, folksinger from Kupres], Bilten Instituta za proučavanje folklora u Sarajevu, i (1951), 33–63 [incl. 92 musical exx.]
C. Rihtman: ‘Polifoni oblici u narodnoj muzici Bosne i Hercegovine’ [Polyphonic forms in the folk music of Bosnia and Hercegovina], ibid., 7–20 [incl. 51 musical exx.]
C. Rihtman: ‘Narodna muzika jajačkog sreza’ [Folk music of the Jajce district], Bilten Instituta za proučavanje folklora u Sarajevu, ii (1953), 5–102
A. Schmaus: Studije o krajiškoj epici [Studies of the epic in north-west Bosnia] (Zagreb, 1953)
V. Milošević: Bosanske narodne pjesme [Bosnian folksongs] (Banja Luka, 1954–64)
V. Milošević: Krajiške borbene pjesme [The fighting songs of Krajina] (Banja Luka, 1959–61)
C. Rihtman: ‘Muzička tradicija Neuma i okoline’ [The musical tradition of Neum and the surrounding area], Glasnik Zemaljskog muzeja u Sarajevu: N.S. etnologija, xiv (1959), 209–306
A.B. Lord: The Singer of Tales (Cambridge, MA, 1960/R)
M. Braun: Das serbokroatische Heldenlied (Göttingen, 1961)
V. Milošević: ‘Tambura i harmonika u bosanskom varoškom pjevanju’ [The tambura and accordion in Bosnian urban singing], Zbornik Krajiških muzeja, i (1962), 132–5
C. Rihtman: ‘Tradicionalna muzika Imljana’ [The traditional music of Imljani], Glasnik Zemaljskog muzeja u Sarajevu: N.S. etnologija, xvii (1962), 227–73
C. Rihtman: ‘Oblici kratkog napjeva u narodnoj tradiciji Bosne i Hercegovine’ [Forms of the short melody in the folk tradition of Bosnia and Hercegovina], Glasnik Zemaljskog muzeja u Sarajevu: N.S. etnologija, xviii (1963), 61–75
V. Milošević: Sevdalinka (Banja Luka, 1964)
C. Rihtman: ‘Narodna muzička tradicija Žepe’ [The folk music tradition of Žepa], Glasnik Zemaljskog muzeja u Sarajevu: N.S. etnologija, xix (1964), 237–305
C. Rihtman: ‘Formes polyphoniques dans la musique traditionelle Yougoslave’, Radovi Naučnog društva Bosne i Hercegovine, xxvi (1965), 205–11
C. Rihtman: ‘Orientalische Elemente in der traditionellen Musik Bosniens und der Herzegowina’, Das orientalische Element am Balkan (Grazer Balkanologen-Tagung II) [Graz, 1966], ed. W. Wünsch and H.J. Kissling, Grazer und Münchener balkanologisch Studien (Munich, 1967), 97–105
J. Hadžisalihović: ‘“Ravna” u malovaroškoj tradiciji Jajca’ [Ravna (song in speech rhythm) in the urban tradition of Jajce], Kongres Saveza udruženja folklorista Jugoslavije XV: Jajce 1968, 61–4
C. Rihtman: Zbornik napjeva narohnid pjesama Bosne i Hercegovine, i: Dječije pjesme [Collection of folksongs from Bosnia and Hercegovina: Children’s songs] (Sarajevo, 1974)
D. Rihtman: ‘Narodna muzička tradicija lističkog područja’ [Folk music tradition of Listica district], Glasnik Zemaljskog muzeja Bosne i Hercegovine: N.S. Etnologija, xxiv/xxv (Sarajevo, 1976)
C. Rihtman: ‘Yugoslav Folk Music Instruments’, The Folk Arts of Yugoslavia: Pittsburgh 1977, ed. W.W. Kolar (Pittsburgh, 1976), 211–27
D. Christensen: ‘Kategorien mehrstimmiger Lieder des Dorfes Gabela, Herzegovina’, Essays for a Humanist: an offering to Klaus Wachsmann, ed. C. Seeger and B. Wade (New York, 1977), 105–20
B. Krader: ‘A Bosnian Urban Love Song: the Sevdalinka’, IMSCR XII: Berkeley 1977, 29–35
A. Petrović: ‘Fenomen vokalnog stila u seoskoj muzičkoj praksi Bosne i Hercegovine’ [Phenomena of vocal style in the rural musical practice of Bosnia and Hercegovina], Zvuk, 2 (1978), 15–22
A. Petrović: ‘Sacred Sephardic Chants in Bosnia’, World of Music, xxiv/3 (1982), 35–51
D. Rihtman: ‘Narodna muzička tradicija Drežnice’ [Folk music tradition of Drežnice], Glasnik Zemaljskog muzeja Bosne i Hercegovine, Etnologija, N.S. 37 (Sarajevo, 1982), 137–64
M. Baralić: ‘Interpretacija ezana u Bosni i Hercegovini’ [Interpretation of adhān in Bosnia and Hercegovina], Zvuk (1983), 52–8
V. Milošević: Ravna pjesma [‘Plain’ song] (Banja Luka, 1984)
A. Petrović: ‘Tradicija i kompromisi u muzičkom izrazu sefardskih Jevreja u Bosni’ [Tradition and compromises in the musical expressions of the Sephardic Jews in Bosnia], Traditional Music of Ethnic Groups – Minorities [Zagreb 1985], ed. J. Bezić (Zagreb, 1986), 213–21
A. Petrović: Traditional Music from the Soil of Bosnia and Herzegovina (sound recording and booklet), Diskoton LP 8149 (Sarajevo, 1986)
A. Petrović: ‘Paradoxes of Muslim Music in Bosnia and Hercegovina’, Asian Music, xx/1 (1988), 128–47
A. Petrović: ‘Lokalni idiomi u obrednim napjevima sefardskih Jevreja u Bosni’ [Local idioms in the religious tunes of the Sephardic Jews in Bosnia], Prvi javni sastanak Medjuakademijskog Koordinacionog odbora za ispitivanje tradicionalne narodne religiozne obredne muzike u Jugoslaviji (Sarajevo, 1989), 57–85
A. Petrović: ‘Women in the Music Creation Process in the Dinaric Cultural Zone of Yugoslavia’, Music, Gender and Culture, ed. M. Herndon and S. Ziegler (Wilhelmshaven, 1990), 71–84
A. Petrović: ‘Correlation between the Musical Content of Jewish Sephardic Songs and Traditional Muslim Lyrics sevdalinka in Bosnia’, World Congress of Jewish Studies: Jerusalem 1989 ii (Jerusalem, 1990), 165–71
A. Petrović: ‘Les techniques du chant villageois dans les Alpes Dinariques (Yugoslavie)’, Cahiers de musique traditionnelle, iv (1991), 103–15
L. Vidić Rasmussen: ‘Gypsy Music in Yugoslavia: Inside the Popular Culture Tradition’, Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, i/2 (1991), 127–39
Bosnia: Echoes from an Endangered World: Music and Chant of the Bosnian Muslims, ed. T. Levin and A. Petrović, Smithsonian/Folkways Records, CD SF 40407 (1993)
R.P. Pennanen: ‘The God-Praising Drums in Sarajevo’, Asian Music, xxv/1–2 (1993–4), 1–7
L. Vidić Rasmussen: ‘From source to commodity: newly-composed folk music of Yugoslavia’, Popular Music, xiv/2 (1995), 241–56
A. Petrović: ‘Perceptions of ganga’, World Music, xxxvii/2 (1995), 60–71