Singing with gusle accompaniment and the music industry: The first gramophone records of gusle players` performances (1908−1931/2)
The gramophone record industry had developed in the Yugoslav region from the beginning of the 20th century. The paper is based on an analysis of the corpus of 78 rpm records of singing with gusle accompaniment, which were produced between 1908 and 1932. Available recordings highlight the is...
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts - Institute of Musicology of Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
2016-01-01
|
| Series: | Muzikologija |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/1450-9814/2016/1450-98141620199L.pdf |
| Summary: | The gramophone record industry had developed in the Yugoslav region from the
beginning of the 20th century. The paper is based on an analysis of the
corpus of 78 rpm records of singing with gusle accompaniment, which were
produced between 1908 and 1932. Available recordings highlight the issue of
representing both the epic and the gusle playing tradition in this media
format and its relationship with “unmediated” live gusle playing practice.
Therefore the authors opted to analyze gramophone records as both a text in
culture and an actor in tradition. After introductory theoretical and
methodological remarks, the authors offer a brief description of the
historical, political and socio-cultural context that emphasized epic singing
with gusle accompaniment as a representative traditional genre in this area.
For that reason it was noteworthy for both western and local production
companies which made recordings in the Balkans (Deutsche Grammophon
Gesellschaft mbH., Odeon Records, Marsh Laboratories, Inc., Edison Bell
Penkala Ltd.). Analysis of the recordings is focused on examination of the
way in which gusle players responded to different requirements of the new
media (e.g. the insufficient capacity of a record itself compared to the
usual duration of a performance; the reduction of a complex form of artistic
communication to an oral, auditory message, while additional forms of
non-verbal communication are excluded). Through discussion of the treatment
of verbal and musical components of the recorded performances it has been
shown that tradition was simultaneously exemplified and reshaped by this new
medium. In addition to the guslars themselves, being already recognized
artists in this traditional genre and the acoustic source (the voice
accompanied by the gusle), the representative base of the epic tradition
comprised traditional (poetic) texts, although modifications / innovations
are recognizable at different levels of verbal content, as well as on the
level of music interpretation. On these bases, it is possible to talk about
the contribution of new media to the professionalization of guslars’ practice
and the creation of “stars” among them on the one hand, and the progressive
transformation of once-active audience members (in the sense of potentially
exchangeable performer / listener positions) into passive buyers and
consumers, on the other. It is noted that these, first gramophone records of
guslars had a great role in and impact on the survival of the epic singing
tradition, brokering its promotion in urban areas and among the “cultural
elite”. Finally, in this way they contributed to the strengthening of this
tradition in a historical period that brought disintegration of the system of
traditional culture and “crisis” of the most of the current classic folklore
genres. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 177004: Identiteti
srpske muzike od lokalnih do globalnih okvira: tradicije, promene, izazovi i
br. 178011: Srpsko usmeno stvaralaštvo u interkulturnom kodu] |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1450-9814 2406-0976 |