The Establishing of a Professional Folk Orchestra in the Interwar period in Belgrade

Abstract

This paper aims to illuminate on how the institution of the folk orchestra in Serbia was established using archive material. The folk orchestra, as a specific instrumental formation for accompaniment of popular folk songs and the performance of dance music, is part of the urban legacy all over the Balkans, mostly connected with the context of taverns. The period focussed on is between the World Wars because of the creation of the "Folk orchestra" and the "Tambura orchestra" on Radio Belgrade, as those were the first ensembles that were both professional and folk. Namely, Belgrade has been the centre of music broadcasting and musicians networking in the country, so those ensembles became official and the examples for later musicians. The main criteria of professionalization are: the establishing of musicians' guilds, their education and payment, the media representation of the band, and the professional status of musicians with respect to their ethnicity and gender.