Wedding songs' melodic models of eastern Šumadija and Pomoravlje regions: A contribution to Serbian vocal dialects and identity studies

Abstract

Extremely complex picture of Šumadija region musical tradition(s) could be explained not only as the result of long-lasting encounters and overlapping of different inhabitants' groups, but also by the fact that in this region even three dialects of Serbian language meet. Moreover, there is a basis for an assumption it is about cultural dialects in wider sense, comprising musical culture as well. Structural-typological analyses of wedding melodic models (glasovi) and identifying of their morphological dominants (term coined by V. Maciewskii) provided the basis for comparative insight in the elements of vocal tradition in the area in focus - on the first place within wedding genre, but within other genres as well. The cartography technique, applied in melogeographic researches (Goshovskii), provides insight in certain musical phenomena in their territorial dissemination, so that the regularities that could be in direct connection to dialectal features of traditional culture could be seen. The paper is about geographical and cultural space intersected by folklore dialectal borders, and thus it is also the region where the transitory areas between the consistent cultural spaces are placed. This situation has been explained and illustrated through the application of 'fuzzy' concept. Musical material from this region and its elements geographic distribution shows it could be about the 'fuzzy' border between two cultural and vocal dialects. This paper could be the basis for future research and analyses, including more data from this and surrounding regions, primarily in the East, South and Southeast, which would lead to the differentiating of the musical idiom that characterizes great part of central, Eastern, Southern and Southeastern Serbia.

Rad je zasnovan na identifikovanju melodijskih modela (glasova) svadbenih pesama u vokalnoj tradiciji predeonih celina istočne Šumadije i Pomoravlja. Polazeći od određenih strukturnih elemenata melodijskih modela kao morfoloških dominanti (V. Macijevski), učinjeno je melogeografsko mapiranje modela uz referiranje na okolne, pa i prostorno udaljenije predeone celine u Srbiji. Interpretirana je njihova rasprostranjenost na ovom terenu, koji je granična teritorija između dva govorna dijalekta u Srbiji.