Making a Case for Balkan Music Studies

Abstract

In his seminal comprehensive history of music(s) in the Balkan region, Jim Samson avoided the term “Balkan music” in favor of the less-binding title Music in the Balkans (Leiden: Brill, 2013). This, however, should not hinder us from probing the term “Balkan music” and its many connotations. In this editorial article for the Special Issue Balkan Music: Past, Present, Future, I aim to dissect the umbrella term “Balkan music” and its actual and presumed meanings and implications, while overviewing many different music traditions and styles that this term encompasses. I will also make a case for the establishment of Balkan Music Studies as a discipline and attempt to outline its scope and outreach.

Urban Folk Music Legacy from Former Yugoslavia in Contemporary Istanbul

“…Local ethnomusicological and musicological discourse about the Balkans produced important edited volumes (e.g.,Peycheva & Rodel, 2008; Despić, Jovanović & Lajić Mihajlović, 2011; Medić &Tomašević, 2015;Medić 2020; proceedings of ICTM SG for Southeastern Europe from 2008 onwards: cf. ICTM SEE, 2023), and even before that, the region has been an interesting topic for foreign researchers, and most of them are from the USA and the UK (e.g.,Buchanan, 2007;Laušević, 2007; Bohlman & Petković, 2011;Samson, 2013).…”