Melancholic Airs of the Orient – Bosnian Sevdalinka Music as an Orientalist and National Symbol
Year: 2010
Type: book
Abstract: Western authors have often described “Oriental” music as melancholic and sad. Members of “Oriental” cultures, however, have considerably different views on their own musics, which not only have emotional content but are also often given further ritualistic expression as representative of the national culture. Basically, “Oriental” here refers to almost any sort of local music from the Balkans, North Africa, the Middle East or Asia, but I have chosen Ottoman Turkish and especially BosnianHerzegovinian Muslim non-religious urban songs called sevdalinke (sing. sevdalinka) and their interrelationship as examples of colonial discourse and the construction of Otherness in Orientalism. My research material comprises musical representations in travelogues on Bosnia-Herzegovina1 and the late Ottoman Empire on the one hand, and scholarly and popular texts related to music on the other. Some of the texts were produced by outsiders, others by Bosnian Muslims, or Bosniaks.
Source: Työväentutkimus Vuosikirja
Author: Risto Pekka Pennanen
Language: English
Subfield: Music
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1734236385