MacedonianČalgija: A Musical Refashioning of National Identity

Not Different Enough: Avoiding Representation as “Balkan” and the Constrained Appeal of Macedonian Ethno Music

“…Another is starogradska muzika (old urban music), which first arose in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in connection to the rise of an urban bourgeoisie under the Ottoman Empire. It often combines instruments of the symphony orchestra, such as the violin and the clarinet, with narodni instruments, such as the kanun (plucked zither) and the ut (short-necked fretless pear-shaped lute) (Seeman 2012). In their combinations of these styles with one another and with contemporary styles, middle-class ethnic Macedonian performers and audiences comprise the core of the ethno band scene, though ensembles frequently involve Romani musicians and occasionally ethnic Albanians, such as Muhamed Ibrahimi (guitar, mandolin, saz).…”

“…The Ottomančalgija ensemble took shape in Macedonian towns in the nineteenth century and often included musicians who were members of diverse religious and/or ethnic communities. By the middle of the twentieth century,čalgija ensembles consisted primarily of Romani musicians, and they served Macedonian, Albanian, Turkish, Vlah, and Romani patrons, having developed extensive repertoires in Turkish light classical music, folk songs, and popular urban songs in the many languages of these communities (Seeman 2012;Silverman 2012, p. 31). During the subsequent Yugoslav period, especially in the context of theČalgija Orchestra of MRT, musical signs of Ottoman cosmopolitanism inčalgija were gradually subjected to erasure as the genre was shaped into a homogenized symbol of Macedonian national identity that included both European sonic sensibilities and sonic markers of the "oriental".…”

“…In 1993, Dautovski joined forces with the band (which also included Zoran Spasovski) in producing the score for Before the Rain. Complementing the film's narrative, the score contains overlapping elements of several genres of music from Macedonia, including Byzantine chant, Macedonian narodna muzika, Macedonian starogradska muzika, and the related Ottoman urban genrečalgija, a Macedonian musical genre that, when it first emerged in the nineteenth century, was a signifier of urban life and status among town-dwelling Muslims, Christians, and Jews (Seeman 2012). The score also features the vocals of Vanja Lazarova (b.…”

Shaping the Past and Creating the Future: Music, Nationalism, and the Negotiation of Cultural Memory at Macedonia’s Celebration of Twenty Years of Independence

“…In this process, sounds signifying groups "other" to ethnic Macedonians such as Roma and Turks (i.e., former colonizers) are "transformed, masked and erased in the service of signifying the nation." 59 The cosmopolitanism evoked by elites in the case of the twentieth anniversary of independence celebration, then, relies on understandings of the boundaries of exclusion for who is or is not allowed to be considered equal members of a nation that participate in that nation's shared identity (in Wimmer's terms).…”

Popular Music as an Interpretive Device for Creating Meaningful Visitor Experience in Music Museums

“…We would, therefore, do a disservice to our visitors if we fed their unfamiliarity with essentialism. I had no desire to represent music cultures in ways that perpetuate essentialism or that normalize a relationship between a state and a majority musical tradition, issues identified by scholars of music and national identity (Ceribašić2000; Ceribašićand Haskell 2006; Pettan 2007;Seeman 2012;Slobin 1996;Žanić2007). In doing so I would commit the same erasures and manipulations that have plagued the continent since the disintegration of empires and the emergence of nation-states: the omission of musical communities and practices that did not suit state political agendas and therefore led to cultural practices of "undesired" linguistic, cultural, or religious groups' being marginalized.…”