The Introductory Word at the Presentation of the New CD by the Group IZVOR from Vranje

In the warmth of the moonlight

The Ethnographic Museum, Belgrade, 14th May 2005

The audio material of the vocal-instrumental band "Izvor" from Vranje will undoubtedly draw the deserved attention of he traditional Serbian and Balkan music lovers and it also deserves the attention of ethnomusicologists for two reasons: its own quality and a series of interesting questions and problems it opens up by appearing in our milieu.

On this occasion, it is extremely important to point out an undisputed quality of the band and it is the fact that the work of each member fully represents continuity in particular aspects of the traditional music from the southern part of the Balkan Peninsula. In addition, the members of the band have another fine and valuable characteristic – readiness and good will to accept, adopt and apply particular experience the masters of traditional singing and playing pass onto them. This is an extremely valuable but rare virtue in today’s world where, unfortunately, the individuality at any cost is given advantage over the effort to master the traditional skills.

The CD contains arrangements of traditional songs belonging to the national heritage of the Serbs, Bulgarians, Macedonians, Gorans and Turks. So the authors of the arrangements are the members of the band themselves. In writing the arrangements they did not take into consideration only the usual practice in making traditional song arrangements in Serbia, but also the work of the similar professional and semi-professional ensembles from Macedonia, Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey. While making the arrangements, the ensemble “Izvor” also uses the experience of chalgy bands as much as the possibilities of their instruments allow.

The songs the band performs are both town and country by origin. In the country songs, which are performed in their original form either without an instrumental accompaniment or with a minimal one, it is clear that the group "Izvor" offers a particular stylization and build-up that makes the songs more acceptable for a wider auditorium. However, the arrangements of the town songs, particularly those from southern Serbia, primarily from the Town of Vranje and from Kosovo and Metohija, are especially interesting. Listening to "Izvor" interpretations, it is unavoidable both for listeners and experts to wonder to what extent their performance truly reflects the physiognomy of the songs in their authentic context. The second question that pops up is whether the term chalgy song is justified when we talk about the songs from the town milieu in southern Serbia, if it is legitimately used in ethnomusicology of other countries in the southern Balkans as well.

Therefore, the arrangement principles of the band do not follow the examples from Serbia, but rely more on the experience of Macedonian authors. In Serbia, traditional song arrangements in the period after World War II were mainly done with a basic aim to stylize and aestheticize the song in a new way, which often deprived it of its significant characteristics, as well as its character and ethos. However, the folk songs in Macedonia were arranged by bearers and, at the same time, great connoisseurs of the authentic Macedonian musical tradition. They wrote arrangements relying on the musical vocabulary of the very tradition and their own experience, and they respected the key characteristics of particular songs. Having done this hard and responsible job, they set standards for the young generations of the traditional music lovers on a completely new level. This is a very important fact when we talk about the work of the members of the ensemble "Izvor" because they exactly follow such arrangement procedures together with some others.

A special quality of the "Izvor" performance is a specific modesty of expression, and I do not mean a poor or an insufficient expressiveness. On the contrary, I speak of the readiness to notice and keep the beauty of the melody lines and rhythmical patterns the way they are - in all their simplicity and purity, and to respect their perfection without any excessive decorations. This way, the beauty of the melodies is fully expressed. In this band’s performance, you will not find pretentiousness or needless improvisations that burden the musical tissue. The musicians have successfully carried out the task of presenting to us the traditional singing and playing in their full beauty with due responsibility and seriousness.

J. Jovanovic
Etnomusical Institute
Acadamy of Science, Serbia