Abstract
Centuries old gusle practice in Serbia preserved valuable sonic and cultural heritage, centred mainly on the performance of the epic poetry, but also including contemporary topics and changes to an extent. Lullabies have not been a part of the common gusle repertoire, but in this artistic research, composed and authored gusle lullabies are presented as a contribution to the building of contemporary gusle youth culture, which is in a delicate position in-between the practices of the older generations and the potential involvement of the young people on a wider basis. The idea to include the infants and to bring the soothing effects by the means of the sound of gusle is a novelty which the artistic project aspires to introduce, by re-reading the ideas of the folk heritage and exploring the borders and possibilities of the artistic freedom in that context. The supporting personal stories are given in order to contrast or supplement the usual representation of the practice of gusle playing. The gusle lullabies study offers a re-examination of dominant narratives and argues for the new possibilities in creative, educational, and research work related to this practice in Serbia, the Balkans, aspiring also to reach the audiences worldwide.
Key words: contemporary gusle music, gusle lullabies, children’s culture, female gusle player, tradition and change.
Lastly, the third reason for making this project came from reflecting on my own path of being a child gusle player. I lacked the audience of my generation, since the followers of the gusle in Serbia are mostly seniors and men. When those rare moments of having a generationally close audience comprised of children and young people, I had usually seen them giggling, laughing, putting hands on their ears and mouth. Along with the instrument, and the very sound or expression, the repertoire I would sing [traditional epic poetry] was either foreign or barely familiar to them. Gusle were mostly associated with something from the past, which I also highlighted by wearing the folk costume while performing. I knew there was a constraint in the gusle presentation, as my stage interaction with children had been drastically different when playing the piano or singing pop songs. The fact that, according to my experiences, children in Serbia have rarely heard about the gusle or seen the instrument in a live performance, which is even more pertaining to children of Serbian origin living abroad, had always stayed with me. It has to be said that there were not many ways to hear or get immersed into the gusle practice specifically envisioned for young people. Additionally, at the beginning of my playing the gusle, even if one would join the gusle-related activities, there was a lack of a social space meant for children in the gusle circles, with rare instances of a few individuals stepping in and making an effort to include young people on different, more contemporary basis. To illustrate this, a lack of age-related categories in the gusle competitions in the Gusle Union, meant that children and youth, including me, were competing amongst the best and most well-known adult male gusle players, where the age gap in some instances was over fifty years between the youngest and the oldest competitors. To pass the audition and to get the opportunity to perform live in front of an audience, simultaneously getting valid and equal opportunity to grow as a gusle player connected to the whole context of the practice, was almost impossible for children who wanted to play the instrument. The first ever youth-oriented gusle competition of three countries, being part of the Gusle Union, happened on May 21st, 2011, in my hometown Kraljevo, in which I also took part in. It was initiated and organized by gusle association Žiča founded by my father Radovan Peković. Since then, the youth festivals have been organized regularly in different cities across three Balkan countries. The current status of young players or the atmosphere is better compared to the time of my growing up, yet the desired structure and the establishing of a more inclusive and contemporary system is still in progress. Reflecting on Bogdan, my experiences in Helsinki related to children, and memories when I was a child, I had asked myself what is something I would like Bogdan to have, what are the things I wish I had in my childhood related to the gusle, and what are the things that I can do?
In cultural terms the very sound of the gusle has been sonically and ideologically almost inseparable from the epic poetry world, its mores and aesthetics. On the other hand, a powerful expression, drama, sorrow, and longing were coming through the sounds of lullabies very often. Therefore, I was trying to find a sweet spot of having epic elements adjusted to my ideas and using their material, sonic aspects in building the novel lullabies. I lacked a real lullaby bedtime with Bogdan, as I was predominantly abroad but I embodied the new field with certain techniques and practicing time that created a similar atmosphere. I would calm myself first while imagining singing to baby Bogi[6], and then the sound itself would synchronize with the desired outcome. I have even at some points used a blanket that I put in front of me to look like a wrapped baby when practicing, to create and embrace the right feeling inside me. The process of creating those sounds, melodies and arrangements made me grow and understand myself better as an artist, but also allowed me to gain a new, fresh perspective on my own music tradition and my place in it. Those sounds slowed and calmed my perception of the time flow and raised my sensory awareness, serving as a basis for a personal and artistic exploration.
[6] Bogdan’s nickname.
Another important issue was related to technical obstacles, such as establishing a culturally non-characteristic ‘soothing sound’ on the gusle, as the frequencies of the gusle tones are naturally unpredictable, sharp and non-tempered. When one changes the bow direction on the gusle, the pitch may alter with the bow change. Wolf tone is quite common, and tuning peg is not always sustainable. All these technical aspects followed me along the past years with collaborative processes, and there were many attempts to bypass the restrictions, such as using a cello bow, wolf eliminator, and peg powder – yet none was permanently working. The future attempts to build technically altered gusle to suit the collaborative work with other tempered instruments is something that might help see this Serbian instrument into the creative collaborative projects more. Applying theory of Huib Schippers’ (2006) for a dynamic change, a transfer of knowledge from other string instrument makers can be useful as contemporary gusle makers are not that familiar with these phenomena, e.g. how different wood, skin or string will affect the sound, size of the instrument, bridge[7], bow, type of threads, rosin. Whether some additional instrument or specifically made tools for the gusle will serve as a solution for the issues related to tuning, perhaps urgency of establishing fine tuning, is yet to be seen. However, it was equally interesting to produce solutions based on the current technical reality that contemporary gusle players work from. I saw a great potential in exploring that very spot in regard to ‘unusual’ and desired sound of lullabies, and the more time I spent with the project, the keener I was to design my new instrument in collaboration with a few building instrument manufacturers.
[7] As building of a such an instrument takes time, it did not happen during my lullaby project, but the project’s unfolding helped recognize the urgency of the need to have an improved instrument.
This project holds a great significance in the process of exploration of my artistic identity and development, as well as regarding my contribution to the ongoing modernisation of gusle music culture. One of the turning points was to present my own lyrics and share insights related to the artistic process, and this kind of reflection, intertwined with my examining of the official narratives and research perspectives, created a platform that brings together the objective, research-based approaches and the direct self-observation of the artist being in-between the tradition and innovation. I grew with the project, being led by my inner world, and the one around me: I found many hidden aspects of experience and sound memories, which were unexplored in my work. Many new sound colours and timbres were brought further by various gusle involved – my own instrument, a small children gusle that Bogdan used, gusle I inherited from late Snežana Spasić, with an anticipation of my future gusle to be created in order to reflect the new nuances, ideas and possibilities of both instrument and my own work. The encounter with electronic music and the cooperation with my cousin Relja added a fresh difference to the whole project, introducing a vital ideational and sonic spectrum important for both my personal aesthetics and to building of a dynamic, contemporary approach to the gusle practice. I see a potential of mixing different media with gusle sound, and in adding live electronics to the performance, with a vision to include this approach in Serbian music culture, as well as in the international music scenes. The gusle lullabies seem to be a piece of puzzle contributing to ongoing change and hopefully fostering a relation between a contemporary children’s culture and the gusle, as well as a possibility to enjoy the gusle sounds, resonances, its quality and range from different poetic and social perspectives of new generations.
The Gusle lullabies project is motivated by a wish to contribute to contemporary children’s culture from a personal side, as well as having in mind the possibilities of transformation of the modern gusle playing practice. Lullabies are not a common part of the traditional gusle repertoire, as their placement in the gusle practice does not yet exist and is not typical in the canonized traditional repertoire centred around the dominant genre of heroic epic poetry. Gusle lullabies present a lyrical topic and an artistic approach to a part of folk heritage and contemporary practice of lullabies. Therefore, gusle lullabies are designed in order to invite infants, children, mothers, parents, caregivers, along with others, to explore their relation to the gusle practice and musical culture from a novel angle, yet being familiar enough since the lullabies are a common part of the childhood memories for many. Furthermore, the project has been crafted as a search for new, dynamic ideas within the very cultural practice, and as an initiative for the similar approaches to rise, by mixing the artistic agency and the inherited cultural patterns.
As a Serbian female gusle player, I hold a specific position as the musical culture is still predominantly reserved for men. Nevertheless, with over twenty years’ experience in this practice ranging from traditional singing to the accompaniment of the gusle towards a more contemporary approach, I have acquired new artistic skills and the experience in pedagogical and community engagement work in and outside Serbia. Aside of being deeply immersed in the gusle practice since an early age, my BA and MA educational background given by Sibelius Academy – Global Music department in Helsinki, Finland also helped reach new positionalities regarding my own culture and the possible paths of the artistic development. I wanted to include my position of intersectionality in crafting a new direction for gusle music, as well as to claim the agency in that process, by going from and returning to the Serbian music tradition, and voicing my past and present experience in that process.
The structure of this thesis is as follows: a literature review provides an important overview in understanding the history, contemporary setting and the main issues pertaining to the gusle tradition in relation to the research questions. Historical overview is divided into two parts: the left side represents objective critical thinking, stemming from the research, of Serbian, Balkan, European, but also global origin. The right side suggest inclusion of subjective thoughts and reflections to related topics coming from my own experiences, further supported by a personal diary documenting the process of building the project as well as the previous personal experiences and thoughts, but also specifically focused on the period from April of 2023 to November of 2023, when the thesis was being written. Then, relying on the theoretical insights of Huib Schippers (2006) on music's preservation and sustainability, I share and examine four gusle lullabies, Visoko li lete labudovi [As high swans are in flight], Popara [Milk toast], Milo moje [My Dearest], and Ratna uspavanka [Action lullaby]. This thesis addresses the issue of using gusle in a way which is not in line with a reproduction of the heroic epic poetry, but in-between the artistic novelty and the keeping the relation with the folk culture, as the lullabies are authored, invented or re-sounded as a part of a heritage, yet not being a standard part of a gusle repertoire, and with a full artistic freedom. It seeks to answer the following questions:
How can new forms of expression arising from engaging with diverse musical and personal experiences become part of contemporary gusle practice, which is currently primarily oriented towards preservation of the tradition?
Can gusle lullabies contribute to a diversification of practical and tacit gusle knowledge and lead towards more inclusiveness and exchange?
The thesis relies on Huib Schippers’ (2006) vision of re-examining the static perspectives of tradition. Schippers (2006) argues that seeing contexts as static can lead to possible misconceptions of music from a wider perspective. Therefore, in understanding contemporary music as well as contemporary contexts, he puts forth a theory for a dynamic approach, whereby it is essential to view tradition as being in constant flux. This thesis makes use of this theory, and is in tune with my experience for over twenty years on how singing to the accompaniment of the gusle has been primarily seen through the perspective of the canonized reproduction of the tradition, both from the carriers of the tradition and official institutional context in Serbia. Therefore, Schippers’ arguing for a dynamic approach can offer a vital element in supporting the gusle tradition to reclaim its dynamic inclinations, as it once had, as seen through the literature review, being a mainstream platform for communication by resonating current contexts in response to a range of artistic aspirations and functions. Another theoretical aspect I use is related to approaches to gender in ethnomusicology (Nenić, 2019) and in other field of social sciences (Brković, 2020). Finally, using cultural folkloristic approach to the lullabies (Young 2008, Sikimić 2013, Pešikan Ljuštanović 2013) gave me framework for balancing between the folkloric elements and new elements of my own composed lullabies.
In this thesis I reflect on my own history using narrative inquiry (Barrett & Stauffer, 2009) as the main research method. I chose this particular method which involves my memories, experiences, feelings, thoughts and relationship with the tradition to get close to the origins of my expression and creative process as well as to better understand the dynamics of the gusle practice I have been influenced by throughout the years. Narrative inquiry has been described as an inquiry that makes evident to readers the lived experiences of individuals and groups by foregrounding their narratives and their understandings (Barrett & Stauffer, 2009, p. 20), with the main purpose to inform and perhaps transform music making and teaching (ibid). I have also used an extensive literature review, applying the critical re-examining, and the close reading at certain points, and resulting in a synthetic overview of the different topics relevant for the thesis. As a part of autoethnography, I have included a personal diary documenting the process and at some points, re-visiting the personal memories in that context. Work of this artistic research is seen as with no ethical concerns.
There are three major reasons how and why the gusle lullaby project has started. The essential spark came from my nephew Bogdan, born in September 2021, as my brother Nikola’s and his wife Katarina’s first child. As I became an aunt for the first time, it reminded me of my aunt, Tatjana, with whom I grew up and bonded very closely. Additionally, it brought a lot of childhood memories. I was born and raised in the city of Kraljevo, Serbia, in 1997, which is also the year my family took a short breath of fresh air after the last war starting with the fall of Yugoslavia in 1991, the year my brother Nikola was born. Two years after my birth, another war was on the horizon, the bombing of Serbia in 1999 by NATO, this time related to Kosovo and Metohija ethnic conflict. Moments of gathering with the loved ones were the most valuable moments, and the small positive moments were always cherished in my family, where everyone supported each other. My aunt Tatjana had a big role in bringing me up, opening the world of jazz and classical music for me and being my piano teacher. I remember in the time after the recent wars and conflicts in Serbia how she would come from the work with big Takovo (Serbian sweets factory) sweets, something hardly affordable at that time, yet seen as the beginning of a better life. Nikola and I used to call her ‘our Santa Claus’. During my childhood, every member of my family highly influenced the way I would see the life in the future. With my brother Nikola, it was all about adventures: the neighbourhood car built out of a hand trolley, sledging down the hill with big bags filled with hey in a mid-summer rainy day, and many others. I remember one day while in Montenegro, where we often visited, being half Montenegrin and half Serbian, Nikola guided a group of us children through nature, being the oldest in the group. He took a role of a wise old grandpa with a curved back, while holding a small grey stone in his hand. Mysteriously gathering us around him, he said: my dear children, [he made a pause until we nodded], look carefully at this stone... [another great pause], as many cracks on this stone, as many years this stone has! Now count and tell me how old this stone might be?! We were stunned by the number of cracks, and I believed his story for a long time after. A great musician today, my brother offered to me one of the crucial support systems I have had over the years of extending my own musical expression, from forming a duo and later a band together, traveling the world and growing from mutual experiences. This time I wanted to make a journey and a tribute to Bogdan for his second birthday, that will cherish him through new inspirations, moments, and memories, just as I had with my aunt, brother and parents.
A few months after Bogdan was born, I was involved in the lullaby project lead by my teacher Puro Paju at the Sibelius Academy, which required students to bring lullabies from their own countries, just as I had with the Serbian folk song Nanina uspavanka [Nanina lullaby]. We then performed all the lullabies together on our particular instruments, making movements, using water flying bubbles, and accompanying Moomin children’s goodnight story Muumipeiko nukahtaa, told by Elina Simes. Creating an immersion of all the senses for our audience, infants, parents, and toddlers, as well as being in various settings such as a library, or at a concert at the Helsinki Music Centre (May 20th, 2022), brought new insights. Another work from 2021 to 2023 has been with Ad astra, a non-governmental organization in Helsinki whose mission is to support minority cultures and promote equity especially among children, through creative methods of art and storytelling. Ad astra project is where I had accompanied and performed stories such as King Barhat and baba Yega with the gusle too. Prior to these experiences I had mostly performed for senior audience. The audience of infants I faced for the first time with the gusle. From these experiences I realized how important it is to introduce cultural content from an early age, as well as how the artists’ ability to influence the young audiences as open minded and curious is of importance. I was reminded of books and stories that my mom would read to me before bedtime such as the traditional basne [stories where animals are major actors], brothers Grimm’s or Andersen’s fairy tales, a lullaby she used to sing me, Moja mama divno priča svake noći [My mother wonderfully tells the stories every night], and other childhood experiences in different media, such as a popular children’s CD by Dragan Laković and Minja Subota, Yugoslav / Serbian TV children’s program Muzički tobogan [musical slide], as well as the cartoons such as Pčelica Maja [Maya the Bee] or others. The activities related to my formal education in Finland, and the evoking of my own personal memories in that context, led me to my own project related to the gusle and children.
Artistic Research
Master project
University of the Arts Helsinki
Sibelius Academy, Global Music department
Autumn 2023
Author: Bojana Peković
Supervisor: Iva Nenić
I am grateful for experiencing and having by my side a dedicated mentorship by Iva Nenić throughout the whole processes of creating and writing. Her guidance inspired me and helped foster the solid ground for learning, thinking and doing. I want to thank the gusle players, gusle researchers, and my own Serbian culture and people of today, and through the ages. Furthermore, my gratitude goes to the Sibelius Academy, the Global Music department, and my professors in Helsinki, who helped me overcome many complex moments and brough significant strength, and introduced new viewpoints on my artistic path. Thanks to Miloš Nikolić, reviewer Nikola Mićić, the translator of songs Ivana Whitlatch, AsStudioton in Belgrade, photographer Marko Živković, all the people and my audience along those years who supported my dreams, are those to which I am dedicating this project. I am immensely grateful for having my family, and living with one of the greatest gifts in my life – Bogdan.