Ritual Function of Music in Serbian Art Song

In this paper, we deal with the Serbian art music solo song of the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, referring to the old folkloric tradition and its generic models based on the ritual function of music. Thereby, these songs establish generic relationships with deep layers of vocal music tradition, i.e. with its “sacred”, mythical phase. Starting from Antiquity, through the musical tradition of the Balkans, these songs represent a crossing of the modern musical language and the first function of music. They thus contribute to the formation of a sub-genre category that determines a particular and important current in the history of Serbian music. Evoking the models of incantation, invocation or the dirge, these songs are articulated as affective monodies. Namely, the voice is treated like a monody on a specifically treated poetic text, using vowels (as vocalises) or a reduced number of unconnected syllables and therefore without a strict or any meaningful reference in the verbal text. Then, by treating sound as the carrier of affect, they shape the vocal part as an affective curve in service of the ritual function. The musical language, leaning on the folkloric principle based on repetitive melodic and rhythmic formulas, resonates both with the great expressionist heritage, especially that of Stravinsky, but also with the avant-garde and minimalist current of art music. However, in the generic field of art song, these stylistic elements form the background for the affective monody, giving it a specific sound result, also anchored in the local musical tradition. In this paper, we will consider the following songs in more detail: Čarobnica [The Enchanteress] (1962) by Ljubica Marić, Basma [Incantation] (1968) by Mirjana Živković, Dve Tužbalice [Two Dirges] (1997) by Djuro Živković, Rukoveti [Garlands] (1999) by Isidora Žebeljan, and Song “without” words (2005) by Branka Popović.