The Shift in the Idioms of Macedonian Music Culture during the Balkan Wars and World War I

Abstract

The predominantly Oriental Macedonian music culture of the Ottoman period and the beginning of the twentieth century experienced serious changes during the Balkan Wars and World War I. Macedonia was the last part of the Ottoman Empire in central and Western Balkans where the Oriental Turkish idioms – particularly through the use of makam and usul patterns – were the leading music feature of the Macedonian local music environment. However, the Occidental influence can be traced to the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century in different channels: first through the members of the Turkish gentry who were trying to modernize the country and introduce Western cultural models; then through the influence of spiritual and secular music from the surrounding countries (Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece); and finally, through the introduction of Western models through European diplomats in the city of Bitola/Manastır in the late nineteenth century. Although this process would continue for another several decades until the establishment of the Republic of Macedonia (ASNOM, 1944), the shift in the music culture in almost all segments occurred already in the first years after World War I. Thus the Occidentalization of the Macedonian music culture can be observed in several areas: popular music, spiritual music, music education, and particularly the use of the Western musical instruments. Parallel to the čalgija ensembles and its monodic vocal and instrumental idioms (makams and usuls), the 3/4 (particularly minor tonal), the Western Europe waltz became part of the urban folklore. The introduction of the piano and the first performances of opera segments were other examples of Western music patterns in the urban culture. Military bands with Western instruments of Western provenience played an important role in the movement of different armies through Macedonia during the Balkan Wars and World War I, eventually becoming a standard component of military and secular music culture after 1918. A particularly important channel for the introduction of the Western idioms was elementary school education, used by invading countries as a key tool for political and other types of influence. Finally, the replacement of the old Byzantine/Slavonic monodic Orthodox chant with the homophonic tonal patterns signals the dramatic change of the music idioms of the twentieth century Macedonian music culture.