Music of Serbia
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Serbia is a part of the country Serbia and Montenegro. The documented musical history of the people later known as Serbians can be traced back to the medieval era. At the time, the region now known as Serbia was dominated by the Byzantine Empire, followed by being controlled by the Turks. Church music was performed throughout Serbia by choirs or individual singers, led by a conductor. The songs performed at the time were derived from the Osmoglasnik, a collection of religion songs dedicated to Jesus' resurrection. These songs were repeated over the course of eight weeks in a cyclical fashion. Composers from this era include Stefan Srbin, Isaija Srbin, and Nikola Srbin.
Aside from church music, the medieval era in Serbia included folk music, about which very little is known, and court music. During the Nemanjic dynasty, musicians played an important role in the royal court, and were known as sviralnici, glumci and praskavnici. Other rulers known for the musical patronage included Stefan Dusan, Stefan Lazarevic, and Djuradj Brankovic.
Medieval musical instruments included horns, trumpets, lutes, psalteries, drums and cymbals. With the beginning of Turkish rule in the 15th century, new instruments like the tamburitza, zurle, tapan, and gusle were introduced to Serbia.
Stevan Mokranjac was an important Serbian composer and musicologist, considered one of the most important founders of modern Serbian music [1] (http://www.serbianunity.net/culture/music/Mokranjac/). Born in 1856, Mokranjac taught music, collected Serbian folk songs and did the first scholarly research on Serbian music. He was also the director of the first Serbian School of Music and one of the founders of the Union of Singing Societies. His most famous works are the Song Wreaths.
Just prior to Mokranjac's era, a musician named Josip Slezinger came to Serbia and founded the Prince's Band, composing music for the band based on folk songs. Around the same time came the first choiral societies, which mostly sung in German or Italian. Later, the first Serbian language works for choirs were written by Kornelije Stankovic (1831 - 1865). Other classical serbian composers were Stevan Hristić, Isidor Bajić, Stanislav Binički and others.
In the modern era, Serbia has been dominated by a succession of Yugoslav states until recently becoming independent as a part of Serbia and Montenegro. There was Yugoslav popular music which was well-known in Serbia, and abroad, and later, in the chaos of the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, turbo-folk became popular and associated with nationalist violence. Serbian rock also became popular in the 20th century.
Ethnic Serbian emigrants have brought their musical traditions to countries like Canada and the United States. The Cleveland, Ohio area of the US has a large Serbian population, and a Serbian rock scene. Other manifestations of emigrant Serbian music include the Kolo ensemble from Canada, the Rastko ensemble from New York City and the Grachanitsa ensemble from Boston, Massachusetts.