Archival sound recordings of the Serbian church chant in the Institute of Musicology SASA: Sounds of live tradition as sources for research

Abstract

This paper presents the rich archival collection of sound recordings of the Serbian church music, kept at the Phonoarchive of the Institute of Musicology SASA. The study focuses on the sound recordings of the traditional Serbian church chant, from the end of the 1960s to the mid-1980s, made in churches and monasteries in Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Hungary, during musicological field research by dr Dimitrije Stefanović and dr Danica Petrović. These unique sources, which have been previously unknown to the wider public, are the authentic testimony of the heritage of the liturgical musical practice of the Serbian Orthodox Church, as well as of the research field of church chant in the period after the WWII. Particular examples of sound recordings from the archival collection are presented as illustrations of this practice and as the hint of many different perspectives for further research and perception of this period of the Serbian church music history.

Keywords

• traditional serbian church chant
• serbian monasteries
• oral tradition
• sound recordings
• field research