Multinational, multicultural and multiconfessional Vojvodina is a homogeneous area in which there has been a mutual influence, permeation and fertilization of the musical and folkloric creativity of 26 national communities - Nica Fracile, professor and head of the Department of Musicology and Ethnomusicology of the Academy of Arts of the University, points out at the beginning of the story about the musical tradition of Vojvodina in Novi Sad. He says that Byzantine, Oriental and Austro-Hungarian culture left a deep mark on the traditional music of Vojvodina, as well as migrations and frequent migrations of the population, which resulted in the creation of similar forms of cultural life.
VOICES: From the structural aspect, the traditional songs of Serbs, Hungarians, Slovaks, Romanians and Ruthenians in Vojvodina indicate certain specificities, but also the commonality of poetic and musical content. "Typical features of the vocal tradition are reflected both in the poetic and musical content of folk songs and in the style of their performance: singing out loud, singing on the bass, unison singing or singing in octaves, as well as polyphonic traditional singing", explains Professor Fracile and clarifies that two-part singing out loud can still be heard nowadays by Montenegrins and Serbs who immigrated to Vojvodina after the First and Second World Wars - and mostly by older singers. "For the native Serbs and Croats in Vojvodina, as well as the Serbs who moved here from Kordun after the Second World War, two-part singing is characteristic on the bass. This style of two-part singing is manifested in the movement of the second voice in parallel thirds in almost the same rhythm as the leading, first voice. However, it is important to note that the song, i.e. each subsequent melostrophe, is always started by the first voice, while the second, which is followed by the second is good, joins a little later." Unison singing (in unison or in octaves) can be heard among Vojvodina's Hungarians, Slovaks, Bunjevics, Romanians, Roma, and more recently among Macedonians from around Pancevo. For the Rusyns of Vojvodina, traditional singing with two, and less often with three and four voices is more characteristic, so that the second voice usually moves in a series of parallel thirds and pronounces the text together with the first voice, so that they meet at the end.
RHYTHMS: The asymmetric axak rhythm, mentioned by the ancient Greeks as far back as the 4th century BC, is very common even today in the musical tradition of Romanians from Vojvodina, and is a link with the folklore of Romanians from Romania. In multi-ethnic Vojvodina, it is characteristic only for the musical tradition of Romanians, and that, almost always, in dactyloid form. In Hungarian, Slovak, Romanian and some Serbian traditional melodies, the pentatonic system is easily recognized as an ancient, universal morphological element. "With its relevant features, it combines not only continental but also intercontinental cultures," points out Professor Fracile.
INSTRUMENTS: Even today in Vojvodina you can hear the singing of Montenegrin and Serbian epic songs accompanied by fiddles, then Serbian wedding songs accompanied by bagpipes, Serbian everyday songs and dance songs accompanied by the tambourine, as well as the unison or unanimous singing (in octaves) of Hungarian lyrical songs accompanied by zithers and two-part/three-part singing of Ukrainian lyrical songs accompanied by bandura. "The most typical traditional musical instruments are pipes and bagpipes. Dances, weddings, baptisms and other customs and forms of entertainment could not be imagined without them," says Professor Fracile and lists that some instruments are popular among many peoples: the tambourine among Serbs, Croats, Bunjevics, Šokacs, Hungarians, Ruthenians, Roma; dulcimer in Hungarian, Romanian and Slovak folklore; taragot among Romanians and Hungarians... "Only some of them became over time symbols of recognition of the musical tradition of a nation or a folklore region. Thus, we associate the sound of the zither with the folklore of the Hungarians of Vojvodina, the kavala with the Macedonian, the bandura with the Ukrainian, the diatonic accordion with the folklore of the Slovaks from Aradac, the two-stringed tambourine with the music of the Kordunas, and the three-stringed tambourine with the folklore heritage of the Krajišniks, i.e. the people of Banija.
VOJVODJA SYNCRETISM: Permeation of cultures means mutual enrichment of Vojvodina's musical tradition. Within that topic, it is very important to adapt the adopted foreign elements to one's own tradition. In the beginning, people usually feel the presence of a foreign element, a foreign melody, rhythmic patterns. However, over time, gifted singers shape, adapt and often refine the borrowed melodies in the style of their own tradition. "Transmitted orally from generation to generation, any trace of the origin of the melodic type is later lost, and over time they become an integral part of two or more cultures," says Professor Fracile. "Although the most common changes are related to the poetic text, metrical and rhythmic changes are not negligible either. Namely, when taking over Serbian melodic types, the Romanians in Vojvodina leave the stamp of their characteristic rhythm and unconsciously turn the two-quarter beat into an ax beat. Performers faithful to tradition are not aware of the asymmetric aksak rhythm with which they were born and with which they live. Aksak rhythm is simply in their blood and they pass it down from generation to generation to this day. There are examples of Serbs taking over Romanian melodic types in the Aksak rhythm and inventing, adding the appropriate Serbian text. In such cases, Serbian singers, also unconsciously, turn the asymmetric axak rhythm into a symmetrical two-quarter beat. In both cases, the changes in the melodic line are, for the most part, insignificant."
ORIGIN OF THE MELODY: A well-known example of a multinational melody is a song Student girl that is, When I was here last night, to the text of Branko Radičević, today a well-known and favorite town song in many parts of the former Yugoslavia. Searching for more than twenty years for the origin of the melodic type of this song, Nice Fracile discovered that it is present in various published versions not only in Serbian folklore, but also in the musical and folkloric heritage of other nations - Romanians, Croats (Oh, the long autumn nights), Hungarians, Slovaks, Italians, Germans, Dutch... "Considering that all nations added eight-note verses, except for the German variants, it can be concluded that it is a German melody that all other nations adapted and added eight-note verses to. The Hungarian version of this song has an iambic pulsation, the Serbian version sounds like an old town song due to Branko Radičević's lyrics, and the Romanian version is the closest to the folk tradition. "Then, let's say, the melodic type of a Hungarian song." Red rose of three it is performed in Vojvodina in Slovak, Hungarian, Ruthenian and Ukrainian. To the tune of the song When the moon is about to sleep a famous Romani song is being sung Jelem, I don't wantSongs to the tune Go home and get dressed. they are sung in Serbian and Romanian. "The origin of the melody is not important to the people, it is important to them that it suits them." That's why the song When I was here last night it has been singing for 200 years, and it will continue to be sung," says Nice Fracile, who is currently finishing a book with the working title for Matica Srpska Folkloric pearls that erase borders.
TRAIL OF LOST SONGS: With the migrations after the last war, new songs came to Vojvodina. "It is a short time for these new songs to influence the existing traditional music, it is enough that they enrich it. It is possible to hear them at festivals and similar presentations of Vojvodina's heritage," says Fracile, noting that at festivals it is insisted that singers sing in the old style, even though many consider it outdated. But in the last ten years, the insistence on original performance has had an effect: young people are embracing traditional music and singing it in the old ways. So, for example, ethnomusicology students in Professor Fracile's class recorded a DVD The charms of traditional music. On it, the folklore heritage of Vojvodina is represented by the vocal, vocal-instrumental and instrumental traditions of native Serbs, Vojvodina Hungarians, Slovaks, Romanians, Bunjevics and Danube Swabians. On the cover of their DVD it is written: "He who returns a lost song to the people, will return their soul."
