THE PRACTICE OF TAMBURITZA PLAYING IN VOJVODINA – THE CHRONOLOGY, ASPECTS AND FUTURE OF ITS DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

The tamburitza is the most popular instrument in the music tradition of Vojvodina. It can be assumed that it was brought to the territory of Vojvodina from the Dinaric region by Serbs, Šokci and Bunjevci when they came to settle there between the 17th and 19th centuries. In structural terms, the initial stage of development of the tamburitza is the solo instrument called samica. The first record of samica on the territory of Vojvodina dates from 1817. The need for collective or ensemble music-making influenced the development of tamburitza-type instruments, so that the 19th century saw the appearance of instruments of different sizes, ranges, registers and shapes, which took on separate orchestral parts. The first tamburitza ensembles on the territory of Vojvodina were formed in urban environments in the first half of the 19th century. In the second half of the 19th century the playing of tamburitza orchestras became popular throughout the Pannonian plain, both in urban and rural settings, and by the end of the 19th century it had spread to Croatia, Bosnia, Slovenia, Austria, the Czech Republic and, through emigration, to America and other continents. During the 20th century, the tamburitza-playing practice in the wider region of former Yugoslavia went through different stages of development: from the establishing of the form of a “standard” eight-member ensemble in Zagreb and Belgrade radio stations (in the interwar period) to the founding of orchestras in other radio stations of the then state (around the middle of the century) to the starting of the formal process of institutionalization in 1958 with the First Yugoslav Conference of Tamburitza Experts in Novi Sad, a process which has continued uninterruptedly to this day. Regardless of the widespread presence of the tamburitza-playing practice, major initiatives for its development still come from Vojvodina’s cultural institutions. The presence of the tamburitza in the musical practices of different ethnic groups in Vojvodina and its acceptance by different strata of Vojvodina’s society, in towns and villages alike, contributed to the creation of the specific symbolic meaning the instrument carries in this area. It is precisely through synergy between tradition and a system of institutions that the tamburitza-playing practice of Vojvodina is gradually emerging as a specific cultural brand.