Савремена урбана народна музика на Балкану: о могућностима за регионалну историју музике

Starting with Maria Todorova’s landmark study Imagining the Balkans (Todorova 1997), numerous authors have raised their voices against stereotypical images of the Balkans. Over twenty years after the publication of this book, the term “the Balkans” seems to have lost some of its negative connotations related to wars in favour of characteristics with positive overtones, such as the Balkan peoples’ joie-de-vivre and entertainment strongly related to music. The areal ethnomusicology drawing from fieldwork throughout the Balkan peninsula has been a fruitful topic for numerous local and foreign ethnomusicologists and the very term “the Balkans” has raised a special interest in the ethnomusicological research of “outsiders”, as well as in the music industry. This paper is written from the perspective of an “insider” ethnomusicologist from the Balkans. I raise the question of the definition of the “Balkan” popular music label and discuss its main structural characteristics. I offer a new possibility of (re)considering a specific musical genre of the region based on the research of urban folk music practices. I present characteristics of urban folk music practices from the second half of the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century in the countries of the Balkans, with special attention paid to their common aspects. Also, contemporary urban folk music, which is often criticized as a specific popular music form, is considered.Књига Марије Тодорове Имагинарни Балкан (Todorova 1997) била је стожер бројних потоњих текстова који су се противили стереотипизацији Балкана. Више од двадесет година након њеног објављивања делује да је појам „Балкан“ изгубио део негативних конотација који се односио на ратове у корист оних с позитивних призвуком, као што су joie-de-vivre Балканца и забава која је снажно повезана с музиком. С друге стране, ареална етномузикологија која се ослања на теренска истраживањаширомБалканскогполуострваплоднојеистраживачкопољезабројне локалне и иностране етномузикологе. Затим, сам је термин „Балкан“ пробудио интересовање више етномузиколога „аутсајдера“, као и музичке индустрије. Овај рад написан је из визуре етномузиколога „инсајдера“ на Балкану. Постављено је најпре питање дефинисања музичке одреднице ”Балкан” и дискутоване су њене основне структуралне карактеристике. Коначно, понуђена је нова могућност разматрања специфичног регионалног музичког жанра заснованог на истраживању градских народних музичких пракси. Представљене су карактеристике градских народних музичких пракси од друге половине деветнаестог и прве половине двадесетог века у земљама на Балкану, с нагласком на њиховим сличностима. Такође, сагледана је и специфична форма популарне народне музике која је често критикована—савремена градска народна музика

The Balkans of the Balkans: The Meaning of Autobalkanism in Regional Popular Music

In this article, I discuss the use of the term “Balkan” in the regional popular music. In this context, Balkan popular music is contemporary popular folk music produced in the countries of the Balkans and intended for the Balkan markets (specifically, the people in the Western Balkans and diaspora communities). After the global success of “Balkan music” in the world music scene, this term influenced the cultures in the Balkans itself; however, interestingly, in the Balkans themselves “Balkan music” does not only refer to the musical characteristics of this genre—namely, it can also be applied music that derives from the genre of the “newly‐composed folk music”, which is well known in the Western Balkans. The most important legacy of “Balkan” world music is the discourse on Balkan stereotypes, hence this article will reveal new aspects of autobalkanism in music. This research starts from several questions: where is “the Balkans” which is mentioned in these songs actually situated; what is the meaning of the term “Balkan” used for the audience from the Balkans; and, what are musical characteristics of the genre called trepfolk? Special focus will be on the post‐ Yugoslav market in the twenty‐first century, with particular examples in Serbian language (as well as Bosnian and Croatian).Special Issue "Balkan Music: Past, Present, Future

The Relation of Music Archiving and Intangible Cultural Heritage in Serbia

Speaking from an ethnomusicological standpoint, this paper elaborates on the use of recorded sound and audio-visual material for the purpose of documenting particular musical elements in Serbia, according to the concept of UNESCO intangible cultural heritage. There is a difference between contemporary field recordings for archival purposes, according to the ICH concept, and the employment of already recorded historical legacy. Through the example of music elements from Serbian national register of ICH, this paper will raise the questions of ethnomusicological politics of field recording and digitization of archived historical recordings, as well as analyze the politics of heritage management. Based on ethnomusicological and archival experience, the aim of this paper is to offer a model of application of sound archive for the future, which can effectively contribute to the concept of intangible cultural heritage in Serbia

“Who said it?” How contextual information influences perceived profundity of meaningful quotes and pseudo-profound bullshit

Psychological research on pseudo-profound bullshit—randomly assembled buzz words plugged into a syntactic structure—has only recently begun. Most such research has focused on dispositional traits, such as thinking styles or political orientation. However, none has investigated contextual factors. In two studies, we introduce a new paradigm by investigating the contextual effect on pseudo-profound bullshit and meaningful quotes. In Study 1, all participants rated the profundity of statements in three contexts: (a) isolated, (b) as allegedly said by a famous author, or (c) within a vignette (short story). Study 2 serves as a conceptual replication in which participants rated statements in only one of three contexts. Overall, our results demonstrate that although contextual information such as author's name increases the perceived profundity of bullshit, it has an inconsistent effect on meaningful quotes. The present study helps to better understand the bullshit receptivity while offering a new line of research

Sustainable Railway Infrastructure and Specific Environmental Issues in the Republic of Serbia

Transport represents both need and threat to the modern human society. European transport policy aims at sustainable transport development based on the efficient use of natural resources, protection and improvement of environment, as well as the real and diverse needs of potential users. The paper points out that the development of railway infrastructure is a necessary but not sufficient condition for shaping the sustainable mobility. Railway infrastructure has to meet the requirements of the society, economy, protection and improvement of the environment. In general, electrification of railways leads to reduction of the carbon footprint. On the other hand, thermal power plants in Serbia are the main suppliers of electric power. The results of previous geotechnical laboratory testing showed that investigated fly ash could be suitable for utilisation in the railway infrastructure. This paper presents the results of laboratory tests to determine the presence of radionuclides and trace elements in fly ash samples

Directing group-free endo-selective epoxide-opening cascades

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Chemistry, 2010.Vita. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 108-112).[image] The proposed biogenesis of the ladder polyethers features a dramatic series of epoxide opening reactions, elegantly accounts for the structural and stereochemical features of all related natural products, and, in principle, could significantly simplify the synthesis of these extraordinarily complex molecules. In practice, however, such cascades are strongly disfavored, and non-natural directing groups must be covalently attached to each epoxide to overcome this inherent bias. We report herein a general method for directing group-free cascades that also supports the postulated biosynthesis. The two salient aspects of this strategy are a single design principle (a template) and a promoter that both donates and accepts hydrogen bonds. Water is the superior promoter, and it is most effective at approximately pH 7.by Ivan Vilotijević.Ph.D

Understanding plasma spraying process and characteristics of DC-arc plasma gun (PJ-100)

The thermal spray processes are a group of coating processes used to apply metallic or non-metallic coatings. In these processes energy sources are used to heat the coating material (in the form of powder, wire, or rod form) to a molten or semi-molten state and accelerated towards a prepared surface by either carrier gases or atomization jets. In plasma spraying process, the spraying material is generally in the form of powder and requires a carrier gas to feed the powder into the plasma jet, which is passing between the hot cathode and the cylindrical nozzle-shaped anode. The design of DC plasma gun (PJ - 100) is designed and manufactured in Serbia. Plasma spaying process, the powder injection with the heat, momentum and mass transfers between particles and plasma jet, and the latest developments related to the production of DC plasma gun are described in this article