The beginnings of Serbian music historiography: Serbian music periodicals between the world wars
Authors: Vasic Aleksandar 
Published: May 2012

The transition of the 19th into the 20th century in Serbian music history was
a period of music criticism, journalism and essay writing. At that time,
Serbian musicology had not yet been developed as an academic discipline.
After WWI there were many more academic writings on this subject; therefore,
the interwar period represents the beginning of Serbian music historiography.
This paper analyses Serbian interwar music magazines as source material for
the history of Serbian musicology. The following music magazines were
published in Belgrade at the time: Muzicki glasnik (Music Herald, 1922),
Muzika (Music, 1928-1929), Glasnik Muzickog drustva ?Stankovic? (Stankovic
Music Society Herald, 1928-1934, 1938-1941; from January 1931. known as
Muzicki glasnik /Music Herald/), Zvuk ( Sound, 1932-1936), Vesnik
Juznoslovesnkog pevackog saveza (The South Slav Singing Union Courier,
1935-1936, 1938), Slavenska muzika ( Slavonic Music, 1939-1941), and Revija
muzike (The Music Review, 1940). A great number of historical studies and
writings on Serbian music were published in the interwar periodicals. A
significant contribution was made above all to the study of Serbian
musicians? biographies and bibliographies of the 19th century. Vladimir R.
Djordjevic published several short biographies in Muzicki glasnik (1922) in an
article called Ogled biografskog recnika srpskih muzicara (An Introduction to
Serbian Musicians? Biographies). Writers on music obviously understood that
the starting point in the study of Serbian music history had to be the
composers? biographical data. Other magazines (such as Muzicki glasnik in
1928 and 1931, Zvuk, Vesnik Juznoslovenskog pevackog saveza, and Slavenska
muzika) published a number of essays on distinguished Serbian and Yugoslav
musicians of the 19th and 20th centuries, most of which deal with both
composers? biographical data and analysis of their compositions. Their
narrative style reflects the habits of 19th-century romanticism and
positivism: in some of these writings the language also has an aesthetic
function. Serbian interwar music magazines also published some archival
documents contributing to the future research of Serbian music history.
Interwar period in the then Yugoslavia was a time of rapid development and
modernization in various fields of culture. There was a great demand for
music writings of general interest. Therefore, Revija muzike (January - June
1940) was totally oriented towards the popularization of music and the arts
(such as drama and film). This magazine also published some popular articles
on music history. Serbian interwar music periodicals were least active in the
field of musicological analysis. However, in 1934, Branko M. Dragutinovic
published a detailed analytic study of Josip Slavenski?s composition
Religiofonija (Religiophonics) in Zvuk. There were also some
interdisciplinary history articles in Serbian interwar music magazines. Being
well aware of the fact that music history comprises not only music itself,
but also music writing, schools, institutions and music life, our music
writers used ?indirect? sources, such as literature and art, as well as
music. Serbian interwar music periodicals opened many fields of research,
thus blazing a trail in postwar Serbian musicology.