After Belgrade also got a radio in the thirties of the last century, it was realized that folk music should have a part in the program. Composer, conductor and professor of the Academy of Music Mihailo Vukdragović and writer Siniša Paunović left memories of the beginnings of folk music broadcasting on the Radio Belgrade program in the book “Belgrade in Memories”. The management of the radio saw that the folk music that was performed in Belgrade restaurants could not be broadcast without first removing the tasteless tavern textual and musical inserts. Mandatory rehearsals under the guidance of trained experts were introduced, which the musicians reluctantly accepted, accustomed to playing music in their own way.
At that time, many highly educated intellectuals, actors and opera singers were also successfully engaged in folk music. The legendary singer Mijat Mijatović, lawyer and lawyer, became famous for his extraordinary performances, surpassing the success of professional singers. Mijatović’s fame spread abroad, especially in America. His most famous songs were arranged and published by the composer Stanislav Binički under the title “Mijatovka”. Also interesting was the musical creativity of our greatest mathematician Mihail Petrović, Mika Alas, who had the ensemble “Suz” made up of professors from the University of Belgrade. When he was old, he was asked to record his melodies in the Radio Belgrade studio, which at that time only he knew. After several months of work, when the recording was finished, the April war of 1941 began, and the German bombs that destroyed the radio building also destroyed Mika’s recorded musical treasures. Among the many intellectuals of folk musicians, violinist Vlastimir Pavlović Carevac, a lawyer, should be mentioned, who is responsible for the improvement of orchestral music, especially folk circles, some of which bear his name.
Wide popularity and respect was enjoyed by Vasil Hadžimanov (–1969), who in pre-war Yugoslavia was called Vasilije Hadžimanović. He is the progenitor of a musical dynasty that was continued by his son Zafir (1943–2021), grandson Vasil…. He had absolute hearing and an excellent memory, so in the pre-war era, when there were no tape recorders, he was able to memorize and write down folk songs. , games, laments from his native Macedonia. He had a beautiful voice, so he performed recorded songs on the radio and in concerts around the country, accompanying himself on the mandolin. He was not educated in the field of music, but graduated from a higher pedagogical school and then the Faculty of Pharmacy in Zagreb. He performed as a singer in Zagreb and Ljubljana, and in 1938 he won first place at Radio Belgrade as the best performer of folk songs. During the war, he was in the partisan army as a fighter, pharmacist, and musician. After the war, he devoted himself completely to music. He was the head of the folk music editorial office of Radio Skopje, but he did not stop his activities in Belgrade. As a respected ethnomusicologist, he was designated as a member of the International Association of Folklorists and Musicologists. Participating in the Symposium of Bina folk music in Oslo, London, Paris and Budapest, he presented our folklore to the world not only as a musicologist, but also as a singer and instrumentalist. His collected and recorded wealth of several thousand original folk songs is preserved in the Macedonian Academy of Science and Arts. Today, some of these melodies can be heard in a modern jazz arrangement performed by the grandfather’s namesake jazz musician Vasil Khadzhimanov and his ensemble.
In post-war Yugoslavia, the leading authority in the field of music, professor Mihailo Vukdragović devised a plan for the creation of a new musical genre – the so-called. folk songs in arrangement. They are vocal works, based on old folk melodies, and have the form of a concert, solo song with opera singers as performers. The goal was to gradually raise the musical taste of the masses and bring it closer to classical music. Vukdragović ordered leading composers to work on creating new music. He was most satisfied with the work of Stevan Hristić, who also used musical notes by Vasil Hadžimanov. However, the songs in the cover were met with dissatisfaction from the listeners. Dislike was manifested by letters of protest, ridicule and turning off the radio. That’s why this music was pulled from the radio and over time it disappeared from musical life.
In his memoirs, Vukdragović makes a bitter joke about himself. In 1945, he went to the General Staff of the JNA to talk with Peko Dapčević. The general welcomed him with a smile, saying that the officer on duty announced the visit with the words: “Comrade general, that Vukdragović who spoils folk songs has come.”
Folk music on the radio was gradually freed from state restraints and control, aligning itself with the (dis)taste of the broad masses of the people. Fortunately, during the past decades, artists have occasionally appeared who successfully created songs in the spirit of the original Serbian melos, with texts resembling beautiful examples of folk poetry. The task remains before the general public to prevail over this other musical stream in the future.
Dragan Stankovic,
White City
