Sevdalinka

Women
in the Bosnian traditional song

The
sevdalinka used to be the most common kind of song in the city centres of
Bosnia-Herzegovina under the Ottoman Empire. It
was born at the meeting point of civilisations, so there are various cultural
and musical elements from the cultures which were predominant in that area.
Islam, eastern values and world-views, as well as musical influences are, of
course, predominant, but they are not the only ones dictating the content of
sevdalinka.
Sevdalinkas
are love songs in which a man and a woman sing about ungratified love, and
about other aspects of life place in the urban environment of that time. There
have always been numerous obstacles between men and women, especially because
of Islamic norms and way of life, and these songs seem to be an attempt to
overcome this.
A
musicologist, Tamara Karača-Panić, the folk music editor of BiH Radio., Dr.
Dženana Buturović, Head Curator of the National Museum in Sarajevo, eminent
interpreters of sevdalinkas, Beba Selimović, Emina Zečaj and Vesna Hadžić, an
accordion player and collector of sevdalinkas, Omer Pobrić, and a musician,
Čamil Metiljević, will try to define the position of women in these kinds of
songs and folk lyrics. The discussion will be chaired by journalist Ognjen
Tvrtković. There will be a presentation of three collections of sevdalinkas
which were published during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. 

Supported by: Open Society Institute Slovenia; Open Society Fund - Bosnia & Herzegovina; Slovenian National Commission for UNESCO