The Crooked Bow: The Art of Gusle and the Oral Tradition among the Serbs

right number of syllables in a line, a guslar might put a character’s
name or other noun into a grammatical case not suited to the context
(such as making nominative vocative, thereby adding a syllable or two,
or making a vocative a nominative, thereby reducing it by a syllable
or two).30) For the same reason of syllable count, a guslar might choose
to employ the diminutive “-ica,” (dušica [little soul] instead of duša
[soul], for example) or repeat prepositions (“On the flat on the field of
Kosovo”). Names might be shortened (“Nika” from “Nikola”), and less
common and more poetic words might be used for everyday objects or
designations (“father” instead of “dad,” čedo [an archaic word for child]
instead of dete [the commonly-used word]). Extremely common is also
the use of epithets, some of which repeat all over the regions where gusle
are played and attach themselves to certain words or characters: bijele
ruke (white hands), stari Jug Bogdan (old Jug Bogdan), ravno Kosovo
(flat Kosovo), and so on.31) During the course of a song, the guslar might
play instrumental interludes where he can rest, and the piece would
also finish with an instrumental section similar to the one with which
he started the piece.32) The most important aspect to emphasize with
regards to the use of formulas is the fact that guslars themselves had
different concepts of “repeating a song word for word.” According to
interviews conducted by Parry and Lord, a guslar’s idea of repeating a
song “word for word” was not to repeat another’s song literally word
for word, but to retell the story exactly as he had understood it: “For if
the singer changes what he has heard in its essence, he falsifies truth.”33)
This contradicts slightly the idea presented by Golemović that a guslar
would change his story to appeal to his audience, but the two concepts
are not opposing if we consider what is the fundamental truth behind
the story: the fact is there was a battle – whether more Christians or
more Muslims perished is simply a detail; the guslar is not changing
the fundamental truth.
Now we turn specifically to the music, which is just as complex as
the text and thematic elements in a song. The music of epic songs can
be considered a form of chanting, and has less melodic variation and
elaboration than other Yugoslav folk songs.34) The gusle and voice per-
form in unison, and in terms of actual notes, the song may be limited
to very few; the songs themselves are in reality stories that are sung.35)
Despite regional differences, as with the structural features, all songs
have some music features in common: 1) All have an introductory mu-
sical line; 2) one or more lines of continuity; 3) one or more dramatic
lines; 4) a final line.36) The introductory line or idea may be repeated
over the first initial lines of text, and can be repeated in the interludes
where the guslar may choose to take a break, as well as at the end. The
lines of continuity are so called because they carry the main burden of
the continuity of the text, and are musically less elaborate and ornate;
they are a rhythmic recitative which sometimes shifts to a more
flexible, rubato rendition. The dramatic lines show more tonal variety
and employ higher tones than the lines of continuity, and are used
much more sparingly. Therefore, there is a descent in richness from
initial lines to dramatic lines to lines of continuity in terms of melodic
variety, ornamentation, and dramatic effect.37) For the entirety of the
piece, the gusle is playing, and accompanies the voice in a heterophonic
technique; that is, the two voices together render similar but not iden-
tical versions of the same melodic line, and the instrumental line is
more ornate during the preludes, interludes, and codas when it plays
solo. Simultaneous intervals, usually seconds, occur mostly in text-
final positions.38 ) The interplay between music and text is at the discre-
tion of the singer, who can choose to emphasize and accompany cer-
tain lines of text in certain ways. The guslar can choose where to intro-
duce a pause in a song, and thereby break up the text into smaller
sections, or he can decide which parts of the text are important, and
accompany them with dramatic musicallines.39) Overwhelmingly, there
is a kind of musical dialogue that goes on between parts, a sort of “ques-
tion” and “answer” relationship, or better described as “tension” and
“release,” where neighbouring segments will start on different tones; the
first on a high note, the second on a low one.40) This gradual release of
tension is often the outline of many individual sections as well, where
a section will follow the natural flow of speech in telling a story, where
it starts on a higher pitch and ends in a lower one.41) George Herzog
points out the importance and intriguing features of Parry’s collec-
tion of recordings of gusle performances, in that he has many record-
ings of the same piece, and often more than one recording of the same
piece by the same singer.42) Comparing the recordings, it is interesting
to observe where a guslar might choose to interpret a song differently
than another colleague, or how the same guslar might have decided
to modify a performance on a previous occasion. This idea leads to
a concept introduced by Golemović, quoting the folklorist Svetozar
Matić who claims that in epic song, there exists a fairly well-estab-
lished version of a song from which a singer cannot stray, and that
every song is made up of two elements: typic places, whose content is
mostly the description or speech of the hero, and transitional places,
whose content is made of typic places and which carry on the action.
According to him, the singer knows typic places by heart and rarely
if ever strays from that version no matter how many times he sings it,
whereas a singer does not learn transitional places by heart, but rather
remembers the main outline of the song, and every time he sings a
performance, he re-creates those places, shortening or lengthening
as needed.43) Examinations of Parry’s recordings support this theory,
as many parts of songs are extremely similar and some parts appear
the same word for word in different performances over many years.
Medenica calls these memorized parts “epic molds,” explaining that
once a convenient metaphor is found for a hero’s description, weapons,
battles, and so on, they become very important in the process of
remembering and transmitting a song and they reappear in many
different situations.44) Related to this, the music itself becomes a very
important factor in being able to reproduce a song at all, as many
guslars interviewed by Parry and Lord expressed that many could not
even recite or remember songs without playing gusle at the same time;
some had to be given gusle to hold in their hands in order to be able to
dictate a song.45) One guslar, Sulejman Makić, said that he could be able
to reproduce a song after hearing it only once, provided that he heard
it to the gusle.46) First-hand information such as this truly shows the
extent to which music and text are allied in the epic genre, and that the
simultaneous study of gusle and text is the core of a singer’s training,
as well as the maintaining of his art throughout his life.
Having seen the importance and role of gusle and epic song in
Balkan traditions, it is not surprising to learn that guslars themselves
were extremely respected and held a high social standing in various
Balkan communities, as did the art itself. However, although the
guslar all over the Balkans was well-respected, his role in society and
his practice varied on certain regions of Yugoslavia as well as his own
community, and these deciding factors were ethno-religious. Firstly,
Lord points out that although the art form has survived longest among
the peasant populations, it certainly cannot be considered “peasant”
poetry in the derogatory sense of the word. Rather, he says that it
remained in the peasant populations longest because it was the part of
society that remained illiterate longest and could therefore maintain
the pure form, and that it would seem that the genre actually originated
from serious ceremonial occasions, rituals, and celebrations.47) The
guslars themselves came from all walks of life. Vuk offers an interesting
description of the role of gusle from his own observations traveling
around Yugoslavia:
____________________
30) A specific example is the line “Vino pije Višnjiću Jovane,” (Jovan Višnjić is
drinking wine), which in correct Serbian would be “Vino pije Višnjić Jovan,”
which is in the nominative case. The singer here made the character’s name
in the vocative, thereby rendering the meaning to
“[Oh you] Višnjić Jovan is drinking wine,” which does not make
grammatical sense, but is extremely typical of guslar songs and which is
understood by the listeners – K.B.
31) Golemović 71-72
32) Golemović 163.
33) Lord 28.
34) George Herzog, “The Music of Yugoslav Heroic Folk Poetry,” Journal of the
International Folk Music Council 3 (1951): 62.
35) Golemović 139.
36) Herzog 62-63.
37) Herzog 63.
38 ) Herzog 63.
39) Herzog 63.
40) Golemović 141.
41) Golemović 157.
42) In total, Harvard University’s Milman Parry Collection of Southslavic
Texts consists of over 12,500 texts of folk epic, folk song, conversation, and
instrumental music, about two-fifths which are on the more than 3,500
12-inch aluminium phonograph records of the Collection, the remainder
having been taken down from dictation. [Albert B. Lord, “Yugoslav Epic
Folk Poetry,” Journal of the International Folk Music Council 3 (1951): 58.]
43) Golemović 158-159.
44) Golemović 159.
45) Lord 127.
46) Lord 99.
47) Lord 6.