Week 5: Bećarac

Song Title: Bećarac
Group: KUU "Gacka" Ličko Lešće
Type: Croatian Tamburica Orchestra, with singers
Orchestration: Tamburica Orchestra

My weekly blog posts over the past few weeks have been outlining some very large shifts in my own view of world music, as there have been large shifts in my own world. A brief reflection prior to the reflection - my wife and I decided around the end of June to sell our house, and move on to a different location. July 4th, our house listed, and within a week we sold said house. Since then, we have been frantically trying to find our new home, knowing that time was creeping up on us. I am glad to say, we did find a house this week, contract done, and now we prepare to move everything to a new home, about 15 minutes from our existing location. As I began to write today's blog post, I am also beginning to stare at all the audio equipment that must also move to a new home - speakers, laptops, instruments, and one specific instrument - a "tamburica," given to me almost 10 years ago by my grandparents.

This instrument was brought back as a gift by my dad's parents, as I am into stringed instruments, like my father. He also has the same instrument, we both opened them up the same day, and looked at each other with the same confused face. His parents beamed with joy, as if providing the most interesting and profound gift ever given on Christmas. We said, "thanks," and they said, "you can play these, right?" My father, after paying for my Music Education degree, immediately looked at me and through me under the bus. I said, "Not yet - but I will figure it out..." Which brings us to today's posting, and the impending fifth or sixth move of said instrument, without much playing.

Campbell writes in Teaching Music Globally, "It's ok to create and re-create world music." While I would have difficulty playing in an ensemble like the group above, from Ličko Lešće, a village in Croatia, I can at least model the playing style by carefully watching this representation for my grandparents. My grandparents have the advantage of watching a group like this play in person through their travels, but our fieldwork of videos, audio recordings, and photos provide insight into the meaning behind the playing, not just the mechanics. Campbell writes, "When music is treated respectfully, with ample time given to its study, it is often a source of pride for people from a culture to hear their traditions - or new expressions reminiscent of their traditions - performed by those who have given their time and energy to it." (Campbell, 193) My task is to now spend more time working some techniques to a tune, and perhaps using this Serbian originated instrument in music that would be reflective of the original culture and, perhaps, in a new context. Either way, I still have to move it. Best wishes on a new week.