The South Slav ‘Golden Age’ and Gender Representation in Music

• In Event: Song at the Intersections of Identity, Ideology, and Imagination

Abstract

The Kosovo Myth emerged not long after the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, waged on St Vitus Day between predominantly Serbian forces and an Ottoman Turkish army, but assumed its significance only in the nineteenth century when the medieval period became the ‘golden age’ for nationalist aspirations. Drawing from the body of epic poetry referred to as The Kosovo Cycle, late 19th-century South Slav composers’ choral works and local Singspiel relied on male heroes as their subjects. This paper explores the early twentieth-century shift to female figures in musical settings of the Kosovo myth, which emerged as a means of crossing ethnic boundaries and going beyond national discourse.

Author

• Verica Grmusa, Independent Scholar