Vladimir R. Djordjevic’s contribution to the transcription of vocal practices

Abstract

Serbian musicians who were collecting different forms of traditional music at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century were unable to make audio recordings of the collected material. This conditioned the need to transcribe folk melodies ?by ear? during the very process of interviewing their interlocutors or later ? from memory. Methodology of transformation of sound into an adequate graphic transcription was especially promoted by Vladimir Djordjevic who, in comparison to his predecessors, introduced numerous novelties. This article discusses his approach to the transcription of vocal practices as applied in two large collections: Serbian Folk Melodies (Southern Serbia) and Serbian Folk Melodies (Pre-war Serbia). The fundaments of his work are observed through the analysis of the manner in which Djordjevic transcribed meta-data, as well as from poetic and music texts.