Towards the Audiovisual Ethnomusicology: The Contribution from the Research of Serbian Epics

This paper has three main goals: to promote audiovisual ethnomusicology as a way of opening up new possibilities for music research, to contribute to the audiovisual ethnography of the Balkan epics, and to induce the upgrading of the state scientific policies in Serbia. The starting point has been the author’s personal experience from her long term research of Serbian epic singing accompanied by the gusle that the audiovisual records strongly improve the understanding of the guslars’performances as a complex communication processes. This type of media has a unique potential to represent visual and even olfactory sensations, which are both very important in addition to aural components of this type of communication. Furthermore, the visual component is necessary to represent social and spatial aspects of the gusalars’ private and public practices. Finally, the video recordings have turned out to be important for the research on some specific topics, such as the guslars’ musical cognition. The analysis of personal experiences leads to a more general consideration of the practical, ethical, and theoretical issues of the audiovisual ethnomusicology.This book is based on the Fifth Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe which was held at South-West University "Neofit Rilski" on 2-8 May 2016 in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria. International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM). Study Group on Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe