This article emphasizes various research intentions and goals, paradigms, and themes that used to occupy researchers’ interest in the past as well as those at the center of attention today. The Institute of Ethnology and Folklore in Zagreb and its researchers have played an important role in collecting and recording the traditional cultural heritage of Istria, especially musical and dance traditions. The claim that previous research generally emphasized collected, archived material reflects the general attitude towards research on traditional heritage, maintained almost until the beginning of the twenty-first century. One of the basic models of musical heritage preservation was its presentation in the form of public performances (e.g., them...