Stefanija Leshkova- Zelenkovska

Global vs. Local Music Culture

- public music events in Skopje in 2004 –

In 2004, IRAM carried out a large-scale research including complete recordings of the public music performances taking place in the central regions of Skopje. The aim of this research was to portray the existing situation of Macedonian music culture through the influence of cultural, social and economic determinants as main factors in the formation of music life.

This paper presents some aspects that emerged from the results of the research. We will emphasize the cultural factors, which will be mainly analyzed through the movements in global music culture. Thus, we shall also focus on the issue of global vs. local music culture, as in Macedonian music culture the merging of global and local is a familiar phenomenon.

Our starting point was the fact that at present in Macedonia there are quite a number of imported music products and services. On the other hand, the social, economic, and particularly the cultural characteristics reflected in the geographical location of Macedonia (as a cultural crossroad), as well as the multi-ethnic community – all influence the appearance of the specific features.

At the turn of the 20^th and 21^st century, global music culture is characterized by the dominance of the electronic media, as well as electronic communication, digitization, segmentation of music genres and music audiences.

This research proved that Macedonian music culture is equally influenced by these changes. In general, electronic media dominate the focus of interest of Macedonian consumers. Satellite and cable radio and television are widely spread products among consumers, especially among the younger population who keeps us with technical innovations, accepting and employing them.

The first professional standardized digitization in Macedonia was carried out by the Institute for Research and Archiving of Music – IRAM at the Faculty of Music in Skopje.

The tendency to bring Macedonian music closer to contemporary world trends resulted in the transformation of separate music genres into completely different styles (such as for instance pop music which began with evergreen melodies, French chansons, through disco-pop to R&B; rock music from jazz-rock, ethno to techno-rock). In this segmentation of genres and their recognition, music festivals played an important role in our society: “Makfest”, “Skopje Fest” the Skopje and Kumanovo Jazz Festivals, “Blues and Soul Festival”, “Rock Fest, “Dance Republic”. As far as classical music is concerned, “Days of Macedonian Music” presented some of the newest achievements in the field of contemporary music.

Overall, the acceptance of new styles and the expansion of the existing ones poses the issue of whether Macedonian culture sustains local characteristics that separate it from neighboring cultures and more generally cultures around the globe.

Local features can always be found in folklore, although folklore does not set boundaries among local cultures, rather disseminates and spreads from one culture to another. Macedonian music culture, particularly in its rural form, has unique characteristics which separates it from the other neighboring cultures.

Concert of Folk Ensemble “Tanec”

The following features illustrate this:

- untempered scales

- metro-rhythmic structures (such as the accent in the “sevenths”, the complex rhythms of binary and trinary combinations which sometimes evolve into a fascinating fifty units);

- styles in vocal practice;

- the use of instruments and dances.

Nevertheless, music folklore in its collective creative phase is a process that has ended long ago, and thus continues in a form of transformation into new and hybrid genres during the past several decades.

In addition, music folklore is used as basic material to be further developed in other music genres, a trend not unfamiliar to global music culture. It is in fact, very prominent in contemporary Macedonian music (such as in the opus of Tome Manchev, Stojan Stojkov, Goce Kolarovski and Zhivoin Glishic), in jazz (such as the compositions of Kire Kostov and Ilija Pejovski), as well as pop-rock music (such as the group Leb i Sol, Vlatko Stefanovski and Miroslav Tadic, the soundtracks by Kiril Dzhajkovski, the music of Zhaklina Stefkovska and the band Makedonium, String Forces with the Pece Atanasovski orchestra).

Thus, in the attempt to describe what is typical for Macedonian music, we can only focus on two genres – the preservation of traditional music folklore and its contemporary manifestation in other genres.

Although it is somewhat risky to generalize the characteristics of music in today’s global music culture the diversity of which we are aware, our analysis of the problem brought about certain conclusions as to the use of:

- tempered halfstep major and minor scales;

- binary meters and rhythms

- homophony

- harmonic progressions based on the major and minor scales and the superposition of thirds

- the song as a form (one-part, two-part, or composed of several parts with repetitions);

- digital music instruments

- remakes

- recitative qualities

- multimediality

- elimination of the borders in genres and styles

- multi-genres and multi-styles

The characteristics of Macedonian music culture in 2004 seen through public performances in the central region of Skopje completely reflect the dominant features of global music culture.

Thus, most of the public performances note the use of tempered halfstep major and minor scales. It is safe to say that the tradition of specific non-tempered scales has been completely lost, whereas during the use of traditional instruments all the exceptions from the music halfstep are reworked into major and minor tempered scales (such as for instance the performances of the Ensemble for Traditional Dances and Songs of Macedonia – “Tanec”, the Culture and Art Societies “Kocho Racin”, “Biljana”, “Skopje”, the female vocal group “Ezerki” from Zagreb, the International Children’s Traditional Music Festival “Goce Fest”).

One of the rare cases where the old tradition has been partially preserved is in the makams (Islam 2005:242), as witnessed in the performance of the Culture and Art Society “Jeni Jol” in June, 2004.

Even binary meters and rhythms dominate the Macedonian music scene. The only use of trinary rhythms is seen in ethno-pop music, where the intention of “preserving” old urban music traditions has developed into examples of simple trinary rhythm (such as Miodrag Bozhinovski’s song Serenada performed by Goce Nikolovski).

Homophony is reflected in harmonic progressions based on minor and major scales and the superposition of thirds. With the exception of jazz music (where there are fourths progressions such as in Od and Traektorija by Ilija Pejovski, performed by the Faculty of Music Big Band and the Macedonian Philharmonic), almost all of the most popular music events in Skopje during the year of 2004 completely follow this pattern (such as for instance the Selection of Songs for the Eurovision Contest performed by Toshe Proeski).

The audience at the concert of Toshe Proeski

In a formal sense, the creation of complex forms such as the sonata form, variation, the complex song is almost completely omitted, with the exception of some of the contemporary compositions such as Tashula by Stojan Stojkov and Nonet Concerto by Dimitije Buzarovski.

Digital music instruments have fully separated popular genres and they are equally employed in live performances (where it is not always clear whether the music is a playback, such as the event “12 Velichestveni” and the concert of the “Stars of the M2 Production”), and in the matrixes of public performances (such as the festivals “Goce Fest”, “Fontana di Malme” the home Eurovision Contest).

The global trend of remakes has also permeated into Macedonian music through the examples of the pop songs by Dimitar Masevski, Slave Dimitrov, and sometimes foreign songs. A specifically interesting example is that of the anthological song Chija si (Whose Are You) by Slave Dimitrov which was made into a musical in 2004 in the Universal Hall, starring the pop star Kaliopi.

The performances of rap and hip-hop groups such as “Puka Kozmetika”, “Dileri na rimi”, “Vrchak” are analogous to the use of the recitative.

Public performances taking place during the year 2004 in Skopje are also notable for their multimedia approach encompassing a complex performance composed of music, dance, light and video. It is precisely the performances with a matrix that increase the need for adding additional audio-visual effects to the event (such as for instance the home Eurovision contest, “12 Velichestveni”, the Folk Fest “Rosa” and Vlado Janevski’s concerts). Multimediality is determined by the influence of electronic media through music videos. The latter impose an increased dynamicity of image, thus serving as competition to the live events.

The elimination of borders between genres and styles, as well as multi-genres and multi-styles in public performances of popular genres (pop, rock, jazz and ethno-pop) is a phenomenon that also occurs in Macedonia. A typical example is turbo-folk which includes pop-rock elements in regard to harmony, rhythm, digital music instruments and choreography. Another example, this time in contemporary classical music, is the previously mentioned piece Nonet Concerto by Dimitrije Buzarovski, which is based on music materials from other genres and foreign performers (Christina Aguilera, Pink, Skin, David Byrne).

Although almost two years have passed since our research, the state and processes observed and recorded in public music performances in Skopje and Macedonian music culture overall, have applied even more strongly for music life in Macedonia in 2006. Globalization and westernization have intensified in all music genres. The home Eurovision contest of 2006 is again a good example, where all the performed songs were adapted to the current standards of European and global trends. Other relevant examples are the DJ performances and the turbo-folk music present in the Skopje clubs.

In spite of the fantastic dynamics of global music culture due mostly to the influence of technology, it seems that at this moment the zenith of audio production has been reached. Nevertheless, humanity and civilization has proved that creation knows no limits, constantly surprising with new developments in music culture that take music through the phases of its development.