The Art of Ganga Singing: Cultural Tradition of the Dinaric Area

Abstract

Ganga, currently the most popular traditional vocal genre of the Dinaric area (stretching across Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina), is one of the last examples of the archaic style of music making, entirely different from traditional styles and genres based on the heritage of Western European music, such as “klapa” singing. This style of traditional music making serves as an important identification marker of Dinaric communities in Southeastern Europe, both past and present. The author of the proposed book, the Sarajevan ethnomusicologist Ankica Petrović, remains the greatest proponent of the ganga music phenomenon in scholarly circles outside former Yugoslavia. Ganga, currently the most popular traditional vocal genre of the Dinaric area (stretching across Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina), is one of the last examples of the archaic style of music making, entirely different from traditional styles and genres based on the heritage of Western European music, such as “klapa” singing. This style of traditional music making serves as an important identification marker of Dinaric communities in Southeastern Europe, both past and present. The author of the proposed book, the Sarajevan ethnomusicologist Ankica Petrović, remains the greatest proponent of the ganga music phenomenon in scholarly circles outside former Yugoslavia.