ARSC Annual Meeting, Rochester, NY,

5/18/2012

Audio Recordings—
Sources for History
of South-Slavic
Nations
David Pokrajac,
Dover, DE

Milan Milovanović,
Belgrade, Serbia
What is a Historic Audio Recording
• How old is the recording?
• Who was recorded?
• Which event was recorded?
• Whether the material is rare?
 The Balkans—Barrel of Powder

* http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/europe/balkans.htm
 Historic Audio Recordings of South
Slavic Nations
• The earliest known • Radio recordings
recordings on commercial – Performed sporadic in 1930s
carriers – Pre-WWII archives of
– Field Marshal Svetozar commercial stations
Boroevic (Belgrade, Zagreb, etc)
– Dobrica Milutinovic destroyed or disappeared
(e.g.,”Cesaru cuj me”=Listen • Private Recordings
to me, O Tzar, 1908?)
– Petar Krstonosic (e.g.,
“Kosovska Osveta”=Kosovo
Revenge, 1912/13)
 Resources

• Libraries, museums and archives

– Library of Congress
– Museum of Performing Arts, Belgrade
– Etnography Museum, Belgrade
– Archivní a programové fondy, Českého rozhlasu
– Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv “Mali žurnal”, Beograd

• Broadcasting organizations
– Balkan public radio stations
(archival tapes, possibly lacquers)
– BBC
– …
• Private collections Record from Kings College
 Svetozar Borojevic von Bojna
• Austro-Hungarian
fieldmarshal of Serbian
origin
• 12/13/1856-5/23/1920
• A propaganda recording to
soldiers at the Italian front
line
• „An die Kameraden der
Isonzo-Armee“, Carl
Lindstrom AG , Wien-Berlin
Nr 13, 1916
Funeral of King Aleksander
Karageorgevic, 10/18/1934
 The First “Eurosong”?!
• New Year concert of European Radio Stations
(UIR), 1/3/1937!
• Announced in European radio magazines
• Transmitted from Germany
• Roll-call of European stations
• First recordings of Belgrade Radio Symphony
Orchestra
– National tanz aus Sud-Serbien fur Orchester
– Unknown composer
 Prince Paul of Yugoslavia on Radio
• “Yugoslavia salutes the New York World's Fair”
• Shortwave broadcast 3/5/1939 (Belgrade Radio/NBC Red Network)
• Speeches of:
– Prince Paul
– Prime minister Cvetkovic
– Minister Tomic
• Performance of Symphony
orchestra and “folk musicians”
– “Obilic”
– Divna Radic
– Vuka Seherovic?!
– Unknown singers
Politika, March 5, 1939
Yugoslav Soko in Prague, 1938
King Peter in USA, June 1942

Savo Kosanovic, Nikola Tesla and King Peter II, 1942

King Peter II Speech to US Senate, 6/25/1942
 Rafo Ivancevic in Las Vegas, 1950
• Special Events Department, KRAM station, Las
Vegas
• Recording (laquer) found on flee market in
Belgrade
• Evidence of diplomatic offensive of
Communist Yugoslavia in USA
 Special Thanks...
• Ms Steven Kozobarich, Cleveland, OH
• Ms Vesna Aleksandrović, National Library of Serbia
• Prof Pekka Gronow, University of Helsinki
• Dr Risto Pekka Pennanen, University of Helsinki
• Andreas Rühl, Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv
• Dragoslav Simic, Belgrade Public Radio
• NBC
• Library of Congress 
 Thanks-A-Lot!
David Pokrajac, dpokrajac@desu.edu
Milan P. Milovanović, milanpmilovanovic2@gmail.com