Public lecture

Macedonian, a native language in Northern Greece was banned, and persecuted by the Greek state, yet kept it’s memory in songs “without words.” In order to be able to celebrate and play music in fairs, local musicians stopped singing, and instead focused on solely playing the music. Yet the prohibition of music is by no means something new; the survival of tunes and the dismissal of the lyrics in the border cultural productions of Northern Greece is a unique instance of culture surviving its censorship as their words and meanings remained hidden under the blast of melodic instruments as the trumpet, the trombone and the clarinet.

During this workshop we will focus on the topic “dominant and dominated cultures” taking as an example traditional Macedonian music and poetry to probe bigger questions of prohibition, border literature, translation, and resistance as well as poetry and music’s autonomy. We will explore music from its instances of celebration such as fairs, to its recordings, to its prohibition, and its persecutions. We will discuss Dine Doneff’s approach to archiving traditional Macedonian music and language teaching and workshop his narrative-jazz project, Rousilvo. Among the questions we will ask are:

• What are the limits of prohibition on a language?
• What does it mean to grow bilingual in a state that persecutes your mother language?
• What can law hear? Can law understand lyrics, or music, and how can playing music escape its grasp?
• How can one express themselves in the language of the oppressor, and what connotations of submission or subversion that entails?

Note: Knowing how to play music, or speaking Macedonian/Greek are not required for attending this workshop.

Practical information

Organisers: Yasco Horsman and Yiorgos-Evgenios Douliakas 
Registration:  g.e.douliakas2@uva.nl
Registration deadline: 5 December 2024

Dine Doneff will also give a keynote lecture, “Can the Subaltern Sing?” (11 December, 16:15 at Lipsius 1.47). More info: