Bulbul Pjeva – Bosnian Soul Echoes from the Old Gramophone

Vesna Aleksandrović

Review of the National Center for Digitization, Tome 17 (2010) no. 1.

Résumé

National Library of Serbia’s collection of old gramophone records includes some of Bosnian songs performed by Bosnian and Serbian performers. Precise determination of the date when these clips were made, in most cases is not possible, but there are some facts which indicate that the earliest were recorded in the first decade of the twentieth century. The youngest ones date from the mid-fifties of the last century. His Master's Voice, Odeon, Jumbola, Edison Bell Record, Homocord, Jugoton and Gramophone Concert Record, are some of the most famous publishing houses of the first half of the twentieth century which published pearls of Bosnian Sevdah. Launching the project Digitization of old gramophone records on 78 rpm five years ago, National Library of Serbia preserved and made accessible beautiful sounds of the old Bosnia. Some of them are already available on the website of the National Digital Library of Serbia, at http://digital.nb.rs/scc/muzikalije.php. We donate these recordings to Bosnian public and National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina.