The ideology of Yugoslav nationalism and primordial modernism in interwar music

In this paper I strive to illuminate the connections between the ideology of Yugoslav nationalism and the discourse on music and music production in the interwar Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In order to comprehend the traits that are germane to the aforementioned practices, I propose the notion of primordial modernism. Primordialism was a crucial standpoint for vindicating the existence of a united Yugoslav nation, which was to enclose the „tribes of different histories, religions and even languages. A concern to be modern was also pertinent, as a part of the endeavour to produce a semblance of Yugoslavia as a modern, progressive European state. The paradigm of primordial modernism compromises these distinct tendencies, presupposing that a musical work should be ostensibly modern, but, at the same time, that it should use folk material in a manner that reveals the existence of its deeper, psychological, primitive, prehistoric layers