The Finnish Institute at Athens and the Department of Turkish and Modern Asian Studies, University of Athens are organizing the conference "The Ottoman Past in Balkan Present: Music and Mediation" in Athens from September 30 to October 2, 2010. Deadline for submissions: February 15, 2010.

Now follows the abstract (cf. Balkan Studies 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8) of Tatjana Marković (Graz/Belgrade): Balkan Studies and Music Historiography. (Self-)Representation between Nationalist Myths and Europeanisation

Balkan Studies in music historiography are mainly determined by conservative understanding that Balkan culture is still of predominantly peasant character. Consequently, presentation of the Balkan music/s is based much more on insight in traditional than in art music, esp. contemporary, or popular music and, as such, it is present in the framework of positivistic ethnomusicological writings, in the first place. Recent musicological contributions to Balkan Studies (meaning studies of Balkan, West Balkan, southeast European music) show a new, growing interest in the field, signified by two main policies: on the one hand, there are writings of the guardians of nationalist myths, who construct the concept of music history in accordance with their frozen (medieval) exclusive image of national identity and, on the other, writings of the pro-European orientated scholars, who stress the Balkans’ close connections to Western Europe. The intermingling and separation of these two approaches, their different ideological and methodological outcomes, as well as possible ways of future research, will be discussed.