ABSTRACT
This chapter offers an alternative viewpoint to the canonised Bosnian-Herzegovinian 1 national music history, and reveals how multi-voiced the musical reality of Sarajevo was only six months before the First World War. The current, in my opinion distorted, image of the musical past is a result of Bosnian scholars’ neglect of certain musical idioms, which they have considered colonial and lowbrow or morally, aesthetically or otherwise improper. Furthermore, the postcolonial marginalisation of Central European non-Slavic musicians, and most musical genres which they performed, is a striking characteristic of the canon formation. However, Bosnian musical historiography of the Austro-Hungarian period can be rewritten from new viewpoints, taking into account issues such as gender and transnationalism, and scrutinising heretofore ignored sources, especially music licences at the Archive of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Arhiv Bosne i Hercegovine) in Sarajevo and commercial recordings.
