Music of Balkans
Brass bands and čoček, Bulgarian women's choirs and asymmetrical dance metres, Bosnian sevdalinka, Albanian iso-polyphony, Serbian gusle epics.
Sung and searched in Serbian, Albanian, Croatian, Bosnian. The YouTube button above can run your search in that language.
A brief history
Historical musical influences
Byzantine music (Greek: Βυζαντινή Μουσική) is associated with the medieval sacred chant of Christian Churches following the Constantinopolitan rite. Its modal system is based on the ancient Greek models. The development of large scale hymnographic forms begins in the fifth century with the rise of the kontakion, a long and elaborate metrical sermon, which finds its acme in the work of Romanos the Melodist (sixth century). Heirmoi in syllabic style are gathered in the Irmologion, a bulky volume which first appeared in the middle of the tenth century and contains over a thousand model troparia arranged into an octoechos (the eight-mode musical system) and the whole system of Byzantine music which is closely related to the music of ancient Greece.
Popular music
Pre-modern Balkan music
Sevdalinka is a traditional genre of folk music originating in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Sevdalinka is an integral part of the Bosniak culture, but it is spread among the other peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina and across the ex-Yugoslav region as well, including Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia. The actual composers of many sevdalinka songs are unknown because these are traditional folk songs. In 2024, sevdalinka was included on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Traditional folk instruments in Bulgarian music include various kinds of bagpipes (gaida and kaba gaida); drums (tapan); tarambuka; bells; daire; clapper; zilmasha; praportsi. Woodwind diple: zurla; kaval; duduk; dvoyanka; ocarina; accordion. String instruments: gadulka; tambura; fiddle; mandolin; guitar and gusle.
Read the full article: Balkan music Text under CC BY-SA 4.0
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What Balkans is listening to in 2026
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Live radio
Radio from Balkans
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