Notography

About the music and customs of this region:

The exploration of Sretačka župa, as the locals call it, and the study of music, singing, and customs from this region were facilitated by Krunislav Kostić from Priština, born in Drajčići in a long-established family, who returned to his birthplace after the 1999 war events, and Tomislav Tomić – Toma, a retired teacher.

In September 2007, we found them in a dispute with their Muslim neighbors, who had hoisted the Albanian flag on the village school and were planning to demolish the old school from the 14th century, an object of historical significance for Serbian education and culture. Although at that time Toma's now deceased wife was seriously ill, Toma found the time and patience to take us through the entire župa and take us to Ratka Ivanović, who at that time was returning goats from grazing and then showed us the attire of Sredačka župa.

Valuable testimonies were also given to us by Vekoslav Stevanović, secretary of the Teacher's Faculty in Priština, based in Leposavić, Goran and Mita Veljković, Milovan Zarković, and Nebojša Milosavljević, known as Kušner, originally from Lipljan. Thanks to these people and the great persistence of the team that worked on researching this part of Serbia, our research work bore fruit – a choreography that our society performed for the first time on the stages of Serbia.

Moreover, we had the opportunity to record a toast often spoken by the locals based on their narratives. This toast is a kind of rule of conduct for seasonal workers who worked in distant countries, in America, Australia, and elsewhere, but had to return home for the holidays of Sabor and Trojice. It resembles more a curse than a toast, but it communicates everything important for people to respect each other.

Zdravica

Koj’ dos’o, dobro dos’o,

Koj’ ne dos’o, nikad da ne dodje!

Koj’ pomeri medju, bog pamet da mu pomeri,

Da se u kuci deca rdjaju, da slavimo Uskrs,

Da nam zito rodi, ZDRAV’ SE!

The musical material collected in this area indicates some elements of melodic-rhythmic flows that can be singled out as a characteristic of this region. As the selected examples will show, the melodies are predominantly lively, playful, obviously intended for accompanying dance. Without excessive ornaments, the melody moves between gradual and leaping motion.

Rhythmic units and metric division are regular, based on even groupings of tones, either two or four, which actually adorn the basic melody. One of the rhythmic figures, which appears in almost all regions of Kosovo and Metohija, is the dotted note that accompanies the stylized step of the dance based on delay.

The range of the melody is often not enviable, but through the aforementioned elements, the music is enriched in such a way that it portrays the cheerful spirit and temperament of the local people.

Here we found a very interesting dance, for which the locals say it is played as 'kolo on kolo and one over kolo', with one dancer who maintains himself on top of the dance circle using hay forks.

Choreography Tekla mi je ladna voda Bistrica –

songs and dances from Sredačka Župa