SKU: PR.114423620

ISBN 9781491137321. UPC: 680160690053.

MAYKA (Serbian for “mother”) is a fascinating collection of 10 short recital pieces, each inspired by Serbian folk-music traditions, enriched through a broad variety of non-traditional techniques. Serbian-born flutist Jovana Damnjanović created these teaching etudes in conjunction with her doctoral thesis introducing Eastern European traditions to Western flutists. Along with its 10 fresh and dazzling concert works, this publication includes a thorough preface on performance techniques and instructions for each etude.
MAYKA attempts to represent the sounds of traditional Serbian music and also make them more familiar and accessible to flute players around the world. The overarching inspiration for the sound is one of the most popular instruments in Serbian traditional music: the frula. Inspirations from the tone colors of other instruments such as duduk, cevara, dvojnice, and kaval are also present. To read more about these instruments, refer to Chapter 1: Introduction (pg. 13-16) in the online dissertation.My intention was to create an original work exclusively for flute that holds characteristics of Serbian traditional music. An imitation of one of the Serbian traditional song forms can be found in “Čоček;” irregular time signatures can be found in “Igra,” “Čоček,” and “Vez.” The style is mostly present through trills, ornaments, and tonality, which are ubiquitous characteristics of Serbian traditional music.Each of the concert etudes has a narrative. The reason for narrative is to bring the style closer to the performer, and to help with understanding each etude’s expressive significance. Some etudes were inspired by people and events, some by specific dances, music, and literature from Serbia. As the etudes are of programmatic nature, they are a great choice for themed recitals. The idea was to write pieces short enough to be good program-fillers, not too hard to put together yet effective, and also suitable for short performances in venues that do not have a piano. To read more about each etude’s narrative, refer to Chapter 3: Performance Guide (pg. 24-75) in the dissertation.The book is titled MAYKA, Serbian for mother, to honor my mother, my mother’s mother, and my Motherland, Serbia. Motherland is represented through the style and tonal language of all of the concert etudes, and my mother and grandmother have been the biggest inspiration for the narrative of “Svila,” “Nana,” and “Uspavanka.”.