Paper short abstract:

The paper will focus on positions in which community musicians get in the field of ethnic identity and get out of it. Consequently, I am going to explore emotional levels of expressing ethnic identity through music and try to demonstrate the thesis about sacralisation of music heritage.

Paper long abstract:

In my presentation I am going to track the following hypothesis: despite the diversity of music expressions in 21th Century the music expression of ethnic communities in Slovenia still remains tightly connected to "ethnic" music. The state institution The Public Fund of Republic of Slovenia for Cultural Activities moderates cultural activities of ethnic communities, therefore I am going to discuss activities and communities participating in its frames. Within the Slovenian minority situation, I am going to focus on few case studies: on minorities from the former Yugoslavia (e.g. Serbians and Albanians) on one side and minorities of other countries on the other side (e.g. Russians and Swedes). My interest is to explore positions in which community musicians get in the field of ethnic identity and get out of it. I am going to research emotional levels of perceiving music tradition, ethnic identity, needs and reasons for expressing the ethnic music, such as political tendencies, rivalry between ethnic communities and personal motifs. The representation will conclude with the representation of the project call of The Public Fund institution; although, the project call enables communities to apply music very divers in genres, the musics that are finally applied are usually set in the "ethnic" frame (mostly in the traditional music-dance combination). This result strengthens the thesis about sacralisation of music heritage and about constructed tradition and ethnicity.