When the maple tree sings

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14 Feb

The exhibition of the National Museum of Montenegro entitled “When the Maple Tree Sings”, featuring fiddles from the Collection of Musical Instruments, was opened today in the Ethnographic Museum in Cetinje. For the exhibition, 34 items from the collection of the Ethnographic Museum dating from the 19th to the first decades of the 20th century have been selected. The oldest and at the same time the most precious specimen is a fiddle made in 1801, which belonged to Petar II Petrović Njegoš as an inheritance from his parents.

– What the fiddle once represented – a means and way of conveying the voice – information, messages of individuals, communities and/or peoples, in the world of digital media and the Internet, analog practices and formats – Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Tik Tok and similar social networks. And just like today, information was “from mouth to mouth” over time, during transmission, expanded, supplemented, changed, or in today’s jargon – updated, shaded, spun, etc. – said, opening the exhibition, the director of the National Museum, art historian and art critic, Dr. Anastazija Miranović, and added that fiddles and fiddling are most characteristically grounded in Montenegrin ethnos and pathos. She reminded that even today almost every Montenegrin house owns a fiddle, more like a “trophy” or an obligatory “souvenir” of past times and traditions, and the fact that the skill/art of fiddling – playing and singing with the fiddle and making fiddles is a “living tradition”. which is not threatened with extinction, refer to the justification of their legal protection as intangible cultural assets of Montenegro of national importance.

According to her, the most valued narrative role of fiddling is deeply rooted in the Montenegrin epic and historical everyday life, making “favorite conversation” an axiom that is unquestioningly believed and legitimized by fiddling.

– Hence Prince Danilo’s statement: “Montenegros! For each of your works, think about what the violin will say.” On the trail of another written thought of Prince Danilo: “…The fiddle itself did not do as much as it should and as much as it could have…”, this exhibition took place. Precisely, in the desire not to be forgotten, to remain in the collective memory “what the Montenegrin fiddler knew, but the devil forgot”, so that what he remembers is not the phenomenon of “war folklore”, nor their “fatal substantial characteristic”, but rather to fine mechanisms of shaping and expressing a patriotic-patriotic narrative, through the preservation of cultural-communication memory we deconstruct established traditional values, articulating our own limitations, inabilities and non-acceptance of otherness and the different within the common cultural matrix. This is precisely why this melos should not be rejected, but on the contrary, appreciated. Perhaps he will have a completely different role – instead of us explaining him, he will shed light on our incomplete knowledge – concluded Dr. Miranović.

Ethnologist of the Ethnographic Museum, Tatjana Rajković, said that the exhibition was created in the desire to point out the importance of this unique instrument throughout the history and life of our people.

– Present in these areas for centuries, the fiddle, as an indispensable companion of the people’s life and a faithful witness of all important events related to the house, the tribe, the people, has become a symbol of duration and survival. It was sung at gatherings, during family celebrations, by the hearth during recess… With the sounds of the fiddle, stories about events, heroes, victories and defeats were passed down from generation to generation. They were born, lived and told stories, celebrated and mourned with them. That’s why it’s not surprising that in almost every Montenegrin house, there are fiddles hanging on the wall, waiting for someone to play them because, as Njegoš wrote: “If the fiddle is not heard in the house, the house and the people are dead.” And the fiddle was heard, and how! They conveyed the spirit of a defiant and fighting people, judged people and events, taught about good and condemned evil – pointed out Rajković and added that the spirit of our ancestors was preserved with the fiddle, but also all those spiritual values ​​and moral principles that grew in the essence of the Montenegrin being.

In addition to the items from the Ethnographic Museum’s holdings, the exhibition also includes fiddles donated by Jovan Berilažić for this occasion. Folk fiddler Rajko Radović also participated in the opening of the exhibition.

The opening of the exhibition was organized without the presence of the audience, due to current health measures to combat the corona virus pandemic, and was broadcast online via the National Museum’s social networks.

The authors of the exhibition are Dr. Anastazija Miranović and Tatjana Rajković, and it will be on display until March 31, 2021.