Whatever its contents, this book would be worthy of note simply because it has been published in English...Dimitrije Golemovic's study opens up a world that, while it will have fascinated many, will also have frustrated many who have no access to publications in Serbian and related languages. It is a greatly revised translation of the author’s study published in Serbian in 2000. But the book is much more than merely worthy of note:Golemovic´s many years of research enable him to deal with a hugely important topic—the meaning, context and realization of the refrain in Balkan song—in magisterial fashion....This extremely valuable contribution to the field of Balkan song is accompanied by a very useful compact disc containing no fewer than sixty-three excerpts, all of which are indicated in the text, and which, in conjunction with the extensive selection of music examples, make this book a seminal contribution to the field. The author’s writing style is fluid and engaging; the few examples of “translationese” merely serve to emphasize the remarkably high quality of the translation by Milos Zlatkalik of the Serbian first edition.
