South East Europe resides in the margins of music histories, a footnote at best. Most music lovers know little of the art music from this region. Although it is part of Europe’s cultural heritage, it has been all but written out of the European story. there are obvious reasons for this, to do with the political, social and cultural consequences of ottoman rule. the familiar scenery of European modernity appeared late in South East Europe. there was an element of catch-up involved, though putting it in that way (placing coeval cultures on different symbolic time lines) begs a few questions. chauvinism also played its part: the chauvinism of nation states in the region itself, and the chauvinism of ‘the West’, to use a term that will be scrutinised later. one task I have set myself is to address these questions head on. this means exploring centres and peripheries. It means setting little stories alongside grand narratives. And it means analysing the singular counterpoint of politics and culture that is everywhere manifest in this part of Europe.

If the art music of the Balkan peninsula is little known, its traditional music has long been a hunting ground for scholars from without, and especially from the north American college circle. this asymmetry is striking, and it exposes the other side of the modernity coin. Pre-modern rural music-making survived longer in the Balkans than in many other parts of Europe. Its distinctiveness, closely tied to place, has made it an easy prey for appropriation by local nationalisms, by state socialism and by exoticist agendas in the West. I will address these questions too in what follows. to do so I will need to cross conventional scholarly divides between musicology and ethnomusicology. Indeed, since I am really attempting a panorama of music, culture and politics in the region, I will cross several divides. there are commentaries on art music, church music, traditional music and popular music in this volume. I am best qualified to discuss the first of these, and the neglected art music of the region does indeed lie at the heart of my narrative. But in the interests of a rounded picture I have no compunction about having a go at the other three. Even where I rely heavily on existing scholarship, I aim nonetheless to advance a point of view.