Kia ora! こんにちは! Hello and welcome to Many Voices: A world music podcast. Some call music “the universal language” - but how many songs do you know in one of the world’s 6,000+ languages besides English? Every week, I ask a guest who speaks one of those languages to share six songs from their own culture, and their thoughts on the science behind the world’s musical diversity. I’m your host, Dr Patrick Savage, author of the 2026 book, Comparative musicology (https://academic.oup.com/book/62353). For rights reasons, we only share short excerpts, but visit http://many-voices.com for playlists with full recordings.---For today’s episode, I was excited to speak with Svanibor Pettan, Professor Emeritus of the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia and former President of the International Council for Traditions of Music and Dance. Svanibor shared songs from the former Yugoslavia where he lived most of his life, particularly from Croatia and Slovenia. But Svanibor joined us from his new home in Sri Lanka, and his career has included research, teaching, and more all over the world, as he describes in his fascinating new book, “Being an ethnomusicologist”. Svanibor was also kind enough to write a foreword for my own new book, “Comparative musicology”, where he talked about the complicated historical relationships between comparative musicology, ethnomusicology, and folk music research. I enjoyed listening and discussing a lot of music with Svanibor. Srdačan pozdrav, Prisrčno pozdravljen - welcome, Svanibor!---For more information on Svanibor, see his latest book, “Being an Ethnomusicologist”, available free (open access) at https://ebooks.uni-lj.si/ZalozbaUL/catalog/view/844/1239/12536. And as always, for playlists with full recordings of music from these and other Many Voices episodes, visit http://many-voices.com, where you can also find links to video or audio-only versions of all episodes wherever you get your podcasts. Tune in next week for our next episode with Anna Lomax Wood, co-founder of the Association for Cultural Equity to talk about the Global Jukebox and legacy of her father, Alan Lomax. And please like and subscribe to help us keep the whole world singing!Chapters:00:00 Introduction02:31 #1 (sing): "Amerika" (America) - sung by Svanibor Pettan [for field recording made in 1981 by Svanibor of Franjo Kirin and his family singing it, see https://repozitorij.dief.eu/a/?pr=v.m&id=178271]10:55 #2 (traditional): “Kresnice" (young village women who sing specific ritual songs on Midsummer eve) - Katice (youtu.be/yD_XuNmfJKQ) 13:48 #3 (contemporary): “Vrabec” (sparrow) - Hubert Pettan 18:40 #4 (happy): “Tararajčica" (onomatopeoia for instrument sound) - Matej Krstinic & Josip Maricic (youtu.be/A39-GDDNPBc)22:30 #5 (sad): “Vöra bije" (The clock beats) - Bogdana Herman (voice) & Mira Omerzel Terlep (Oprekelj) (youtu.be/abKND362XU0)25:02 #6 (dance): “Zibenšrit" (Seven steps) - Volk Folk (youtu.be/t37d6HT-nUE)28:26 (bonus): "Pjevaj mi, pjevaj, sokole" (Sing to me, oh falcon) - "flash mob" performance by Patrick, Dilyana Kurdova, and many other ICTMD members at the 2025 conference on the occasion of Svanibor finishing his term as ICTMD President (https://www.facebook.com/100000087668609/videos/pcb.9519353401410821/580961888062493)33:51 Broader thoughts on music, science, and ethnomusicologyCredits:Recorded on August 3rd 2026Guest: Prof Svanibor PettanHost/producer/editor: Dr Patrick SavageIntro/outro music: "Hearing music evolve" (The HU, Marin Naruse, Queen, Gakuto Chiba, Sona Jobarteh, Timbaland, Patrick Savage, Hideo Daikoku, Kenta Ueda, Yoichi Kitayama, et al., youtu.be/Qe1R-R1-Q7A) Many Voices logo design: Dr Florence Nweke
