A Brief History of Serbian Music by William Dorich

After the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 and the destruction of Serbian nation, 412 years of Ottoman slavery ensued in the Balkans with the inevitable decline of the Serbian Orthodox faith and music. Serbs were forbidden to own property, to learn to read and write and were even denied the use of musical instruments. The Serbs however were tenacious and maintained an oral history through folk poems and songs.