„Падај сило. Тезе за пролегомену револуционарној пјесми“ Силвија Бомбарделија: идеолошка критика и музичкоисторијска маргинализација револуционарне песме
“Padaj silo. Theses for a Prolegomenon to the Revolutionary Song” by Silvije Bombardelli: Ideological Critique and the Music-Historical Marginalization of the Revolutionary Song

Summary/Abstract: This article examines Pa­daj si­lo, a theoretical and ideological essay written by composer and pedagogue Silvio Bombardelli and published as the introductory text to the collection of revolutionary songs edited by Ante Vesanović in 1986. While formally serving as a preface, Bombardelli’s essay significantly surpasses the expectations of the genre, articulating a radical critique of postwar Yugoslav musical culture. The essay reflects on the marginalization of the National Liberation War repertoire, questioning the institutional criteria of musical value, historiographical remembrance, and the epistemological boundaries of musicology. The paper offers a close reading of Bombardelli’s essay in its full rhetorical, stylistic, and structural particularity. It emphasizes the essay’s rejection of formalist and positivist musicological frameworks, foregrounding instead the political function of revolutionary song as a collective act rather than an aesthetic object. The argument follows the five central thematic nodes of Bombardelli’s text: the historical position of revolutionary song, the limitations of traditional musicology, the ideological function of cultural institutions, the epistemological implications for musical knowledge, and the contemporary relevance of mass song. The essay’s critical value lies in its refusal to treat revolutionary song as a relic of the past, instead recognizing it as a living form capable of mobilization and social articulation. Through this lens, the paper contributes to broader debates in Marxist aesthetics regarding the relationship between form, function, and political struggle. It positions Bombardelli’s essay as a rare and valuable resource for understanding the cultural contradictions of Yugoslav socialism and the role of music in processes of subjectivation, institutionalization, and resistance.

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