Sounds of Holy Week Project
Inspired by the seminal work of Ljubo Stipišić Delmata, who in the mid-1980s made the first audio recordings and cassette releases of Za križen – the Lenten and Holy Week chant repertoire from the parishes of the processional circle (and beyond) – the Sounds of Holy Week project was launched. Its aim is to systematically research, document, and present the richness and diversity of these chants, rituals, and customs, which have been passed down orally for centuries in continuous local variants.
The project was initiated and is led by Assist. Prof. Dr. Maja Milošević Carić, with Assistant Dr. Mirko Jankov, at the Department of Music Pedagogy and Music Culture, Academy of Arts, University of Split (Head of Department: Prof. Dr. Ivana Tomić Ferić). It involves students from various departments of the Academy – Music Pedagogy and Culture, Music Theory, and Film and Video – whose contributions include field research, transcription of chants, and audiovisual documentation in collaboration with local communities and cultural institutions.
The first phase was carried out in Svirče in 2024, with financial support from the Student Union of the University of Split (fieldwork), the Tourist Board of the Municipality of Jelsa (audio recording), and the Hvar Heritage Museum (publishing). In its original ritual context, a wide corpus of chants was systematically documented, of which 17 selected pieces were transcribed into musical notation. At the same time, to ensure lasting archival value and technically consistent sound quality, 13 chants were professionally recorded in the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, performed by local traditional singers of different generations, with the technical assistance of Luki Ljubić (recording) and Sandro Petrić (recording and production).
The result is the first publication in the planned series — Sounds of Holy Week: Chants from Svirče on the Island of Hvar (2025) — featuring musical transcriptions based on the recordings, accessible via a QR code that links to the online playlist available [here].
The project will continue in the coming phases in the remaining parishes of the processional circle (Vrbanj, Vrboska, Jelsa, Pitve, Vrisnik), with the goal of covering all six by 2028. Five more musical editions, further expansion of the digital audio archive, and a cycle of documentary films titled Zovit are planned. Together, these efforts will form a lasting archive and a representative portrayal of the Passion music heritage of central Hvar, available to the local community, researchers, and the wider national and international public.
