Traditional singing group "Crnućanka"
The traditional singing group “Crnućanka”, with its youngster, under-conductor baton of ethnomusicologist Ivana Todorović, is a worthy guardian of the motherland of Melody of Rudnik mountain. Since 2019, the young member of the famous group continues to sing the song of Princess Ljubica. For the Vraćevšnica monastery, the three-day event “Days of Princess Ljubica”, which takes place on the first weekend in June, is especially important.
The traditional group “CRNUĆANKA” is one of the oldest original bands in Serbia. The group was also promised by Princess Ljubica, the wife of Prince Miloš Obrenović, in the first capital of modern Serbia – Gornja Crnuća. Its song
from the princess’s spinning mill, it continued to be spun in Rudnik, Gornja Gruža and Kačer, but also all over the world since Crnućanka was rebuilt in 1966. A decade after the restoration in 1976, they performed in the USA.
The group is decorated with a range of awards and recognitions, among which are: European Golden Plaque for Art (Hamburg, 1976) Semi-final of the original music TV show “Šljivik” (2013) Gold Medal “Takovo Uprising” on the occasion of 200 Years of the Second Serbian Uprising, Municipality of Gornji Milanovac (2015) Etc. Milan Brajović, an award-winning director, ethnologist and senior curator of the Museum of the Mines – Takovo region, made a documentary about the original group “CRNUĆANKA”.
Today Crnućanka has her own youngster and continues to promote the traditional songs of the noble glades. At the beginning of 2019 in the desire to continue decades of work and contribution to the preservation of musical heritage, ethnomusicologist Ivana Todorović is renovating and rejuvenating the group.
The goal of Ivana’s ethnomusicological work is to preserve, transfer knowledge, encourage the preservation of national culture and presentation of elements of intangible cultural heritage, and raise awareness of the importance of intangible cultural heritage and research and document elements of intangible cultural heritage from the territory of the municipality of Gornji Milanovac (Gornji Kačer, Rudnik, Gornja Gruža , Vraćevšnica, Gornja Jasenica, Suvoborski and Takovo region), but also of the Republic of Serbia.
Currently, the group has ten older members, ten girls and three boys, who, under the baton of Ivana Todorović, work to preserve the authentic sound of the traditional song.
The fact that the younger members of the group have properly inherited the legacy of the Serbian princess is shown by the fact that in the first nine months of their work, they participated in four events of a competitive nature, from which they brought the first three places and one second and third place each, while the older members have one third and one first place.
In previous years, the girls represented the song of their region and their home municipality at the Assembly of Folk Art in Gornji Milanovac, the Assembly of Original Folk Art in Topola, at the “Assembly in Five Pictures” concert as part of the BEMUS festival, etc. They are especially proud of the promotion of their country at the “Days of Serbian Culture” in Split, as well as at events in Kistanje, Osijek, Derventa…
The members of the traditional group “Crnućanka”, in an expanded composition, share their mission with fans of original music, thus continuing the thread of the brave princess of “Rudnička Serbia” and justifying the meaning of their existence – the desire to preserve the “mustra” of their own musical language through the authentic performance and nurturing of traditional songs from Rudnička-Takovo landscape.
