Biography:
Esad Bajtal studied and graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy in Sarajevo.
In his professional career, he has worked as a lecturer and publicist, as well as in the editorial field of electronic media and print media.
He is the author of the following books:
- Za (i) protiv tolerancije;/ For (and) against tolerance
- Filozofski temelji psihologije; / Philosophical Foundations of Psychology
- Manje od ništa; / Less than nothing
- Al Tempo;
- Duplo golo; / Double nude
- Država na čekanju (dva izdanja); / State on hold (two conditions)
- Govor tame; / Speech of darkness
- Sevdalinka, alhemija duše; / Sevdalinka, alchemy of the soul
- Neofašizam u etno-fraku (dva izdanja); / Neo-fascism in Ethno-coat (two editions)
- Metanaracija, poetizacija i psihijatrizacija Daytona / Dayton’s Metanarration, Poetisation and Psychiatry
- Strah od kopanja; / Fear of burrowing
He’s never been a member of a political party before.
Sevdalinka alchemy of the soul
Sevdalinka as love, social, female, male…?
Bajtal: Yes, Sevdalinka is everything at the same time: Only that it is understood in the broad public, naturally superficially and simplified, only as a love song, and moreover as exclusively female. That’s really not true. The cautious approach to this melopoetic phenomenon shows that, as a noble philosophy of life, it covers the broadest thematic circle and a whole spectrum of social themes.
Just look at the content of the songs:
– Dva Morića, Kiša bi pala, Niz polje idu babo sejmeni, Donju Tuzlu opasala guja, Dvije su se vode zavadile, Nigdje zore ni bijela dana, Putuje Latif-aga, Šehidski rastanak, Bosno moja poharana, etc. and there you will understand those personal and family tragedies were sung about with them; war events and their consequences; historical themes and phases; known and unknown heroes and their memories….
On the other hand, the meaning of Sevdalinka encompasses and sings about, besides the feminine, the no less gentle and sensitive male love drama and suffering.
As in the songs, for example: Gledaj me draga, Ismihana, Ime tvoje neću draga; Iziđider Fato, Otkako sam sevdah svezo, Tamo dolje niz mahalu… And that is completely normal. As a song of life and people, Sevdalinka turns to all its sides: both love and tragedy, which, as the salt of life, equally adorn, torture and painfully oppress both the female and the male part of the human population. In short, Sevdalinka is the song of sensitivity attributed to the dark side of life. Mourning, disappointment, defeat, tragedy, and voluntary or forced entry into war or death, Sevdalinka is neither alien nor distant.
Sevdalinka is, of course, not yet forgotten and perhaps never will be. Precisely because of her universal sensitivity and her way of interpretation, both in poetic and in melodic subtle expression. There is too much life in her for her to be pushed out of our sensations and forgotten.
It is true that nowadays, in the moral-pragmatic stumbling and the emergence of profiteers of all kinds, the fine eroticism of Sevdalinka has slipped into the sexual; the sexual into the pornographic, and pornography into the powerful deep profit that dominates the life scene and dictates the taste of the general public with the power of the mass media. But, this is just an axiological storm. Floods, on the surface of which the garbage of all kinds of floats. Experience teaches us that this, like any other flood before it, will last and eventually pass away. Sevdalinka remains and will be. As on the other side, in spite of festival hits and megahits, Mozart, Beethoven, Chatschaturjan, Hendl, Tschaikowsky, Vivaldi, Strauss…are still and continue to exist… They are, in contrast to the ephemeral hits, as one would say in the vernacular, indestructible. The Sevdalinka as well. Since life and its depth speak from her and not the superficiality of the fashion compulsion of the current moment.