Issue No. 43
Musicologist Speaks
Ivana Perković – THERE ARE FEW THINGS THAT I STARTED AND LEFT UNFINISHED. AN INTERVIEW WITH ROKSANDA PEJOVIĆ
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Core Issue – Stevan St. Mokranjac and Music 'Around' First World War
Ivan Moody – MOKRANJAC, CULTURE, AND ICONS
Abstract: The 100th anniversary of Mokranjac’s death provides an opportunity to consider his work from the perspective of a “cultural icon”, insofar as his music and the composer himself have gained such an iconic status in the context of Serbian music. His output in ethnography and composition alike has not only itself become an “icon”, but also paved the way for younger composers.
Keywords: Mokranjac, icon, Serbian chant, Octoechos, Marić.
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Romana Ribić – AUDIO RECORDINGS OF HYMNS FROM THE OCTOECHOS AS WRITTEN DOWN BY STEVAN STOJANOVIĆ MOKRANJAC
Abstract: This paper presents three different audio recordings of hymns from the Octoechos as written down by Stevan Stojanović Mokranjac (1856–1914). The recordings were made in a studio. Two of the recordings feature selections of hymns by the performers, while the third recording contains an integral version of the collection.
Keywords: Stevan Stojanović Mokranjac, Octoechos, church chant, hymns, audio recordings, interpretation.
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Dr Euđen Činč – MELODIC LINKS BETWEEN SERBIAN AND ROMANIAN ORTHODOX CHANT: EXAMPLES FROM WORKS BY STEVAN ST. MOKRANJAC AND DIMITRIE CUSMA
Abstract: Even though over the last century a number of researchers in the field of musicology have addressed the similarities between Serbian and Romanian (Banat) church music, i.e. chant, the topic has never been thoroughly investigated. On the one hand, this is probably due to the unavailability of sources and, on the other hand, perhaps also due to the language barrier. This paper is a modest contribution to more detailed research in the field, supported by concrete examples of similarities and shared elements in Serbian and Romanian church music in the former Metropolitanate of Karlovci, which are far less pronounced in other regions (in the practice of the Romanian Orthodox Church).
Keywords: melodic flow, melodic and cadential formulae and configurations, modality.
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Biljana Milanović – THE DISCOURSE OF TRAVELOGUES ABOUT STEVAN MOKRANJAC AND THE BELGRADE CHORAL SOCIETY IN THE NATIONAL- POLITICAL CONTEXT BEFORE THE FIRST WORLD WAR
Keywords: The paper deals with the travelogues Iz Beograda u Solun i Skoplje by Spira Kalik (1894), Sa Avale na Bosfor by Dragomir Brzak (1897), and Na Adriju by Milivoje Komarčić́ (1911), which describe the concert tours of Stevan Mokranjac and the Belgrade Choral Society to Thessaloniki and Skopje (1893), Sofia, Istanbul, and Plovdiv (1895), and Sarajevo, Mostar, Cetinje, Split, Šibenik, and Zadar (1910). The goal is to examine the discourse of these travelogues and to interpret it as a source on Mokranjac and his ensemble’s missions abroad in the national-political context of the 1890s and the years preceding the First World War.
Keywords: Stevan Mokranjac, Beogradsko pevačko društvo / Belgrade Choral Society, Spira Kalik, Dragomir Brzak, Milivoje Komarčić.
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Milica Gajić – CZECH MUSIC AND MUSICIANS AS MOKRANJAC’S COMPANIONS ON HIS PATH TOWARDS THE PROFESSIONALIZATION OF SERBIAN MUSIC
Abstract: The great anniversary – 100 years since the death of Stevan Stojanović Mokranjac – is an opportunity to survey his overall activity from a different angle, which has so far been sidelined in our historiography: his contacts and cooperation, but also discords with some of the many Czech musicians who played various roles in Serbian music during the 1800s and early 1900s. For the sake of clarity, they are presented here in the context of those institutions where Mokranjac was personally most involved and made important achievements along various developmental lines of our music history: in the domains of interpretation, teaching, and compositional creativity. Also, the paper mentions only those who helped Mokranjac as his driving force, loyal, or like-minded associates in the realiza- tion of his diverse musical and creative intentions.
Keywords: Stevan Mokranjac, Czech musicians in Serbia, Belgrade Choral Society, Serbian Music School, Belgrade String Quartet, First Belgrade Gymnasium.
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Jelena Arnautović – VARIOUS ‘FACES’ OF STEVAN MOKRANJAC AT THE MOKRANJČEVI DANI FESTIVAL IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Abstract: The discourses on Stevan Stojanović Mokranjac, as one of the most significant composers in the history of Serbian music, reflect not only our attitude towards the composer, but also toward ourselves and the community to which we belong. The objects of analysis in this item are the discourses on Mokranjac in the 21st century, particularly at the festival Mokranjčevi dani in Negotin. A deconstruction of the narratives which are an integral part of the festival, primarily keynote addresses, as well as articles about the festival in printed media and on websites, shows that Mokranjac is interpreted as an important symbol of Serbian identity. Since Mokranjac is mythologized as an original artist, a genius who sang ‘from the very soul of the Serbian people’, the glorification of Mokranjac, traditional folklore, and Eastern Orthodoxy grows into a large-scale glorification of the entire Serbian nation. In some other narratives, Mokranjac is understood as a cosmopolitan, a manager, and a potential brand that may help us make a better showing on the international stage and be used for building an identity based on ‘European civic values’. These various ‘faces’ of Stevan Mokranjac reflect different ways in which music tradition, as a powerful means of identification, can be utilized, invented, selectively remembered, or in fact forgotten.
Keywords: Stevan Mokranjac, Mokranjčevi dani, narratives, Serbian identity, tradition, symbol, mythologisation.
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Sanela Nikolić – THE OPERA QUESTION IN BELGRADE AS ‘STAGED’ BY MILAN GROL
Abstract: Writer, politician, and dramaturge Milan Grol can be credited with the most important contribution of an individual to the modernization of the National Theatre in Belgrade. A reformer, legislator, organizer of international theatre cooperation, and man- ager of the National Theatre, he also played a key role in defining ‘the opera question’ in Belgrade during the first two decades of the 20th century. Commendable as his activities were in terms of the institutional organization and advancement of South Slavic theatres, it must also be noted that owing to his unfavourable attitude towards the performance of opera at the National Theatre, the development of its opera ensemble and establishment of an artistically worthy opera repertoire at this theatre came to a halt in the first decade of the 20th century. Grol’s views about opera at the National Theatre reflect a striking ambivalence in his dual professional personality of a politician and writer. As a member of the Independent Radical Party, he supported a pro-European orientation and cultural elitism, which were meant to serve democratic and educational goals. However, when it came to the question of opera at the National Theatre, he abandoned his guiding principles devoted to modern European standards. Grol thus reinterpreted his firm political basis in the field of partisan clashes and appropriated the power to regulate the repertoire of the National Theatre; yet, for all that, he never gave up his primary vocation of a writer and dramaturge, who saw the presentation of the highest aesthetic achievements of national and European literature as the sole purpose of the institution he managed.
Keywords: Milan Grol, National Theatre in Belgrade, modernization, opera question, operetta, Srpski književni glasnik, National Theatre Act.
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Maja Vasiljević – A ‘QUIET AFRICAN EPISODE’ FOR THE SERBIAN ARMY IN THE GREAT WAR: THE BAND OF THE CAVALRY DIVISION AND DRAGUTIN F. POKORNI IN NORTH AFRICA (1916−1918)
Abstract: In the context of this year’s centenary of World War I, the focus of this text is the music activities of the Serbian army in North Africa (1916−1918), where they recuperated from their retreat across the mountains of Albania. This paper is a result of an extensive archival research of the National Library of Serbia’s collections and periodicals published during the Great War in North Africa. The daily news bulletin Napred/En avant published during the war in Africa deserves special attention, along with the personal archives of conductor and Serbian army captain Dragutin F. Pokorni (1868−1956). The paper sheds light on the work of a Serbian military orchestra, officially called the Band of the Cavalry Division (BCD, in Serbian: Muzika Konjičke divizije) and their leader Pokorni, hitherto little known in Serbian musicology. More importantly, the paper critiques official Serbian historiography and its primary concern with glorifying the ‘heroism’ and sacrifice of Serbian soldiers, whilst keeping silent on the ‘quiet African episodes’ in the activities of the Serbian army from January 1916 to December 1918. This paper also highlights key points in the fruitful encounter between Serbian military musicians and the multi-layered cultures of the Maghreb and examines the importance of the BCD’s promotion of Serbian culture overseas as a type of cultural diplomacy. By placing the activities of this Serbian military orchestra in the broader context of Serbian cultural diplomacy in the Great War, this paper offers an answer to the current debates in the humanities regarding new approaches to, and interpretations of, this year’s global anniversary, mentioned above.
Keywords: The Great War, military music, Serbian army, Bizerte, Africa, Franco-Serbian friendship,
cultural diplomacy.
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New Works
Branka Popović – SVETLANA SAVIĆ: SONETI “LA DOUCE NUIT”, “LOOKING ON DARKNESS”, “LA VITA FUGGE”
Abstract: Soneti [Sonnets] by Svetlana Savić were composed between 2008 and 2012. The cycle comprises three pieces: “La Douce Nuit” for violoncello, piano, and electronics, as well as “Looking on Darkness” and “La vita fugge” for a female voice, violoncello, piano, and electronics. Here, the work is analysed from the perspective of the author’s modernist orientation towards sound as a specific tool of music as a medium, which de- fined multiple poetic aspects in creating this work and had repercussions on the treatment of the text, the ensemble – both its acoustic and electronic layers – the forming and rela- tionship between individual layers of texture, as well as the choice of music material. Dealing with sound, searching for a specific acoustic quality is revealed already in the title, Soneti, because the term sonnet, which refers to a 13th-century Italian poetic form, comes from the Italian word sonetto, derived from the Latin word sonus, meaning sound. However, although Savić looks for particular acoustic qualities and sound is her main material, the resulting work is full of associations, musical and extramusical alike, and reaches out to other kinds of artistic expression. The composer never loses sight of her extramusical content and thus her composition generates a peculiar sort of interference between the acoustic and the verbal – the music absorbs the verbal, turning words into sounds and sound into words. At certain moments, this is joined by the visual component.
Keywords: sound, acoustic quality, sonnet, variation, the intertwining of motives, musical and extramusical associations, a peculiar sort of interference of the musical, the verbal and the visual.
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Analyses
Man-Ching Yu – PITCH-CLASS ANALYSIS: SOME ASPECTS OF IC5 AND IC1 DESIGN IN GYÖRGY LIGETI’S PIANO ÉTUDES
Abstract: This paper investigates pitch-class organization in György Ligeti’s piano Études, focusing on the organizational design of particular interval classes. In the etudes, IC5 and IC1 are generative in constructing materials in different dimensions and at different surface levels. Additionally, the unfolding of pitch classes initiates ascending and descending circles of fifths, at small-scale and large-scale structural levels alike, illuminating the prominence of the fifth in Ligeti’s work, which harks back to the common-practice period.
Keywords: Ligeti, interval class, pitch class.
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Festivals and Symposia
Zorica Premate – The 22nd International Review of Composers. Belgrade, 7–11 November 2013
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Danka Lajić-Mihajlović – The Player, the Instrument, and Music in Society: The 19th Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Folk Musical Instruments
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Reviews
Tilman Seebass – Roksanda Pejović, Musical Instruments in Medieval Serbia. Belgrade: University of Arts – Faculty of Music, 2013. 325 pp. with numerous illustrations in colour and black and white. 1 CD. ISBN 978-86-88619-25-7
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Ivana Miladinović – The Construction Site Ensemble for New Music: CD “4”
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Defended Theses
Bogdan Đaković – Functional and Stylistic-aesthetic Elements in Serbian Sacred Choral Music of the First Half of the 20th Century
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