Issue No. 28
A Word from the Editor
Mirjana Veselinović-Hofman – A Word from the Editor
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Composer Speaks
Ivana Perković-Radak – CREATION IS ONE AND ALWAYS THE SAME... INTERVIEW WITH DIMITRIJE GOLEMOVIĆ
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Core Issue
Dragoslav Dević – STEVAN STOJANOVIĆ MOKRANJAC – COLLECTOR OF FOLK SONGS AND ETHNOMUSICOLOGIST
Abstract: For the first time in Serbia author of this paper brings to light a long-term and fruitful work of Stevan St. Mokranjac, the pioneer of traditional music science in Serbia, as collector of folk songs and ethnomusicologist.
Keywords: traditional music, secular and sacred folk song, chanting, recording of folk songs, ethnomusiclogy, church modes-voices, tonal problems, classification, fieldwork.
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Roksanda Pejović – CHOIRS IN BELGRADE MUSIC LIFE IN THE FIRST YEARS AFTER WORLD WAR II (1944-1950)
Abstract: In the People’s, and later Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia, social life was dictated by politics. The main goal was “to raise the general cultural level of the people” through music. Choral singing which already had a long tradition, was hence regarded as the most useful means for enlightening the masses and bringing music to the masses. The singing of mass and traditional songs was insisted upon; especially the ones with newly added lyrics with a war thematic, while numerous amateur choirs were founded.
Keywords: Cultural-Artistic Societies, mass songs, traditional songs, amateur choirs, War of the National Liberation.
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Darja Koter – THE SLOVENIAN SINGING SOCIETY – A SYMBOL OF NATIONAL AND CULTURAL IDENTITY
Abstract: This contribution discusses the activities and importance of the Slovenian Singing Society, founded in Ptuj in 1884. During the twenty years of its existence, the Society proved to be of national and cultural significance, laying the foundations for the establishing of the Association of Slovenian Choirs, set up in 1903 in Ljubljana.
Keywords: Slovenian Singing Society, Ptuj, National Reading Society, national identity, cultural identity.
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Refik Hodžić – THE RISE OF CHORAL SINGING ORGANIZATIONS IN THE AREA OF BOSANSKA KRAJINA (1878-1941)
Abstract: The first forms of pro-European chorus performance throughout the area of Bosanska Krajina, which is situated in the north-west of Bosnia and Herzegovina, could be traced by Austro-Hungarian presence on this territory. The intense inclination towards a national identity among the local population resulted in the founding of cultural, educational and singing societies. It is obvious that these singing societies and chorus performances gathered more and more members that were then able to spread the ideas of the Enlightenment, as well as other religious, cultural and social ideas. Due to the fact that there was a huge lack of educated musicians among the local population, not to mention trained instrumentalists, chorus performances were the most convenient and economically adequate.
Keywords: Chorus performances, Bosanska Krajina (Bosnian border), Singing societies, music performances.
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Miradet Zulić – SERBIAN CHORAL SOCIETIES IN TUZLA AND BIJELJINA UNTIL 1914
Abstract: During the Austria-Hungarian government, choral societies played a very important role in the cultural life of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In contrast to that, there were no such registered societies during the former Turkish ruling. There were two reasons for their absence - a lack of social conditions and the fact that the Turkish government banned all gatherings and social organizing.
Keywords: Serbian choral societies, Tuzla, Bijeljina, Serbian Ortodox Church, National repertoire.
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Milto Vatko – THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF ALBANIAN CHORAL MUSIC
Abstract: The article explains the origin and development of Albanian choral music from its beginnings in the first half of the 20th century until the present day. In this brief review, the author identifies the events, groups and individuals whose efforts throughout history were crucial for the creation and advancement of this musical genre, as well as evaluating current music life in Albania.
Keywords: Choral music, Albania, professional choral groups, amateur choral groups, contemporary Albanian music.
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Petar Krumov – BULGARIAN CHOIRS OVER THE PAST 50 YEARS
Abstract: In comparaison with Central and Western Europe, Bulgarian choirs began their development relatively late – in the middle of 19th century. The main reason for this was national, hence cultural oppression of the Ottoman Empire, that lasted for for five centuries. Since 1896, when the first choral society had been founded and especially after the Balcan wars, Bulgarian choral music reached high level of development. Despite the unfavourable circumstances from the beginning of the 1990s, artistic level has been preserved.
Keywords: Bulgarian choral societies, choral singing, folklore choirs, choir masters, repertoire, Dobri Hristov.
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Jerner Weiss – CONTEMPORARY CHORAL PRODUCTION IN SLOVENIA
Abstract: The small size of our country, with an “abounding” historical experience of intimidation by other countries, resulted in an especially powerful attachment to the national language and song. This is why vocal creativity has the strongest tradition in Slovene music life. Although the contemporary choral production in Slovenia was always a bit behind when compared to the peaks of European choral production, the main characteristics of the Slovene choral production are similar to the contemporary development of choral production in Europe.
Keywords: contemporary composers, choral compositions, Slovenia, "Novi akordi" (New Chords).
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Gábor Baross – THE NON-PROFESSIONAL ART OF CHORAL SINGING IN HUNGARY
Abstract: After World War II, KÓTA (the National Council of Choirs) had the most prominent role in supporting Hungarian amateur choir practices. In the period from 1989 to 1991, the successor organization of KÓTA was established – the Association of Hungarian Choirs and Orchestras, which has had the main role in developing music life to this day. During the Association’s work within international organizations such as Europa Cantat and AGEC, Hungary has proven the unflagging energy and innovative abilities of its choral activities.
Keywords: Béla Bartók Association, KÓTA, choral activity, amateur choirs, social changes, Hungarian choral societies, Zoltán Kodály, national identity, Europa Cantat, AGEC.
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Tatjana Marković – THE SPECIFIC NATURE OF THE ACTIVITIES OF CHORAL SOCIETIES IN A MULTI-ETHNIC CONTEXT: A CASE STUDY OF SERBIAN CHORAL SOCIETIES IN BANAT (PANČEVO AND VELIKI BEČKEREK) IN THE 19TH CENTURY
Abstract: After the extensive migrations of Serbs since the end of the 17th century, the majority of Serbian citizens lived outside their own country. They settled on the territories of the Habsburg Monarchy, north from the Sava and Danube rivers. Their displacement resulted in specific strategies to unify the Serbian people, to establish a national state, national cultural and artistic life, that is, a national identity in itself. Cultural and artistic institutions such as choral societies and reading-rooms had a very significant role in that process. This paper examines the work of those institutions through case studies of choral societies where political, cultural, and artistic activities took place in the multi-ethnic environments of the Habsburg Monarchy, in the towns of Banat (Pančevo and Veliki Bečkerek).
Keywords: Habsburg Monarchy, Ottoman Empire, Vojvodina, multi-ethnic environments, Serbian choral societies, German choral societies, Banat – Pančevo, Veliki Bečkerek, national memory, national identity, education, Pančevačko srpsko crkveno pevačko društvo (Serbian church choral society in Pančevo), Pevačko društvo Zora u Beču (Choral society Zora/Aurora in Vienna), Groß-Becskereker Wochenblatt, repertory of the choral societies, chorus music, Ujedinjena omladina srpska (United Serbian Youth).
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Balázs Mikusi – AN “INVENTED TRADITION” FOR AN “IMAGINED COMMUNITY”: MALE CHORAL SINGING IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY GERMANY
Abstract: While secular choral singing assumed great importance in the musical life of 19th-century Germany, the repertory it gave rise to is all but ignored in modern music history textbooks. No doubt, this omission is primarily due to the genre’s strong political associations: many of the overtly nationalistic texts have inevitably seemed inappropriate for most post-1945 musicologists. By contrast, the late 19th century saw the rise of an impressive series of works on the topic, all of which drew inspiration from Otto Elben’s pioneering Der volksthümliche deutsche Männergesang: seine Geschichte, seine gesellschaftliche und nationale Bedeutung (1855; 2nd edition 1887). As Elben’s subtitle to some extent foreshadowed, these authors sought to provide the genre with a history that would confirm its “national significance”: the obvious convivial precedents are more or less ignored; on the other hand, possible connections to earlier “national” music are given great emphasis. Using excerpts from Benedict Widmann’s Die kunsthistorische Entwickelung des Männerchors in drei Vorlesungen dargestellt (1884) as illustration, I propose to read these “myths of origin” in the light of modernist analyses of nationalism. Benedict Anderson’s interpretation of the nation as an “imagined community” sheds light on the steadily rising popularity of the Gesangvereine in mid-19th-century Germany, while Eric Hobsbawm’s work illuminates how the creation of a consistently elevated and “authentically German” prehistory proved useful in legitimizing an essentially “invented tradition.”
Keywords: "imagined community", "invented tradition", Männergesangvereine, music historiography, nationalism, Volk, Benedict Anderson, Eric Hobsbawm, Otto Elben, Benedikt Widmann.
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Ivana Perković Radak – RHETORICAL STRATEGIES OF SERBIAN CHORAL CHURCH POLYPHONY BEFORE 1914: TOWARDS GENRE DISTINCTIVENESS
Abstract: Polyphonic singing was introduced in the Serbian Orthodox Church during the second quarter of the 19th century, while the first works composed by Serbian authors appeared several decades later. At the beginning bearing a similarity with other genres, church polyphony later on established some authentic genre markers, certain musical topics being among them. These topics are observed in the music for Divine Liturgy, funeral services (Opelo) and some stichera.
Keywords: Ortodox church music, Serbian music, genre, musical topics, musical rhetoric, pianto, passus duriusculus, antithesis.
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New Works
Ivana Vuksanović – THE MAGIC OF NUMBER SEVEN. Ivan Brkljačić: Kada se SEDAM puta digne zavesa... (When the Curtain Rises SEVEN Times...)
Abstract: The composition When the curtain rises SEVEN times... is dedicated to the theatre, but not as music FOR the theatre, but rather as music ABOUT theatre. The SEVEN movements of the cycle are organized according to the well-known dramaturgy of the classical drama: prologue (Curtain), exposition (Light, Stage), development (Actor, Movement) and denouement (Color, Applause). The extra-musical concept of the piece not only recalls our memory of the Theatre (our sensation of the Theatre), but is also expanded with a wide spectrum of allusions brought up by the use of number SEVEN in the title.
Keywords: theatre, number seven, musical description, dramaturgy.
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Ana Stefanović – PET PESAMA STEFANA MALARMEA (FIVE POEMS OF STÉPHANE MALLARMÉ) BY VLASTIMIR TRAJKOVIĆ
Abstract: The article analyses new work by Vlastimir Trajković for solo voice and orchestra, inspired by five poems of French symbolist Stéphane Mallarmé. The network of some of the key concepts of Malarmé’s poetry and poetic philosophy, on which a semantic plan of the work and its dramaturgy are based, is revealed through the placement of specific songs within the cycle. The following elements are examined in the article: vocal expression concerning the relation between the music and the text whereby baroque rhetoric stimuli are revealed, the linguistic orientation of the cycle based on the double postulate – both impressionistic and expressionistic, as well as elements of homage to style and mélodies of Debussy and Ravel. They are realized through citations of style and citations of text, in such a way that they, embedded into modernistic linguistic context, introduce element of poetics of post-modernism into Trajković’s cycle and into the genre of the Serbian song for solo voice.
Keywords: Solo-song, mélodies, symbolism, impressionism, baroque, expressionism, recitative, affetto, homage, citation.
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Sonja Marinković – THE DEDICATION OF MAKSIMOVIĆ TO MOKRANJAC. Rukovet (Garland) for the violin, flute and string orchestra
Abstract: In the article THE DEDICATION OF MAKSIMOVIĆ TO MOKRANJAC, the author questions Maksimović’s relationship towards Mokranjac’s work in his composition Garland for the violin, flute and string orchestra (performed in October 2005 at the concert of the Ensemble for New Music at the 14th International Tribune of Composers in Belgrade). Maksimović is the first Serbian composer to use the term rukovet (garland) in instrumental music and thus it is interesting to pint out how Maksimović’s work relates to Mokranjac’s Garlands.
Keywords: Music analysis, Serbian music, Rajko Maksimović, contemporary music, garland.
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Festivals and Symposia
Ana Kotevska – BIENNALE MUSICS ON STAGE (MUSIQUES EN SCENE). Lyon, March 7–26, 2006
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Sonja Marinković – ARTISTIC SIGNPOSTS - THE DAYS OF VLADO S. MILOŠEVIĆ. Banja Luka, April 7–12, 2006
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Radmila Milinković – THE CONFERENCE OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MUSIC LIBRARIES, ARCHIVES AND DOCUMENTATION CENTRES. Göteborg, June 18–23
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Reviews
Miško Šuvaković – PLURAL DISCOURSES OF MUSICOLOGY. TATJANA MARKOVIĆ, PhD: TRANSFIGURATIONS OF SERBIAN ROMANTICISM – MUSIC IN THE CONTEXT OF CULTURE STUDIES. Univerzitet umetnosti, Beograd, 2005
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Asja Radonjić – REVIEW OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE SYMPOSIUM LIFE AND WORK OF VASILIJE MOKRANJAC. Belgrade, SOKOJ-Music Information Center, 2005, 216 pages
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Valentina Radoman – MUSIC & NETWORKING (editors Tatjana Marković and Vesna Mikić). The Seventh International Conference. Department of Musicology and Ethnomusicology, Faculty of Music, University of Arts, Belgade, 2005
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Selena Rakočević – DIMITRIJE GOLEMOVIĆ: ČOVEK KAO MUZIČKO BIĆE (MAN AS A MUSICAL BEING). Biblioteka XX vek, Belgrade, 2006. Editor Ivan Čolović
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New Sound CD No. 28
1. Stevan St. Mokranjac: Oh, Meadow, Green Meadow, for voice
2. Dimitrije O. Golemović: Zumba, for mixed choir
3. Vlado Milošević: Hey, the silent world, for mixed choir
4. Dobri Hristov: Sentence, for mixed choir
5. Bárdos Lajos: At the Camp Fire, for mixed choir
6. Ubald Vrabec: The Merry Brothers, for voice octet
7. Çesk Zadeja: The Young Man Goes to the Mountain, for choir and ensemble
8-14. Ivan Brkljačić: When the Curtain Rises SEVEN Times, for symphony orchestra
15-19. VlastimirTrajković: Cinq poèmes de Stéphane Mallarme Op.29, for soprano and orchestra
20. Rajko Maksimović: Garland, for flute, violin and string orchestra