Stevan Mokranjac
Stevan Mokranjac | |
---|---|
Стеван Мокрањац | |
Music educator Conductor Folk collector | |
Notable work | fifteen Rukoveti, Tebe pojem, Cherubic Hymn |
Stevan Stojanović (
Often called the "father of Serbian music" and the "most important figure of Serbian musical romanticism", Mokranjac is well-regarded and much revered in
Biography
Stevan Stojanović was born on 9 January 1856[1] in the town of Negotin, Principality of Serbia. Close to the Serbian border with Romania and Bulgaria, Negotin was a small town of just over 3,000 inhabitants at the time of his birth.[2] Stojanović earned the nickname "Mokranjac" after the village of Mokranje, where his ancestors were from.[3] Mokranjac's father, a prosperous restaurant owner who in 1850 had built the house in which the Stojanović family lived, died two days before his son's birth.[2] Growing up with his mother and three siblings, Mokranjac received his first violin at the age of ten.[4] He spent most of his youth in Negotin, Zaječar and Belgrade.[5]
In his twenties,[5] he was subjected to conservative musical training and first studied in Belgrade. He went on to study in Munich with Josef Rheinberger from 1880 to 1883, and in Rome with Alessandro Parisotti in 1884–1885.[6] Afterwards, he studied for two years in the city of Leipzig[5] under Salomon Jadassohn and Carl Reinecke.[6]
In 1878, Mokranjac arranged a concert commemorating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Belgrade Choir Society, titled "The History of Serbian Song" (Serbian: Istorija srpske pesme).[7] He and his family lived in their family home in Negotin until 1883. In 1887 Mokranjac made a permanent move to Belgrade, where he became the conductor of the Belgrade Choir Society,[2] a position he would hold until his death.[8] The choir was successful both in Serbia and abroad[9] and under his leadership it became respected and well known throughout Central Europe and Russia because of its high performance standard and repertoire, which was made up of many Serbian folk songs, as well as pieces composed by Mokranjac himself.[10] It toured Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, Ottoman Turkey, and Russia.[11] In 1899, the choir toured Berlin, Dresden, and Leipzig.[9] During this time, Mokranjac married Marija, a member of the choir who was twenty years his junior.[12] The couple had one son, Momčilo.[4]
Mokranjac founded the Serbian School of Music in 1899,[13] as well as the first Serbian string quartet, in which he played the cello.[2] Although his most famous works date from the late 19th century, Mokranjac continued composing during the 1900s.[10] In mid-1914, he left Belgrade and moved to Skopje to escape World War I.[14] He is buried in the New Cemetery of Belgrade.
Compositions
Early in his career, Mokranjac recorded Serbian Orthodox church chants in staff notation. A gifted composer,
Later melodies, drawn from oral tradition, were published posthumously. Mokranjac also composed many pieces of sacred music in a
Mokranjac composed The Divine Liturgy of St. John Crysostom and Ivko's slava in 1901. In 1906, he created a mixed chorus version of The Glorification of Saint Sava, which was originally composed for a male chorus in 1893. In 1913, Mokranjac composed the eighty-second and final piece of "Garlands", titled Winter Days (Serbian: Zimski dani). He also composed numerous songs for children's choir.[18]
His last and unfinished composition for a choir, based on the poem Zimnji dani by Jovan Jovanović Zmaj, was finished by Aleksandra Vrebalov and performed in 2015.[19]
Legacy
Considered the "father of Serbian music"[2] and the "most important figure of Serbian musical romanticism",[20] Mokranjac is well-regarded and much revered in Serbia.[2][21] His works are considered the corner stones of Serbian music theatre.[22] Serbian Orthodox chants recorded by Mokranjac and other composers form the basis of most modern Serbian church singing.[21]
The Serbian Music School, which Mokranjac founded, was renamed the
Mokranjac was awarded Serbian
He is included in The 100 most prominent Serbs.
See also
- Kosta Manojlović
- Petar Krstić
- Miloje Milojević
- Stevan Hristić
- Isidor Bajić
- Stanislav Binički
- Davorin Jenko
- Jovan Đorđević
- Josif Marinković
- Kornelije Stanković
References
- ^ a b Chase 2003, p. 633.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Sadie & Sadie 2005, p. 257.
- ^ Janković & 29 December 2008.
- ^ a b Voice of Serbia.
- ^ a b c d Samson 2013, p. 333.
- ^ a b Blume 1961, p. 429.
- ^ a b c Samson 2013, p. 332.
- ^ Strimple 2005, p. 181.
- ^ a b Norris 2009, p. 106.
- ^ a b Strimple 2005, pp. 181–182.
- ^ "165 raspevanih godina Prvog beogradskog pevačkog društva | Upoznaj Beograd". 011info – najbolji vodič kroz Beograd (in Serbian). Retrieved 2019-11-24.
- ^ a b Sadie & Sadie 2005, p. 258.
- ^ Tomašević 2009, p. 45.
- ^ Milojković-Đurić 1984, p. 38.
- ^ a b Kuburić-Borović 2011, p. 206.
- ^ Samson 2010, p. 184.
- ^ Randel 2003, p. 771.
- ^ a b Strimple 2005, p. 182.
- ^ "You are being redirected..." www.serbia.com. Retrieved 2019-09-26.
- ^ Tomašević 2009, p. 42.
- ^ a b Moody 2012, p. 538.
- ^ Klemenčič & Žagar 2004, p. 72.
- ^ Sieber 2009, p. 2000.
- ^ Cuhaj 2010, p. 844.
- ^ Acović, Dragomir (2012). Slava i čast: Odlikovanja među Srbima, Srbi među odlikovanjima. Belgrade: Službeni Glasnik. p. 344.
Books
- Blume, Friedrich (1961). Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart: allgemeine Enzyklopädie der Musik, Volume 9 [The Music in Past and Present: General Encyclopedia of Music, Volume 9] (in German). Kassel, Germany: Bärenreiter.
- Kuburić-Borović, Marija (2011). "Church and Religious Music in the Eastern Orthodox Tradition". In Blagojević, Mirko; Todorović, Dragan (eds.). Orthodoxy From An Empirical Perspective. ISBN 978-86-82417-29-3.
- Chase, Robert (2003). Dies Irae: A Guide To Requiem Music. ISBN 978-0-8108-4664-7.
- Cuhaj, George S. (2010). Standard Catalog of World Paper Money – Modern Issues: 1961–Present. ISBN 978-1-4402-1512-4.
- Milojković-Đurić, Jelena (1984). Tradition and Avante-Garde: The Arts in Serbian Culture Between the Two World Wars, Volume 2. ISBN 978-0-88033-052-7.
- ISBN 978-1-136-31484-1.
- Klemenčič, Matjaž; Žagar, Mitja (2004). The Former Yugoslavia's Diverse Peoples: A Reference Sourcebook. ISBN 978-1-57607-294-3.
- Norris, David A. (2009). Belgrade: A Cultural History. ISBN 978-0-19-970452-1.
- ISBN 978-0-674-01163-2.
- Sadie, Julie Anne; ISBN 978-0-300-10750-0.
- Samson, Jim (2010). "Little Stories from the Balkans". In Levi, Erik; Scheding, Florian (eds.). Music and Displacement: Diasporas, Mobilities, and Dislocations in Europe and Beyond. ISBN 978-0-8108-7295-0.
- Samson, Jim (2013). Music in the Balkans. ISBN 978-90-04-25038-3.
- Sieber, Arlyn (2009). World Coins & Currency, Warman's Companion. ISBN 978-1-4402-1931-3.
- Strimple, Nick (2005). Choral Music in the Twentieth Century. ISBN 978-1-57467-122-3.
- Tomašević, Katarina (2009). "Musical Life in Serbia in the First Half of the Twentieth Century: Institutions and Repertoire". In Rōmanou, Katy (ed.). Serbian and Greek Art Music: A Patch to Western Music History. ISBN 978-1-84150-278-6.
Websites
- Janković, Zorica (29 December 2008). "Imena i dodaci: S nadimkom jači". Vreme (in Serbian).
- "Memorial house of Stevan Stojanović Mokranjac". Voice of Serbia.