Melita Milin Ancient Greek Mythology Mediated by Latin Culture

Melita Milin Ancient Greek Mythology Mediated by Latin Culture: on Vlastimir Trajković’s Arion and Zephyrus Returns∗ Abstract: Vlastimir Trajković (b. 1947) is a prominent Serbian composer with a strong inclination towards subjects from ancient Greek mythology. Among his most important achievements may be counted Arion – le nuove musiche per chitarra ed archi (1979) and Zephyrus returns for flute, viola and piano (2003). Two important aspects of those works are discussed in the present article: 1. the line that connects them to ancient Greek culture via French Modernism (Debussy, Ravel, Messiaen) and Renaissance poetry and music (Petrarch, Caccini, Monteverdi); 2. modality, which has proved its vitality through long periods of the history of European music, beginning with ancient Greek modes, reaching its high point in the 16th century, and re-emerging at the beginning of the 20th century in different hybrid forms. Trajković is seen as a composer who has shaped his creative identity by exploring the rich musical heritage of the Latin European nations, especially the contributions of Debussy and Ravel. Key words: Vlastimir Trajković, Serbian music, ancient Greek mythology The list of works dealing with ancient Greek myths in 20th century Serbian art music is not a particularly long one. The reason for that may be found almost certainly in the predominant orientation, at least in the first half of the century, towards subjects from Serbian cultural heritage, with the aim of creating a national school of music. After a modest collection of only a handful of works dealing with ancient Greek topics written before 1945,1 the two post-war decades saw a growing number of pieces of different genres inspired by those themes: several operas and ballets, an oratorio, a cycle of songs, and incidental music.2 It is difficult to be certain about the reasons for this heightened interest, especially as the quantity of works was still not very large. It may simply be that the then younger generations wished to enlarge the ∗ The article was written as a contribution to the project Serbian Musical Identities within Local and Global Frameworks: Traditions, Changes, Challenges, funded by the Ministry of Education and Science of Serbia. 1 Among them was the melodrama The Death of Pericles by Stanislav Binički (1872–1942). 2 Mihailo Vukdragović (1900–1986), music for Medea; Milenko Živković (1901–1964), music for King Oedipus; Božidar Trudić (1911–1989), Songs of Ancient Hellada for voice and chamber ensemble; Rudolf Bruči (1917–2008), Circe, ballet, and Prometheus, opera; Svetomir Nastasijević (1902–1979), Antigone, opera; Petar Stajić (1915–2008), Odysseus and the Phaeanicians, oratorio; Odysseus and Circe, ballet; Laocoon, opera; Vasilije Mokranjac (1923–1984), incidental music for Orestes and Heracles. programmatic scope of their works towards ancient Greek (and Roman) subjects that were seen as universal – belonging to all humanity. My article will focus on the works of one composer, Vlastimir Trajković, but first a few words will be devoted to the pieces of two other contemporary authors, both characterised by fresh and creative approaches to their chosen themes. Vuk Kulenović’s (b. 1946) Mechanical Orpheus for string orchestra (1991) is a piece based on repetitive procedures, which is a typical feature of this composer’s style. The original impulse for the music came from Rainer Maria Rilke’s poem Orpheus, Eurydice, Hermes (1904) in which an original motif of Eurydice’s indifference to her husband’s striving to make her return to the world of the living is introduced. Rilke explored the myth from Eurydice’s perspective, re-imagining her as numbed by death and therefore unaware of her extraordinary chance to leave Hades: “Like a fruit / suffused with its own mystery and sweetness, / she was filled with her vast death...”. In a short comment on his own work, Kulenović makes reference to that poem, adding a new motif of lost memories, derived from the story of the Underworld’s River Lethe whose water brings forgetfulness. Having drunk water from Lethe, Eurydice does not recognize Orpheus and is not saddened by his having turned his head back in order to see her. Kulenović states that “Orpheus turns his head back many times, as if in some merry-go-round of memories” (Bulletin 1 1992: 4). Anja Đorđević’s (b. 1970) chamber opera Narcissus and Echo (2002), structured as a number-opera in three short acts (libretto by Marija Stojanović), takes place in modern times. It is centred on the self-obsessed yuppie Narcissus and his opposite number, the girl Echo, who is in love with him and who is represented by her voice only (sung “naturally”, in a non- operatic way). The opera is heavily charged with layers of meaning that invite psychoanalytical interpretations. The overall tone is one of parody, and critical of the contemporary orientation towards corporeality, hedonism, and rapid social advancement – somehow strange in a country that had recently emerged from a nightmarish decade of wars in ex-Yugoslavia, and was highly traumatized by them. The musical models parodied are taken from baroque operas (even including arias for a very high tenor that make reference to castrato arias), combined with effects derived from cabaret, pop and rock music. Anja Đorđević has also composed the stage cantata Atlas for voice, narrator and chamber orchestra (2008), based on the book Weight: The Myth of Atlas and Heracles, by the contemporary British writer Jeanette Winterson. In an interview the composer said that she had always been interested in ancient myths that still resound in our time (S.L.R. 2010: 15). She found the text she needed in Winterson’s book, in whose preface the author summarises her motive for writing: “Weight moves far away from the simple story of Atlas’s punishment and his temporary relief when Heracles takes the world off his shoulders. I wanted to explore loneliness, isolation, responsibility, burden, and freedom, too, because my version has a very particular end not found elsewhere.” (Winterson 2005: XIV). Turning to Vlastimir Trajković, a composer to whose works referring to ancient Greek myths the rest of this article will be devoted, it is important to state that they are seen not only as highly accomplished from the artistic point of view, but also as signifiers of certain ideological content which invite interpretation. Born in 1947, Trajković began to study in the post-serialist period, when the crisis of post-war Avant-garde was quite evident. He graduated in composition from the Belgrade Music Academy with Vasilije Mokranjac, a highly respected Serbian composer who, although himself very cautious in his approach to modern trends, encouraged his pupils to follow their creative curiosity in all possible directions. In this article two of Trajković’s works will be discussed from the point of view of a contemporary (Serbian) composer’s desire to situate his world of music within the rich European tradition that had Greek culture as an important inspiration for renewal at a critical moment in its history. Trajković’s works make evident his strong inclination to the Franco- Latin current of European music, whose outstanding creative periods such as the Renaissance, 18th century Classicism and Impressionism, were different interpretations of ancient Greek culture. After his earliest attempts to compose in the late 1960s, Trajković was drawn towards 20th century French music, more specifically towards the works of Debussy and Ravel. He decided to spend the year 1977/78 in Paris in order to continue his studies in the class of Olivier Messiaen. His case was unique, as the Serbian composers of his generation were chiefly attracted by the possibilities created by Polish Avant-garde music. Trajković obviously felt that there still existed new approaches to music that would strive neither towards the continuation of avant-garde trends, nor towards post-modernist “games”. As a result, his œuvre contains well merged elements of different styles, which in most works create a kind of post-impressionistic effect and atmosphere, a balanced and clear form, with a complex harmonic and rhythmic organisation.3 Trajković also shows a refined feeling for 3 Trajković’s works have received laudatory remarks from Olivier Messiaen and Alexandre Tansman, amongst others: “Vlastimir Trajković is a Yugoslav composer of very great talent. He is endowed with a poetical nature, and possesses an acute sense of timbre and original harmonies, as well as an excellent orchestration technique [...]. His Duo for piano and orchestra, very strong and very powerfully written, probably his masterpiece, is certainly a work of exceptional beauty [...]”(Olivier Messiaen in the brochure about Vlastimir Trajković, suggesting the changeable pace of time and its illusionary effects, which was one among many aspects that drew him to the music of Claude Debussy, as shown in Tempora Retenta for symphonic orchestra (1971), one of his first fully accomplished works. Exploring the modal harmonies in the works of French modernist, especially those of Debussy, Ravel and Messiaen, he developed his own use of harmony, tending towards sensuous and more relaxed harmonic landscapes, thus rejecting the line of harsh sounds and atonal climates of much of post-1945 music. The world of Franco-Latin Europe had always been close to him, and in some works he also expressed high esteem for the heritage of ancient Greece, specifically that of mythology, as will be shown shortly. One detail may also shed some light on Trajković’s special relationship to ancient Greek culture. Specifically, he insisted that the titles of the three movements of his Concerto for piano and orchestra in B flat major (1990) should be always written in Greek, in the original or in transcription: 1. Stásis. Anoché. Hypóstasis; 2. Áchtchos. Epískepsis. Hesychía; 3. Diaponémata. Apólysis.4 Trajković’s Concerto for viola and orchestra in G minor (1993) also has subtitles in Greek: 1.

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