Lietuvos Muzikologija 19.Indd
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Lietuvos muzikologija, t. 19, 2018 Melita MILIN Stronger Together: Composition Schools as a Means of Affirming Aesthetic Goals Drauge stipresni: kompozicinė mokykla kaip priemonė įtvirtinti estetinius tikslus Institute of Musicology of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Knez Mihailova 36/IV, Belgrade, Serbia Email [email protected] Abstract Notions such as “composition school”, “composition class” and “group of composers” whose meanings are similar and often overlapping need to be rethought and delineated in order to understand and contextualise them better. An attempt has been made in this article to see how they exist and coexist in Serbian music since the beginning of the 20th century. Keywords: composition school, composition class, art movements, 20th-century Serbian music. Anotacija Sąvokų „kompozicinė mokykla“, „kompozicijos klasė“ ir „kompozitorių grupė“ reikšmės panašios ir neretai persidengia, todėl siekiant geriau suprasti ir kontekstualizuoti reikėtų jas permąstyti ir iš naujo apibrėžti. Šiame straipsnyje siekiama apžvelgti, kaip šios prasmės atsiskleidžia ir sąveikauja nuo XX a. pradžios parašytoje serbų muzikoje. Reikšminiai žodžiai: kompozicinė mokykla, kompozicijos klasė, meno kryptys, Serbijos XX a. muzika. Introduction Composition schools, classes, groups, movements Being essentially individualists, composers, like all art- In the history of Serbian art music, all the main types ists, rarely form groups sharing the same or similar aesthetic of composition schools can be observed. credos. If they decide to do so, it is mainly because they 1. The national school of Serbian music, which achieved believe that their individuality will not suffer and their work its first high point with the oeuvre of Stevan Mokranjac will have more chance to be appreciated if they become part (1856–1914); while taking over his aesthetic ideal mod- of a small collective promoting certain specific stylistic or elled on that of the other national schools, his pupils technical features. The term “Composition School” is prob- were very much engaged in modernising their expression lematic in that it is often unclear whether it applies just to under the influence of Janáček’s and Bartók works; it is cases involving the pedagogical activity of an outstanding important to note that some composers who were not composer and a restricted number of his disciples (such as Mokranjac’s pupils are also considered as belonging to in the Second Viennese School). Or a grouping of com- the same national orientation; posers of similar aesthetic standpoints, usually with one 2. The so-called “Prague school”, the members of which or two leading personalities, but without a teacher-pupil were Serbian composers born in the first decade of relationship (Les Six), or where “composition school” the 20th century whose orientation was cosmopolitan, might overlap partly with the term “movement” (Darmstadt meaning that they were opposed to the older genera- School).The formation of groups is often provoked by a will tions who worked along the well-established national to fight against some earlier or contemporary dominant course. They turned in a quite opposite direction when, individual or group. This matter will be discussed further, during their studies in Prague, they became students and later in this article. followers of Alois Hába and some other contemporary My aim is to shed more light on the importance of com- Czech, Austrian and German composers; they shared position school in the art music of the last 150 years or so and similar avant-garde ideas, but never regarded themselves to do that by observing the phenomenon in Serbian music as a homogeneous group; they were in fact an alliance that is undeservedly almost unknown outside my country. of colleagues denominated as a group only afterwards, However, I will try to compensate for that state of affairs when the period of their synchronized activities was by focussing on the “little stories” that may prove to have already over; something important in common with the “stories” that took 3. After World War 2, Stanojlo Rajičić, an ex-member of place in well established music centres with longer traditions. the Prague school, became one of the leading authorities 12 Stronger Together: Composition Schools as a Means of Affirming Aesthetic Goals as a professor at the Music Academy in Belgrade and his most important Serbian composers of the next decades, class produced several of the most distinguished Serbian especially in the inter-war period, also some others of more composers of the second half of the 20th century; they modest talents: Petar Krstić (who learned music privately were often colloquially called “Rajičić’s school”and were from Mokranjac), Miloje Milojević (studied 1904-07), Ste- assigned as adherents of that school “from outside“; van Hristić (1903-04), Kosta Manojlović (cca 1907-09) and 4. The members of “The New Generation” (later: “Opus Milorad Crvčanin (in the School of Theology, from circa 4”) were young people who studied composition in 1910-14). All of them later continued their studies abroad, Belgrade during the 1970s and rebelled against Rajičić, as Mokranjac’s School did not have a conservatoire level, but who still taught composition at that time (he was they all felt very much indebted to him as their first teacher. already regarded as conservative and academic by the Kosta Manojlović distinguished himself in the inter-war pe- 1960s); several of those students and graduate compos- riod as the most enthusiastic contributor to the canonisation ers founded a group, with the wish to better promote of Stevan Mokranjac as the founder of the Serbian National their ideas. At the same time, they attended courses in Music School – he wrote books about him and was engaged electronic music and conceptual art given by Vladan in performing and publishing his works. Taking into con- Radovanović, an outstanding avant-garde composer sideration his numerous activities as a composer of mostly who never taught at the Music Academy but was an choral music, sacred and folk-based, also as a melographer undoubted authority in those domains: thus, those and ethnomusicologist, and the editor of publications of courses could be considered to have been an informal Mokranjac’s works, then his pedagogical work and care composition school; for establishing important musical institutions, he seems 5. In the mid-1980s, several young composers founded a to have really dedicated his life to continuing Mokranjac’s group called “The Magnificent Seven”, oriented towards work in all the domains that he had been involved in. The post-modernism; they managed to attract a great deal other students of Mokranjac felt it their duty to contribute of attention in the media and musical public, but their to the national musical culture by turning to instrumental activities didn’t last long, mainly due to the outbreak of music and composing symphonies, operas, chamber music. the war in 1991. Some of them – primarily Milojević and Hristić, together with Manojlović but also Petar Konjović, who belonged to The activities of all these “schools” stretched throughout the same generation, but had never been Mokranjac’s pupil – the 20th century, marking the main lines of the development were ambivalent towards the legacy of their teacher. On the of Serbian music, and revealing the aesthetical and ideologi- one hand, they admired his vocal suites based on folk tunes, cal bases on which they were founded – a concrete reaction especially because of their masterful formal qualities and to a certain trend dominant at the time. refined harmony bearing some modal features. However, on the other hand, they criticised them because, firstly, they seemed to them dangerously close to simple arrangements / 1. The national school of Serbian music harmonisations of folk tunes, and secondly, because of their limitation to a vocal / choral genre. They tried to come to Stevan Mokranjac is considered the “father of Serbian terms with the notion of originality in connection with music”, meaning that both his national ideology and his Mokranjac’s works, being aware of the fact that, although achievements can be regarded as worthy of standing at masterfully composed, there were aesthetic difficulties for the forefront of Serbian art music. Of course, everybody Rukoveti to be regarded as belonging to high art music. is aware that art music in Serbia existed several decades Milojević’s writings on Mokranjac particularly provide before, since around the 1850s, but those were more or many examples of contradictions he could not solve. Thus, less composers whose contributions mainly prepared the in some essays he would express his view that Mokranjac ground for Mokranjac. His most significant works were was a “Serbian Palestrina” (Milojević 1936: 505), and in the 15 choral suites (Rukoveti) based on folk melodies and others, he claimed that Mokranjac “mainly just harmonised church music (Liturgy, Requiem). Due to unfavourable folk tunes”, and that he “didn’t care to develop and elaborate political and social circumstances, although he was well those melodies” (Milojević 1926: 99). educated at important European conservatoires (Munich, As has been already said, Mokranjac’s pupils were Rome, Leipzig), he composed almost exclusively for choir dedicated to continuing the national orientation in their a cappella, as orchestras and opera were still quite rare and music by using more complex and modern techniques. modest in the quality of their performance. Mokranjac was They were mostly inspired by Czech (Vítězslav Novák, among the founders of the Serbian Music School in Bel- Leoš Janáček) and Russian composers (Pyotr Tchaikovsky, grade, where he taught composition, among other subjects. Modest Mussorgsky), with Béla Bartók and Igor Stravin- His pupils included some of those who would become the sky being too advanced for them to be taken as models. 13 Lietuvos muzikologija, t. 19, 2018 Melita MILIN They wished to put Serbian music on the musical map of he could offer his pupils was a discovery that valuable art Europe by learning lessons from some earlier generations music based on Serbian folklore was possible.