Department of Musicology Faculty of Music

International Journal of Music

41 Belgrade, I/2013 YU ISSN 0354–818X UDC 78:781(05) COBISS. SR-ID 80527367

International Journal of Music 41 Belgrade, I/2013

Publisher: Department of Musicology Faculty of Music Kralja Milana 50, 11000 Belgrade

Editorial Board: Mirjana Veselinović-Hofman Ph.D. (Editor-in-chief) Vesna Mikić Ph.D. (Deputy editor-in-chief) Academician Dejan Despić Dragoslav Dević, Ph.D. Sonja Marinković, Ph.D. Nenad Ostojić, M.A. Ana Kotevska, M.A. Marcel Cobussen Ph.D. (The Netherlands) Pierre Albert Castanet Ph.D. (France) Chris Walton Ph.D. (South Africa/Switzerland) Eduardo R. Miranda Ph.D. (Brazil/UK) Nico Schüler Ph.D. (Germany/USA)

Cover design: Andrea Palašti

Secretary of the Editorial Board: Ivana Ognjanović

Editorial Board and Office: Faculty of Music Kralja Milana 50, 11000 Belgrade E-mail: [email protected] www.newsound.org.rs

The Journal is published semestrally. The Journal is classified in ERIH – European Reference Index for the Humanities CONTENTS

COMPOSER / MUSICOLOGIST SPEAKS Tijana Popović Mlađenović LIVING ONE’S OWN THOUGHT EXPERIENCE WITH MUSIC AND MUSICOLOGY – INTERVIEW WITH MIRJANA VESELINOVIĆ-HOFMAN ...... 5

STUDIES Milan Milojković AESTHETICAL VIEWS OF VOJISLAV VUČKOVIĆ IN THE LIGHT OF THEORY OF REFLECTION AND CRITICAL THEORY ...... 27 Lidia Ader MICROTONAL RUSSIA: 1950–1970s MYTHS AND REALITIES ...... 42 Selena Rakočević TRACING THE DISCIPLINE: EIGHTY YEARS OF ETHNOCHOREOLOGY IN SERBIA ...... 58 Iva Nenić DISCRETE CASES: FEMALE TRADITIONAL MUSIC PLAYERS IN SERBIA ...... 87

NEW WORKS Stefan Cvetković ALEKSANDAR OBRADOVIĆ – PRO LIBERTATE CONCERTO FOR PIANO AND ORCHESTRA NO. 3 ...... 99 Dragana Jeremić Molnar SELF-PARODICAL CONSEQUENCES OF OPERATIC PARODY ..... 110

ANALYSES Man-Ching Yu TRANSFORMATIONS OF DIATONIC MATERIALS AND TONAL PROCEDURES IN LIGETI’S ETUDE NO. 15 “WHITE ON WHITE” ...... 117 New Sound 41, I/2013

STUDENT'S PAPERS Marija Maglov THE VIENNA NEW YEAR’S CONCERT AS A MEDIA PHENOMENON ...... 139

FESTIVALS AND SYMPOSIA Stefan Cvetković FESTIVAL KOMA 8.5 AND 9 ...... 151

REVIEWS Ana Kotevska Releases of FMU, Belgrade. Irina Arsikin, CD 1 / CD 2 ...... 157 Dušan Trbojević, Antologija srpske klavirske muzike / Retrospektiva / Anthology of Serbian Piano Music / Retrospective, CD 1 / CD 2 ...... 159 Ivana Petković Petar Konjović: Ženidba Miloševa [The Wedding of Miloš] and Seljaci [Peasants], Double Compact Disc ...... 162 Marina Marković Predrag Miodrag: Ogledi o srpskoj crkvenoj muzici [Essays on Serbian Church Music] ...... 164 Nico Schüler Vesna Mikić, Ivana Perković, Tijana Popović Mlađenović, and Mirjana Veselinović-Hofman: Between Nostalgia, Utopia, and Realities...... 168

DEFENDED THESES Sanda Dodik Connection between Archaic and Modern Sound in the Cycle of The Music of Octoechos by Ljubica Marić ...... 171 COMPOSER / MUSICOLOGIST SPEAKS

Article received on 13 September 2013 Article accepted on 30 September 2013 UDC: 78.072:929 Веселиновић-Хофман М.(047.53)

LIVING ONE’S OWN THOUGHT EXPERIENCE WITH MUSIC AND MUSICOLOGY

Interview with Mirjana Veselinović-Hofman

Tijana Popović Mlađenović* University of Arts in Belgrade Faculty of Music Department of Musicology

Mirjana Veselinović-Hofman, PhD, is a mu- sicologist whose scholarly activity is primar- ily oriented towards Serbian and European avant-garde and postmodern music, which made her well-known and recognized both in Serbia and in the broader musicological domains of Europe and the world. According to domestic critics, with her scholarly work, Mirjana Veselinović-Hofman “u našoj sredini prva izgradila, naučno osvestila i teorijski obrazložila savremeni interdisciplinarni model muzikološke kompetencije” [“is the first in our midst who has built, scholarly identified and theoretically argued the contemporary interdisciplinary model of musico- logical competence”] (Z. Premate, “Pronalazači i otkrivači muzike” [“Inventors and Discoverers of Music”], Politika, 28th February 2009), while foreign mu- sicological circles distinguish her as “one of the leading thinkers in the field of

* Author contact information:[email protected]

5 New Sound 41, I/2013 music and aesthetics in Central Europe” (MUZIKI – Journal of Music Research in Africa, Vol. I, No. 1, 2004). She is a professor at the Department of Musicology at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade and Interdisciplinary Doctoral Studies of Arts and Media Theory at the University of Arts in Belgrade. She has also lectured at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, cooperated with the Hochschule für Musik und Theater [University of Music and Theatre] in Rostock and the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, while from 2003 to 2005 she worked at the Department of Music at the Univer- sity of Pretoria. A great number of now established musicologists earned their BA, MA and PhD degrees under the mentorship of this exquisite educator. Dr Veselinović-Hofman is the Editor-in-Chief of the bilingual scholarly New Sound International Journal of Music, a member of the Editorial Board of the Zbornik Matice srpske za scenske umetnosti i muziku [The Matica Srpska Review of Theatrical Arts and Music], member of the Editorial Music Board for compiling the Serbian Encyclopaedia, editor of many musicological publica- tions and supervisor of scholarly projects at the Department of Musicology at the Faculty of Music and at Matica srpska. She participates in musicological conferences, national and international, and she is also a member of numerous international scholarly teams and selection committees. She is the Head of the Department of Musicology at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade; she was the Chairperson of the Serbian Musicological Society until 2013; she has been the Secretary of the Department of Theatrical Arts and Music at the Matica srpska since 2012; she is a permanent member and associ- ate of Matica srpska, as well as a member of the Composer’s Association of Serbia and the International Musicological Society. Building her methodology and musicological poetics on a contextual inter- pretation whose imperative is an analytical foundation, Dr Veselinović-Hofman published a large number of scholarly studies, analyses and scholarly essays, a special place among them being occupied by her books – for their originality, theoretical depth and innovativeness, subtle analytical considerations, frequent pioneering approaches to the illumination of the treated subject’s quintessence.

At the beginning of our conversation, I would like to mention just some of your books – Stvaralačka prisutnost evropske avangarde u nas [Creative Presence of the European Avant-Garde in Our Midst], which was written in the 1970s, right after the processes you wrote about had ‘finished’; then Umetnost i izvan nje: Poetika i stvaralaštvo Vladana Radovanovića [Art and Outside of It: Poetics and Creativity of Vladan Radovanović], published in 1991, which considers var- ious topics in the context of the oeuvre of a very special artist, including current

6 Popović Mlađenović, T.: Interview with Mirjana Veselinović-Hofman (5–25) forms of multimedia art; then Fragmenti o muzičkoj postmoderni [Fragments on Musical Postmodernism] which you wrote in the early 1990s, during the focal, highly ‘incendiary’ period of the times and the phenomenon you were thinking about! We should certainly mention compiling the capital edition Istorija srpske muzike [History of Serbian Music], published in 2007, which covers Serbian music up to 2005. Also, in the early 1970s, you initiated launching the festi- val Muzika u Srbiji [Music in Serbia], which until the 1990s (when the festival turned into the International Review of Composers) followed the latest produc- tion of Serbian composers each year. For a long while you were a musical critic (Radio Belgrade Third Programme and Politika daily), writing mostly about new works. For over twenty years you have been the Editor-in-Chief of the New Sound International Journal of Music, one of the main pivotal points of which is musical creation, i.e. its musicological interpretation, which in every issue of the journal is accompanied by a compact disc with the analysed works…

I wonder, and I am asking you too: what is the role and responsibility of think- ers (in general, and thinkers about music in particular) today? Is it only to tes- tify, to bear witness, or can they still have some influence on the course of events (in general, and in music in particular)? I believe that today, as I presume has always been the case, all authentic thinkers are aware of the importance of the roles that you mentioned, as well as a certain extent of their own responsibility regarding these roles. The roles are interdependent and interlaced; only the first one is, perhaps, self-contained – testifying per se, in the sense of ‘dispassionate’ registering the course of events. Nevertheless, to have any kind of influence on that course – and that influence is most realistic and, after all, expected primarily in your own profession and environment – it is necessary to be able not only to give evidence about appear- ances and manifestations of things by your presence and perception of them, but also to give the relevant information about them, i.e. to give a particular testimonial, and also to substantiate your personal opinion about them. Among thinker’s roles, it is precisely this substantiated critique that opens up the pos- sibilities of their influence – mainly on events in the domain of their expertise (thus in music too), on the position of that domain in the everyday ambiance of social and cultural relations, but also on these relations as such. However, it is not as simple as it might seem at first, because this influence also depends essentially on the social position of the thinker personally. The more dignified the position, the greater the potential influence – and the other way round. This is basically a reversible process whose initial point, neverthe- less, is that social position which intends for the thinker the leading ideological

7 New Sound 41, I/2013 and political context by its attitude towards the authority of knowledge and the need for a hierarchically positive stability of criteria along the entire educa- tional pyramid. In our midst, unfortunately, the authority of knowledge has been fundamen- tally undermined since a long time ago. When I say that, I am thinking of depre- ciation of dignity of all the exponents of knowledge – from nursery assistants, teachers, instructors, to educational institutions, the status of a scholar or an art- ist… in fact, all of those who – in spite of so tiresome, so chronically deficient financial participation of the state! – fight for their dignity, i.e. for the unencum- bered performance of their basic activities, for the promotion of their curricula and for results. Which, strangely enough, are not negligible. This is supported, for example, by the fact that in 2011 the University in Belgrade made it to the Shanghai Ranking (ARWU) of the 500 best universities in the world, a list com- piled according to the achieved scientific, scholarly and research results. In our country, however, this is perceived as a sort of nature-given, indisputably self- grown yet welcome ‘decorative element’ of the society, given that the funding for education and science is dwindling by the year. Thus, recently published re- ports say that Serbia “sets aside [only] 0.9 per cent of the gross domestic product for higher education, and 0.26 per cent for science”! At the same time, according to Professor Branko Kovačević, who was the Vice-Chancellor of the University in Belgrade until recently, Croatia invests 1.5 per cent in higher education, and 0.5 per cent in science, while “in developed countries this reaches as high as three per cent, one third of which is provided by the state and two by the private sector”! In other words, what is in operation with us is an almost disparaging attitude towards education and knowledge, established on the full swing of the long-term process of reversal of the overall value hierarchy in our society. Because, as you can see for yourself, for about three decades we have been in the phase of a policy of abolishing the distinctions between positive and neg- ative developments in all the domains of our existence and work – in everyday life, as well as in the life of our individual professions; a phase exposing our civilizational and cultural profiles and reputations to far-reaching perils. Unfor- tunately, these profiles and reputations are already shaken quite clearly, yet this process without any serious hindrance still continues to destroy the fabric of our society, going deeper and wider. Regarding this, for instance, it is not irrelevant that the overall media attention in our country focuses excessively – though in a negative light – on people outside the law, outside civilized ways and behav- iour, people who damage the society in every sense. Therefore, whether you want it or not, you are forced to remember their names, almost as if they were models of propriety. And do you have the opportunity to receive equally exhaus- tive information about scientists, scholars, artists, young winners of awards and

8 Popović Mlađenović, T.: Interview with Mirjana Veselinović-Hofman (5–25) medals at international competitions – say, in mathematics? No. Bleak, one-off, lip-service reports about them and their accomplishments, for which I cannot even remember when was the last time they ‘earned’ to become the “Impact of the Week”,1 are perceived in the described context of media and information al- most as excesses. Let alone the state of affairs in music, which is also reflected in the media promotion of mostly reversed value scales, the promotion of taste- less banality, non-professionalism, ignorance, superficiality, simplification, ev- erything that does not ‘fatigue’ one’s cognitive apparatus, in the aspects of all kinds of music, in the interest of profit. Or, for example, just look what we are doing to our own language. On the one hand, we are overwhelmed with grief over ‘pulling up’ and forgetting our roots, over losing our cultural identity, and on the other, in the aggressively simplified, petty-political perception of these categories we completely forget how necessary it is to cultivate and stand for our standard language while the media promote all kinds of its distortions. Just pay attention to the grotesque stresses of the words, abounding in certain televi- sion shows – even in news programmes – or to the elementary grammatical and orthographic errors in film subtitles or newspaper articles! At the same time, the Politika, a daily which used to take great care of the language quality, decided to publish a symptomatically cheap shot at the job of language editing, where those who look after the language correctness are labelled “Grammar Nazis”‼! I know, of course, that languages are living things – each of them has dialects and slangs and loanwords – but I know of no culture which has survived, built and preserved its authority by neglecting and looking down on its standard lan- guage and script. And so on, there are too many similar examples. Therefore, it is not unusual that knowledge and its protagonists have be- come a laughing stock in such a context of confounded values and the inappro- priate systemic response to them, in the context of a deranged cultural policy. So, what is left for the thinker then, in such an environment? To begin with, maybe an Adornian task: to confront that negativity by uncovering it through critique. But also, to try and contribute to a positive course of events in the most constructive way possible, first of all in their own profession and environment.

Is it the openness and polyphonic quality of these ‘troubled’ but also infinitely amazing, intriguing and provocative times we live in your primary reason for having dealt with and dealing with music that is created here and now, i.e. the music that still has to make history, or rather, to make history written here and now for the first time?

1 “Utisak nedelje” [“Impact of the Week”], very popular in Serbia, is a weekly television programme presenting the most striking reports and events from Serbia and the world – though not necessarily those that made the general headlines. (Translator’s note)

9 New Sound 41, I/2013

I would say that my preoccupation with contemporary Serbian music – i.e. music created here and now, as you put it more precisely – originated from the fusion of my need to study unexplored fields and my interest in what is going on around me. And contemporary creativity ‘provided’ me with both. On the one hand, there is the possibility to analyse what has not yet been analysed; to systematize what has not yet been systematized; to interpret what has not yet been interpreted. Or, if all of that has already been done in certain cases, then to search for new angles of the analytical focus, to offer more appropriate system- atizations, to present my own viewpoints on interpretation and elucidation. On the other hand, contemporary creation also ‘provided’ me with the opportunity to get acquainted with the current phenomena in and outside music: with tech- nological and compositional-technical innovations, various efforts in media, style and theory, but also the possibility of contextual perception, necessarily related to the problem area of this often contradictory, disoriented, abused, pro- vocative, above all complex, yet nevertheless beautiful here and now.

Therefore, I would say it is not just a matter of history as keeping track of current chronological events – but rather deliberation about historical problems in the field of the history of music as a theoretical discipline? Observing and contem- plating the boom of music history in the musical avant-garde and post-historic time of musical Postmodernism? Witnessing the explosion and the destruction of the idea of progress? Registering a historical and analytical fact which is inter- preted and contextualized in musicology as an interdisciplinary study field? Yes, you are completely right. In my treatment of the subjects you have mentioned, like any other subject I deal with, I always travel the road from establishing a fact, which is a purely historical and/or analytical point of depar- ture, to its contextualization as a scholarly goal.

Is the historicity of the place from which the (musicological) ‘narrative’ is sought, as Fernando Catroga says in his book Istorija, vreme i pamćenje [Os passos do homem como restolho do tempo], that unavoidable imperative “to make the meaningful narrative confront the narrative of how, establishing the why, so that the historian can deal with the hermeneutics of what has happened”?2

2 Cf. Fernando Katroga, Istorija, vreme i pamćenje [Fernando Catroga, Os passos do homem como restolho do tempo], trans. Sonja Asanović Todorović, Clio, Belgrade, 2011, 11–12. (Translator’s note)

10 Popović Mlađenović, T.: Interview with Mirjana Veselinović-Hofman (5–25)

It largely is. Both as a historian who strives to explain the gist of the sense and the meaning of the events forming history, and as a musicologist pursuing the hermeneutical work which, admittedly, can never reach the ‘true’ meaning of a musical work but only approximate this meaning asymptotically, I think that it is necessary always to keep in mind the ‘call’ of historicity. For the historicity of the place of ‘narrative,’ to which ‘narrative is indebted,’ is an important context of the credibility of the what and the how, of the validity of establishing and com- prehension of the why, and the meaningfulness of the hermeneutical because.

What is your first memory of the need, desire and then decision to deal with music and to speak and write about it? To be a musician and musicologist? I have never spoken about it… but… yes, maybe we must ‘retrieve’ such things sometimes. The first memory… well, the search for it must lead me back to my earliest childhood, when music surrounded me in an unconventional way that was valuable for my general spiritual development. Namely, although my parents were not professional musicians, they had a certain musical education and they lived with music because they needed it in a sort of natural, implicit way (just as with books!). Not only did they attend concerts, operas and bal- lets, taking me with them too: they made music at home, just for themselves, for personal pleasure. My mother, who as a philologist taught French and Latin in a secondary school, had studied piano for a while in Zagreb, which came to an end because she had to focus on her principal studies in Paris. However, she liked to play at home whenever she had any time, both alone and with my father. He, in turn, chose scholarly work: he was a historian and archaeologist, and also a theologian. He played the tambura, the guitar and was able to sing very nicely (he had been a member of an amateur choir in his youth). Thus, in my truly youngest days, from when I have the earliest memories of myself, I was listening live ‘parental’ renditions of all sorts of things, including some of the most beautiful Schubert’s songs and ‘adapted’ popular fragments from some operas and ballets. The rich library of my parents contained works of music too, including a certain number of piano reductions of complete operas (which my mother sometimes played ‘in instalments’), as well as individual numbers from them. It was in those moments of music-making at home, which my par- ents enjoyed ‘contagiously’ that I experienced for the first time the magnetism of music, the need to get close to it somehow. And I wanted – to dance to it! To become a ballerina! During my tireless and childish jumping to the music, stumbling and turning round and round, I felt pleased and – now I would put it like this: musically useful. I was in fact still too small to start taking lessons on any instrument, and so, I guess, movement was the only thing I felt available to

11 New Sound 41, I/2013 me as the way to participate in these exciting ‘artistic’ expressions in my fam- ily. By the way, apart from the instruments I have already mentioned, we also had a violin and my grandmother’s cimbalom. She learned to play violin in the Normal School in Sombor, which she graduated from, while playing cimbalom (which my mother also learned how to do in her childhood) and piano (as well as taking lessons in certain foreign languages) was a part of the default educa- tional standard for aristocratic families in Novi Sad, such as the one she was born into. She died relatively young, I do not remember her, but ever since my childhood days I have been surrounded by family memories of her extraordi- nary skill ‘with’ instruments and musicality. In such an environment, it was natural for me to start entering the world of music. The need to deal with it professionally and, maybe even more im- portantly, the decision on how to do it – I think that came after a number of concerts which I had the opportunity to hear in Budapest, where my father was conducting an archival research. At the time, a several-day long festival was taking place, where Bartók and Kodály’s works were being performed. I knew almost nothing about their works at the time (I think I was in the tenth grade, and also in the eighth grade of music school), but I vividly remember that, at some point of the festival, I started spontaneously to listen to their compositions ‘comparatively’ and afterwards felt a great urge to verbalize my observations about the ‘dissimilarity of the similar’ in them. And I suppose I have chosen my profession then and there, without even realizing it. All the more so since my curiosity at the time was oriented towards natural sciences. But my affinity over the years guided me more and more towards the humanities, which, together with music, led me to choose studies in musicology.

In your opinion, does a person’s way of thinking (in general, and about music in particular) depend on the language? “We are born into a [certain] language” and we adopt its intonation from our earliest days (I have read that some researches show that even a baby’s cry can reveal the phonology of their native tongue!), we start to master its words and constructions; it is the language that we first speak, communicate in and express ourselves with. We use it to describe things that we see, i.e. those that are objective in nature, but also those that are not. We express our feelings in that language, our thoughts, observations, memories, assumptions, judgments, therefore we shape our thought. Most generally, we use both its referential and its semantic function. The way we do it is intrinsically conditioned and limited by the language in which we do it, its grammatical and syntactic ‘model’ and fine points, i.e. the specific qualities and autonomy of its logic and its means.

12 Popović Mlađenović, T.: Interview with Mirjana Veselinović-Hofman (5–25)

From that aspect, language essentially shapes our way of thinking, our com- prehension of reality, hence music too. However, at the same time, the way in which we think in ‘our’ language also influences that language in return. We can say, for example, that a creative thought will motivate the creative use of language (e.g. it will bring metaphorical enrichment, neologisms, etc.), use which is semantically and stylistically individualized. Because, as Derrida says, what is at work is a constant process of making new connections between no- tions, and that certainly has an influence on the development of language. Thus, language and the way we think are closely linked. Regarding this, it is typical that in the language of a certain culture we will not find words or notions which do not exist in their mental practice. And if the language does not ‘cover’ certain notions, you will either not speak of them, or – if the de- velopment of thought makes it necessary for you to speak of them – you will borrow the missing notions and words from another language; or perhaps you will create them in that ‘limiting’ language. For example, in some languages of Sub-Saharan Africa you can hardly speak and write about mathematics, since they are notionally constrained to just a few numbers. Hence, if you are born into such a language and if you remain in it culturologically, your way of think- ing will form and range within those boundaries.

It seems that, linguistically, one must not remain average, i.e. that one must impose oneself by means of language? In that respect, is language the fate of musicologists from so-called small cultures? At the same time, is it their advantage to have the curiosity that makes them acquire the greatest possible education, to live through as many experiences as possible, to keep adding new layers to their inner richness, and thus, like a knot that constantly ties together the experiences about themselves and the world, to ensure the vitality of their studies, among other things? Language is the fate of musicologists from all cultures, either ‘big’ or ‘small’, because it is the musicologists’ main tool and the domain of their ex- pression. Musicologists should become skilful with this tool, because if they use it in the wrong way or with insufficient precision, they cannot articulate their thoughts clearly and distinctly, nor can they build their own style. And it is very important for musicologists to be positively recognizable as thinkers and writers. They are writers who integrate many kinds of knowledge in a way that allows and helps them to carry out the scholarly treatment of the chosen subject in the most credible, universal and individual way possible, thus contributing to the development of their profession. Therefore, curiosity and the need for con- stant education, which motivate them to it, are certainly their advantage.

13 New Sound 41, I/2013

However, in the process, musicologists from a ‘small’ culture face a serious additional problem – the unfavourable position of their language surrounded by the ‘big’ cultures. For, on the world scale, earning recognition is difficult even for the most professional and most creative musicology – or any other scholarly or scientific field! – in a language that almost nobody from the appro- priate scholarly population in the world understands. Therefore, this is another sense of language being the musicologists’ fate. Language can open or close the ‘door’ of musicological communication for them. Thus, for example, the translation of our publications into some of the world languages is crucial for the full recognition of our musicology. For this exact reason, the New Sound has been published for a whole twenty years, i.e. from the first issue, in English too, contributing increasingly over the years to the presence of our studies of music on the rich stage of musicological events and trends in the world, and, of course, to the international promotion of music it deals with on its pages. Also, our musicologists write their papers directly in a foreign language ever more often. But however commendable this may be, there is also a downside to it. Namely, one’s expression in a foreign language can never be as precise and free and creative as in one’s mother tongue. Undoubtedly, by writing in, say, the English language we considerably improve our command of it, we can even form a certain style in that language, but at the same time we thus stray from our native language, we somehow turn a deaf ear to the qualitative enrichment of our own expression in it.

What does it mean for you to write about music? Generally, writing about music can mean a lot of things. For me personally, it is the satisfaction of my creative need, a ‘response’ to a creative excitation. Days without a sentence written are insufficiently rewarding for me, somehow incomplete, although on such days I delve into literature more intensively and/ or listen to music itself – unless they are just fully occupied by some of my re- sponsibilities outside the domain of scholarly work.

Writing as a creative act – is it at the same time a passion, the fullness of enthu- siasm, a kind of liberation, perhaps a rebellion in the broadest sense, or some- thing else entirely? I think that writing (about music) also has some elements of a passion, as does anything that one exercises as a profession which they deeply like. From the perspective of my dealing with words about music, writing is a challenge, a space in which ideas sprout, in which knowledge is enriched and applied,

14 Popović Mlađenović, T.: Interview with Mirjana Veselinović-Hofman (5–25) perceptions sharpened; it is the domain of creative freedom, freedom of thought and expression, and so it sometimes is and has to be a rebellion and incentive for the change of the existing constellation in one’s own profession, culture and society. Writing, therefore, is also a way of social existence and action. And due to all the personal elements in it, writing is a kind of self-croquis too. Made unintentionally and unconsciously.

At the same time, you attach great importance to the style of expression? Yes. I think that the interdependence of the way of thinking and the lan- guage, which I spoke about a little while ago, includes the comprehension of the language as a living thing. This implies that writing should include the contin- ued mastering of expressive powers and richness of the language, i.e. cultivat- ing the style of one’s own expression. Style is important not only because it is the ‘means’ of precision and clarity of presentation, which are fundamentally important for a musicological text, but also because it is largely the symbolic embodiment of authorial recognisability. As I understand it, style forms, ma- tures and develops to a great extent in the process of working on a sentence. This process is creative and, as such, marked by personal poetics. I love to work on a sentence, to feel that it is alive – that it becomes richer, more beautiful, more careful, more biting… Because while you are shaping it, you are in fact a subject who establishes a relationship with that sentence, with that object being created, like you would do with someone else, an opposing subject with whom you ‘communicate’ closely but unsparingly. Namely, the emerging sentence can ‘support’ you right away, but it can also fiercely ‘op- pose’ you; by the nature of things, it surrenders to your thought, but it also ‘veri- fies’ it by its logic, coherence and clarity. Thus, the sentence helps you to hone the thought you wished to express in it; and you, in turn, acknowledging these tests and ‘observations’ made by your sentence, change it in order to make that thought as convincing as possible in/by the sentence. It is of no consequence whether you start with a rough sentential ‘coat of paint’ used only to outline your thought, and then move on towards precision and fine points; or you go the other way round, building the entity of your sentence step by step starting with a detail (whose particular impulse need not even be linguistic in nature!), with some no- tional constellation or some phrase, which you are convinced is the core or a hint of what you want to express. This process lasts until you feel and estimate that the sentence ‘has become’ the thought itself. And of course, that it is organically connected with the thought content and the sentential fabric of the text. Therefore, as I see it, attaching importance to the style of expression is de- cisively manifested in the ‘communication’ between the text’s author and their

15 New Sound 41, I/2013 sentence as two alternating subjects; during the transfer of the role of the subject in this ‘communication’, as Eggebrecht might have put it, the other ‘becomes’ the object. So, as the subject who shapes the sentence, the author is at the same time the object scrutinized by that sentence. I think that this process of ‘communication’ with a sentence in order to achieve maximum intelligibility and beauty of expression within a thought sys- tem can be felt very nicely while translating a text (particularly one’s own) to a foreign language. Then the sentence changes completely, even though its mean- ing remains the same. But in order to achieve this, the sentence must be ‘relo- cated’ not only to the lexical, grammatical and syntactical system of another linguistic field, but also to the entire logical and symbolical system of that other linguistic culture.

Bearing in mind your book Fragmenti o muzičkoj postmoderni, which was also published in Germany, in the German language, is the fragment as a musico- logical genre something that is able, at least seemingly, to circumvent the lan- guage, to ‘just pass through’ it? Something that can be the linguistic representation of an immediate experience of music? A moment of ostensibly simultaneous living the music itself and the words about it? A moment of living musicology as a personally experienced thing, a direct personal experience? The word fragment in the title of that book of mine is not related to the issue of the fragment as a musicological genre, but to the issue of polysemy as one of the fundamental determinants of Postmodernism. At the same time, this word suggests that my book is but the possible fragment of a polysemic musi- cological context about music in the age of Postmodernism. The book therefore demonstrates, to paraphrase Derrida again, establishing a personal semantic comprehension of the relation between existing notions in/about the field. In that respect, the book does not ‘pass through’ the language, it is ‘in it’. On the same note, it is also a kind of architecture of moments of my per- sonal experience of musicology and living my direct thought experience both with music and musicology. This can probably be best corroborated by the man- ner of formal articulation of this book. The fragment as a musicological genre, however, which I understand pri- marily as a parenthetical note on the ‘margins’ of the acoustic unfolding of a musical tissue, can be – and mostly is – a companion and representative of im- mediate aesthetic experience. But even as such, the fragment does not ‘circum- vent’ the language, in my opinion – it just requires a greater ‘linguistic speed’.

16 Popović Mlađenović, T.: Interview with Mirjana Veselinović-Hofman (5–25)

If a book, certainly a scholarly one too, is the life or a part of the life of its au- thor that opens them up to the external world, is it the task of the book to be a challenge, to give a shock, to question certain things, to change the readers’ ‘lives’ in one way or another? I would say that your books, among other things, have always been such a challenge. Regardless of its type, every book influences the readers by its content and information, providing them with new facts and expanding their knowledge. Also, books confront readers with various problems and questions, offering them interpretations and answers, motivating them to think. And regardless of whether they agree with the insights, the way and the course of thinking, the viewpoints offered by some book, no matter whether they like them or not, accept them or not, the readers will have certain awareness of them. And some- times, perhaps, under the impression and influence of these viewpoints, they will make some changes in certain aspects of their life and work. When a scholarly book is concerned, its primary characteristics – the the- sis, facts, analytical apparatus, methodology, argumentation and interpretation – should bring innovation to the field it belongs to. And arouse the appropriate creative responses, inspire further research, encoding and reactions, depending on the degree of its originality in all these elements and the author’s courage and unconventionality. If my books are indeed a challenge of that kind, they have fulfilled their purpose.

Could we say that one of the essential features of beings – one which they hide, but which anyway appears in spite of what they say – is indeed music? If music is such a feature, does writing about it reveal the musicologist as an authentic subject of history? Even if music were not one of the essential features of beings (which is primarily a subject to be elaborated in the field of general psychology and the psychology of music), writing about it would be an endeavour to penetrate into what it is hiding (given that its nature is notionally inexplicit) and to explain that openly. Of course, a musicologist will not perceive and discover always the same things, nor – more importantly for the question you posed – will they in- terpret them always in the same way. On the contrary. In substantiating personal insights and perceptions, especially if they are historically contextualized, a musicologist adopts the attitude of an authentic, unique subject (building ‘their own segment’) of history.

17 New Sound 41, I/2013

Does musicology need utopia and delusion (about freedom and/or free will)? I think it does. Because both utopia and delusion, each in their own way, can stimulate the development of musicology and make it better, since both imply high standards of the unfeasible. Thus, the challenge of utopia can com- pel creative forces to devise solutions directed at reaching the ideal, “the place that does not exist [in musicology]”, and the challenge of delusion can lead to inventing instruments for ‘transposing’ illusion into reality; for the reality of the illusion. In that sense, for example, the delusion of (creative) freedom has proven to be indispensable, particularly in repressive historical circumstances. Still, we should not forget that delusion in its aspects of perception, insight, experience, and judgment, can also have ‘negative’ connotations. As such, it is extremely dangerous because it can even become a strong driving force in the opposite direction.

Does anything exist today that could be qualified as nostalgia and melancholy of music and musicology, i.e. of those who create music and those who interpret it in words? Or the central points are the activism of musicology, any kind of it, and unquestionable technological progress apparent also in music? Nostalgia is a very complex phenomenon, the same as melancholy, to which it is closely related. They both belong to the broad range of emotions that are both individual and collective. Individually, the manifestation of sor- row for what does not exist anymore usually takes the form of idealization of a time past which – like childhood, for example – has left a ‘soft’ trace in our lives. Collectively, this idealization becomes superindividual in character, and is shown not only as the collective idealization of a historically happier, com- mon, collective past, but also of the tragic times, of the past marked by historic losses and suffering. This idealization is almost always coloured by nationalism and politics, since it is also manifested as a longing for the restoration of what is historically lost, either effectively or fictitiously: a place of residence, an ideo- logical context, a social and economic formation, and so on. And both kinds of nostalgia can suffer a sort of melancholic exaggeration. In that case, ‘healthy’ sorrow and pain for what, and because of what, is a part of the past and cannot be restored ever again may remain lingering as unintegrated emotions and turn into a self-pitying sense of loss. Constant in its intensity, this emotion gradually becomes detached from its actual reason; it becomes gener- alized, often turning into an attitude, demand, ideology, policy, aesthetics… From the perspective of what I have said, one could conclude that the ele- ments of nostalgia and melancholy do exist even today, in the highly ramified

18 Popović Mlađenović, T.: Interview with Mirjana Veselinović-Hofman (5–25) activism of musicology and in the increasing technological expansion of the possibilities for musical expression. We can look for them in all the associations of the past and in making connections with the past in music – especially in concrete musical solutions and contents which can induce feelings of nostalgia or melancholy in the listeners; also, in musicological thematisations and elabo- rations of the musical past, especially the national one. But also in exaggeration that puts a negative label on the entire matter whenever it suggests an almost vindictive ‘lamentation’ for what is lost and denied, and does this in a ‘coercive’ way that is sometimes quite open, and sometimes hidden. Thereby falling into the trap of obtrusively ‘tacky’ simplification of style and problems. Both in music and musicology.

In this regard, has music already given its best? Are all the great musics behind us? As well as all the great theories of music, as part of the great modern delu- sion of unlimited progress? We can hardly claim such a thing unconditionally, because we cannot pre- dict the future with complete certainty in order to be sure that neither the music nor theory of tomorrow will ever accomplish anything better than what they have already reached. Because, you see, we are witnessing the expansion and improvement of the expressive means of music and its continued technologi- cal enrichment, as well as the intensification, ramification and deepening of theoretical thought, which together – whether we interpret it as progress or not – open up the possibility for new, valuable achievements, both in music and theory. Such achievements are being accomplished even today, regardless of the destruction of the modernist delusion, and I believe that this will keep happen- ing in the future. Nevertheless, looking precisely from within this post-delusional, postmod- ern situation, we could also state that, as you say, all the great musics and all the great theories are indeed behind us. But not because the works that constitute the foundation and indispensable reference points both for music and theory today, for their contemporary character and current developmental stage are in- deed the many musical and theoretical works written in the past, but mainly because today there is no longer a system of criteria within which the notion of great, of great music or great theory, could be defined and sustained. Therefore, today we could have long and, I am afraid, futile discussions over what could be understood as great music and great theory, given that many contradictory phenomena, incongruous in every way – both within music and within theory – can be substantiated as great. Because the views and practice of the postmodern age do not include the notion of greatness in the systemic sense, in the sense

19 New Sound 41, I/2013 of a leading authority, of a leading and unquestionable musical and theoretical orientation and guidelines. On the contrary: in the postmodern synchronicity, all the options are equally valuable and, as such, have the opportunity to ‘become’ great. And not necessarily (or mostly not at all) warranted by primarily profes- sional criteria, but based on a sort of production of importance by structured marketing. Thus, we can register that the increased presence of certain music (a certain piece/author) on the concert stage, in the spoken and written word, and most of all in the commercial media network, makes this music (piece/author) ‘greater and greater’. It is much the same with theory: if you stand for a theory not only in the appropriate branches of your professional activity, but also in the media with enough obstinacy, its greatness will ‘grow’. Therefore, I would say that the great works of today are made great not by a professional consensus or system of criteria and values, but by the available network of ‘product’ market- ing. In the process, I do not disregard the fact that great works in history so far have also been promoted in ways appropriate to the practice of the times, but today, they are made great not by, for example, genius and its poetics, but by the successful functioning of the supply and demand mechanism.

Which musicologists are you truly connected with? By that, I do not mean just real and direct contacts, but rather those who cause a fundamental ‘resonance’, regardless of time and space?

I think that your question already contains the point of my answer, implied by the phrase fundamental ‘resonance’. What we are talking about here are in fact musicological “relatives”, to paraphrase Pavle Stefanović; in particular, the authors of the theories that respect, problematize and elaborate either the entire methodological pyramid, from what is autonomously musical in a work to what is latently semantic in it, or certain aspects of it, in a way that implies or stimu- lates personal insights as a sort of hermeneutical completion.

Can you specify your musicological position? First of all, it would be a position that links musicology to the aesthetics of music, in the sense of the musicological aesthetics of music. I base it on personal existence in a musical work – as Roger Scruton interprets it – on the experience of music, on the analytical reading of music, and I build and expand it by thematising and studying many phenomena related to music and a musical work, but also to musicology itself.

20 Popović Mlađenović, T.: Interview with Mirjana Veselinović-Hofman (5–25)

It is undoubtedly the common thread of your years-long educational work, i.e. it is inseparably woven into it. It seems, namely, that your musicological position even stems from it partially? For you, what is the fundamental meaning of con- veying knowledge, uncovering mysteries and, in that context, ‘growing up’ with generations of young people, future experts and colleagues? Yes, you are right. My musicological and educational views, musicologi- cal and educational work are closely linked to one another, through feedback, stimulation and verification. How did this come to be? The foundation of my musicological standpoint, in the sense of the musicological position I tried to specify a little while ago, was hinted as early as when I graduated from uni- versity, only to be consolidated, deepened and articulated, both poetically and aesthetically, during my further intensive studies and expansion of acquired knowledge – including the knowledge of the musicological discipline itself. But at the beginning of this process, I became involved in education and had to deal right away with its specific tasks and challenges. My approach to solving them – then and since (because these challenges are the open problems of education!) – has retroactively influenced refining my musicological poetics and aesthetics. This process of the feedback and mutual verification of musicological and edu- cational principles and experiences is active with me even today, and it is an im- portant impetus for their enrichment. Looking precisely from this perspective, one could say that – as you have perceived – my musicological position is partly derived from my educational work. And this, in turn, fundamentally determines my attitude towards the meaning, sense and value of conveying knowledge. In other words, as an important ‘wave’ interfering with my musicological views, conveying knowledge is a part of my creative work, and thus in itself implies a sort of creative act. For this conveying, in my case, does not end with mere presentation, a lecture in the sense of treatment of a particular subject or teaching unit according to appropriate methodical procedures; it also involves ‘digressions’ into creativity on the spot. These digressions, of course, do not occur every single time. They require inducements, and these inducements, for me, come from immediate communication with the students, depending on the type of their response during the actual lecture, or from some mental resonance with them, which sometimes I even feel very strongly. To the extent that, for example, even while I am speaking at a lecture, an idea happens to strike me about a possibility for some new, additional aspect, for paving a new way in the direction which I stand for when interpreting a certain problem area. You know, there was more than one lecture after which I have immediately noted down the sparks of new ideas that occurred to me precisely while presenting the matter.

21 New Sound 41, I/2013

I think that this creative flexibility in conveying knowledge is very im- portant in educational work. Not only does it ‘freshen up’ your thought, it also indirectly includes students into the lecture as a creative act, thus demonstrating to them a certain sense and value of both musicological and educational work. This way, the immediate educational proximity and creative interchange with students allows you to discover and evaluate their individual abilities, in- terests, cognitive styles, endeavours, wishes, dilemmas; to orient, support and follow them in their individual development. And so, you actually ‘grow up’ with each new generation, always keeping in mind that, as a scholar and educa- tor, you also have to be in a constant process of acquiring knowledge.

Almost from the very beginning of your educational work, you have been teach- ing at the University of Arts in Belgrade, where you are also the Head of the Department of Musicology at the Faculty of Music. For years you were teach- ing at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, you cooperated with the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Rostock and the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, you were a lecturer at the Department of Music at the University of Pretoria… Based on all these experiences, can you say how, in fact, does one learn musi- cology? Or rather, how does one become a musicologist? In different ways. From the viewpoint of the systems of studies employed at various universities / music academies / high schools, one can recognize – at least in my experience – three general principles. They are distinguished primar- ily by the systemic starting points of the studies, and thereby, the direction of education and reaching the goal. And the goal is, more or less, always the same: to build a musicologist – or, to be more realistic, to provide students with the knowledge that will allow them, after graduation, to move freely in the domain of our studies, to keep developing independently as musicologists. Therefore, the first starting point relies on ‘attentive music reading’, with an orientation towards the contextual interpretation of what lies ‘behind the music’, i.e. to- wards the theoretical expounding of what analysis showed to be a noteworthy problem. The second starting point systemically includes all kinds of material ‘around the work’, focusing immediately on the context. And the third, on the other hand, gives priority to the immediate experience in performing music as the prerequisite of mastering the musicological trade. Each of these systemic principles has merits and downsides, but generally, they suggest that, starting from different musicological points, heading in different, or even opposite di- rections, it is possible to reach some musicological agreement. So, I will now answer the second part of your question: one can become a musicologist within every consistent and consequent educational system.

22 Popović Mlađenović, T.: Interview with Mirjana Veselinović-Hofman (5–25)

But regardless of the system they are developing in, only those students who master the appropriate skills and acquire knowledge from all the narrowly professional disciplines of music and musicological relevance will become mu- sicologists.

On the other hand, you are a member of the International Musicological Soci- ety, whose activities you actively participate in; until recently you were the first Chairperson of the Serbian Musicological Society; and since recently you have been the Secretary of the Department of Theatrical Arts and Music at the Mat- ica Srpska. You have participated in many musicological conferences in the country and abroad and worked within various international scholarly teams. Regarding this, what is the place, in your opinion, of Serbian musicology in the broader contexts of Europe and the world? My appraisal is that this place is satisfactorily prominent. It is the conse- quence of the reputation that our musicologists have earned in the last three decades (and which, in all likelihood, will continue to improve!), most of all by their individual appearances on the European and the world stage: as partici- pants in musicological conferences (now ever more often on direct invitations, while some of them have also been asked to be keynote speakers), gatherings, panel discussions, university lectures, as associates in various scholarly teams and projects, thematic article collections, proceedings of various conferences, journals, some as authors of books published abroad, as members of university examination committees, various selection and programme committees, etc. This reputation of our musicologists is the result of our conforming to the high- est musicological standards in our educational and scholarly work. Thus – as you know from personal experience – our results often draw special attention because of the intriguing quality of their subjects, solid arguments, the scope, curiosity, often even because of the provocative theoretical considerations, au- thoritative participation in expert discussions, as well as the intensity and struc- turedness of our output so far. With regard to the last item, I would like to underline that our publications, which are, by the way, increasingly published in the English language, are based on a concept, within thematically elaborated scientific projects. This musicological presence of ours, in all the mentioned forms of profes- sional activities in the world, is ‘met’ with the interest of foreign colleagues in taking part in the same type of activities as those that we organize here at the in- stitutional level: within the Department of Musicology at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, the Musicological Institute of SASA, the Serbian Musicological Society, the Department of Theatrical Arts and Music at the Matica Srpska.

23 New Sound 41, I/2013

Therefore, today our institutions are equal partners in cooperation with the cor- responding institutions in the world. Here, let me illustrate this with just three things. For example, in 2008 the International Musicological Society entrusted the Serbian Musicological Society with the organization of an international mu- sicological conference as part of their activities within the IMS Regional Asso- ciation for the Balkan Countries; the New Sound journal made it to the coveted ERIH (European Reference Index for the Humanities); and the Department of Musicology at the Faculty of Music received the proposal from the Society for Minimalist Music to respond to the invitation by the organizers and hosts of the Fifth International Conference on Minimalist Music. Everything that I have emphasized – and regarding this matter, there is so much more to mention and substantiate! – indicates without any doubt that our musicology is an equal participant in contemporary musicological activi- ties in the world, and that by all the important elements – interests, method- ological trends, aspects and the intensity of activities and, most importantly, the professional level – corresponds with the musicology in other environments. However, I am far from letting myself idealize this place of our musicology in today’s world. I just want to emphasize that its coordinates are correct and stable, but that the place determined by these coordinates must be confirmed and upgraded over and over. And not only because we are, unfortunately and all else notwithstanding, vulnerable due to the fact that we are somehow always subjected to an ‘initial sizing up’ according to the power of ‘our passports’, i.e. our economy and the cultural image of our country in the world, but mostly because etiam cum mul- tum actum erit, omnis tamen aetas quod agat inveniet.

At the end, just as at the beginning of every ‘musical thing’, we are facing a musical work. Your latest book, Pred muzičkim delom – Ogledi o međusobnim projekcijama estetike, poetike i stilistike muzike 20. veka: jedna muzikološka vizura [Facing a Musical Work – Essays on Mutual Projections of Aesthetics, Poetics and Stylistics of 20th Century Music: A Musicological View], published in 2007, is a sort of quintessence of your work so far. What are the crucial points of its scholarly considerations that you would like to underscore? Can we expect, in the near future, further ‘dialogic ramifications’ of this work, in the form of some new book of yours? This book is my effort to present and interpret, but also upgrade selected theoretical opinions of some of the most relevant foreign and domestic musi- cologists, composers and those aestheticians, philosophers and sociologists of the 20th century who included their personal experiences in making music in

24 Popović Mlađenović, T.: Interview with Mirjana Veselinović-Hofman (5–25) their theoretical deliberations. These are the opinions on the crucial issues of a musical work taken as opus perfectum et absolutum: on the manifestations of autonomous musical logic, on the ontological ‘places’ of music, on its phenom- enological aspects, hermeneutical and sociological questions. However, I did not conceive the book as a historical, factual and objectivist overview of these opinions, but as their interpretation from my personal musicological viewpoint. In the first part of the book, titled “Muzikološko klatno” [“Musicological Pen- dulum”], I define its fundamental traits as postmodernist interdisciplinarity and interpretational freedom within the model of musicological competence that I designed, though stating at the same time that it is rooted in modernism and ‘verifiability’. Such a view oriented me towards a synchronic rather than a dia- chronic analysis, towards choosing not only explicit, systemically founded and elaborated theoretical opinions, but also those that are non-systemic, or even implicit, latent. Hidden perhaps in just a few observations, in a succinct and ambiguous sentence, or even in an incidental thought while leaping from obser- vation to observation on music, those unspoken or perhaps only hinted opinions were a true creative challenge for me, and the motivation for theoretical, musi- cological discovery. But also an encouragement, regarding this very discovery, to leave quite deliberately one question in the book as a mere hint. Will this question as a ‘signpost’ lead to further “dialogic ramifications” of my musicological poetics any time soon… I do not know… possibly.

Translated by Goran Kapetanović

25 New Sound 41, I/2013

26 STUDIES

Article received on 15 September 2013 Article accepted on 30 September 2013 UDC: 78.01:141.82 78.071.1 Вучковић В.

AESTHETICAL VIEWS OF VOJISLAV VUČKOVIĆ IN THE LIGHT OF THEORY OF REFLECTION AND CRITICAL THEORY1

Milan Milojković* Department of Musicology and Ethnomusicology Academy of Arts in Novi Sad

Abstract: Although Vojislav Vučković (1910–1942) did not leave an elaborate and self- contained theoretical system behind, his creativity can nevertheless be perceived from a relatively integral perspective, thanks to collections of papers published posthumously. It should be kept in mind that our great composer lost his life at the pinnacle of productivity; hence, we can safely say that his work was interrupted in every sense of the word, and thus left somewhat fragmentary. There is a very significant difference between the views on problem solving he advocated in his early essays and those he promoted before and during the war, given that the timespan involved is just ten years (1932–1942). Based on these ‘theoretical wanderings’, one could assume that Vučković was following the inten- sive changes on the West European theoretical stage of his time, endeavouring to shape his standpoints in a dialogue with the main theoretical currents. In this text, I will try to highlight the possible connections between some of Vučković’s views and the theories which left an important imprint on the cultural life of Europe between the wars, such as the theory of reflection by Todor Pavlov (1890–1977) and critical (aesthetical) theory by Theodor Adorno (1903–1969) and Walter Benjamin (1892–1940). It should be said that Vučković used Pavlov’s theory directly, but in a quite distinctive way which, alongside the theoretical trends of the upcoming generation of Marxist thinkers, was close to the

* Author contact information: [email protected] 1 The first draft of this paper was written under the mentorship of Professor Mirjana Veselinović-Hofman within doctoral studies at the Belgrade Faculty of Music in 2013.

27 New Sound 41, I/2013 critical standpoints of distinguished members of the Frankfurt School, who in those years, like Vučković, were writing new chapters of the history of aesthetics. Key words: Vojislav Vučković, Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, critical theory, theory of reflection, aesthetics of music

It can be said that Vojislav Vučković (1910–1942) did not leave behind a single comprehensive written work, a magnum opus in the sense of an elabo- rate and self-contained theoretical system, but his creativity can nevertheless be perceived from a relatively integral perspective, thanks to the collections of papers published after 1945.2 Also, our great composer lost his life at the age of 32; hence, we can safely say that his work was interrupted in every sense of the word, and thus left somewhat fragmentary. The differences between the view- points advocated in the early essays and those formed before and during the Sec- ond World War seem very significant, because the timespan involved is just ten years (1932–1942). Based on these differences, one could assume that Vučković was keenly following the intensive development of the West European theoreti- cal thought of his time, endeavouring to shape his standpoints in a dialogue with the main theoretical currents. In this text, I shall try to highlight possible connec- tions between some of Vučković’s views and the theories which left an impor- tant imprint on the cultural life of Europe between the wars, such as the theory of reflection by Todor Pavlov (1890–1977)3 and critical (aesthetical) theory by Theodor Adorno (1903–1969) and Walter Benjamin (1892–1940). It should be said that Vučković used Pavlov’s theory directly, but in a quite distinctive way which, alongside the theoretical trends of the upcoming generation of Marxist thinkers, was close to the critical standpoints of distinguished members of the Frankfurt School,4 who in those years, like Vučković, were writing new chapters

2 Famous volumes are Izbor eseja [Selected Essays] (Muzikološki institut, Belgrade, 1955), Umetnost i umetničko delo [Art and a Work of Art] (Nolit, Belgrade, 1962), Vojislav Vučković – Studije, eseji, kritike [Vojislav Vučković – Studies, Essays, Critiques] (Nolit, Belgrade, 1968). 3 The first Soviet edition of Todor Pavlov’s theory of reflection was published in 1936. 4 The Frankfurt School is a name referring to a circle of Neo-Marxist theoreticians gathered around the Institute for Social Research [Institut für Sozialforschung] at the University of Frankfurt. Their activities are most often identified as critical theory. They worked inten- sively in Germany from 1923 to the mid-1930s, and from 1935, the Institute continued its activities in exile, at Columbia University in the USA. After Max Horkheimer’s appointment as the head of the Institute in 1930, a strong ‘core’ was formed, including Theodor Adorno, Erich Fromm, Herbert Marcuse, Friedrich Pollock and others. Although formally not a mem- ber of the Frankfurt School, the activities of Walter Benjamin were closely connected to its members, particularly Adorno.

28 Milojković, M.: Aesthetical Views of Vojislav Vučković ... (27–41) of the history of aesthetics. The reason why I have chosen to compare the theo- retical achievements of our author with Adorno and Benjamin’s views is the fact that the methods and theses of these two German thinkers were extremely impor- tant for Yugoslav musicology after the War (and consequently, more evident in the papers by our authors, compared to other members of the Frankfurt School), while Vučković’s standpoints, related to them, have often been neglected as part of this theoretical context. Vučković in his texts tackled various fundamental issues of musical aes- thetics, almost always being on the line of defining the notion and practice of art (and of a work of art) in dialectic conjunction with the existence of a broader social and historical context and the changes thereof. It can be noted that in the text Muzička umetnost kao subjektivna slika objektivnih stvari [Musical Art as the Subjective Image of Objective Things] the author, pursuing Pavlov’s Marxist theory of reflection, defines music ‘itself’ as a historically conditioned social practice, while in Pregled teorije i istorije estetike [Overview of Theory and History of Aesthetics] he moves from social issues in general to defining the position of music in them; based on that position, he arrives at assumptions about the notion ‘itself’. However, as a materialist, Vučković in several places explicitly refused to accept any kind of abstract notion ‘in itself’, although he nevertheless used some of them in his passionate score-settling with idealism. Today, this ‘inconsistency’ can hardly be interpreted as an oversight or lack of theoretical skill, bearing in mind that Vučković in his revolutionary zeal un- dertook to deconstruct and criticize not only traditional aesthetical systems but also Marxist platforms from which he personally approached problems in his texts. Since the environment he originated from and spent his last years in was nowhere near to being able to provide for the development of critical thought at a level comparable to that of the Frankfurters (regardless of their migrations), the ‘deviations’ and ‘distortions’ in Vučković’s work appear mainly as a conse- quence of the insufficient preparedness of the language, the culture and social context in Serbia at the time to accept a critical and theoretical potential of such power which later – through the activities of Vučković’s contemporaries who, unlike him, lived long enough to formulate their viewpoints in a mature way – led to the most significant cultural changes in post-war Europe. It seems that the Marxist theory of reflection did not leave a significant imprint on our music literature of that time. Before the war, Vučković was one of the few who advocated this standpoint (there was also Pavao Markovac, but he did intervene considerably in the theory), whilst after the war, by 1948, the Soviet literature had been translated, and written works by pre-war authors had

29 New Sound 41, I/2013 been published.5 In this regard, one could say that Vučković in his early texts described music like an artistic painting, or more specifically, a musical image which is perceived as a musical idea with subjective and objective properties. Vučković defines the objective properties of a musical idea’s content as “…idejni misaoni odraz objektivnih svojstava objekata odraženih u prvobitnoj muzičkoj slici, koja ulaze, dakle, kao već prerađena objektivna svojstva samih ob- jekata, u estetsku muzičku realnost. Tako estetska muzička realnost ne operiše fizički datim objektima, fizički datim muzičkim pojavnim formama kretanja, već njihovom, u svesti apstraktnom i estetski uopštenom muzičkom suštinom, koja postaje osnovni elemenat objektivne strane sadržaja estetske muzičke realnosti i muzičke umetničke slike.”6 In other words, Vučković basically accepts Pavlov’s dialectic postulates of the subjective and the objective, whose result is this specific dynamic image. However, right at the moment of this ‘acceptance’ a language binary barrier is met, since, unlike Pavlov, the “aesthetically generalized musical quintessence” does not owe its objectivity to a partially “natural” connection to what is being reflected; instead, its “material foundation” is in the dynamics of the “adapta- tion of objective properties,” i.e. in constant changes, and changes of the forms of these changes. This is one of the paradoxes in Vučković’s texts. He accepts the theory of reflection, but dismisses its immanent aspiration for the structure of ‘scien- tific Marxism’, which would also subject aesthetics to the basic or, in Pavlov’s words, “logical and only possible” form of creating the foundations of a “real” science. In contrast to that, Vučković discovers a language barrier in Pavlov’s dialectics, precisely while writing about music – which the Bulgarian theoreti- cian cleverly avoided – realizing that a materialist critique (as well as the sub- ject it deals with) must also undergo rapid and radical changes in the quest for new appearances, in keeping with the changes in history and practices. Namely, Pavlov employed his reading of Marx to the benefit of laying the ground for

5 That can be seen from the articles available in the regular section “Iz Sovjetskog Saveza” [“From the Soviet Union”] of Muzičke novine [Musical Journal], a periodical published in Zagreb from 1946 to 1948. 6 “…notional abstract reflection of the objective properties of the object reflected in the original musical image, which thus contribute as the already adapted objective properties of the object themselves to the aesthetical musical reality. Therefore, the aesthetical musical reality does not operate with physically given objects, physically given manifestations of musical motion, but with their musical quintessence, abstract and aesthetically generalized, which becomes the basic element of the objective part of the content of the aesthetical musi- cal reality and the artistic musical image.” Vojislav Vučković, Umetnost i umetničko delo, Nolit, Belgrade, 1962, 240.

30 Milojković, M.: Aesthetical Views of Vojislav Vučković ... (27–41) a solid and stable system in the USSR (in the light of the preparations for the upcoming war), while Vučković in his activities was looking for an opportunity to criticize the state of affairs of that day. On the other hand, Vučković says that “subjektivna svojstva sadržaja muzičke umetničke slike, ulaze u umetničku sliku, već kao prerađena, objektivizirana, subjektivna muzička svojstva čoveka i tako postaju estetski realna. Samo u objektivnoj realnosti i, preko njenog razvitka, u razvojnom procesu radne i celokupne društvene delatnosti čoveka, subjektivna muzička osećanja i potrebe ljudi mogu nastati, opstati i razvijati se kao ljudska, objektivizirana i društveno realna muzička osećanja i potrebe; samo tako prerađena u umetničkoj slici, ona mogu biti estetski realna.”7 By stressing the words “Only in objective reality,” Vučković in fact dis- covers the existence of a subjective reality which, by the logic of things, is not “aesthetically real”. However, this also means that “objectification” is the consequence of the “emergence, survival and development” of the objects in the musical image, which leads to the conclusion that the “aesthetical reality” itself is in a dialectical relationship with the non-aesthetical, i.e. “subjective/ non-objectified” reality, and that any aesthetical effect of reality is actually de- termined by ideology. Vučković, namely, in many instances explicitly says that aesthetics is a form of ideology, but facing the language of the theory of reflections and the historicist discourse, it is difficult to perceive all the possible meanings of that intervention of his. At this point, it seems that Vučković’s notion of ideology was different from Pavlov’s, who divided them into the right one and the wrong ones; instead, his critical method succeeded in identifying the operation of ide- ology even when the right one denied that operation and presented it as a logi- cal scientific fact. In a lecture titled Teorija napredne muzike [Theory of Progressive Music], Vučković defined music and philosophy precisely as forms of ideology: “Ponikla pod istim društvenim uslovima – poput filozofije – kao specijalni vid um- etnosne istorije društva, muzika u svome razvoju apstraktno oličava onu istu materi- jalnu supstancu društvenih potreba ljudi, kao i filozofija, razume se, svojim

7 “the subjective properties of the content of the artistic musical image are included in the artistic image as the already adapted, objectified, subjective musical properties of a man, and thus become aesthetically real. Only in the objective reality and, through its development, in the evolutionary process of a man’s work and entire social activity, can subjective musical emotions and needs of human beings emerge, survive and develop as human, objectified and socially real musical emotions and needs; only thus adapted in the artistic image can they be aesthetically real.” Ibid., 241.

31 New Sound 41, I/2013

specifičnim izražajnim sredstvima – pa dakle i iste one osnovne konflikte koji se manifestuju u sukobu između filozofskog idealizma i materijalizma. Zajedničko, prema tome, filozofiji i muzici je to što su i jedna i druga u jednakoj meri ideološki izraz materijalnih odnosa proizvodnje – svaka na svome području i svaka u specifičnom obliku – jednom rečju, dakle, ideologija.”8 Noting that the existence of music and philosophy is governed by ideology (or that they are “ideological expression”), and that, on the other hand, ideology is the result of production relations, Vučković reduces ideology to its “mate- rial” foundations, and seems to be radically denying even Lenin’s view about “respect for classical art” in the process, while the discourse of his criticism, at times, can be linked to Adorno’s modernist standpoints. Vučković, namely, does not say that music is the same as ideology, but he does not claim the opposite either. However, he finds that, apart from the ideology he writes about, he is also influenced by the ideology he is writing; thus, from the previous argument it follows that music, just like philosophy, as well as the subject and the object cannot be understood “in themselves,” but only by means of ideology, image, reflection. Vučković’s ‘inability’ to choose one term speaks of the variability of the parameters that define it and the ‘instability’ of the language by which it would be defined. The identification of music as an “ideological expression of the material relations of production” mainly confirms the thesis that aesthetics – which deals with “the expression itself,” without going into what is “behind” it – is an ideology, or more precisely, that “the expression itself” is in fact (only here, compliance to the theory of reflection is reached) shaped dialectically by the material relations of production and the manner in which ideology deter- mines its perception. This implies that Vučković’s subjective image of objec- tive things, unlike Pavlov’s, is anti-normative, given that the inventive dialectic game of our author yields the conclusion that the “objective thing” – paradoxi- cally, even as such – is the resultant of ideological mechanisms whose (only) goal is not to mystify repressive bourgeois aesthetics – contrary to what Pavlov says – but which are active for as long as the “objective things” are credited with “objective” properties, derived by “scientific” notional logic. And while Pavlov substantiates his claims with examples from various disciplines and ev-

8 “Arising under the same social circumstances – like philosophy – as a special form of the art history of society, music in its development personifies abstractly the same material sub- stance of people’s social needs as philosophy does, of course, with its specific means of ex- pression – hence, the same basic conflicts manifested in the collision between philosophical idealism and materialism. Therefore, the common ground between philosophy and music is that both of them, to an equal extent, are ideological expressions of the material relations of production – each in its domain and each in a specific form – hence, in a word, an ideology.” Ibid., 98.

32 Milojković, M.: Aesthetical Views of Vojislav Vučković ... (27–41) eryday life, in order to prove the universality of his theory, Vučković remains in the domain of art, particularly music, striving to put the exact aesthetic dis- course that is the origin of his views ‘on a sound footing’. His seven years older contemporary, Theodor Adorno, will begin his famous treatise Aesthetic Theory from a similar position, stressing that “it is self-evident that nothing concerning art is self-evident anymore, not its inner life, not its relation to the world, not even its right to exist”.9 It is important to emphasize that even Adorno, in the exact same confronta- tion of basic philosophical premises with the theory and practice of music, al- most at the same time as Vučković, reached similar theoretical postulates, which later, naturally, he elaborated in detail. The aesthetics (of music), constituted as a necessary ideological mediator between a work and the audience, is the thesis that brings Vučković and Adorno closer together. Also, one can say that Ador- no’s texts about music and aesthetics are in fact his critique of the context he originated from. Moreover, Lucia Sziborsky thoroughly argues the premise that Adorno critiqued the discourses of philosophy and sociology (the disciplines in which he became a cornerstone personality of the 20th century) and enriched them with new achievements, approaching them exactly from his ‘parent’ aes- thetical and musical context.10 Adorno and Vučković are also brought closer together by the view that the musical matter ‘itself’ – which in fact can only be established in a theory, i.e. aesthetics – cannot reflect anything but its own “objective aesthetical reality,” which is, on the other hand, determined by history and ideology. This implies that music endeavouring to express (something beyond itself) enters the domain of ideology, while the aspiration to establish a relationship between the “spe- cifically musical” and the social circumstances, and to find a form of musical expression suitable for the current historical moment, remains the area of con- structive criticism and opposition to repressive ideological mechanisms.11 It can be understood that Vučković’s discourse (perhaps it would not be in- appropriate to use the plural – Vučković’s discourses – since a universal profile

9 Teodor Adorno, “Estetička teorija” [Theodor Adorno, “Ästhetische Theorie”], in: Mark- sizam i umjetnost [Marxism and Art] (ed. Vjekoslav Mikecin), Komunist, Belgrade, 1976, 126. 10 Lusija Sciborski, “Dijalektika iz duha muzike” [Lucia Sziborsky, “Dialektik aus dem Geist der Musik”], in: Treći program [The Third Programme], No. 73, Belgrade, 1987, 258– 289. 11 Put simply, Adorno maintained that Schönberg had reached the socially ‘suitable’ form of a work in his atonal phase, unlike Stravinsky, who, in his opinion, demanded that social norms be accepted as reality. For more details cf. Teodor Adorno, Filozofija nove muzike [Theodor Adorno, Philosophie der neuen Musik], trans. Ivan Focht, Nolit, Belgrade, 1968.

33 New Sound 41, I/2013 of his texts is certainly impossible to create) is a token of the theoretical current which was spreading from the Soviet Union across Europe in the 1930s. His in- terpretation of Pavlov is substantially different from similar interpretations that appeared in the dogmatic environment of the USSR,12 since Vučković’s position was exceptional compared to his environment. Thus, even when he writes in a language close to socialist realism, he implies a demand for change, for revolu- tion. In the USSR, on the contrary, socialist realism meant that this exact demand was fulfilled. In the second part of the text Teorija napredne muzike, under the subtitle Materijalizam [Materialism], Vučković clearly defines his view about the rela- tionships between music and society, identifying it as the consequence of a con- junction between aesthetics and the social context that changes through history. “Svako razdoblje imalo je svoje shvatanje muzike, iz koga je proizlazila odgovarajuća interpretacija odnosa između muzike i čoveka, odnosno društva.”13 In other words, it seems that the interpretation of Vučković’s standpoints can also be formulated as the perception of how much the structure of music is burdened with the ‘sediments’ of historical meaning, which is regulated by ide- ology. However, this dialectical relationship also implies that music follows so- cial changes, but always in its ‘autonomous’ way, being ideologically mediated. In this way, Vučković once more dismisses the idea that things are reflected immediately in any kind of art, contrary to Pavlov’s claim that a natural, objec- tive reality in art must exist, and that it is fathomable only by studies based on “scientific Marxism”. Putting music and society in a dialectical relation – not only with one another, but between them as the object (music and society) with the subject approaching them (Vučković) – is certainly closer to Adorno’s view about the “autonomy of art” than to Pavlov’s theory of reflection. Another agreement with Adorno is when Vučković vindicates Hába’s con- victions about the necessity to overcome musical means historically. Namely, he advocates Hába’s view that a triad is not a natural sonority, a stipulation for the aesthetic, but that its perception is conditioned by history.14 However,

12 Cf. articles available in Muzičke novine, in the regular section “Iz Sovjetskog Saveza”. The journal was published in Zagreb, from 1946 to 1948. 13 “Every period had its own comprehension of music, which has yielded an appropriate interpretation of the relationships between music and man, i.e. society.” Vojislav Vučković, Umetnost…, 106. 14 “Svaki trozvuk što ga danas neki skladatelj još uporabi zvuči kao negacija u međuvremenu oslobođenih disonanci. On više nema neposrednosti koju je nekad imao i koja se potvrđuje njegovom današnjom, nego je nešto povijesno posredovano” [“Every triad, still used by

34 Milojković, M.: Aesthetical Views of Vojislav Vučković ... (27–41)

Vučković does not share Adorno’s support for Schönberg, but he does give him credit for noting the social determination of musical production, exactly through its radical negation and operation in the domain of ‘pure music’. He reproached Schönberg for the use of “old systems,” referring to traditional procedures in his works and perceiving the paradox of their application in contemporary music, which Adorno agrees with on principle.15 Another link between Vučković and the dominant Marxist currents of the 1930s is the introduction of the notion of fetishism. It does not become as funda- mental as with Walter Benjamin,16 but for exactly this reason, it is important to compare the directions of this term’s evolution and its functionality in the theo- retical activities of the two authors. As Vučković says: “Ta fetišizacija odnosa među ljudima – izdvajanje pojava iz njihovog razvojnog toka, to nasilno raskidanje njihove uslovljenosti – oličava i onu, danas veoma rasprostran- jenu ideologiju muzičke umetnosti, čije su materijalne osnovice iste kao kod filozof- skog idealizma, ideologiju koja izvan izražajnih sredstava muzike ne vidi nikakvu svrhu umetnosti, pa ta sredstva proglašava sama sebi svrhom, tu muzičku ideologiju, čije je idejno uporište Kantov idealizam, a društvena pozadina, borba protiv progresa i nauke, protiv prirode razvitka (podvukao M. M.); ta muzička ideologija, koja svoja izražajna sredstva negira kao sredstva i nasilno ih proglašava ciljem, inkarnirana je u pojmu apsolutna muzika. Apsolutna muzika je umetnosni vid filozofskog ideal- izma, ona je inkarnacija muzičkog idealizma.”17 some composers today, sounds like a denial of dissonances liberated in the meantime. It no longer has the directness it used to have, which is confirmed by its directness today; instead, it is something mediated by history”]. Teodor Adorno, “Teškoće u skladanju i u shvaćanju nove glazbe” [Theodor Adorno, “Schwierigkeiten beim Komponieren Neuer Musik”], in: Nova filozofija umjetnosti (ed. Danilo Pejović), Nakladni zavod Matice Hrvatske, Zagreb, 1972, 136–137. 15 Adorno in fact emphasizes that the “statička dvanaesttonska tehnika ostvaruje osjetljivost muzičke dinamike prema nemoćnom vraćanju istoga” [“static twelve-tone technique actual- izes the sensitivity of musical dynamics in the face of the unconscious recurrence of the same”]. Teodor Adorno, Filozofija nove muzike, Nolit, Belgrade, 1968, 89. 16 Apart from a similarity with the title of Benjamin’s famous text Das Kunstwerk im Zeital- ter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit [The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Repro- duction], Vučković’s chapter titled Problem reproduktivnih umetnosti [The Issue of the Performing Arts] (in: Vojislav Vučković, Umetnost…, 214) also bears other resemblances to the theoretical work of this German philosopher, although on a much more modest scale. 17 “This fetishism of relations between humans – uprooting phenomena from their evolu- tionary course, this violent severing of their interdependence – depicts the ideology of musi- cal art, remarkably widespread today, whose material foundations are the same as those of philosophical idealism; the ideology which does not see any purpose of art beyond the ex- pressive means of music, and so proclaims that these means are an end in itself; this musical ideology, grounded in Kant’s idealism and socially oriented towards the battle against prog-

35 New Sound 41, I/2013

And a little later, he adds: “Nerazlikovanje umetnosti od umetničkog dela (izražajnog materijala umetnosti) prouzrokovalo je fetišizam umetnosti, koji je onemogućio pravo naučno razrešenje problema umetnosti i razvoj estetike kao nauke, jer je na tim temeljima zasnovanoj nauci o umetnosti osujetio: 1. određivanje objektivnog kriterijuma vrednosti u umetnosti 2. naučnu teoriju razvoja umetnosti 3. neophodnu distinkciju između nauke i umetnosti.”18 Although it seems that Vučković in the quoted excerpt returns to the fold of the theory of reflection, significant deviations from Pavlov’s orientation are apparent. First, it should be borne in mind that Vučković’s notion of the nature of evolution is undoubtedly linked to Pavlov’s construct about social progress. However, when Pavlov in Stalin’s USSR speaks of “the nature of evolution” as a necessity immanent to progress, it is clearly a paradox, a language barrier, since “progress” or “evolution” in Pavlov’s text is certainly “natural” and thus necessary, and so its “nature” is exactly what “natural evolution” turns it into – which is a repercussion of the totalitarian ambition to present the current state of society as the ultimate so far and as a “natural” consequence of “evolution,” whose “nature” is, after all “natural” and thus only possible/logical/permit- ted, etc. Ipso facto, the art created under the ideological influence of capitalist production results in the fetishism of artefacts and relations established in that context no more and no less than the art created in the Soviet environment of the USSR, since the relationship between art and society in both cases is to be presented as directly conditioned, and the form of that conditioning as the only one possible. Naturally, in Vučković’s case such demagogical twists were out of place, since he worked in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, whose social system was dia- ress and science, against the nature of evolution (italicized by M. M.); this musical ideology which denies its own expressive means as such and forcibly declares them to be the goal, is incarnated in the notion of absolute music. Absolute music is the artistic counterpart of phil- osophical idealism; it is the incarnation of musical idealism.” Vojislav Vučković, Umet- nost…, 100. 18 “Not distinguishing art from a work of art (the expressive means of art) gave rise to the fetishism of art, which impeded a true scientific solution to the problem of art and develop- ment of aesthetics as science, because it made it impossible for such a founded science of art to: 1. determine the objective criteria of value in art 2. develop a scientific theory of evolution of art 3. make the necessary distinction between science and art.” Ibid., 103–104.

36 Milojković, M.: Aesthetical Views of Vojislav Vučković ... (27–41) metrically opposite to that of the USSR. In this regard, the nature of evolution in Vučković’s work can be understood as an unattainable ideal, something that is perceptible in theory, but has never happened in “objective reality” because of the ubiquitous operation of ideology, “shaped by the relations of production”. However, as already noted, Vučković does not proclaim, unlike Pavlov, but ex- presses his efforts and the goals he aims for. Therefore, when he demands “the objective criteria of value” or the “scientific theory of evolution,” he does not give a theoretical justification for the already current practice, i.e. legitimization of a fetish relationship; instead, he uses these distinctive theoretical ‘slogans’ to criticize the current state of affairs. The origin of these ‘slogans’ or ‘phrases’ can be found in the theory of reflection, analogously to the syntagm the nature of evolution – objectivity and value are in fact the criteria, the only possible theory of evolution is the one evolution has led to, and since science is another product of that evolution, that theory is certainly scientific. However, precisely for this reason, these ‘phrases’ in Vučković’s work are a criticism of capitalist exploitation in Yugoslavia (and generally, in the West at the time), while Pavlov used them to present the So- viet type of production as the prerequisite for their existence “in reality”. This once more emphasizes Vučković’s connection with critical theory: unlike the Marxists from the USSR, he does not accept that the economic base is even possible as ‘objective’, since ideology is its reflection as much as it influences its functioning. In other words, the Soviets maintained that the change of so- ciety’s economic base will also lead states to the desired ideological positions through a direct conjunction,19 and thus, for example, art created in a socialist economy will reflect socialist ideals. However, since Vučković was in opposi- tion to the society and state(s) which he lived and worked in, his standpoint was that this fetishism of the relationship between the base and the superstructure could turn around through criticism, realizing that such consequent reciproc- ity, whose implementation was strived for in the USSR, cannot be carried out precisely because – as Pavlov, Adorno and Vučković all observe, each in their own way – ideology does indeed ‘reflect’ material circumstances, but instead of doing it directly and immediately, it operates exactly in its own autonomous domain which can take various forms, such as philosophy or music, to name the examples that Vučković uses. At the same time, this is a view that was de- veloped by the Western Marxist school of thought, particularly after the war, in the domain where the critique of both Soviet practice and its parent neoliberal context was possible.

19 Aleksandar Vacić, “Robna privreda u Sovjetskom Savezu” [“Commodity Production in the Soviet Union”], Treći program [The Third Programme], No. 4, Belgrade, 1971, 37–178.

37 New Sound 41, I/2013

Thus, Vučković demands “objective criteria” in art, having in mind that the previous aesthetic parameters were influenced by “philosophical idealism,” which is a reflection of the economic system of his time. These “objective cri- teria,” in Vučković’s opinion, must be established within a scientific discipline which would regard aesthetics as a discourse-object. Thus, it can be assumed that although art must be differentiated from science, it is the scientific domain which determines the “objective criteria of value” that define art. In this case, science is understood as a realm of social practice where a broad consensus exists as to what the object approached scientifically is. Naturally, Vučković demands that such science must be founded on the principles of dialectic mate- rialism, in order to create not only a necessary distance from the work of art, but also a connection to current and broader social developments. Such a vision of the relationship between science and art seems to correspond to certain princi- ples from Benjamin’s text Der Autor als Produzent [The Author as Producer],20 which refer exactly to the Soviet practice of socialist realism of that time. There is another point where Vučković’s dialectic method of analysis clashes with the theory of reflection, when he defines the programmatic dimen- sion in music thus: “Drugi, iako po metodi, postupku i sadržini stvaranja istovetni sa prvima, samu tu igru izražajnog materijala negiraju kao samostalnu i besciljnu igru i nastoje da je prikažu kao nosioca izvesne striktne idejne sadržine, koja je imanentna toj igri već po tome što je tvorca inspirisala nezavisno od sadržajne neodređenosti, idejne nekonkretnosti njenog delovanja na ljude.”21 The ‘inconsistency’ apparent in Vučković’s interpretation of Pavlov allows us to ascribe this radical view to his theoretical ‘looking ahead’. In fact, this standpoint challenges the aesthetic right to the practice of socialist realism of

20 Both in Benjamin’s and Vučković’s work, the criticism of the bourgeois “total autonomy” of scientific and art disciplines is highly conspicuous: “In unserem Schrifttum, sind Gegen- sätze, die sich in glücklicheren Epochen wechselseitig befruchteten, zu unlösbaren Antino- mien geworden. So fallen Wissenschaft und Belletristik, Kritik und Produktion, Bildung und Politik beziehungslos und ungeordnet auseinander.” [“In our literature, oppositions which mutually enriched each other in earlier, happier times, have become insoluble antinomies. Thus, science and belles lettres, criticism and production, culture and politics have fallen away from each other, without maintaining any relationship or order.”] Cf. Valter Benjamin, Eseji [Walter Benjamin, Essays], Nolit, Belgrade, 1974, 100. 21 “The latter, although the same as the former in method, procedure and content of creation, deny this very play of expressive material as a self-contained and goalless game and strive to present it as a proponent of a certain strict idea of content, which is immanent to that game already by its having inspired the creator, regardless of its content being indeterminate and its effect on people being nonspecific.” Vojislav Vučković, Umetnost…, 101.

38 Milojković, M.: Aesthetical Views of Vojislav Vučković ... (27–41) the 1930s, which in the search for the ‘primordial’ social determination of art promoted a conventional and, at that time, already obsolete manner of artistic production. The ‘organic functionality’ of socialism resided in political power, i.e. the needs of the government during that period, which was just the opposite of what Vučković was advocating at that moment. In his critical perception of history, he actually offers ideological determinants for all the important currents of the musical production of his time and, judging by the following remarks, he does not see them as progressive: “Klasičari, odriču potrebu traženja vanmuzičke svrhe u umetnosti, proglašavaju izražajna sredstva muzike apstraktno i bez veze sa njihovim efektom kao isključivu sadržinu muzičke umetnosti. Bečki konstruktivisti, koji izričito negiraju svaku vanmuzičku svrhu umetnosti priznaju eo ipso istu formulaciju. Neoromantičari, za koje su izražajna sredstva muzike nosioci striktne društvene sadržine izričito ozakonjuju njihovu identifikaciju. Neoklasičari, koji odriču sadržajno (u vanmuzičkom smislu) delovanje muzike, proglašavaju muzičku formu, tj. muzička izražajna sredstva jedinom sadržinom muzičke umetnosti.”22 Thus, it can be said that art as an expression of class warfare remains Vučković general orientation, comprising that which is reflected, that which reflects and the reflection itself in a complex dialectic interdependence. The artist and fighter, as they called him, Vojislav Vučković apparently waged a significant battle to shape his theoretical views in the tumultuous inter- war years, challenging his own ideas no less than domestic music writers who, later on, struggled aiming to present and experience them as a symbol of the effort of progressive Yugoslav thinkers to carry out a revolution.23 As Mirjana Veselinović-Hofman says, “upravo je u tim [...] gradirajućim i veoma drago-

22 “Classicists deny the need to look for extramusical purpose in music, proclaim that the expressive means of music are the exclusive content of musical art, abstractly and with no relation to their effect. Viennese Constructivists, who expressly deny any extramusical purpose of art, concede eo ipso the same formulation. Neoromanticists, for whom the expressive means of music are proponents of strict social content, expressly legitimize their identification. Neoclassicists, who deny that music operates through an extramusical content, proclaim that the musical form, i.e. expressive means of music, is the only content of musical art.” Ibid., 103. 23 Interesting observations about this in: Nikola Hercigonja, “Aktuelnost Vučkovićeve misli” [“Topicality of Vučković’s thought”], Treći program [The Third Programme], No. 28, Bel- grade, 1976, 359–382.

39 New Sound 41, I/2013 cenim ‘iskliznućima’ iz svoje ideološke ‘disciplinovanosti’, Vučković ispoljio znatnu fleksibilnost pri obradi svojih polaznih, krajnje odsečno izrečenih teori- jskih pretpostavki”.24 Although fragmentary, Vučković’s work is a rare historic document about the influence of West European non-dogmatic Marxist thought in the 1930s on the domestic theoretical output, particularly the musical one. The aim of this paper was not to show that Vučković’s work had the same sig- nificance as the Frankfurt School, nor that it foreshadowed the arrival of social- ist realism, but that this author’s texts, like similar ones in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Germany, or in France, are an example of the distinctive theoretical currents in the interwar Europe. Also, such a ‘historical’ reading of Vučković al- lows us to gain an insight into the dogmatism of domestic theoretical production after the war and to follow the gradual and controlled ‘release’ from these chains. On the other hand, from today’s standpoint, Vojislav Vučković, apparently riding a powerful revolutionary wave which hinted at the subsequent dramatic events, developed his Marxist thought through a critique of the existing state of affairs, even a critique of his own views, conforming his activities largely to the topical interventions in the aesthetical theory, which was at the time shaken by radical blows both from the East and the West.

Summary U susretu sa teorijom odraza Todora Pavlova, Vojislav Vučković je u svojim tekstovima postavio brojna značajna pitanja o vezama između muzike i društva, kao i o estetici koja njihov odnos definiše. Međutim, postavke bugarskog teoretičara u delu našeg autora doživljavaju značajne izmene, približavajući ga teorijskim strujama zapadnoevropske marksističke misli. Fokusirajući se na odnos između umetničkog dela i društvenih praksi, Vučković je problematizovao direktnu uslovljenost umetnosti, kao nadgradnje, ekonom- skom bazom, postavljajući pitanja o “objektivnosti” estetike i principa “naučnog” mark- sizma. Za razliku od Pavlova, Vučković je estetici prišao kritički, te nije prihvatio njenu jednostranu posredničku ulogu u odnosu između muzike i društva, već je odredio kao vid ideologije kojim se utiče na formiranje “subjektivnih slika objektivnih stvari”. Samim tim, “objektivna stvar” za Vučkovića nije moguća van delovanja estetike, dakle ideologije, čime je uveo u raspravu i pitanja o autonomiji umetnosti, koju je video kao područje klasne borbe. Skrećući sa Pavlovljeve linije, Vučković nije ideologiju dogmatski posmat- rao kao ispravnu i pogrešne, već je nastojao da ideološko delovanje uoči i kritički sagleda

24 “it is precisely in these […] gradual and very valuable ‘deviations’ from his being ideo- logically ‘disciplined’ where Vučković manifested considerable flexibility in processing his initial, very brusquely stated theoretical premises.” Mirjana Veselinović-Hofman, Pred muzičkim delom [Facing a Musical Work], Zavod za udžbenike, Belgrade, 2007, 255.

40 Milojković, M.: Aesthetical Views of Vojislav Vučković ... (27–41) bez obzira da li ono dolazilo od tradicionalnih represivnih mehanizama ili iz pravca marksističke teorije kojoj je sam pripadao. Takav pristup odnosu između umetnosti i društva je našeg autora približio stavovima kritičke teorije Teodora Adorna i Valtera Ben- jamina, koji su upravo u tom periodu snažno kritikovali kako tradicionalne estetičke sis- teme tako i savremena nastojanja bez obzira da li su ona dolazila sa istoka ili sa zapada Evrope. Translated by Goran Kapetanović

41 New Sound 41, I/2013

Article received on 12 September 2013 Article accepted on 30 September 2013

UDC: 781.7(470)"1950/1970"

MICROTONAL RUSSIA: 1950–1970s MYTHS AND REALITIES*

Lidia Ader St. Petersburg, Russia

The Russian history of new music in the 20th century could be called ‘impul- sive’. There were powerful stimuli, given by Western music which Russian com- posers did or did not, however, respond to. In my article, I am going to discuss some mechanisms of the historical development of microtonal music in Russia 1950–1970s in comparison to what was produced at the beginning of the century. Musicological studies of Russian microtonal music have never become a separate topic of research and have never appeared as a component of the whole microtonal school. In S. Schneider’s most important book, Mikrotöne in der Musik des 20. Jahrhunderts1, the overview ends more or less with the 1950s. Most of the existing printed information given by leading musicologists is based on the research of the early 1920s avant-garde (Detlef Gojowy, Larry Sitsky) and does not cover the later period; so, it needs to be rewritten and re- viewed. There was never even an attempt to describe Russian microtonal music,

* Author contact information: [email protected] This research is realised with a financial support of Russian Foundation for Humanities (project number 13–04–00427). I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Prof Liudmila Kovnat- skaya for discussing this article and Dr Pauline Fairclough for the help with correcting English translation. 1 Sigrun Schneider, Mikrotöne in der Musik des 20. Jahrhunderts, Bonn, Verlag für sys- tematische Musikwissenschaft GmbH, 1975, 317 S.

42 Ader, L.: Microtonal Russia: 1950–1970s Myths and Realities (42–57) except for one very interesting article entitled “Micro and consequences”2 by Yuri Kholopov, but this will be reviewed later. Let us go deeper into all the processes surrounding microtonal music in Russia.

Russian musical avant-garde It is customary to refer to 1959 as the beginning of the second wave of the avant-garde of (or, as it is often called ‘Russian musical avant-garde after the World War II’). Andrey Volkonsky, who returned to Russia from emigration in Switzerland, started composing in twelve-note technique, having armed himself with a knowledge of all the newest trends, and a knowledge of the actual, mod- ern composers’ works. His Mirror Suite (1959) and Lamentations of Schchaza (1960) partially lifted the veil over Russian musical life, after 30 years, and be- came sui generis the ‘green corridor’ to European minds. Volkonsky organized a composers’ group, which was headed by Edison Denisov, Sofia Gubaidulina, Alfred Schnittke, though Volkonsky always seemed to be “at home among strangers, a stranger among his own”3 – he was discharged from the conser- vatoire; his works, after one-time performances, were commissioned only for films; and the most avant-garde compositions were soon forgotten. By that time, twelve-tone technique in the West had a forty-year history. Having gone through various stages of development, implementation and ex- tension, frankly speaking, by the 1960s it was outdated. Relying on his creative experiences, Andrey Volkonsky summarized it in 1996: “Dodecaphony, a le- gitimate child of equal temperament, apparently exhausted itself”.4 The Russian avant-garde composers prolonged its life, revealed its viable elements, while trying to interpret and combine it with the new principles of composition. The way of learning dodecaphony and serialism in the circumstances of Soviet reality was a priori clandestine. Musicians truly conspired to listen to Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, Stravinsky, Boulez and Stockhausen. They shared scores by photocopying. ‘Forbidden fruit’ was much more tempting than their own Soviet past, to which they were blind. This was associated with the sym- bols of the political situation, Stalinism and government actions such as the old

2 Yuri Kholopov, ‘Mikro i posledstviya’ [Micro and consequences], in: L. Diachkova (ed.) Muzykalnoe obrazovanie v kontekste kulturi: Voprosy teorii, istorii i metodologii. Materialy nauchno-proktichestoj konferentsii 27 – 29 oktyabrya 1998 goda. Moskva, 2000, 27–38. I am very grateful to Olesya Bobrik who helped me to find this rare edition. 3 This quotation is the title of a 1974 Soviet film directed by Nikita Mikhalkov. 4 Andrey Volkonsky, Osnovy temperatsii (Basis of temperament), Moscow, Kompozitor, 2003 (1996), 41.

43 New Sound 41, I/2013 fights against so-called formalism. They included the 1910s and the 1920s in the category of the Soviet past, the years of futurism/avant-gardism, usually called ‘the first wave of avant-garde’ in Russia. It was this ‘formalism’ in 1929 that cancelled out all attempts by the Rus- sian revolutionaries to turn the course of history, to speed up the development of art and to discover the appropriate answer to the legitimate product of equal temperament – dodecaphony, most notably the elaboration of non-tempered systems. Further on, I shall focus my attention on the different attempts at redis- covering the principles of temperament in the Russia of the 1960s and divining the sound zone. Moreover, I would like to conclude by formulating the true position of the ideas of these composers during the 1960s, in the context of the broader strategies of art developments.

Approaching microtonality What is the method of composers who use microtonal music? In apply- ing Roland Barthes’s theory to it,5 equal temperament constructed a new musi- cal organism, an abstract set of constituent elements during the 300 years of its existence. However, two generations of composers had different intentions with this ‘organism’. One group found freedom and discovered new sound per- spectives, trying to create new models for the organization of musical texture. Having favoured the degeneration of equality in temperament, they appealed to pure intonation in different ways. Their idea was to organize a new model, because pure intonation is a completely different paradigm, constructed upon other physical laws. In contrast to that, the other group took the system of equal temperament as an example, trying to widen and fragment it, preserving the laws of musical texture. In 1923, at the St Petersburg Conservatory, the Circle of quarter-tone music was founded.6 Its members were conservatory students and leading microtonal composers of Europe, who became its associate members (Alois Hába, Wil- liam Möllendorf, Jörg Mager, Richard Stein and Ivan Wyschnegradsky). The research potential of the Circle was supported by its founder Georgy Rimsky- Korsakov (1901–1965), the grandson of the great Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. In 1925, he published an article where he attempted to for- mulate the basis of the quarter-tone system and explain new principles of com-

5 Theoretical conception of the ship Argo is introduced in the book: Roland Barthes by Ro- land Barthes. Translated by Richard Howard. Berkeley, Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1994 (1977). 6 History of this circle is described in: Lidia Ader, ‘Microtonal storm and stress: Georgy Rim- sky-Korsakov and quarter-tone music in 1920s Soviet Russia’, in: Tempo, 2009 (63), 27–44.

44 Ader, L.: Microtonal Russia: 1950–1970s Myths and Realities (42–57)

Example 1 (a, b, c)

position technique.7 According to his theory, the new scale of non-tempered sounds had to become the base for forming new modes: ioniodorian (Ex. 1a), ioniolydian (Ex. 1b) and ioniophrygian (Ex. 1c). He divided each of them into segments, trying to discover their symmetri- cal structure (I would like to stress, that this was 20 years before Messiaen wrote his Technique de mon langage musical). Undoubtedly, Georgy Rimsky-Korsakov did his research work within the context of the theory of modal rhythm, proposed in the 1920–1930s by Boleslav Yavorsky, a theoretician, pianist and author of treatises on the theory and history of music.8 He postulated the tritone as the central link of a system, the primary blend of steadiness and unsteadiness (“united symmetrical system” as he called it). In the projection of Yavorsky’s base, cores were created of double, triple and manifold symmetry. Both theories – G. Rimsky-Korsakov’s and Yavorsky’s – were handed down by the successors of the first avant-garde wave. Even in spite of the highly theoretical nature of their early works and their sketchy char- acter, their intentions were aimed at the Second Viennese School.

7 Georgy Rimsky-Korsakov, ‘Obosnovanie chetvertitonovoy muzykalnoy sistemy’, in: De musica: Vremennik razryada istorii i teorii muzyki. Leningrad, 1925, 52–78. 8 Boleslav Yavorsky, Stroenie muzykalnoi rechi, Moscow, 1908; Sergei Protopopov, Elementy postroeniya muzykalnoj rechi, Moscow, 1930.

45 New Sound 41, I/2013

The fate of microtonal music in Russia is typical. The Circle of quarter- tone music collapsed in 1929. This was partly due to human factors: by that time, the enthusiasm among the Circle’s members – former students of the Len- ingrad Conservatory – had evaporated. However, this was not only because of moving to the film industry (with the birth of sound movies, Nikolay Malak- hovsky, Alexander Kenel’, Dmitry Shostakovich and Georgy Rimsky-Korsakov himself started writing soundtrack music). All radical and innovative things that were previously fashionable were now on ‘the Procrustean bed’ and Lunacharsky’s declaration from 1926 – ‘The adoption of the quarter-tone system is one of the major phenomena in the formal development of our music. However large the pool of musical works oriented in a different way may be, we will witness the progress of quarter-tone music’9 – was now out of date and was replaced by that of the agitprop departments, which had a quite different notion of what accessible music would be. One of the Circle’s members, Maria Ozhigova, remembered that ‘after one concert (evidently in 1925) the newspaper Leningradskaya Pravda published an article about “militant formalism” which sealed the group fate’.10 Along with this ‘quarter-tone company friendship’ the whole period of the flourishing of microtonal music in Russia perished. Yet it had already had a 20–year history if we take the year 1909 as the beginning, when the pamphlet Unrestricted music by Nikolay Kulbin appeared in print.11 There, for the first time Kulbin established the problem of the primitiveness of equal temperament. In 1913–1915, Artur Lourie and Mikhail Matushin favoured the spreading of this idea among the artistic and musical masses. Nevertheless, an eight-year gap followed, when musicians timidly tried to adapt their often Utopian ideas to reality. In 1918, Matushin constructed a quarter-tone violin12, and two years ear- lier Ivan Wyschnegradsky suggested a project of a quarter-tone piano. Concert activities in Moscow and Leningrad also became more intensive in the 1920s, generally thanks to the Circle of quarter-tone music.

9 Anatolij Lunacharsky, ‘Odin iz sdvigov v isskusstvovedenii’ (One of the upheavals in art) in: Vestnik kommunisticheskoy Academii, 1926, Vol. XV, 90. 10 M. P. Ozhigova, ‘Mitya, Dmitri Dmitrievich’ in: A. Selitsky (ed.), Muzykalnaya peda- gogika v ideyakh i litsakh: sbornik statey k 25–letiu konservatorii, Rostov on Don, 1992, 85–86 11 Nikolay Kulbin, Svobodnaya muzyka. Primenenie novoy teorii hudozhestvennogo tvorchestva k muzyke. Sankt-Peterburg, 1909, 7 p. 12 Matushin presented this instrument at the Research department of the Museum of fine arts in 1924. Nowadays this instrument is in the collection of the St Petersburg State Museum of Theatre and Music.

46 Ader, L.: Microtonal Russia: 1950–1970s Myths and Realities (42–57)

Thus, 1929 became the turning point in the history of Russian microtonal music. The longstanding intense correspondence between G. Rimsky-Korsakov and Wyschnegradsky, where they exchanged their ideas, works and discussed the most topical questions of contemporary music, had stopped by that time.13 Gradually, theoretical work also died out: Georgy Rimsky-Korsakov switched to lighting-electrical-musical experiences,14 which were nevertheless banned dur- ing the hasty ‘prophylactic’ actions of the Soviet government from 1930–1933, related to closing down the amateur circles. That is why the self-destruction of experimental film studios was quite a better choice than surrendering to com- pulsory government methods. It is worth pointing out that the government put a veto on politically unreliable contemporary trends, among them – on microtonal music. The results of that decision for Russian music were destructive.

Resistance to microtonal memory Symptomatically, the idea of the elaboration of a new language of music and new sound world haunted the representatives of the Russian avant-garde (1920s and 1960s), the only difference being that the degree of radicalism in the first avant-garde wave was undoubtedly higher. It is possible that the resistance to the ‘genre memory’ during the second avant-garde was due to the quests for a compromise between the method and its artistic value. As composers sensed the approach of Khrushchev’s ‘Thaw’ in spite of drawing attention to the achievements of the first Russian avant-garde wave and its previously accumulated experience, the 1960s Russian avant-garde ignored the surviving guardians of the Russian tradition, and headed straight for Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Luigi Nono and Luciano Berio. In connection with this, the young Soviet radicals had to master complete techniques as fast as they possibly could. The microtonal idea existed only as a part of experiments. There were no composers in Russia at that time who would develop it consistently. The work of experimental studios (mainly at the Moscow Conservatory) was kept hidden from listeners, and was rather marginal and interesting only to selected compos- ers. Instead of being the result of intelligent and systematic usage, microchro- matism employed in early compositions was there for the sake of the idea, for witticism and, presumably, as an attribute of the time. Composers used it for colouristic purposes, often Oriental.

13 This correspondence is now divided in two parts: one is in Russian National Library (St Petersburg) and the other is in Paul Sacher Foundation (Basel). 14 Georgy Rimsky-Korsakov, Rasshifrovka svetovoy stroke Skryabinskogo ‘Prometheya’, in: De musica: Vremennik razryada istorii i teorii muzyki. Leningrad, 1926, 2, 94–102.

47 New Sound 41, I/2013

The only person who tried to classify the principles of using microtones in composers’ (specifically Russian) works, was Yuri Kholopov.15 He briefly intro- duced his own vision of micro-regulations: – first of all he specified a group of ‘intermediary’ microtones – those in be- tween the ‘diatonic’ steps – as well as progressing and auxiliary ones; – microchromatic counterpoint where lines interlace; – he noted the new possibilities of traditional polyphonic methods. Particularly, that it was possible to create an intervallic compression and the expansion of a theme; he mentioned the ‘metabole of origin’ (for example, the transition from chromatism to microchromatism and back); – microtones in harmony can form a cluster of 3 to 12 to 25 tones; – a constantly moving multi-voice mass consisting of microchromes. This was employed chiefly in slow and condensed lyrical expression. – Thus, we see an attempt to summarize the numerous implications of micro- tones. It has to be admitted that these conditions are not equal and have no common denominator. In order to find it, let us have a look at the purpose of using microtones in the works written in 1950–1970s. – The search for the destruction of integrity in the 20th century can be divided into two categories, which differ in the type of material used. On the one hand there are experiments, in which the division is a system element, base of work, method or principle of organization. These are, in my opinion, a basic function of division. On the other hand, the divided elements are used for the extremely accurate fixation of a text, they exist in art indirectly. They might be called the application tools of division. – Within the basic functions one can trace several methods used more often than the others: coloristic, systematic and computational ones.

1. Coloristic method Microtones are generally used for: – the creation of effects (as patterns): Slonimsky in his Concerto-buff employs the quarter-tone cluster, Denisov’s Cello concert begins with a microtonal cluster run; – intensification: in works for strings (Schnittke’s Concerto grosso № 2; Slo- nimsky’s Sonata for violoncello) microtonal elements appear as auxiliary or progressing tones with the aim of stressing and intensifying the dramatic po- tential of pieces.

15 Yuri Kholopov, op. cit., 31–4.

48 Ader, L.: Microtonal Russia: 1950–1970s Myths and Realities (42–57)

Example 2. – Sergey Slonimsky, Three pieces for violoncello solo. No. 2: Chromatic chant

Three pieces for violoncello solo, constructed on a simple melodic core, unfolds gradually, starting from a small motive. This cochlear structure un- winds with deepening tone structure. The composer methodically returns to the same intonation within a whole tone, using the interval as thoroughly as possible. – sound imitation, or national characteristics, as the most frequent instigators of the appearance of new pitches.

2. Systematic method The method, which was developed by all artists who were working on divi- sion, was a comparison of new and old systems, the whole object and the divided one. Methods of the development of material were formed during the long period of 12-tone temperament practice. However, with the introduction of microtones and new equal or unequal temperaments, it became necessary to modernize the traditional ways, taking into account new intonation possibilities. This is the rea- son for the appearance of a systems comparison, melismatic development based on the smallest gradations of tone, the study of sound spectrum.

Example 3. – Edison Denisov, Piano trio (4th movement)t

49 New Sound 41, I/2013

In previous example (ex. 3) one can trace the structure development. In this four-bar excerpt there is a model, which will be modernized later. A counter- point of two lines is supposed to explore a tone as deeply as possible (through using quarter-tones). The violoncello descends, opposing the ‘half-frozen’ vio- lin line, and only at the end, both lines proceed simultaneously, making confi- dent microtonal steps.

3. Computational method Mathematical techniques were used due to striving for the absolute accu- racy and propriety of all experiments. Composers’ experiences in creating electronic music in Evgeny Murzin’s studio at the Moscow Conservatory are marked by their experimental style. Schnittke confessed to the uselessness of his attempts to discover significant elements of pure intonation: this was just a “self- and music experiment”16. Schnittke thought about the blind alley, and reticence of a sound space in the overtone scale. In particular, he was dismayed by the impossibility of modu- lation to another mode and necessity to belong to the general tone (‘Having detected the first tone and listening attentively to its overtones, our ear cannot imagine any more tones. It is satisfied with the first tone and microcosm [my italics – L. A.] of its overtones; thus the second tone becomes a mistake in rela- tion to the first’17). Although at the time, some compositions were written for the ANS (standing for ‘Andrey Nikolaevich Scriabin’), a device invented by Evg- eny Murzin which was able to record different voices, polyphony and noises on its screen. The range of this instrument was nearly 10 octaves, and at the same time the harmonic series was based on a 72-tone temperament. The inventor also planned to use the arrangement that could allow working with an octave divided into 144 intervals, or even 216. Examples: Schnittke’s Stream, Denisov’s Bird singing, Vivente – non vivente by Gubaidulina. It is important to mention this, because the inception of spaceflights (in 1961 the first artificial satellite Vostok was launched) and conquering ‘new horizons’ created an image in the minds of the 1960s’ generations that microtonal music was, above all, associated with the infinity of the universe, which no human being could control. And it is no coincidence that the predominant film plots at that time (Toward the Cosmos, Solaris) and their musical scores were supported by the ANS and non-tempered system.

16 M. Tarakanov (ed.), Problemy traditsij i novatorstva v sovremennoj muzyke, Moscow, Sovetskij kompozitor, 1982, 104–7. 17 Ibid., 106.

50 Ader, L.: Microtonal Russia: 1950–1970s Myths and Realities (42–57)

Evgeny Murzin could be compared with Arseny Avraamov, one of the lead- ers of the first avant-garde radical wave. Both preferred the 72-tone temperament and both were fruitful inventors. In the 1960s, composers used different sys- tems of temperament: compositions were written in the 17- and 29-tone systems (A. Ogolevets, 1941), the 21-tone system (P. Baranovsky, E. Utsevich, 1956), the 84-tone system (D. Guzenko, 1962), the 108-tone system (P. Meschaninov, 1980, “well-tempered sonority”). Georgy Rimsky-Korsakov and Ivan Wysch- negradky tested numerous systems, trying to discover the fundamental laws and principles enabling the construction of a new musical future. Concerning the application tools of division, I would like to outline two general ways of using microtones. First of all, they were necessary for notating speech and folk music. The first attempts at employing the system occurred as early as 1864, together with the construction of the first enharmonic piano in Russia, designed by Vladimir Odoevsky. He originally did not plan to use it for composing; instead, he wanted to prove that there are three scales – diatonic, chromatic and enharmonic. In the 1920s, Arseny Avraamov in his dissertation declared that folk music might not survive if one did not use microtones to notate it. This precise method could help the next generation to reproduce songs as they were actually sung. The 1960s were characterized by a growing interest for rearrangements of folk songs. For example, Boris Tischenko used folk songs in his compo- sitions Yaroslavna, Severnie etudy [Nordic etudes] and in many other works. Nordic etudes were published in 1968. This is music written for a documentary film about Solovki. In this suite, there is a story told by an old woman, Yliana, who is singing songs, finishing them abruptly. In the final piece, called Veselie igrushki {Merry dolls} her song is played by the trombone in a very sarcas- tic way. The melody breaks constantly. The composer does not use microtonal notation, though he did employ markings signifying unequal temperament or imprecise pitch (x, ↗ ↘) (Ex. 4). The other method of using microtones, which were popular at that time, was the method of additional pitches. Composers added microtones to enlarge the 12-tone system without aspiring to build a new tempered system or to base it on non-tempered possibilities. The same is apparent in Denisov’s Sonata for saxophone and piano (1970), as an original dedication to Dmitry Shostakovich (he used a pitch sequence based on the composer’s monogram), in which the second movement Lento is written for saxophone solo. He adhered to the classi- cal form and material, and just interspersed microtones for sonoristic effect.

51 New Sound 41, I/2013

Example 4. Boris Tischenko, Severnie etudy. No. 9: Babka Yliana. Veselie igrushki

quasi gliss. sim. œ bœ Clarinet 6 . œ#œ œ œ . œ & 4 Œ Ó Œ Œ Ó Œ 3 ‰‰

2 1/2 f œ bœ ˙ œ œ Trombone 6 #œ œ #œ #œ #œ œ #œ ? 4 œ ˙ f 6 & 4 Œ ∑ ∑ Piano ? 6 4 Œ œœ ŒŒŒŒ Œ ∑ gliss. gliss.

Violin >œ 6 . œ#œ œ bœ œ œ œ #œ & 4 Œ Ó Œ Œ Ó Œ 3 Œ gliss. >œ Viola 6 œ bœ #œ & 4 Œ Ó. Œ œ#œ Œ B Ó Œ Œ

Cello I ? 6 œ Œ œ œ œ ŒŒŒŒ Œ ŒŒŒ Œ 4 œ > > 3 Cello II ? 6 Œ œ œ ŒŒŒŒ Œ ŒŒŒ ‰‰ 4 œ œ #œ œ bœ > >

2

Cl. & ∑

2 œ bœ œ #˙ nœ Tbn. ?

2

& ∑ Pno.

? ŒŒ ŒŒŒ œœ 2 œ Vln. . & Ó Œ bœ Œ

Vla. bœ B Ó. Œ bbœ Œ

Vc. I ? ŒŒŒŒŒŒ

Vc. II ? ∑

52 Ader, L.: Microtonal Russia: 1950–1970s Myths and realities (42–57)

Moscow vs. Leningrad In the history of Russian microtonal music one can observe a geographical feature: if leadership during the first avant-garde wave belonged completely to Petersburg-Petrograd-Leningrad, which became the nursery for the major- ity of novel ideas, the most radical experiments of the 1960s were happening in Moscow. Perhaps this could partly explain why in the mid-1950s, all of G. Rimsky-Korsakov’s attempts to resume the Circle of quarter-tone music activity, and thereby bridge the gap in the dialogue of the two epochs, were utterly ignored. This time, the Circle was organized in an even more conserva- tive place – the Leningrad Philharmonic Society, where the dissonant sounds of works by Hába, G. Rimsky-Korsakov himself and Wyschnegradsky were heard alongside of Mozart, Schubert and Rachmaninoff. This daring plan to initiate a revival of Soviet music sustained gradual defeat. In spite of serious illness, G. Rimsky-Korsakov continued his creative work, reconsidered previ- ous works and thought about new ones. After a two-year break he got back to the quarter-tone music, pleased by the various responses he had received. In his flat he had a grand piano and a baby grand tuned a quarter-tone apart. On these instruments, he played his pieces with friends. Such musical eve- nings were attended by B. Burlakov (violoncello), musicologists A. Stupel, A. Finagin, V. Prokofiev, and, somewhat earlier, L. Nikolaev. Meetings in the Philharmonic Library were open and intended for non-professional music lov- ers. This stipulated a special type of conversation – free expression and bold initiative in preserving high science and musical potential. The last meeting in which G. Rimsky-Korsakov’s participated took place in April 1962, when they celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Circle of chamber music lovers, pioneered by G. Rimsky-Korsakov and his friends. Later, even until his death in 1965, meetings took at his former flat, where Rimsky-Korsakov planned to present a paper on quarter-tone music and show recordings of his works. His dreams were not realized. Having become aware of the fruitlessness of their efforts to combine two pitch spaces, the avant-garde composers of the 1910–1920s started to build a new model. Analysing the theoretical treatises of that time, one can draw a con- clusion about the partial integration of the genre, structural, and modal princi- ples of the 300–year system into the new one. At that point in the development of the latter, the achievements and work of theoreticians with the physical and mathematical parameters that laid out the deep mechanisms of the formation of pitch scales were successful. The strategies of composers of the 1960s consisted evidently in the duplication of previous ideas.

53 New Sound 41, I/2013

Beyond Darmstadt Soon after its establishment in 1946, the International Music Institute in Darmstadt became widely known among musicians. By the early 1950s, it or- ganized its own courses on particular types of music. There was simultaneous interest in dodecaphony, aleatoric, serial and electronic music18. Microtonal music stood apart. Though it was still radical, innovative in terms of sound exploration, full of ideas about new systems, it was gradually ousted. There were two composers who competed with each other ever since they simultaneously developed a quarter-tone piano project in 1923. Ivan Wy- schnegradsky and Alois Hába tried independently to introduce microtonal music to Darmstadt. They parted ways in the 1920s, choosing completely different methods of composition. Wyschnegradsky always remained focused on the phi- losophy of music, also exploring spatial and polyphonic features; Hába was actually using twelve different 12-tone and microtonal systems, experimenting with adopting new systems on newly discovered trends. Hába’s temperament was closer to the avant-garde style, he was more successful at the Donauesch- inger Musiktage in the 1920s, he was performed by the Amar Hindemith quar- tet, and he did a tour with his quarter-tone piano, etc. Wyschnegradsky was a typically marginal figure. He did not try to jump on the highest pedestal of ap- praisal; he waited for his musical thoughts to be understood by people. Wolfgang Steincke was the one who actually directed the musical tastes of the 1950s. Both Hába and Wyschnegradsky sent their proposals to Wolfgang Steincke, who was a director of the Darmstadt Ferienkurse. Alois Hába was more successful, due to a recommendation by the direc- tor’s friend and colleague, Andrea Golea. Hába’s works were performed at the festival several times in the 1950s, and he was invited to give lectures there. With Wyschnegradsky everything went slowly. Born Russian and living in France, he was never accepted by any of the French composition schools at the time, and remained apart from them all. He was much closer to the Russian musi- cal spirit, and tried not to lose connections with his Russian musician-friends. This is probably why he eventually became a ‘Russian composer’ in exile in France. In 1953, he asked Wolfgang Steincke about Darmstadt.19 He wondered whether the festival still existed. He did not know anything about its latest pro-

18 A detailed history of all Darmstadt styles is presented in a book: Gianmario Borio, Her- mann Danuser (ed.), Im Zenit der Moderne. Die Internationalen Ferienkurse für Neue Musik Darmstadt 1946–1966. Geschichte und Dokumentation in vier Bänden. Freiburg im Breisgau, Rombach, 1997. 19 The correspondence between Ivan Wyschnegradsky and Wolfgang Steincke concerning his participation in Darmstadt Ferienkurse can be found in the Archive of IMD (Internationale Musikinstitute Darmstadt). I am very grateful to the IMD staff for their assistance.

54 Ader, L.: Microtonal Russia: 1950–1970s myths and realities (42–57) grams and suggested that quarter-tone music be introduced in the courses. “In this case I am in your disposal,” concluded Wyschnegradsky. “My name as a pioneer of ultrachromatic music could not pass unnoticed by you. My quarter- tone compositions in general were performed in France and abroad, always with success.” 20 Needless to say, he waited for two months before his letter was answered. Since he was busy with the preparation of courses, Steincke could neither an- swer properly nor invite him to participate in Darmstadt. However, his reply initiated their intense correspondence during 1953. Willing to help with per- forming Wyschnegradsky’s music, he contacted the Nordwestdeutschen Radio in Köln where a chamber music festival was being organized at the time. The piece chosen for performance was the one most important for Wyschnegrad- sky himself. It was a symphony Thus spoke Zaratustra. The premiere was the turning-point of his entire creative career. Paris had heard it in 1937 with the pianists Monique Haas, Ina Marika, Edward Staempfli and Max Vredenburg. The symphony was then performed only once more, in 1947, in Brussels, by Marcelle Mercenier, Jenny Solheid, Sainpol Hou and Naum Sluszny. Their correspondence continued with the matter of the composers’ cata- logue, which was initiated by the Darmstadt centre and was aimed at gathering information about those who were in any kind of contact with the institution. Steincke sent a request to Wyschnegradsky in December 1953. The main pur- pose of it was also an attempt to introduce the system to the public and to awaken the interest of German institutions in those compositions. In addition, Steincke suggested contacting the German Hochschule, which was quite progressive-minded at the time. According to Steincke, Wyschne- gradsky could give lectures on microtonal music and perform his works there. But not in the Darmstadt School. So, what had actually happened? By helping Wyschnegradsky with the German premiere of the symphony, Steincke acted from a sincere interest in his works. However, there was another side to these circumstances. He already had Alois Hába in mind and finally in- vited him in 1955 to join the courses. Wyschnegradsky, though, believed that the main reason for the director excluding his pieces from the program of courses were the obstacles in their performance. He wrote, that ‘if there are no difficul- ties other than these, I must say that I also have other compositions, easier to play and probably even better suited for string instruments in the chamber style; particularly pieces for two pianos, for Ondes Martenot and two pianos, for viola

20 A letter to Wolfgang Steinecke from 25.3.1953.

55 New Sound 41, I/2013 and two pianos (Sonata in one movement) and so on; and, of course, for string quartet – all the pieces are written in quarter-tones (several in 1/6-tones for three pianos tuned one-sixth of a tone apart, and one composition that combines quarter-tones and sixth-tones). If you are interested,’ – recapitulated Wyschne- gradsky, ‘I can write about it in more detail’.21 That was the last letter for three whole years. In the autumn of 1956 Wy- schnegradsky renewed the correspondence, sending his latest work Polyphonie Spatiale. He insisted on the great difference between the symphony and this piece. He approached a new type of spatial music which was based on total harmony (maximum tone range and tone density), experiments with a so-called ‘continuum’ that differs by range and position in space, using a new type of spatial polyphony. Almost a year later, Wyschnegradsky received from Steincke a kind letter, saying with a feeling of regret – that he would try again to write to the Köln Radio Festival to organize a new performance for the composer, but this was never done. All in all, Wyschnegradsky’s assumptions concerning works that might in- terest the Darmstadt School failed. He tried to understand their tastes, but this proved futile. He was a composer with a different training, who did not fit in with the Darmstadt courses. By that time, the Darmstadt style had already been formed by choosing specific directions. Even Hába’s works were performed only twice, and with the latter occasion, the history of microtonal music in Darmstadt ended.

Conclusion. Why not concluded? The Darmstadt case is very illustrative. The rejection of microtonal music was logical, due to the development of other trends. Electronic music, which was on the rise, was much more advantageous even in discovering new sound worlds. The search for microsounds reflected on all kinds of musical language and soon became a fundamental part of it. The well-known culturologist Arnold Toynbee formulated his own view about historical development as a change of cultural layer. According to his theory, the cooperation of composer in the 1960s’ avant-garde had to become a high-powered converting system, which would adapt its early achievements. At this point, Toynbee’s culturological strategy of challenges and its responses fails from the beginning. Thus, the response itself is too sluggish for the ideas, and its value is lower than that of the challenge.22

21 A letter from Ivan Wyschnegradsky to Wolfgang Steincke from 1st October 1953. 22 Arnold J. Toynbee, A Study of History: Volume I. Oxford University Press, 1987, 570 p.

56 Ader, L.: Microtonal Russia: 1950–1970s Myths and Realities (42–57)

Toynbee’s core conception of historical development, though, might be ex- amined. The first avant-garde composers, inventors, acousticians and physicists were working on a sound division. Their theories were much more successful than their musical results. During the 1900–1930s they had scientifically de- scribed the musical developments of the late 20th century. For example, research- ers at the State Institute of Musical Science (GIMN) in the mid-1920s were doing projects on 53-tone temperament, designing keyboard instruments, calculating its spectrum. This type of temperament was mostly used later, and the idea of using overtones as the ground of a piece was developed by spectralists. How to evaluate, then, the generation of Russian composers during the sec- ond wave of the avant-garde? What mechanisms lay beneath the analysis of the often experimental works of the 1960–1970s? Moreover, why did they name it ‘avant-garde’? In attempting to prove the viability of non-ideological and anti-Soviet (meaning ‘politically unreliable’) music in Russia, the composers of the 1950– 1970s sought to create absolute art without such impurities. Western art, which was primarily non-Soviet, was allowed into the country in extremely limited doses and was greedily taken up by hungry intellects. Their starting point was resistance to the political regime; the first avant-garde wave battled with the dominance of the classic-romantic tradition. The two generations had different enemies, and this is why the struggle and resistance had different results.

57 New Sound 41, I/2013

Article received on 22 September 2013 Article accepted on 30 September 2013 UDC: 793.31(497.11) 394.3(497.11) 78.085.7(497.11)

TRACING THE DISCIPLINE: EIGHTY YEARS OF ETHNOCHOREOLOGY IN SERBIA1

Selena Rakočević* University of Arts in Belgrade Faculty of Music Department of Ethnomusicology

Abstract: The interest for traditional dance research in Serbia is noted since the second part of the 19th century in various ethnographical sources. However, organized and scien- tifically grounded study was begun by the sisters Danica and Ljubica Janković marked by publishing of the first of totally eight volumes of the “Folk Dances” [Narodne igre] in 1934. All eight books of this edition published periodically until 1964 were highly ac- knowledged by the broader scientific communities in Europe and the USA. Dance re- search was continued by the following generation of researchers: Milica Ilijin, Olivera Mladenović, Slobodan Zečević, and Olivera Vasić. The next significant step toward de- veloping dance research began in 1990 when the subject of ethnochoreology was added to the program of basic ethnomusicological studies at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade and shortly afterward in 1996 in the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad. Academic ethno- choreological education in both institutions was established by Olivera Vasić. The epistemological background of all traditional dance research in Serbia was anchored mostly in ethnography focused on the description of rural traditions and partly in tradi- tional dance history. Its broader folkloristic framework has, more or less, strong national orientation. However, it could be said that, thanks to the lifelong professional commitment of the researchers, and a relatively unified methodology of their research, ethnochoreol- ogy maintained continuity as a scientific discipline since its early beginnings.

* Author contact information: [email protected] 1 This study is realized within the project ‘Muzička i igračka tradicija multietničke i multi- kulturalne Srbije’ [‘Music and Dance Tradition of Multiethnic and Multicultural Serbia’], (reg. nr. 177024), financed by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Serbia, within a series of research in 2011–2015.

58 Rakočević, S.: Tracing the Discipline: Eighty Years of Ethnochoreology ... (58– 86)

The next significant milestone in the development of the discipline happened when tradi- tional dance research was included in the PhD doctoral research projects within ethnomu- sicological studies at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade. Those projects, some of which are still in the ongoing process, are interdisciplinary and interlink ethnochoreology with eth- nomusicology and related disciplines. This paper reexamines and reevaluates the eighty years long tradition of dance research in Serbia and positions its ontological, epistemological and methodological trajectories in the broader context of its relation to other social sciences/humanities in the contemporary era of interdisciplinarity and postdiciplinarity. Keywords: dance research, ethnochoreology, Serbia

Introduction Although dance research, which could be termed by the overall term ethno- choreology (Kaeppler 2001: 361–367; Kealiinohomoku 2008: 18), maintained continuity as a methodologically and theoretically grounded discipline in Ser- bia, there are just a few papers which reevaluate its traits and achievements and (re)position it within the humanities. Efforts in discussing the ethnochoreologi- cal investigation in Serbia were made mostly during 1970s. The recognition of dance research as a scholarly discipline in Serbian aca- demia began in the early 1960s, when one of the founders of dance research, Ljubica Janković introduced to the academic communities two independent and autonomous scholarly disciplines – ethnomusicology and ethnochoreology (Janković 1964: 87–92). Ten years later (1975), Ljubica Janković also presented a system of dance notation and analysis which she developed with her sister Danica, to the broader ethnomusicological community in Europe and the USA emphasizing its advantages, as she strongly believed, ‘both for specific scientific research and for broad cultural and educational needs‘ (Janković Lj. 1975: 32). Although she did not offer appropriate solutions, Olivera Mladenović pointed out the problems of developing comprehensive dance notation, classification system and unified reference terminology, which should be used among dance scholars in the early 1970s (Mladenović 1971: 303–306). A few years later, Mil- ica Ilijin agreed with those standpoints and made an historical overview of ‘de- velopment of ethnochoreology‘ in European countries (Ilijin 1973: 203–213). Elsie Ivancich Dunun, a co-founder with Allegra Fuller Snyder of a graduate- level dance ethnology university curriculum in the USA in the 1970s (see more in Kurath 1960: 233–254; Kaeppler 2001: 364; Zebec 2009: 138) and scholar who has continuously explored dance traditions in the area of ex-Yugoslavia for

59 New Sound 41, I/2013 decades, presented the basic trends in dance research in this country by the end of the 1970s (Dunin 1981: 1–5). For the next twenty years there had been no effort to summarize and evalu- ate the theory and methods in dance research in Serbia until Dimitrije Golemović and Selena Rakočević presented one short overview of the history of the ethno- musicology and ethnochoreology in Serbia with some remarks about their pos- sible future directions (Golemović and Rakočević 2008: 88–95). This paper was part of the panel session ‘History and perspectives of national ethnomusicolo- gies and ethnochoreologies in the Balkans‘, which was presented by ten schol- ars from Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia at the 39th World Conference of the ICTM (International Council for Traditional Music) held in Vienna in 2007 and later published by the Bulgarian Academy of Science (Peycheva and Rodel 2008). In this publication several articles were devoted to the national scopes in dance research in southeastern Europe,2 open- ing the possibility for comparison of the similarities and differences in their epistemological and methodological orientations. Although the mentioned papers offer a foundation toward discipline build- ing, it seems that worldwide achievements in, let us use Judith Lynne Hanna’s formulation made more than twenty years ago, the ‘scholarly field of dance‘ (Hanna 1992: 325), but also in the interdisciplinary and post-disciplinary alli- ances of the today’s academia cause the need for reevaluation and repositioning of the eighty years long tradition of continuous dance research in Serbia. Theo- ries, methods and subjects of research should be reevaluated within the disci- pline itself, but also within the humanities and toward other related disciplines.

Historical traits As well as in other parts of Europe, the interest for traditional music and dance in Serbia started in the second part of the 19th century together with the growing nationalistic movement and romantic interest for rural life. Dealing with traditional music consisted of collecting and transcribing traditional vil- lage songs for the purpose of saving them for the future generations or using them in compositions (see more in Marković 1994: 21; Marković, 2006: 8). On the other hand, since it was difficult to write down traditional dance patterns properly, interest for traditional dances in the 19th century was focused toward

2 Beside one devoted to Serbia, there are articles which present dance research in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Vasić and Panić-Kašanski 2008: 18–22, Macedonia (Opetceska-Tatar- cevska 2008: 30–39) and Greece (Katsanevaki 2008: 49–75). For evaluation of the develop- ment and achievements of dance research in Croatia see more in Zebec 1996: 89–110; Ceribašić 1998: 49–65; Zebec 2009: 136–150.

60 Rakočević, S.: Tracing the Discipline: Eighty Years of Ethnochoreology ... (58– 86) recording dance repertoires of distinct ethnographic regions of Serbia in the aim of differentiating their local cultural peculiarities. The first data about traditional dances are found in the books of ethnogra- pher Milan Đ. Milićević Kneževina Srbija [Principality of Serbia] (Milićević 1876) and Kraljevina Srbija [Kingdom of Serbia] (Milićević 1884). In those extensive monographies, which were ordered by the newly established Serbian goverment,3 Milan Đ. Milićević wrote about geographical and cultural specifities of different regions of Serbia. Although he did not have a model in domestic ethnography, Milićević included passages about the dance repertoires of each re- gion by listing names of the individual dances, marking if they are ‘old‘ or ‘new‘ in that area and occasionally adding some short comments and simple verbal descriptions of the basic step patterns. Although the information in these books is deficient, they offer the possibility of perceiving continuity and/or change in the traditional dance repertoire. The study ‘Srpske narodne igre‘ [‘Serbian folk games‘] made by ethnolo- gist Tihomir Đorđević in 1907 can be marked as the first conceptually grounded and methodologically based writing about traditional dances in Serbia (Đorđević 1907: 1–89). Relying on the rural Serbian language, Đorđević used the word ‘igra‘ in a title of his study as a kind of an umbrella term and devoted his paper to different forms of human creative kinesthetic expression such as playing games and, dancing. Tihomir Đorđević considered all those forms of games as a mani- festation of ‘superfluous, unnecessary energy that appears in the human body‘ (Ibid: 1) and classified them in five groups. In order to distinguish dance from other forms of kinetic activities, Tihomir Đorđević conceived the term ‘orske igre‘ [literally: ‘oro games‘] to designate dance (ples).4 By using the emic term ‘oro‘, which was used in the 19th century and before in the village spoken lan- guages in the areas of the southeastern Balkans (on the territories of today’s eastern Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia) as an expression for chain dances in circular formation (see more in Mladenović 1969: 477–478), Tihomir Đorđević from the very beginning focused dance research in Serbia into the local rural practice of performing dances in the circle.5 Although other dance formations were included occasionally in future investigations, the object of research was

3 The books were published in the period of establishing a modern national state as one of the first acts in (re)constructing national culture after several centuries of the Ottoman rule. 4 The other groups are: ‘viteške igre‘ [‘games of the knights‘],‘zabavne igre‘ [‘games for fun‘], ‘igre duha‘ [‘games of the spirit‘] and ‘igre za dobit‘ [‘games for profit‘] (Đorđević 1907: 6). 5 From the mid 20th century the expression ‘oro‘ is being repressed by the term ‘kolo‘, which is now absolutely dominated on the whole territory of Serbia (Mladenović 1969: 477– 478).

61 New Sound 41, I/2013 thus defined. Along with inauguration of the term, in his discussion on the con- cept of ‘orske igre‘, Tihomir Đorđević separated them into two broad categories: religious dances and secular dances (Đorđević 1907:26).6 This terminology and classification modified by Olivera Vasić in 1988 (Vasić 1988: 459–462) has been used until recently, so it could be said that some of the theoretical considerations on traditional dances have a one-hundred years long tradition in Serbia. Since ‘Srpske narodne igre‘ was the only study of Tihomir Đorđević devoted to the traditional dance practice, and despite its influence that it undoubtedly had to future researchers, its publishing cannot be considered as the beginning of the continuous and organized research that is, establishing a scientific discipline of its own.

Tracing the discipline The first individuals who started to collect village dances for the basic pur- pose of saving them for the future were Tihomir Đorđević’s nieces Danica and Ljubica Janković. The Janković sisters grew up in an intellectual Belgrade city family and were raised in the spirit of national patriotism and female emanci- pation.7 Both of them initially studied in the Faculty of Philology in Belgrade and worked as translators, literary theorists and professors.8 During the 1930s, however, they completely devoted themselves to the collection, recording and analysis of old peasant, that is, ‘folk‘ dance.9 With the publication of the first of eight volumes of Narodne igre [Folk dances] in 1934, the modern era of eth- nochoreological study began. These volumes, which are organized according to different regions of Serbia and ex-Yugoslavia, included detailed textual descrip-

6 For the term secular dances (Serbian: ‘svetovne igre ‘), Tihomir Đorđević used archaic expression ‘svetske‘ igre (Literally, word ‘ svetske‘ means ‘world‘ dances. It is a kind of word game that can not be adequately translated into English.). 7 Their mother Draga Janković was engaged in writing and painting watercolors and both of their uncles were highly educated. Academician Tihomir Đorđević was one of the founders of ethnology and folkloristics in Serbia (his study about folk games and dances is just one of his numerous scientific articles) and Vladimir Đorđević was a composer, one of the founders of the musical pedagogy and one of the first collectors of folk songs in Serbia. 8 They both were fluent in English and French languages, which they studied abroad after graduation. Danica studied English in London and Oxford (Ilijin 1959b): 171; Mladenović 1960: 250), while Ljubica was in Austria, Germany, England, and France (Mladenović 1974: 136). During the 1920s Ljubica was engaged in the Slovenian literature and even published a book Iz slovenacke književnosti [From Slovenian literature] in 1928 ( Mladenović 1974: 136). 9 According to Olivera Mladenović and Milica Ilijin, this turning point in their professional engagement has not happened accidentally, but it was generated by family environment and education (Ilijin 1974: 142; Mladenović 1974: 137).

62 Rakočević, S.: Tracing the Discipline: Eighty Years of Ethnochoreology ... (58– 86) tions of some nine hundred dances, notations of their accompanying music, as well as more general discussions on the ethnographic context in which dances were performed. Along with this, the Janković sisters wrote a variety of articles on specific aspects on folk dance, which they incorporated in their books and in other publications. They discussed dances comparatively, with their history, dissemination and mutual influences and described basic context in which the dances were performed. Their work was recognized by the intellectuals and offi- cial authorities in Serbia, so Ljubica, who primarily worked as a school teacher,10 got a job in the Ethnographical Museum in Belgrade, where she worked from 1939 to 1950 (Mladenović 1974: 140).11 Beside that, due to her continuous and respected scholarly work, Ljubica was pronounced for corresponding (1963) and, ten yeas later, for regular member (1974) of the Serbian Academy of Sci- ences and Art (Mladenović 1974: 140). Because of their excellent knowledge of English and French, but also their wide education and intellectual consistency, the Janković sisters had a wide cor- respondence with dance scholars from European countries, USA and Canada.12 Although they followed the latest worldwide achievements in the study of dance (see for example Janković 1939: 305–326), Danica and Ljubica Janković had a unique approach to the concept, methods and theoretical focus of the research, which they developed and promoted until the end of their lives. Considering the fact that they were primarily devoted to collecting the oldest rural dances, but also their tight intellectual relationships with Tihomir Đorđević and great respect to his folkloristic achievements, the Janković sisters officially accepted term orska igra. However, they used this term just occasionally, fos- tering the expression ‘narodne igre‘ [literrary: ‘folk games‘] in their numerous articles in Serbian language and as a title for all eight of their books.13 No matter

10 After finishing the faculty in 1920, Ljubica worked in Fourth Male Gymnasium in Bel- grade for a year, and then, from 1921 to 1939 in Second Female Gymnasium in Belgrade (Mladenović 1974 a): 136). 11 Danica worked as a school teacher in Tetovo in nowadays Macedonia and in Belgrade from 1924 to 1931. After that, she got a job at the University Library in Belgrade, where she stayed until 1951 (Mladenović 1960: 260–261). 12 Most of their correspondence is kept within the Legacy of Danica and Ljubica Janković in the National Library of Serbia. This huge legacy, which also includes Tihomir and Vladimir Đorđević‘s manuscripts and other diverse inheritance, is currently under elaboration within the ongoing project Legacy of Danica and Ljubica Janković which will be finished by the end of 2016. 13 The Janković sisters had ambivalent attitude toward precise defining the object of their research until the end of their professional activity. In the first of their books, the Janković sisters explicitly stated that they will consider in the text only ‘secular oro folk dances‘

63 New Sound 41, I/2013 the term for the object of their research, they were devoted exclusivelly to the study of folk dance and not to other forms of gaming.14 In addition, it is impor- tant to note that consistency in the usage of the term ‘folk’ unambiguously and immediately positions the research activities of Danica and Ljubica Janković in the sphere of European folklore studies of the Romantic period (see more in Na- hachewsky 2012: 31–32). The collecting of dances by the Janković sisters was based on meticulously planned continuous field research, which they conducted between 1920s and 1950s.15 Even though they had opportunities to observe various dance events, the epistemology of their field research was based primarily on the interview and questionnaire methods. They investigated mostly in the villages where they were looking for the best old dancers, who can demonstrate older practice (Janković 1952: 10). For the purpose of notating dances, they developed the system of notation, which according to their attitudes, can record dances from the Balkans in the most appropriate way (Janković 1975: 31).16 That’s why they invented specific terminology in the Serbian language for different kinds of steps and dance motives in the first four of their books (Janković 1934, 1937, 1939, 1947). Their notation was mostly based on reduced verbal descriptions supplemented by some graphic signs. Each dance notation consisted of ‘the pattern‘ (obrazac)

[svetovne orkse narodne igre] (Janković 1934: 4), but at the same time they retain the com- prehensive and more general book’s title Narodne igre. This ambivalent atitude occurs again thirty years later. In the article ‘Etnomuzikologija i etnokoreologija‘ [‘Ethnomusicology and ethnochoreology‘] in which she introduced two new scholarly disciplines to the Serbian aca- demia, Ljubica used exclusively the term narodne igre (Janković Lj. 1964: 90–92). How- ever, within the manuscript ‘Kombinovane metode etnokoreologije‘ [‘Combined methods of ethnochoreology‘], which Ljubica wrote for one of her lectures held in 1972, the research object of ethnochoreology was defined as orska igra. This manuscript is kept within the Legacy of Danica and Ljubica Janković in the National Library of Serbia. 14 Danica and Ljubica Janković defined narodne igre comprehensivly, with ‘general terms‘ (Janiković 1939: 13). According to them it is ‘anonymous, traditional, collective, ethno- graphic, folkloric, it mirrors the old traditional culture, it is expression and product of the soul of our people‘ [‘narodna igra je: anonimna, tradicionalna, kolektivna, etnografska, folk- lorna, ogledalo stare tradicionalne kulture, izraz naše narodne duše‘] (Ibid 1939: 13–14). Although they defined the phrase comprehensivelly, they refused to call anything a folk dance except an anonymously created dance performed in traditional settings (see more also in http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/212114/folk-dance). 15 For most of their field research trips, as well as for the first three of their books, Danica and Ljubica Janković paid all expenses by themselves (Mladenović and Ilijin 1954: 159). 16 Although they were familiar with Labanotation and they had certain respect for this method of notation, the Janković sisters believed that it was not adequate for Serbian and Balkan folk dances because the specific relationship between dance and dance music, which they termed as ‘Balkan phenomenon‘, cannot be notated precisely (Janković Lj. 1975: 31).

64 Rakočević, S.: Tracing the Discipline: Eighty Years of Ethnochoreology ... (58– 86) and ‘the analysis‘ (analiza) parts, the latter of which was organized by musical measures. In most of their books the Janković sisters published the main lines of dance music too.17 One of the main accomplishments of the Janković sisters’ system of dance notation and analysis which influenced in a great measure further ethnochoreo- logical investigation in Serbia is their structural approach to dance. In the aim of classification, comparison, systematization and, historical observation they conceptualized symmetrical and asymmetrical dance types according to typi- cal structures that is, dance models (Janković, 1949: 45–53; Janković, Lj. 1975: 33–37). The approach to dance analysis of the Janković sisters, which has been considered as scientifically based (Janković, Lj. 1975: 32) has similarities with structural dance analysis which would be developed among European dance scholars during 1960s and 1970s (Martin and Pesovár 1961: 1–41, 1963: 295– 332; IFMC 1974: 115–135). As far as it is known, the Janković sisters were not under the direct influence of other methods of dance analysis. However, al- though the system they developed was unique, their approach to dance analysis and way of thinking belongs to the so-called European choreological scholarly tradition by its basic research topics, methods and tools (see more in Giruchescu and Torp 1991:1–10). Although they were primarily concentrated to the dance itself as a product that is, the phenomenon of movement, Danica and Ljubica Janković also wrote several detailed and comprehensive articles about different issues of social,18 ethnographic19 and even gender relations within folk dance practice.20 In most of their books they also published numerous photographs of the dancers and villag- ers in regional costumes. Their basic attitude that old village dances should be recorded and preserved before their disappearance, which probably generated the initial reason for start- ing to research dance in the first place, Danica and Ljubica Janković strongly pro- moted several times (for example Janković 1934; 1–4; 1937: 11–33; 1951: 5–12).

17 Only the first book (Janković 1934) does not have accompanied melodic lines of the dances. Danica Janković published them in separate publication several years after the first book was published (Janković D. 1937). 18 For example the article ‘Psihološki činioci u našim narodnim igrama‘ [‘Psychological factors in folk dances‘] (Janković 1939: 14– 20). 19 For example the articles ‘Svadbarske igre u vezi sa svadbenim običajima u našem narodu‘ [‘Wedding dances related to the wedding customs of our people‘] (Janković 1939: 31–43) or ‘Prilog proučavanju ostataka orskih obrednih igara u Jugoslaviji‘ [‘Contribution to the study of the remains of ritual dances in Yugoslavia‘] (Janković 1957). 20 The article ‘Žena u našim narodnim igrama‘ [‘Woman in our folk dances‘] (Janković 1948: 6–7).

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This approach to the collection of dances was undivided with the processes of consciously establishing national culture and constructing the feeling of national identity, which were part of the prevailing tendencies in the European folkloristic tradition (Giruchescu and Torp 1991: 1–2). Due to the consistency of their scholarly work, unified methodology and theoretical achievements, there is no doubt that Danica and Ljubica Janković es- tablished a scholarly discipline of dance research in Serbia. Ljubica Janković not only was aware of it, but she appointed the scientific field she dealt with as eth- nochoreology and marked its beginning in 1934 by publishing the first volume of Narodne igre (Janković Lj. 1964: 92). This point of view was also confirmed by Milica Ilijin (Ilijin 1973: 203–204).

Second generation of scholars: contextual approach to dance The next generation of scholars was represented by Olivera Mladenović, Milica Ilijin, and Slobodan Zečević. Contrary to their predecessors, they were more contextually oriented and they left much fewer descriptions of particular dances in all of their published works. However, they were still occasionally oc- cupied by writing detailed ethnographies of dance traditions of different regions of Serbia. All three scholars, Mladenović, Ilijin and Zečević, were members of the Savez udruženja folklorista Jugoslavije (SUFJ) [Federation of Associations of Folklorists of Yugoslavia] and participated in the congresses, which this associ- ation organized in a different republic of Yugoslavia each year. That is how the on-going dance research from all parts of Yugoslavia including Serbia was pre- sented among dance researchers, ethnomusicologists and other folklore schol- ars. Most of presented articles were included in collections of papers, which were published after any annual congress meeting. One of the most important achievements of these mutual scholarly discussions was the comparison about different notation systems that had been created between the 1930s and 1950s in each of republics of ex-Yugoslavia. The final result was the general national acceptance to include Rudolf Laban’s system of dance notation – Kinetography Laban also known as Labanotation, in dance research (Rad Kongresa folklorista Jugoslavije 1958). Allong with this, the annual meetings of the foklorists gath- ered around the SUFJ were significant for scholars from ex-Yugoslavia repub- lics not only because they were exposed to each other’s scholarly work, but also to the local music and dance traditions of the hosting congress. These experi- ences were certainly a built-in enrichment to the developing the field of dance research in ex-Yugoslavia. Even she, as the Janković sisters, primarily finished the Faculty of Philol- ogy in Belgrade, Olivera Mladenović worked as dance researcher and scholar al-

66 Rakočević, S.: Tracing the Discipline: Eighty Years of Ethnochoreology ... (58– 86) most all of her professional life. After working several years as a school teacher before World War II, Olivera Mladenović was secretary and adviser in the Na- tional Ensemble of Folk Songs and Dances ‘Kolo‘ until 1962, when she started to work at the Institute of Ethnography of Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (Vlahović 1988: 97; Radovanović 1988: 197). While working in the ‘Kolo‘ Ensemble, the Ministry of Education of Serbia hired Olivera Mladenović to de- sign a detailed questionnaire for the survey of folk dances in Serbia. Mladenović created it and also conducted its implementation all over Serbia.21 Application of this questionnaire represented a new approach to dance documentation. Various gathered data about dance were considered as a ‘scientific document‘ (Vlahović 1988: 98) and was widely used not only by Mladenović‘s contemporaries in- cluding the Janković sisters (Ibid: 98), but also by many scholars in the future (for example Vasić 1990: 25–27; Ranisavljević 2011: 96). In the late 1950s, Olivera Mladenović finished ethnological studies at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade. She was one of the first scholars who com- pleted the doctorate in the field of dance in Serbia in 1965 at the same fac- ulty (Vlahović 1988: 98). Her dissertation Kolo u Južnih Slovena [Kolo among South Slavs] is a comprehensive survey of round and chain dances among the South Slavs. In this book, which is published several years later (Mladenović 1973), the phenomenon of kolo is traced historically, analyzed structurally by using verbal descriptions, photo and graphical illustrations, and discussed by social significance and semantics. Although she considered kolo as an archaic phenomenon, Olivera Mladenović paid substantive attention to its more recent functions and meanings during World War II and the period of establishing of the socialist Yugoslavia. By choosing the universal dance formation as the main object of her investigation and widening the territory of research to areas where the South Slavs live, Olivera Mladenović extended scopes of the national Ser- bian borders of the discipline building, but at the same time stayed within the national boundaries of other country, which was Yugoslavia. Beside her dissertation, Olivera Mladenović published a number of articles in which she discussed different aspects of dance (1958: 263–280), some histor- ical sources for dance research (1964: 204–209), methodology of ethnochore- ology (1971: 303–306) or scholarly terminology which should be developed (1978, 477–481). Although it was not the primary focus of her professional activities, Mladenović also investigated dances ‘in the field‘, where she applied,

21 This questionnaire, known as ‘Questionnaire on the status of folk dances in the territory of the People’s Republic of Serbia‘ [Anketa o stanju narodnih igara na teritoriji Narodne republike Srbije], is kept in the Institute of Ethnography in the Serbian Academy of Science and Arts.

67 New Sound 41, I/2013 beside making interviews and questionnaires, the observation method and wrote detailed ethnographic overviews of the particular regions or customes she ob- served (see for example Mladenović 1954: 91–96; 1974 b): 91–107). Despite the fact that she was focused to village dancing in almost all of her papers, Mladenović was aware that ethnochoreological research should be widened in the scope of investigation of the ‘contemporary function‘ of dance (Mladenović 1971: 305). That‘s why she had a critical relationship to Đorđević‘s term orske igre and division he made (Ibid: 304). At the same time, by sticking to the term narodne igre, Mladenović expressed great respect and alligned conceptual rela- tionship to the Janković sisters‘ scholarly legacy. Working at the institutions of national importance certainly influenced Oli- vera Mladenović’s research topics to some extent, as it was the case with dance scholarship in most of the East European countries (see more in Giurchescu and Torp 1991: 3; Buckland 2006: 7; Bakka and Karoblis 2010: 169–170), but no- netheless Olivera Mladenović contributed greatly to the establishment of ethno- choreology in Serbia in academic terms by opening areas of historical discourse in dance research by archival work, as well as looking at dance in wider social and cultural contexts. An immediate associate of the Janković sisters and Olivera Mladenović was Milica Ilijin. Although Ilijin studied the French language at the Faculty of Philology in Belgrade, she also worked as a professor of physical education in her youth (Jovanović 2010: 205). Due to implementing folk dances in physical education and engagement in different folk dance ensembles as organizer and instructor, she got the job as a dance researcher at the Institute of Musicology of Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in 1950 where she stayed until retire- ment. As a successor of the research methodology of the Janković sisters, Milica Ilijin collected dances during numerous field research in Serbia and Montenegro and described around one hundred dances in the system of the Janković sisters‘ verbal notation (Ibid: 206).22 Beside dances of the Serbian population, Ilijin also researched dance traditions of the ethnic minorities in Serbia (Slovaks, Hungar- ian, Romanians, Albanians and Turks) (for example Ilijin 1953 a) and b); 1959 b)), as well as some of the more recent forms of dancing such as the partisans‘ dances (Ilijin 1960).

22 Milica Ilijin was one of the contributors in the book by Croatian ethnochoreologist Ivan Ivančan Folklor i scena [Folklore and scene], which is partly devoted to reconstruction of dance traditions of different ‘dance zones‘ of ex-Yugoslavia (Ivančan 1971). In this book Ilijin wrote chapers devoted to dance traditions of Vojvodina, Kosovo, Montenegro and Ser- bia (67–70, 79–81, 81–83, 83–86). She also published one of her ethnographic articles to- gether with Olivera Mladenović. It is devoted to the folk dances of the surroundings of Belgrade (Ilijin and Mladenović 1962:166–217).

68 Rakočević, S.: Tracing the Discipline: Eighty Years of Ethnochoreology ... (58– 86)

During the most intense scholarly activity of Olivera Mladenović and Mil- ica Ilijin, European ethnochoreologists gathered around the Study Group on Folk Dance Terminology of the IFMC (International Folk Music Council) 23 working on the system of universal analytical terminology and common method of struc- tural and form dance analysis based on Labanotation (see more in Giurchescu and Kröschlová 2007: 21–53). Milica Ilijin joined this group in 1965 and took part in the joint publication in which the system was introduced (IFMC 1974: 115–135). Although she did not apply this system to the dance material she col- lected nor did she use Labanotation, Milica Ilijin certainly contributed greatly to the promotion of ethnochoreology as a consistent scholarly discipline in Ser- bia and ex-Yugoslavia by introducing this system of structural dance analysis to the wider folkloristic and academic community (Ilijin 1968: 393–394; 1973: 203–213). The professional activity of Milica Ilijin also focused on various efforts in promoting folk dances in public: she worked as an instructor and lecturer at numerous folk dance workshops and seminars in ex-Yugoslavia and abroad (Jovanović 2002: 321), worked as adviser of many folk dance ensembles and colaborated with the ‘Kolo‘ Ensemble, where she set two choreographies of dances of the ethnic minorities of Serbia (Rusini and Slovaks) in 1956.24 Slobodan Zečević was an ethnologist. He worked in various cultural institu- tions and at the Institute of Ethnography until 1965 when he became the director of the Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade (Antonijević 1983: 185). His scholarly activities were focused primarily on the reconstruction of folk mythology, reli- gion and rural rites, but also to dance.25 Zečević‘s PhD dissertation, which he completed at the the Faculty of Phi- losophy in 1962 under the title Paganski elementi u srpskim obrednim igrama [Pagan elements in Serbian ritual dances] (Ilijin 1973: 206), is devoted to re- construction of the system of the mythological beliefs and rural rites in the area of southeastern Serbia. Slobodan Zečević strongly believed that it is possible to disclose the system of the Serbian and South Slavs mythology and pagan reli- gion through comparative analysis of data from literature, but, in at least equal measure, through interpretation of data gathered during field research (Zečević

23 This Study Group changed the name in 1978 into the Study Group on Ethnochoreology (Giurchescu and Kröschlová 2007: 5) and IFMC changed the name into International Coun- cil for Traditional Music (ICTM) in 1981 (http://www.ictmusic.org/general-information). 24 Those are the choreographies Rusinska igra [Dance of Rusini] and Slovačke igre [Dances of the Slovaks] (http://www.kolo.rs/page.php?31). 25 According to memories of Zečević‘s son, Božidar, Danica and Ljubica Janković greatly influenced his father to focus his research interest to folk dance (Zečević B. 2008: 896).

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S. 2008 a): 56–59).26 This dissertation which is later published (Zečević S. 2008 b): 61–211), interprets rites and ceremonial dances through evolutionist perspec- tive of the older European folkloristics, which was part of wide nation build- ing processes of constructing ancient ethnic identity of the people (see more in Buckland 2006: 7). Through bold interpretations of a high level of hypothetical issues on metaphorical meanings of ritual dances, Zečević opened new epis- temological perspective in dance research in Serbia, which was based on the generalizations and subjective elucidations. Beside this study, Zečević devoted one of his books to historical survey of folk dances in Serbia (Zečević S. 1983), where he comparatively distinguished regional dance dialects through the conceptualization of five ethnochoreologi- cal areas (27–45),27 but also focused his attention to the historical overview of the older city dances (47–57) and general systematization of the traditional dance repertoire (133–154). Beside these two main publications, Zečević also wrote several ethnographic papers devoted to village dances in different regions in Serbia (for example Zečević S. 1972: 401–403) Although not considered a ethnochoreologist, Slobodan Zečević contrib- uted to dance research in Serbia by widening the object of the research to ritual and city dances, and widening ways of their interpretation, which influenced theoretical and conceptual considerations of some of his followers, especially Olivera Vasić.

Ethnochoreology and academic education The next acknowledgement toward dance research in Serbia came about 1990 when the subject of ethnochoreology was added to the program of basic ethnomusicological studies at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade.28 Several years later, in 1996, ethnochoreology was also included in the ethnomusicology

26 Zečević promoted distinct ‘ethnological discipline‘, which he called ‘ethnomythology‘ (Zečević S. 2008 a): 56–59). According to his apprehensions, the methodology of ethnomy- thology consisted both of consulting ethnographic publication and intense field research, where he used various methods: intewiev, questionnaire, observation and recording (Ibid). 27 Those are: Pannonian ethnochoreological area, Central ethnochoreological area, Dinaric ethnochoreological area, Ethnochoreological area of the south of Serbia and Ethnochoreo- logical area of Timok region. 28 It should be mentioned here, that even though the dance has not been included within ethnology and anthropology studies at the Faculty of philosophy in Belgrade, dance chore- ographer Slobodan Džadžević defended PHD dissertation Folk dance and problem of its conservation at this faculty in 1993. This study is published in 2005 (Džadžević 2005). It should be repeated again that Slobodan Zečević, Olivera Mladenović and Olivera Vasić gained their PHD projects about dance at the very same faculty.

70 Rakočević, S.: Tracing the Discipline: Eighty Years of Ethnochoreology ... (58– 86) studies at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad. Ehnochoreology thus began to be institutionally acknowledged as a scholarly discipline. Academic ethnochoreo- logical education both in Belgrade and in Novi Sad was established by Olivera Vasić.29 Olivera Vasić finished ethnology at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade. In her youth, she was a folk dancer and teacher in a Belgrade folk dance ens- semble ‘Gradimir‘ more than 10 years.30 According to her own words, one of the crucial influences on her professional orientation was acquaintance with the work of Ivan Ivančan, an ethnochoreologist from Croatia (Zakić and Rakočević 2011: 227).31 While working at the Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade, Olivera Vasić defended PhD dissertation at Faculty of Philosophy in 1988, with her field work subject devoted to village dances of the Podrinje region. This dis- sertation was published several years later (Vasić 1991). The starting point of Olivera Vasić epistemological approach to folk dance investigation is the field research, where she applies the mixture of interview and observation, but also participation methods. Through intense and continuous field research Olivera Vasić investigated numerous regions of Serbia. For the purpose of comparative analysis of geographically oriented ethnography, Oli- vera Vasić used slightly modified Zečević‘s regionalization of Serbia, but she also went further in geographical systematization of folk dances through pro- posing diverse dance dialects of the national heritage (see more in Vasić 2001: 12–13; 2011: 227–230). Along with making universal generalizations, most of Olivera Vasić‘s particular field research projects were published as ethnographic monographies in books or individual articles (for example Vasić 1984, 1994, 1999, 2007 a)). According to her attitudes, one of the main tasks of dance research is col- lecting old village dances and preserving them for future generations (Zakić and Rakočević 2011: 228). Considering the respect that she expresses for the Janković sisters‘ work (Vasić 2005 a): 16), Olivera Vasić persistently keeps the basic terminological and classificatory solutions of her predecessors and still

29 Olivera Vasić taught ethnochoreology at Academy of Arts in Novi Sad until 2007. She also established academic ethnochoreological education at Faculty of Music on ‘Saint Cyril and Methodius‘ University in Skopje, Macedonia, where she taught from 1993 to 1995 and also at Academy of Art, University of Banja Luka in 1999, where she is still teaching (per- sonal communication with Olivera Vasić). 30 Most of the folk dance ensembles in Serbia were termed as cultural-artistic societies (sing. kulturno-umetničko društvo, KUD) 31 Olivera Vasić met Ivančan for the first time at the Summer Folklore School in the early 1970s, which Ivančan organized from 1963 (see more in Sremac 2010: 388–389; Zebec 1996: 99, footnote 20). Olivera Vasić attended this school until 1990.

71 New Sound 41, I/2013 promotes the terms and concepts of igra and orska igra (Vasić 1988: 459–46; 2011: 95). However, instead of the expression folk, Olivera Vasić rather uses the term traditional dance (Zakić and Rakočević 2011: 228).32 One of main achievements, if not the crucial one, in a methodological ap- proach of Olivera Vasić is the application of Labanotation.33 Besides incorporat- ing the Labanotation in all of her books and articles, Olivera Vasić set learning of this dance notation as one of the main contents of all ethnochoreological courses at the ethnomusicological studies in Belgrade and in Novi Sad, but also other academic institutions where she worked.34 Beside faculties, Olivera Vasić also taught Labanotation during numerous seminars for folk dance teachers all over the country. For the purpose of organized promotion and learning of folk dances, Oli- vera Vasić founded and led the Centre for Folk Dance Research of Serbia [Cen- tar za proučavanje narodnih igara Srbije], which existed from 1990 to 2012.35 One of the main activities of this centre was organizing the seminars for learn- ing folk music and dance once or twice per year (see more in Vasić 2007 b); Zakić and Rakočević 2011: 226–227). Because of those organized continious activities and nationaly oriented policy of promoting village folk dances from various regions of Serbia and among Serbs from the Diaspora, the Centre had a great influence on the staged folklore (Ibid: 230–231). The Centre also contributed greatly in collection activities, through orga- nizing numerous filed research of various regions of Serbia, esspecially those which have not been explored previously. On those field research trips, the Centre sent the most successful participants of the seminars, mostly folk dance

32 The usage of the term ‘traditional’ instead of ‘folk’ (dance), the emphasis placed on an imagined community and the collective dimension of dance performance, is shifted to its historical continuity (see more in Nahachewsky 2012, 39). In ethnochoreology in Serbia, this change in the appointment of the research object was not essential, but merely termino- logical. 33 Olivera Vasić learned Labanotation from Slovenian notator Bruno Ravnikar during the Summer Folklore School and applied it for the first time in the first of her books devoted to folk dances of Bujanovac region in 1980 (Vasić 1980). 34 Within the ethnochoreological courses Olivera Vasić also insisted on the practical learn- ing of folk dances not only from Serbia, but also from all regions of former Yugoslavia. She strongly believes that dance knowledge must be based not only on theoretical but, even more importantly, kinetic experience. 35 In 2013, this Centre was transformed into the Centre for Research and Revitalization of Traditional Dances in Serbia [Centar za istraživanje i očuvanje tradicionalnih igara Srbije, CIOTIS], which is an assosiation of dance scholars and choreographers. Olivera Vasić is still a head of the organization.

72 Rakočević, S.: Tracing the Discipline: Eighty Years of Ethnochoreology ... (58– 86) teachers and choreographers, who thus also worked as folk dance collectors. In preserving the old village dances, the very important issue of the Centre policy was directed towards public presentations of the collected field research data though publishing of ethnographic monographies titled as Narodne igre Srbije. Građa [Fold dances of Serbia. Materials], which all included Labanotation, but also sounds and, occasionally video recordings of particular dances (Vasić ed. 1991–2012).36 Considering the fact that they learned Labanotation during Cen- tre’s seminars and that they participated in field research as collectors, many of dance notators in those books were folk dance teachers and choreographers (see more in Vasić 2005 a): 93), and they did not have the appropriate academic education in ethnology, ethnochoreology, nor dance notation. In her own dance notations, Olivera Vasić focused on presenting the most typical, that is, invariant dance patterns of the particular geographical areas, but also on some of their variant appearances. This method enabled further com- parison of the dissemination of particular step patterns and conceptualizations of dance types of Serbia, which was one of Olivera Vasić‘s main scholarly con- cerns (Vasić 2002: 156–177).37 Beside ethnographic and theoretical texts, Olivera Vasić also published a number of papers devoted to various subjects from ritual (2004) to different forms of ‘survival‘ of folk dances in contemporary Serbian society (2005 b)), which she subjectively interpreted according to her personal attitudes and life experience (see more in Zakić and Rakočević 2011: 227–230). As regards to the amount of dance material she collected and the number of published articles and books, Olivera Vasić has been beyond any doubt one of the most prolific dance researchers in Serbia. Although Olivera Vasić was not musically educated nor was she concerned by analysis of dance music, thanks to the fact that ethnochoreology was learned at the faculty of music, students‘ approach to dance research inevitably incorpo- rated musical analysis and, as it was the case with ethnomusicology in Serbia, their approach was based on the triple paradigm: field research-transcription/

36 A total of 33 monographies were published in the edition Narodne igre Srbije. Građa from 1991 to 2012. 37 Olivera Vasić influenced very much with her research topics on many of her students who, though not continuously engaged in dance research, were devoted during their studies to certain ethnochoreological problems. This time, let us mention the important original ar- ticle of the ethnomusicologists Rastko Jakovljević ‘Strukturalna analiza u etnokoreologiji i njena moguća primena na srpsko igračko nasleđe’ [‘Structural analysis in ethnochoreology and its possible application to the Serbian dance heritage’], which is dedicated to the con- ceptualization of dance models (Jakovljević 2003: 210–236).

73 New Sound 41, I/2013 dance notation-analysis (Golemović and Rakočević 2008: 88). Analytical focus on dance texts was enabled through the use of Labanotation. It also opened the possibility of evolving structural dance analysis, which was developed by Euro- pean scholars since 1960s (IFMC 1974: 115–135; Giurchescu and Kröschlová 2007 21–63) and introduced in Serbia by Milica Iljin (Ilijin 1968: 393–394). Although many researchers associated ethnochoreology and ethnomusicology since their establishment as scholarly disciplines (see more in Giurchescu and Torp 1991: 2–3; Janković Lj 1964: 90; Ilijin 1973: 203; Zebec 1996: 95), it can be said that ethnochoreology in Serbia was more than ever linked with folk music research during 1990s and early 2000s. As the ethnomusicology student of the first-generation of Olivera Vasić in my PhD project, which was dedicated to traditional dances of the Banat Serbs,38 I tried to ontologically and methodologically interlink ethnomusicology and ethnochoreology as much as possible. That‘s why I termed the object of my research ‘ples‘ [dance] and defined it as an inseparable syncretic unity of dance movements and music (see more in Rakočević 2004: 96–118). Beside making a comprehensive ethnography of traditional dances of the Banat Serbs, the main focus of my thesis was to develop the methodology of comparative dance and musical structural/form analysis, which should reveal some of the regularities of the processing of the dance movements and music within particular dance genres.39 I defended my dissertation in 2009 (Rakočević 2009) and published it two years later (Rakočević 2011). However, thanks to the involvement in the study groups of ICTM – Study Group on Ethnochoreology and Study Group on Music and Dance of Southeastern Europe – I’ve started to reexamine and modify my approach to dance research. In my current professional interests and proj-

38 The theme of my dissertation Tradicionalna igra i muzika za igru Srba u Banatu u svetlu uzajamnih uticaja [Traditional dance and dance music of the Banat Serbs in the light of mu- tual influences], which I signed in 2006, directly represents basically folkloristic and nation- ally oriented approach in dance/musical research: I was focused on the reconstruction and historical observation of the old village (traditional) dances of the majority population of one geographical area – the region of Banat. However, the main focus of the disertation is put toward developing an original comparative system of dance/musical structural and form analysis. 39 The traditional dance repertoire of the Banat Serbs I systematized in two general dance genres: kolo and couple dances (Rakočević 2011: 21). The subgenres of kolo dances are: autochthonous kolo dances from Banat (autohtona banatska kola), town- craft dances (varoško-esnafska kola) and kolos from Šumadija (šumadijska kola). The subgenres of couple dances are; so-called in two dances (po dvoje) and so-called turn- ing dances (okretni plesovi) (Ibid: 21–27).

74 Rakočević, S.: Tracing the Discipline: Eighty Years of Ethnochoreology ... (58– 86) ects I am trying to extend, together with my students and younger colleagues,40 the methodological and theoretical discourses of ethnochoreology in Serbia. The primary tasks of contemporary ethnochoreological research in Serbia are to extend the object and modify methods of field research. The field re- search focused on the reconstruction of the various forms of rural dancing from the past, which dominated the ethnochoreological discourse in Serbia and was considered as main and the most important epistemological source for gain- ing academic knowledge about dance, should be extended in the direction of investigation of the particular dance events [plesni događaji] (see more in Torp 1989). The concept of dance event defined as ‘a social occasion of a special kind‘ (Ronström 1989: 23) represents the immediate ‘time/space experience‘ of particular dancing seen as fluctuation of ‘energy‘, to put it in Allegra Fuller Sny- der words (Fuller Snyder 1989: 1).41 This concept promoted among wider group of dance scholars during the symposium of the ICTM Study group on Ethno- choreology held in Copenhagen in 1988. It revealed the possibilities of deeper contextual analysis and therefore Copenhagen meeting has been perceived by some scholars a kind of turning point in dance research in Europe (Zebec 2009: 140). In Serbia, this concept has been applyed only the last few years. During field research various methods and multiple sources of gaining dance knowledge should be interlinked (see more in Gore and Bakka 2007: 93–97). Making interviews and questionnaires have been traditionally applied as main field research methods in Serbia. However, the potentials of applying

40 I teach ethnochoreological courses ar Faculty of Music in Belgrade and Academy of Arts in Novi Sad as an assistant professor, together with a full professor Olivera Vasić and younger colleagues, assistants Zdravko Ranisavljević (Belgrade) and Vesna Karin (Novi Sad). Currently on the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, which ethnomusicological doctoral studies are accredited according to Bologna academic system, there are three ongoing PhD projects which include dance as a object of research. Zdravko Ranisavljević is dealing with the semantics of the one of the most popular contemporary dance genres in Serbia in the project Semantika žanra ‘kolo u tri‘ u plesnoj praksi Srba [Semantics of the genre ‘kolo in three‘ in the dance practice of the Serbs] (supervisors are Mirjana Zakić and Selena Rakočević), Vesna Bajić-Stoiljković is dedicated to the representational (staged) forms of folk dances within the PhD theme Procesi (re)definisanja strukturalnih, dramaturških i es- tetskih aspekata u scenskom prikazivanju tradicionalne igre i muzike u Srbiji [Processes of (re)defining the structural, dramaturgical and aesthetic aspects in the stage presentation of traditional dance and music in Serbia] (supervisor is Selena Rakočević), and Vesna Karin observes dance practice of the imigrants from Dinara mountain in Vojvodina in the PhD project Plesna praksa Dinaraca u Vojvodini [Dance practice of the Dinaric people in Vojvo- dina] (mentored by Dimitrije Golemović and Olivera Vasić). 41 According to Andriy Nahachewsky, dance research should include ‘the entire dance event’, which means a broader elaboration of form, context and meaning of dance activity (Nahachewsky 2012: 11).

75 New Sound 41, I/2013 other various types of structured conversations between the researcher (the in- terviewer) and the dancer (the interviewee) which have been largely worked out in cultural anthropology (see for example Bernard 2006: 251–317),42 should be yet explored in the future. Even previous researches (Olivera Vasić at the first place) based their knowledge about dance of certain areas of Serbia on their own dance experience gained during various occasions and situations, method of participatory observa- tion (see more in Bernard 2006: 342–386) has not been conceived, consciously applied, nor explored in all of its potential meanings. Concisely defined as ‘a dialectic between experience and interpretation‘ (Sklar 1999: 17), participatory observation method opens the discourse of the so-called first-person experience as a perceptual dimension of dance research (see more in Bakka and Karoblis 2010: 180–181). To put it in Deidre Sklar words, ‘the way to approach the felt dimension of movement experience is through the researcher‘s own body, than bodily memory, with all its qualitative and associative nuances, is one of the dance ethnographer‘s primary resources‘ (Sklar 2000: 75). Conscious gaining and scholarly interpretation of such embodied understanding of dance might be one of the intriquing fields of future investigation. Filming and dance notation, which have been traditionaly used in dance research in Serbia could still be efficient tools in collecting and analysing of various dance data (Bakka and Karoblis 2010: 170–172, 187). However, both of those methods (filming 43 and the usage of Labanotation44) should be techni- cally and methodologically improved not only in Serbia, but in dance scholar- ship worldwide.

42 This time I will pay your attention on the so-called explicitation interview, which is devel- oped by French psychologist Pierre Vermersch. According to dance anthropologist Georgi- ana Weirre-Gore it is the interview ‘in which the agent is replaced in the lived situation which is the object of the interview, under the controlled guidance of the researcher. Through remebering or reminiscing on this original situation, verbalisation concerning the subjective experience, including its affective and cognitive dimenstions, becomes possible‘(Gore and Bakka 2007: 94). 43 Sociologist Hubert Knoblauch points to the double potentials in filming as an ethno- graphic method (in the so-called videography): it provides technology for recording audiovi- sual events and technology for its analysis (see more in Knoblauch 2012: 252–253). Those methods in gaining knowledge about dance should jet to be explored not only in Serbia, but worldwide. 44 Dance researchers from Serbia (Olivera Vasić, Selena Rakočević, Zdravko Ranisavljević, Vesna Bajić-Stoiljković and Vesna Karin) became members of the International Society for Kinetography Laban in 2011 for the first time. The innovation and new developments in Labanotation has begun to be applied within ethnochoreological courses within academic education in Belgrade and Novi Sad.

76 Rakočević, S.: Tracing the Discipline: Eighty Years of Ethnochoreology ... (58– 86)

All of mentioned field research methods should be interlinked, combined and reexamined depending on the epistemological choices of the researcher (Bakka and Karoblis 2010: 184). Allong with this, establishment of a system- aticaly designed dance documentation centre in Serbia should be yet one of our main tasks in the future. In short, as it is already pointed out, dance investigation should actuate wider and deeper contextual analysis and the research object should be ex- panded to all forms of dance expression. Not only dance which we term folk or traditional, but also various kinds of ‘structured movement systems‘ (Kaeppler 2001: 362) inseparable from music that accompanies them might be the objects of ethnochoreological research. What makes dance research ethnochoreologi- cal is not only the object of the research, but rather ways and methods of its scholarly exploration. The concept of dance as an unbreakable sincretic unity of dance movements and dance music leads to the one of the already well- trodden (ethnochoreological) paths of networking dance research with (ethno- musicological) observation of dance music.45 The challenges of expanding and interlinking the skills and perspectives of dance anthropology, dance ethnol- ogy, dance ethnography and dance history, also represent one of possible (eth- nochoreological) options of dance research. Regardless of the epistemological and methodological choices of researchers, which may be multiple, discipline building should be based both on the major theoretical achievements that are set within the discipline itself, but also beyond it, in the other humanities. Despite various approaches to constructing knowledge about dance, which continiously exist among scholars worldwide (Gore and Bakka 2007: 93–97), I still believe that epistemological basis for (ethnochoreological) research of dance should include equally, let us recall Egil Bakka and Gediminas Karoblis‘s formulation, ‘the dance realisations‘ and ‘the dance concepts‘ 46 and that ethno-

45 Ethnochoreology could be considered as interdiscipline by itself combining dance and music research. Along with that metatheoretical consideration, both of those disciplines could be also considered as already-mixture of dance anthropology, dance ethnology, dance ethnography and dance history (ethnochoreology) and, on the other side, anthopology and musicology (ethnomusicology) (for interdisciplinarity in ethnomusicology see more in Solis 2012: 545). 46 Scandinavian scholars, dance researcher Egil Bakka and philosopher and dance researcher Gediminas Karoblis suggest that ‘dance has two dimensions: the realization and the con- cept‘ (Bakka and Karoblis 2010: 172). Acording to Bakka and Karoblis, ‘the realisation is the actual dancing of a dance‘ (172) and dance concept is ‘potential of skills, understanding, and knowledge that enables an individual or a dance community to dance that particular dance‘ (172–173). A simplified interpretation of those binaric dimensions of a dance could be related with text-context division in dance research.

77 New Sound 41, I/2013 choreology as ‘disciplined‘47 scholarly discipline needs to synthesize both the research of dance texts, contexts and their multiple meanings in the direction of developing ‘the holistic study of dance‘ (Giurchescu and Torp 1991: 7).

Final remarks This article traces disciplinary legacy of dance research in Serbia, which maintained continuity for the last eighty years. If we want to build and flourish ethnochoreology not only within the worldwide achievements in dance research but also as an independent scholarly discipline with unique methodological pro- cedures and theoretical issues,48 ‘selection of disciplinary context‘, to put it in Theresa Jill Buckland’s words, ‘is fundamental to both methodological proce- dures and analytical outcomes‘ (Buckland 2006: 8). By expanding the object of our research, but also by discussing and evaluating methods and perspectives of its investigation and exploration,49 we should try to work on developing re- flexive and dialogic strategies of our research choices and be aware of pos- sible implications that our attitudes could have (Buckland 2006: 8; Zakić and Rakočević 2011: 231). Making a balance between the scholarly study of dance and political implications of its preservation as an intangible cultural heritage, is still ahead of us.

Acknowledgements I would like to thank my younger colleagues Zdravko Ranisavljević, Vesna Bajić-Stoiljković and Vesna Karin, who read the paper before I finished it and promptly gave their insightful comments and suggestions. I also feel really grat-

47 Here I paraphrase the ethnomusicologist Timothy Rice and his call for new approach in ethnomusicology in which Rice claims that ethnomusicologists should lean more on theo- retical achievements developed within ethnomusicology itself and not only in other human- istic disciplines (see more in Rice 2010: 318–324). 48 Although I am aware that this kind of disciplinary parochialism can be interpreted as a consequence and at the same time the kind of opposition of global trends in interdisciplinary interlinking, and that it potentially has its limitations, I still believe that trodden terrain of dance research produces and requires fledged techniques and methods and that it could con- tribute with its theoretical achievements to the wide world of humanities. 49 Even though not much discussed in this paper, theoretical aspects of dance research in Serbia should be developed more in the future. For example, gender relations are so far only touched in etnochoreological articles (see more in Janković 1948: 6–17, Vasić 2004: 116– 119, Rakočević 2011 b): 279–218) and they certainly should be explored much more and from different perspectives.

78 Rakočević, S.: Tracing The Discipline: Eighty Years of Ethnochoreology ... (58– 86) itude to Elsie Ivančić Dunin, who carefully read the text and, as she always did, enriched my attitudes about dance scholarship on the territory of ex-Yugoslavia with extraordinary patience and commitment. In her review of the paper, Mir- jana Zakić raised useful and intriguing issues concerning the interpretation of modern developments within ethnochoreology as a scholarly discipline, which caused my deeper involving in final sections of the text. I am really grateful to all of them.

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Kaeppler L, Adrienne, ‘Ethnochoreology‘, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 8, Oxford: Oxford university press, 2001, 361–367. Kealiinohomoku, Joann W., Theory and methods for an Anthropological study of dance, Flag- staf, Arizona: Cross-Cultural Dance Research, 2008. Knoblauch, Hubert, ‘Introduction to the special issue of qualitative research: videoanalysis and videography‘, Qualitative research, 12, 2012, 251–254. Kurath, Gertrude Prokosch, ‘Panorama of dance ethnology‘, Current anthropology 1(3), 1960: 233–254. Marković, Mladen, ‘Etnomuzikologija u Srbiji‘ [‘Ethnomusicology in Serbia‘], Novi zvuk, 3, I/1994, 19–30. Marković, Mladen, ‘Kako je nastao prvi srpski etnomuzikolog‘ [‘How appeared the first Ser- bian ethnomusicologist‘], Miodrag Vasiljević – Život i delo, Nenad Ljubinković and Zorislava Vasiljević (eds). Beograd: Institut za književnost & Udruženje građana ‘Mi- odrag Vasiljević‘, 7–13. Martin, György and Pesovár, Ernó, ‘A Structural Analysis of the Hungarian Folk Dance (A Methodological sketch)‘, Acta Ethnographica, 10, Budapest: A Magyar Tudományos Aka- démia Néprajzi Közleményei. Academiae Scientarum Hungaricae, 1961, 1–41. Martin, György and Pesovár, Ernó, ‘Determination of Motive Types in Dance Folklore. ‘ Acta Ethnographica, 12, Budapest: A Magyar Tudományos Akadémia Néprajzi Közlemé- nyei. Academiae Scientarum Hungaricae, 1963, 295–332. Milićević Đ, Milan, Kneževina Srbija [Principality of Serbia], Beograd: Državna štamparija, 1876. Milićević Đ, Milan, Kraljevina Srbija [Kingdom of Serbia], Beograd: Državna štamparija, 1884. Mladenović, Olivera, ‘Narodne igre na Bele poklade u Velikoj Ivanči‘ [Folk dance in the vil- lage of Velika Ivanča], Glasnik Etnografskog muzeja, XVII, Beograd: Etnografski muzej, 1954, 91–96. Mladenović, Olivera, ‘Danica S. Janković (1898–1960)‘ [‘Danica S. Janković (1898–1960)‘], Glasnik Etnografskog muzeja, 22–23, Beograd: Etnografski muzej, 1960, 260–263. Mladenović, Olivera, ‘Jedan istorijski izvor za proučavanje naših narodnih igara 18. veka‘ [‘One historical source for the study of our folk dances of the 18th century‘], Novi Sad: Rad vojvođanskih muzeja, 1964, 204–209. Mladenović, Olivera, ‘Neka pitanja metodologije klasifikacije i terminologije nasih narodnih igara‘ [‘Some questions of the methodology of classification and terminology of our folk dances‘], Rad XV Kongresa Saveza udruženja folklorista Jugoslavije, Sarajevo (Jajce): Savez udruženja folklorista Jugoslavije, 1971, 333–306. Mladenović, Olivera, ‘Akademik Ljubica S. Janković‘ [‘Academician Ljubica S. Janković‘], Glasnik Etnografskog instituta SANU, XXIII, Beograd: Srpska akademija nauka i um- etnosti, 1974 a), 135–142.

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Ronström, Owe, ‘The dance event – a terminological and methodological discussion of the concept‘.The dance event: A complex cultural phenomenon, Copenhagen: ICTM, Study Group on Ethnochoreology, 1989, 21–29. Sklar, Deidre ‘All the dances have a meaning to that apparition: Felt knowledge and the dan- zantes of Tortugas, New Mexico‘, Dance research journal, 31, 2/1999, 14–33. Sklar, Deidre, ‘Reprise: On dance ethnography‘, Dance research journal, 32, 1/2000, 70–77. Solis, Gabriel, ‘Thoughts on an interdiscipline: Music theory, analysis, and social theory in ethnomusicology’, Ethnomusicology, 56 (3), 2012, 530–554. Sremac, Stjepan, Povijest i praksa scenske primjene folklornog plesa u Hrvata [History and practice of the scene application of folklore dances among Croats], Zagreb: Institut za etnologiju i folkloristiku, 2010. Torp, Lisbet (ed.), The dance event: A complex cultural phenomenon, Copenhagen: ICTM, Study Group on Ethnochoreology, 1989. Vasić, Olivera, Narodne igre i pesme okoline Bujanovca [Folk Songs and Dances in the Sur- roundings of Bujanovac], Beograd: Etnografski institut, specijalno izdanje, 21, 1980. Vasić, Olivera, ‘Igračka tradicija – problemi klasifikacije‘ [‘Dance tradition – problems of classification‘], Rad XXXV kongresa Saveza udruženja folklorista Jugoslavije. Titograd (Rožaje): Savez udruženja folklorista Jugoslavije, 1988, 459–462. Vasić, Olivera, ‘Narodne igre Peštersko-sjeničke visoravni‘ [‘Folk dances of Pešter-Sjenica plateau‘], Narodne melodije, igre i nošnje, Peštersko-sjeničke visoravni, Beograd: Radio Beograd, 1984, 191–314. Vasić, Olivera, Narodne igre i zabave u titovoužičkom kraju [Folk dances and enertainments in the area of Titovo Užice], Beograd: Etnografski institut Srpske akademije nauka i umetnosti, 1990. Vasić, Olivera, Igračka tradicija Podrinja [Dance tradition of Podrinje], Sarajevo: Književna zajednica ‘Drugari‘, 1991. Vasić, Olivera, Takovo u igri i pesmi [Takovo in dance and song], Gornji Milanovac: Tipoplas- tika, 1994. Vasić, Olivera, ‘Orsko nasleđe u Zaglavku i Timoku‘ [‘Oro heritage in Zaglavak and Timok‘], Knjaževac i okolina, Beograd: Etnografski muzej, 1999, 671–709. Vasić, Olivera, ‘Srce orskog nasleđa‘ [‘The heart of oro heritage‘], Folklor magazeine, Mićo Ćaldović (ed.), Beograd: Art Grafik, 2001, 12–13. Vasić, Olivera, ‘Osnovni igrački obrasci Srbije‘ [‘The main dance patterns of Serbia‘], Muzi ka kroz misao, Zbornik radova IV godišnjeg skupa nastavnika i saradnika Katedre za muzikologiju i etnomuzikologiju, Ivana Perković-Radak i Dragana Stojanović-Novičić (eds.), Beograd: Fakultet muzičke umetnosti, 2002, 156–177. Vasić, Olivera, Etnokoreologija. Targovi [Ethnochoreoloogy. Traces], Beograd: Art grafik, 2004. Vasić Olivera, Etnokoreologija. Sećanje [Ethnochoreology. Memory], Beograd. Art grafik, 2005 a).

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Internet Sources http://www.kolo.rs/page.php?31 http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/212114/folk-dance http://www.ictmusic.org/general-information

86 Article received on 25 September 2013 Article accepted on 30 September 2013 UDC: 781.7(497.11):305-055.2 78.07-055.2(497.11)

Iva Nenić University of Arts in Belgrade Faculty of Music Department of Ethnomusicology

DISCRETE CASES: FEMALE TRADITIONAL MUSIC PLAYERS IN SERBIA*

Abstract: This paper explores the exclusion of female traditional music players in Serbia and in the Balkans from the official representational discourses, frequently based on the assumption that women were not equal participants, but rather atypical or isolated ‘cases’ in the rural music cultures of the 19th and mid-20th centuries. Drawing on historical sources, and with a special focus on two short case studies of historical female gusle performers, the author strives to demonstrate how the workings of certain discourses, both in cultural and in scholarly terms, prepared today’s position for folk and neo-traditional music per- formers of the female gender, by stripping them of the history of female musicianship. The trope of ‘being the only woman of her kind’, mannish and/or unusual, can be traced through the early folklorist and ethnographic depiction of female musicians, which was frequently supplemented with the deliberate stressing of alleged ‘female’ attributes of a performer. The paper also opens the question of gender approach in ethnomusicology, claiming that it should lead to the recuperation of the field in terms of scientific auto- critique and ‘ethnomusicological revisionism’. Keywords: woman guslar, ethnomusicological revisionism, Stevanija Dragaš, gender transgression, music

* Author’s contact address: [email protected] The research for this article was carried out as a part of the project Music and dance tradi- tion of multiethnic and multicultural Serbia No 177024 (2011–2014), supported by the Ser- bian Ministry of Science and Technological Development.

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The official history of female traditional instrumental musicians in Serbia and in the Balkans is by all means scant, if non-existent. Yet the ethnographic accounts about female instrumental musicianship by prominent writers and folk culture collectors, which began to accumulate from the 19th century, demonstrate an intriguing fact: although the folk musician ideal was equated solely with the male gender, notable female instrumental musicians, although perceived as something unusual, were no longer easy to ignore. The description of historical female players one catches a glimpse of, through the loopholes of the official scientific accounts on music, brings either additional evidence on less interest- ing (‘not quite authentic’) actors of folk music culture, or isolated ‘portraits’ of unusual musicians, solitary in terms of their gender. National romantic move- ments of the 19th and the discipline of folklore studies of the 20th century placed them in the position of exceptionality, in accordance with the official scientific ideologies of the time that followed the dominant modes of the social regulation and reproduction of culturally proper gender roles. The ‘logic of singularity’ en- sured that female players were banned from the historical narrations and bond- ing with each other in the long chain of tradition, and that very same logic of the exceptionality of female folk musicians continued well into the 20th century as a trope solidified in scholarly discourses of folklore studies, ethnology/anthropol- ogy and, most notably, ethnomusicology. Yet one cannot but wonder how the earliest written historical data from the Balkans on local female instrumental musicians, such as the written ac- count of the wedding of Vladislav, son of the medieval Bosnian duke (herceg) Stjepan Vukčić Kosača, did not prompt the usually meticulous early folklorists and scholars to shed a different light on female musicianship. At the mentioned medieval wedding that took place in the autumn of 1455, three women and two men from the city of Dubrovnik, who played on aerophones (probably on some type of trumpet), provided music for the feast’s guests: ‘de mittendo ad nup- tias Vladissaui [...] duos tubicines et tres tubicinas [my cursive]’.1 As probably the earliest account of female instrumental musicking, this written report defies the norm of female absence from instrumental music, even though very little information on regulations and everyday practices regarding female participa- tion in court and ceremonial music in the Balkans during the Middle Ages has survived till the present day. A gap measured in centuries separates this record from the later written accounts concerning female musicianship that appeared in 19th century, dealing for the most part with aural poetry and specifically with epic songs accompanied by the gusle, the traditional one-stringed, bowed lute.

1 Boris Nilević, ’Prilog muzičkom životu srednjovjekovne Bosne’ [A Contribution to the Musical Life of Medieval Bosnia], Historijska traganja, 2010, 5, 115.

88 Nenić, I.: Discrete Cases: Female Traditional Music Players in Serbia (87–97)

While the gusle epics are today traditionally considered as an exclusively male dominion, the early reports of female singing with the gusle mention the activi- ties of both ordinary women and, more often, blind gusle players, (slepice). In Vuk Stefanović Karadžić’s ‘Introduction’ to the second edition of the first vol- ume of Serbian folk songs (1824), Vuk marked Bosnia, Herzegovina, Montene- gro and the southern, mountainous parts of Serbia as the regions where heroic (male) songs were performed widely among the people. His observation that in the very same regions ‘it is hard to find a man who does not know how to fiddle (koji zna guđeti), and that many women and girls also know [how to do it, my cursive]’2, supports the thesis that female gusle playing was not unheard of, and that it was even fairly common. The discussion of female gusle players by Slovene philologist Matija Murko, based on his fieldwork in the 1930s,3 or the study-portrait of Milena Živadinović by ethnologist Dragoslav Antonijević, the first in-depth ethnographic paper on the female guslar,4 both classify female folk music players within the wider, positivist-aligned taxonomy of rural folk music. The representational strategies of these accounts meander between two modalities that one could easily trace through the literature on the topic of fe- male instrumental folk music performance: the instance of genuine ‘female vir- tue’ and the opposite logic of the female body being ‘polluted’ by certain male traits and thus being apt to serve the role of the (male) musician.5 While embarking on the research of female players, and unearthing the data concerning their musicianship scattered through the national archives and pri- vate collections throughout Serbia, I could not help wondering why these facts, together with the sporadic encounters of present-day researchers with female instrumental musicians, are still treated as dubious ethnographic ‘proof’, being visible, yet unseen. One reason could be the alleged common knowledge, stat- ing that ‘the female occupation is singing, while instruments are reserved for man’, which rested both in some residual forms of folk music practice and in the staged, official scene of folklore throughout the 20th century in Serbia and former Yugoslavia. This legacy can be also attributed to the early generation of

2 Вук Стефановић Караџић, Српске народне пјесме [Serbian folk songs], књ. I. Београд, Просвета – Нолит, [1824] 1985, 529. 3 Matijа Murko, Tragom srpsko-hrvatske narodne epike [Tracing the Serbocroatian Folk Epics], Zagreb, JAZU, 1951. 4 Драгослав Антонијевић, Милена гусларка [Milena the gusle player] (Посебна издања САНУ, књ. CCCXLII/12), Београд, Етнографски институт САНУ, 1960. 5 Iva Nenić, ‘(Un)disciplining Gender, Rewriting the Epic: Female Gusle Players”, in: Dejan Despić, Jelena Jovanović and Danka Lajić – Mihajlović (eds.), Musical Practices in the Bal- kans: Ethnomusicological Perspectives, Belgrade, Institute of Musicology of SASA, 2012, 257.

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Serbian ethnomusicologists who, while being occupied with reconstructing the traditional system of ‘cultural norms’, took over and in some way petrified the dichotomies such as man/instrument vs. woman/voice. The scholarly approach to social ‘reality’ promoted the dominant version of traditional musical practice into an official one, while neglecting the different strains of the very same tradi- tion. A similar situation where female instrumentalists were also left out of the dominant representational discourses happened in Croatian peasant folk music, prompting ethnomusicologist Naila Ceribašić to call it a position ‘in between ethnomusicological and social canons’6. The historical material figure of the female player was thus since the 19th century constantly subjected to strict regu- lations, to put it in Michel Foucault terms, ‘to an entire micro-power concerned with the body’7, and gradually left out of the wider picture of folk music culture in the Balkans. The regulation procedures required that a female folk music player be constructed as a solitary figure, that she should be a ‘discrete case’ (‘discrete’ as separate, detached). To be praised as the ‘first’ female guslar is then to be reminded that a woman should also stay the only one, that the act of transgression should not be repeated again, in order not to stir up the dominant gender divisions. Many women that I encountered during my fieldwork shared their experiences of being offended (to the point, even, of being beaten) by some members of their family or the wider community because of their determination to play instruments like the frula and the gusle. While that sort of experience is indeed a product of the system of compulsory heterosexuality that was firmly established during the 19th century, the ongoing practice of female musicianship could be described, by borrowing a Butlerian phrase, as a ‘subversive repetition in the signifying practices of gender’.8 The cases of Serbian instrumental folk music performed by women exemplify how music serves both as a means to set social power and to transgress imposed identity limits. One could speculate that the pre-industrial musical practice of the lower classes of patriarchal Balkan societies indeed functioned according to the more or less strict, binary gender divisions before the 20th century, mainly in the so- cial public arena. Yet the strict nature of this norm is dubious because blind female guslars were allowed to publicly ‘display’ themselves. It is worth not- ing, however, that the female musicians coming from conservative patriarchal

6 Cf. Naila Ceribašić, ’In Between Ethnomusicological and Social Canons: Historical Sources on Women Players of Folk Music Instruments in Croatia’, Narodna umjetnost: hrvatski časopis za etnologiju i folkloristiku, 2001, 38(1), 21–40. 7 Michel Foucault, The history of sexuality. New York, Vintage, 1990, 145–146. 8 Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. London and New York, Routledge, 1990, 146.

90 Nenić, I.: Discrete Cases: Female Traditional Music Players in Serbia (87–97) backgrounds, which undermined or at least challenged the norms of ‘proper’ musical behavior, were largely left out of the focus due to the ideologies of the representation of early musical folkloristics and, after the 1950s, the normative and positivist efforts of ethnomusicological research proper that was initially focused on musical sound and its ‘objective qualities’. Female musicianship was marginalized, as folk culture collectors from the 19th century and, later, the founding fathers of national ethnomusicologies like Serbian Miodrag Vasiljević or Hungarian Béla Bartók, who strived to preserve the precious and dissipating forms of ‘folk life’ of the people, were focused on music as a product that em- bodied the Volksgeist at its best. The fact that ‘woman’ (and, consequently, the women) who played folk music instruments were left out of sight is therefore not only a simple transposition of the relatively marginal position of female in- strumental musicians within the cultural practices still evident today, but also a byproduct of the ideologies of scientific representation that strived to capture the spirit of collective identities (folk, people, nation) and its ‘embodiment’ in cul- tural forms, seeing the ‘male brotherhood’ as its prime achievement and prime exemplary model.9 Similar to the dynamics of change concerning the social po- sition of Bulgarian bagpipe player Maria Stoyanova described by Timothy Rice, many older female players that I have encountered were ‘allowed’ to publicly play precisely due to the ‘the passage of time from prewar traditionality to post- war communist modernity’.10 Another major turning point, which allowed many female young instrumentalists to enter musical practice in a larger number after the nineties, was the specific convergence of newly revived national sentiments and the global trend of world music within the context of the transitional post- communist present-day Serbia. Yet, what connected both generations was a gap, a lack of knowledge of their ancestresses.

Praised and cast away: female gusle players In trying to draw a narrative that could connect scattered historical data and today’s divergent practices of female instrumental musicians, I frequently stumbled upon the image of a woman-player as a solitary and striking figure, standing alone in a sociomusical landscape populated by male musicians. For example, the gusle player Olga Kovačević, whose performance of epic song at the Youth Sermon event in 1866, in the city of Novi Sad, was praised as a

9 These ideologies surely changed since the 19th century, but the position of gender and spe- cifically of female players regarding the domain of ‘culture” was ‘a blind spot”, an antago- nism that was kept silent by the work of ideological means. 10 Timothy Rice, ’Time, Place, and Metaphor in Musical Experience and Ethnography’, Eth- nomusicology, 2003, 47(2), 169.

91 New Sound 41, I/2013 true embodiment of Serbian democracy and national rennaisance at the time,11 wanted to open a school for gusle, where women could participate. In her Let- ters she unhappily states that she was unable to ‘persuade any Serbian woman for this idea’.12 Olga was born and lived in Banat, a municipality in the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina. In the nearby district of Srem, however, Vuk Karadžić wrote down numerous epic songs from several blind women, and the poet, Milica Stojadinović Srpkinja, described in her memoirs In Fruška Gora from 1854, how her poor and blind godmother Jela sang, also to the accom- paniment of the gusle.13 The trope of the female musician as an exception has continued through the 20th century until the present day: another female gus- lar from Vojvodina, this time a descendant of Montenegrin-Serbian immigrants after the Second World War, Dragica Radovanović, whom I interviewed in June 2012, was also presented as the first female musician who had joined the gusle tradition.14 Her short public career unfolded in the 1980s, in the context of the pan-Yugoslav popular music scene (estrada), which was supported by the state of the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia. The advertisement for her début album, published under the record label Jugoton15 displayed in many re- cord stores, proclaimed her as ‘the first woman guslar in Yugoslavia’.16 The model of the female musician as an exception was constructed both in the discourses of social science and in the less rigorous, ‘personal’ records of female musicianship (the latter usually left by someone close to a woman, most probably a family member). Let us take as the first case, the description of the gusle player Stevanija Dragaš, published by ethnologist Mirko Barjaktarović in 1954. Stevanija Dragaš was 50 when Barjaktarović met her in the village of Seljašnica (municipality of Prijepolje, western Serbia). Barjaktarović begins his

11 Мато Косовац, ‘Успомена на Олгу Ковачевића, српску гусларку’ [In Memory of Olga Kovačević, Serbian guslar], in: Јован Удицки (ed.), Олга Ковачевић, српска гусларка, Митровица, Штампарија Мирослава Спаића, 1912, 6–9. 12 Олга Ковачевић, ‘Белешке Олге Ковачевићеве, српске гусларке’ [The Notes of Olga Kovačević, Serbian guslar] (прир. М. Косовац), in: Јован Удицки (ed.), Олга Ковачевић, српска гусларка, Митровица, Штампарија Мирослава Спаића, 1912, 22–40, 24. 13 Милица Стојадиновић Српкиња, У Фрушкој гори 1854 [In Fruska gora 1954], Београд, Просвета, [1861–1866] 1985. 14 Personal interview with Dragica Radovanović, Vrbas, 20th June 2012. 15 The label changed its name to Croatia Records in 1990. 16 Of course, the historical line of female gusle players and other women instrumentalists did not stop here: today one can easily learn about well-known young female musicians who play the gusle, like Bojana Peković (Kraljevo), or older players who also gained some popu- larity and visibility, like Kosana Marić from the town of Loznica. However, in order to maintain the overtly genealogical perspective of this paper, I had to focus on historical fig- ures and also on one instrument.

92 Nenić, I.: Discrete Cases: Female Traditional Music Players in Serbia (87–97) account by stating that ‘it was not uncommon for a woman to serve as head of the household, to go to war, or take over the principal, male role in the house (tobelija)17 in our people’s past (…)’: in his opinion, the assuming of otherwise male occupations by women in traditional patriarchal communities explains why in certain parts of the Balkans it ‘was not rare even for a woman to fiddle on the gusle [nije bila rijetka pojava da i žena gudi uz gusle]’.18 Unlike some of today’s scholarly approaches that would describe a woman guslar as a spe- cial and isolated case, Barjaktarović’s account clearly points to the ambiguous, yet visible position of the female musician. According to Barjaktarović, Ste- vanija was well-accepted in her birthplace (v. Rutoša near the township of Nova Varoš), coming from a long line of gusle players, but when she got married and moved, her new village community initially ridiculed her for being a female guslar. Yet, after some time, the neighbors accepted Stevanija as a good and entertaining gusle performer, and she even taught some young men how to play – Barjaktarović specifically praises her finger technique.19 Although her reper- toire was relatively small, its core were epic songs, not something more ‘lyrical’ that could have been suitable for women if one were to abide by the somewhat artificial ruling ‘gender scheme’ in folk music. Some of the songs Stevanija had learned as a child, while mastering others from the published volumes on folk epic poetry.20 Thus, Stevanija Dragaš was by no means an exception: her man- ner of learning that combined traditional oral transmission and written sources was characteristic for the wider transformation of gusle practice at that moment; moreover, she did not learn folk songs on her own or in secret, but on the con- trary, in a familial line of transmission. Acknowledged as a young and, later on, grown-up guslar in her birthplace where there ‘were more women guslars’21 , and later on accepted in another place, she even tutored younger players, thus

17 Tobelija is a sworn virgin, a person of biological female gender who assumes the social role of a male in traditional Balkan societies. Cf. Tatomir Vukanović, ’Virdžine’ [The Sworn Virgins], Glasnik Muzeja Kosova i Metohije. 1961, VI, 1961, 79–120; Predrag Šarčević, ’Sex and Gender Identity of “Sworn Virgins” in the Balkans’, in: Miroslav Jovanović, Slo- bodan Naumović (eds.), Gender relations in South Eastern Europe: historical perspectives on womanhood and manhood in 19th and 20th century, , LIT Verlag, Mü nster, 2004, 125– 142. 18 Mirko Barjaktarović, ’Stevanija Dragaš guslar’, Glasnik Etnografskog muzeja u Be- ogradu, 1954, XVII, 141. 19 Ibid, 142. 20 Stevanija’s son was reading the lyrics from the book while she would subsequently sing them with the gusle accompaniment, in a loud voice (ibid), in the manner widespread at the time. 21 Barjaktarović, op. cit., 141.

93 New Sound 41, I/2013 directly taking part in the transmission of the gusle tradition. Altogether, one could suggest the idea that, as an individual, she possessed the public identity of a guslar similar, if not equal, to her male counterparts. The thing, however, which distinguishes the structural positioning of this identity from other male guslars, is the interplay of two mentioned tropes in the official representational discourses, with the result that a woman must ‘prove’ her femininity because she is assuming culturally ‘male’ traits. Barjaktarović’s paper sways between those two tropes, in terms of the ambiguous acceptance in the two communities where Dragaš spent her life, and in terms of the ‘suitable’ female role. This is especially evident in the contrast between the initial ethnographic insistence on female activity in male domains, and the latter description of the informant, by providing information on her marital status, number of children and the virtue of her physical appearance (‘she is otherwise a healthy, large and quite youthful woman’).22 In other words, the description flows between the tropes of gender transgression permitted in the traditional rural patriarchy, and gender affirma- tion that ‘returns’ the female figure into the frame of a desired gender norma- tive. A similar logic pervades a vivid description of the gusle player, Sava Mikić, published by her grandson, folklorist and linguist Milija Stanić, in 1977. Entitled ‘Dida the gusle player’ (‘Dida guslarka’, Dida being Sava’s nickname), Stanić’s paper portrays Sava Mikić as an extraordinary, even heroic woman who, never- theless, had traditional female virtues. The opening sentence describes a person who defies the boundaries of her gender: ‘My grandmother on my mother’s side, Sava Mikić, whom all of us called Dida, was for the Uskoks, a former Montenegrin tribe of northern Montenegro, a rather unusual woman’.23 Dida was ‘a superb guslar’24 who, according to her grandson, performed publicly and transferred her poetic gift to some of her children. Judging by the limited in- formation provided by the article, her repertoire consisted of the epic songs of the Kosovo cycle and also of songs about the liberation of Serbia and Monte- negro, dealing with more recent historical events, such as the death of Smail- aga Čengić in 1840. Stanić specifically ponders on two episodes concerning Dida’s relation to the gusle and epic poetry: one from his childhood, when she gave him a rather unexpected lesson on how to sing with the gusle and another, when, as an elderly woman, she performed in public in the multiethnic and multiconfessional Bosnian city of Bijeljina and almost caused a scandal by hit-

22 Ibid, 141. 23 Милија Станић, ’Дида гусларка’ [Dida the gusle player], Народно ствалараштво – фолклор, 1977, 15–16 (57–64), 93. 24 Ibid, 94.

94 Nenić, I.: Discrete Cases: Female Traditional Music Players in Serbia (87–97) ting a Muslim man. We shall focus on the latter episode, which her biographer chooses as perhaps the central part of his narrative, since, in his opinion, it captures the peculiarity of Dida’s character and performance. This event took place at a dinner in Bijeljina organized by Sava’s son, whose guests were both Serbs and Muslims (Bosniaks). Sava was asked to play by her daughter-in-law, which she reluctantly accepted, because of her old age and fear that the quality of songs would be diminished. When she did start playing and continued to do so with fervor, people were ‘speechless and under a great impression’.25 The situation changed abruptly when, while singing the lyrics describing how the Serbian warriors cut down the Turkish forces, Dida used her bow to hit a nearby elderly Muslim gentleman, on the head. Apart from this incident, it is however interesting to note what had preceded her performance: Stanić informs us that before Dida’s was playing, people had been talking politics, and that she could not join in the conversation, the reason being that ‘(…) their lofty utterances have no meaning for her’26. Public discussion of politics was considered an ex- clusively male business in the traditional societies of the Balkans, and therefore Dida’s silence was quite understandable. On the other hand, her performance and her violent gesture could be observed as a substitute for her ‘political opin- ion’, closer, in a manner of speaking, to her experience and knowledge. The explicitly patriotic portrayal of this gusle player, supported by data that she rode saddled horses, took part in village and official tribal gatherings with men, fired guns in the rebel battles against the Austro-Hungarian occupational forces, certainly belong to a discourse that supports the alleged ‘male’ traits. But on a couple of occasions, readers are also reminded of Dida’s femininity, particularly when the narrator writes about her fondness for children. So Dida’s portrait, while giving her a notable place in the heroic male domains, again feeds the stereotype of the ‘singularity’ of a female guslar, and repeats, albeit in a much less visible manner, the presumption that certain cultural behavioral traits are male ‘by nature’, and that the representation of an ‘unusual’ woman must also reaffirm her female sex.

‘Ethnomusicology of absence’ There is no such thing as a community or an informal network of female instrumental musicians in Serbia extending through time, not at least in some observable aspect.27 This leads to another question: how do women manage to

25 Ibid, 97. 26 Ibid, 97. 27 That situation started to change during the last decade, as many girls and young women emerged as successful folk music players. However, many of them still encounter the obsta-

95 New Sound 41, I/2013 take part in the practice, in spite of the lack of institutional and informal sup- port, and in the light of numerous obstacles imposed on them? Most of my informants expressed an immense feeling of joy while listening and performing their chosen instrument. Some strive to follow the model of rebellious ‘man- nish women’, others do the opposite, by adjusting their appearence, choice of repertoire and the way of playing to various levels, in order to reflect a more ‘feminine’ side; most, however, shift between the two or do not consciously take social predjudices regarding gender into consideration, at all. Although young female musicians maybe enter the public arena more easily then their predecessors, they are still labeled ‘the first’ of their kind, they have less control and power in comparison to male musicians and, most importantly, they do not know that before their time, there were many women who dared to do the same thing. The tropes of aggravated femininity or gender travesty towards the male model, the model of ‘the musical roles that either heighten [female] sexuality or restrict its display’,28 together with the trope of singularity, successfully pen- etrated the historical lines and are still at work even today, although the histori- cal and the social circumstances have dramatically changed since the first half of the 20th century, when Stevanija Dragaš and Sava Mikić lived. The task of rewriting absence is at the same time wearisome and deeply moving: although there is significant information on female instrumental per- formance in Serbia and the former Yugoslavia, the gathering of relevant data is slow and pretty much like looking for a needle in a haystack, due to the lack of historical narratives connecting female performers on traditional instruments through time. In spite of that, the construction of the historical figures of female musicians in official discourses, which is starting to take shape from the scat- tered material, gives the real clue about the invisibility of women. The other common trait, apart from marginalization, is a great passion for the instrument and music, the true reason why these women succeeded against all obstacles in being musicians, instead of some alleged ‘male traits’ that served as an explana- tion for too long. Thus, the method of ideological critique, of deconstructing the natural and the obvious, appears to be just as important as the archival research cle of ‘not being male”, sometimes in a subtle, and other times in a very visible way, and have to adjust themselves to the standards and unspoken rules of the community of the folk music scene, that still adheres to the heteronormative framework of the idealized rural past. In addition to that, it is possible that blind female guslars were members of a professional guild and that they were connected more closely than ‘ordinary’ female players of the gusle. However, that point needs to be explored further. 28 Ellen Koskoff, ‘An Introduction to Women, Music and Culture’, In: E. Koskoff (ed.), Women and Music in Cross-cultural Perspective, Champaign, University of Illinois Press, 1989, 1–24, 6.

96 Nenić, I.: Discrete Cases: Female Traditional Music Players in Serbia (87–97) and the fieldwork for writing the history and the present of female performers of traditional instrumental music.29 All social sciences tend to cluster around certain paradigms, and ethnomusicology is no exception to that. However, the gender turn that some scholars still see as a recent branch and fashionable twist of theory and methodology in the social sciences and humanities is not a mere fad ‘that too shall pass’: apart from constantly opening new topics, it should also lead to ‘ethnomusicological revisionism’ as a fruitful domain of study. Careful revisions are required in order to reintegrate the discipline and to give it a better position in the wider field of social sciences,30 so that ethnomusicology truly starts to use ‘culture-centred models of interpretation of the heterogeneous field of multiplicity of musical as social practices’,31 becoming the path towards a better understanding of how the ideological material patterning of order/re- sistance in music works. Gender theory, followed by a systematic ideological and epistemological critique, gives ethnomusicology tools to grasp not only a different present and future, but also to shed a different and much required light on the past, where freedom, creativity and the everyday subversion of the domi- nant order, wait to be discovered, instead of discrete cases.

29 For a wider debate on ethnomusicology, ‘cultural turn’ and new historicism, cf. Timothy Tailor, ‘Old and New (Ethno)musicologies’, 1–15, http://www.uio.no/studier/emner/hf/imv/ MUS2601/v07/undervisningsmateriale/old%20and%20new%20(ethno)musicologies.pdf (Accessed on 22nd August 2013). 30 Cf. Timothy Rice, ‘Ethnomusicological Theory’, Yearbook for Traditional Music, 2010, 42, 100–134. 31 Miško Šuvaković, ‘Surplus Value: Musicology and Ethnomusicology in the Field of Dis- course on World Music’, New Sound, 2004, 24, 32–39.

97 New Sound 41, I/2013

98 NEW WORKS

Article received on 24 September 2013 Article accepted on 30 September 2013 UDC: 785.6:786.2

Stefan Cvetković*

ALEKSANDAR OBRADOVIĆ – PRO LIBERTATE CONCERTO FOR PIANO AND ORCHESTRA NO. 3

Abstract: The Third Piano Concerto by Aleksandar Obradović, composed in 1999, is one of the author’s late works. While the poetical concept of the composition reflects the au- thor’s personal reaction to the events from that period, aesthetically it shows that the co- existence of different compositional and technical patterns is possible, amalgamated within a unique stylistic procedure of the work. According to its compositional and tech- nical procedures, the concerto belongs to the class of neoclassical pieces which, apart from confirming Obradović’s openness towards various musical solutions, attests to resorting to designs that stem from an extramusical stimulus to creativity. Key words: Serbian music, Aleksandar Obradović, piano concerto, Neoclassicism.

The sumptuous mosaic of Serbian artistic music in the second half of the 20th century still cannot be appraised in its entirety, because many compositions stored as manuscripts are still awaiting their premieres. Until recently, one such unperformed piece was Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 31 by Aleksandar

* Author contact information: [email protected] 1 The full title of the work on the front page of Obradović’s autograph reads: Pro libertate – Koncert broj 3 za klavir i simfonijski orkestar [Concerto Number 3 for Piano and Sym- phony Orchestra].

99 New Sound 41, I/2013

Obradović (1927–2001), whose premiere – organized within the 43rd BEMUS festival,2 on the tenth anniversary of the composer’s death – was an occasion to actualize the oeuvre of this author, as well as to shed light on some coordinates of his less known, late creative period. Also, along the lines of these consider- ations, one should note that the work undoubtedly gives a valuable contribution towards completing the picture of the tendencies and subjects in Serbian music at the end of the last century. Composed in 1999 as one of Obradović’s last compositions, the Third Piano Concerto, alongside a few other works, speaks of the author’s lively interest in the concerto genre even in the last decade of his life.3 However, what separates the Third Piano Concerto from the group of other concerto-type works written during the 1990s is, above all, its poetical dimension embodied in a particular programmatic content, already suggested in the title “Pro libertate” (“For Freedom”). The work’s programmatic nature was a result of the composer’s response to the dramatic events that had overwhelmed his homeland in the year when the composition was written. This influence of the real context on Obradović’s compositional discourse could also be analysed separately in the case of the Third Piano Concerto; however, in retrospect, an interesting coincidence can be identified in the author’s oeuvre. Namely, the fact that Aleksandar Obradović in the early 1950s entered the stage as a com- poser with a programmatic work based on subjects from the then immediate war history, based on heroic battles and the triumph of victory and freedom (First Symphony),4 and that half a century later, in the twilight of his career as a composer, he once more decided to put the corresponding content into music, speaks very vividly about the position of a generation of creators who, in spite of spending the better part of their creative life in peaceful times – although that is rare for the historical setting in Serbia – were given, by a combination of circumstances, the opportunity to draw their immediate inspiration from the war

2 The composition had its premiere on 20th October 2011, at the Kolarac Concert Hall. The soloist was Maja Rajković, and the Camerata Serbica orchestra was conducted by Aleksan- dar Marković. 3 Apart from this work, Obradović in the 1990s wrote the following concerto-type composi- tions too: Koncert za violinu i gudače [Concerto for Violin and Strings] (1992), Muzika za klavir i gudače [Music for Piano and Strings] (1993) and Diptih za klavir i gudače [Diptych for Piano and Strings] (1999). 4 As the motto for the second movement of the First Symphony (1952), Obradović chose the verses of Branko Ćopić: “S četama Slobode marširaće tada i mrtvi proleteri…” [“With the troops of Freedom, dead proletarians will then be marching too…”]. For more on Obradović’s personal attitude towards the subject of war in the First Symphony, cf. Zorana Radić, Simfo- nizam Aleksandra Obradovića [Aleksandar Obradović’s Symphonism], Udruženje kompozi- tora Srbije, Belgrade, 1987, 11–12.

100 Cvetković, S.: Aleksandar Obradović – Pro Libertate Concerto for Piano ... (99–109) context. The two above mentioned works, poetically related to one another, are separated, however, by Obradović’s compositional oeuvre developed from the author’s research of frequently distant musical expanses, which in the context of the Third Piano Concerto had its repercussions in the form of imprints of various personal creative experiences. Perceiving Obradović’s need to express a personal reaction to the key events in the actualities of the time he lived in, one could note, on the margins of positioning the Third Piano Concerto, that the author in this work establishes a certain communication with his composition Epitaf H [Epitaph H], his referential work written as early as 1965, which will be discussed more thoroughly later on. Conceived as a three-movement cycle, the Third Piano Concerto, not only formally but also from the point of thematic content and even orchestration, manifests Obradović’s determination to come closer to a convention, as well as the need to produce a ‘negotiable’ musical structure, which suggests the au- thor’s neoclassical compositional strategy. However, the strict consistency of neoclassical procedure defies Obradović’s signature digressions into a slightly more radical, inner undermining of the neoclassical formal pattern. Thus, the author’s approach to convention is affirmative when conceiving the sonata cycle, with the ordinary sequence of the movements: fast – slow – fast, while the microlevels of each movement arise from authentic inventiveness in mate- rial structuring. Such an approach is already manifested in the first movement, whose form is a direct consequence of the specific combination of various motivic treat- ments. Deriving all the thematic subjects in the first movement from a single nucleus basically suggests a monothematic principle in creating the musical tissue, which, nevertheless, is not structured into a dramaturgically typical so- nata form. Writing about the work’s form, Obradović personally does not resort to the formal classification of the movement, but sticks only to its “tematsko jedinstvo” [“thematic unity”], in which “pojedini zajednički gradivni element dovedeni do [svojih] transformacija u tolikoj meri, da sami sebi predstavljaju kontraste raznim parametrima muzičkog jezika, izraza i sadržaja” [“certain common constitutive elements are driven in such a measure to [their] transfor- mations, that they become their own contrasts, in terms of various parameters of musical language, expression and content”].5 This suggests that, in avoiding conventional formal terminology, the author draws attention to what is more important to him in this case, namely the energy of the musical tissue created

5 The quotation was taken from the manuscript of Obradović’s analysis of the work, at- tached to the autograph of the score: Aleksandar Obradović, Pro libertate, Koncert broj 3 za klavir i simfonijski orkestar, analiza [analysis], manuscript.

101 New Sound 41, I/2013 by skilful motivic treatment, which in the context of the content (the expression of defiance to the goings-on of war) becomes rather more a manifestation of personal emotion than a endeavour to comply with formal conventions.6 The musical tissue of the entire first movement grows from the initial mo- tive of the introduction (Example 1), made of twelve tones of the chromatic scale, repeated in the identical sequence of intervals as many as eighteen times in semiquavers, in the string parts. However, the repetition of the established chromatic motive does not lead to the completion of any kind of thematic en- tity; it rather transforms into a “fon uzburkane mikro-polifonije, sličan pokret- nom klasteru” [“background of turbulent micro-polyphony, similar to a moving cluster”],7 leading to the entrance of the first subject – the signal motive of a ‘shout’ (Example 2), whose first four notes are taken from the initial motive of the introduction. Unlike the surrounding musical tissue, the second subject (rendered by a bassoon) is composed as the only self-contained subject in the entire movement, whose head also consists of the full range of chromatic notes, in the interval order identical to that of the aforementioned motive of the intro- duction (Example 3). The dense chromatic structure of the subjects certainly suggests the atmosphere of the war chaos, or perhaps a personal resignation to such circumstances, and Obradović spread such a mood to the entire movement by the frequent distribution of chromatic motives and working with them. The development section, standing out as the highest dramatic plateau of the move- ment, is based on transformations of the said material; while the culmination of the musical tissue is achieved by the inversion of the second subject’s character which, by acquiring a march-like identity, comes closer to the nature of the first subject. Reaching a dramaturgical ‘point’ with this turnabout, Obradović leads the musical tissue to a symbolic ‘recapitulation’, announced by a strong initial, signal motive in the piano part, followed by a gradual dynamic abatement of the whole movement in a short coda. Regarding Obradović’s attitude towards thematism, one should stress that the heterogeneity of the thematic materials is also reduced to a minimum in the

6 A similar kind of “formal thinking” also appears in some other of Obradović’s works writ- ten in 1990s – the Concerto for Violin and Strings (1992), the Music for Piano and Strings (1993), and the Diptych for Piano and Strings (1998). A more comprehensive insight into the matter is available in: Anica Sabo, “Aleksandar Obradović: Koncert za violinu i gudače i Muzika za klavir i gudače” [“Aleksandar Obradović: Concerto for Violin and Strings and Music for Piano and Strings”], Internacionalni časopis za muziku Novi zvuk 3/1994, Bel- grade, 1994, 85–96; Sonja Marinković, “Dva diptiha Aleksandra Obradovića” [“Two Dip- tychs by Aleksandar Obradović”], Internacionalni časopis za muziku Novi zvuk 18/2001, 89–97. 7 Aleksandar Obradović, op. cit.

102 Cvetković, S.: Aleksandar Obradović – Pro Libertate Concerto for Piano ... (99–109) remaining two movements. In the slow movement that is achieved by repeat- ing the movement’s only subject in progressive dynamic and orchestrational gradation, while the formal arrangement of the third movement as a rondo is close to the passacaglia principle, given that the thematic pattern is repeated eighteen times altogether (the movement concludes with the entrance of the first movement’s initial motive). As said previously, such a conceptualization of the thematism in the Third Piano Concerto is closely connected with the programmatic content of the work. Namely, the spiritual slogan of the concerto, contained in the title Pro libertate, Obradović inventively incorporated into the core musical material of the work, which at first reminds the listener of some of his earlier procedures used in electronic media. Thus, as an example one could take Epitaf H, where Obradović – using a tape recorder – incorporated pre- recorded sounds of human voices into the ‘acoustic fabric’ of the piece, in order to underline the content and express a certain ‘message’ of humankind. Now, in the Third Piano Concerto, with a similar intention, he resorted to ‘writing out’ the shout Libertas using Morse code (Example 4). However, in this case Obradović did not employ an avant-garde incorporation of the ‘Morse signal’ into the musical structure by means of an electric telegraph or, for example, some other electronic device, but by means of its instrumental transposition. A comparison with Obradović’s earlier works suggests that the author had already used such a procedure in his Fifth Symphony and Sixth Symphony,8 so revisiting the same method in the Third Piano Concerto can be used as a sort of signpost for pinpointing Obradović’s personal creative/stylistic position in his late cre- ative period. Namely, an affirmative (uncritical) return to some of one’s own earlier compositional solutions can in fact be perceived as a kind of reliance on a canon, i.e. as its confirmation, which appears as a symptom of Obradović’s definitive stylistic anchorage in the domain of moderate Modernism/Neoclassi- cism. Regarding the compositional and technical procedure for the ‘musicaliza- tion’ of the Morse code, it should be pointed out that Obradović observed its principles in the Concerto only in a broad outline. In Obradović’s application, the Morse code letters retain their rhythmic identity only partially; this can be explained by the composer’s need not to lose the musical logic by incorpo- rating this extramusical element, which called for certain modifications. Thus, Obradović conceived every short note (shorter than a crotchet) to have the meaning of a dot, every longer note to signify a dash, while any rest is the in- terval between the letters. With such ‘rules of the game’, every group of shorter and longer notes not containing a rest is a single Morse code letter, and the pitch

8 Zorana Radić, op. cit., 85.

103 New Sound 41, I/2013 is of no significance whatsoever. The word/subject Libertas composed using such a procedure (Example 5) appears three times in the musical tissue of the third movement. Obradović achieved the most striking form of moderately modernist communication with the past in the second movement of the Concerto. Con- ceived as the cycle’s plateau and material contrast, the movement is themati- cally based on the material taken from Mokranjac’s Osmoglasnik [Octoechos], which, in the context of the cycle dramaturgy, is functionalized as a sugges- tion of spiritual refuge.9 Finding it in the deeper layers of the national musical idiom, Obradović takes a sticheron from the Seventh Mode; however, he does not incorporate it as it is, but with some personal interventions. He described the attitude towards that material: “Ova stihira se pripisuje Jovanu Damaskinu (675–754), a pošto u to vreme nije bilo utvrđenog i preciznog načina muzičkog zapisivanja, svakako je melodija tokom vremena trpela izvesne promene, uz- rokovane varijantama nastalim prilikom usmenog (pevnog) prenošenja na stalno podmlađivana nova monaška pokolenja. To mi je dalo slobodu da pojedine kraće fraze (inače prilično jednostavne, ali produhovljene melodije) transponu- jem na različite intervale naviše ili naniže, i obogatim savremeno shvaćenim harmonskim tumačenjima, koja ipak ne razbijaju osnovu uzvišenog sadržaja i njegovog asketskog uzbuđivanja do dinamičke katarze i povratka u smirenje” [“This sticheron is ascribed to John of Damascus (675–754), and since no fixed or precise method of musical notation was available at that time, the melody definitely suffered some changes over time, caused by variants emerging as it was handed down orally (in the singing) to new and ever younger generations of monks. This gave me the freedom to transpose individual short phrases (gen- erally quite simple, but spiritual melodies) for various ascending or descend- ing intervals, and to enrich them with contemporary harmonic interpretations, which nevertheless do not destroy the basis of the sublime content and its as- cetic excitement to a dynamic catharsis and the return to tranquillity”].10 Such an approach to a model based on the relatively literal use of a historical para- digm subjected to an authorial reorganization is the closest to the neoclassical

9 Obradović’s looking towards the national musical heritage, atypical in his early creative decades, appears also in his last work, a passacaglia for strings titled Crni goro, the literary foundation for which he also found in Mokranjac’s legacy (a tune from Jedanaesta rukovet [The Eleventh Choral Garland]). For more on similarities in Obradović’s treatment of Mokranjac’s melody in the two works cf. Anica Sabo, “Obradovićev poslednji Largo elegico ed espressivo” [“Obradović’s Last Largo elegico ed espressivo”], Mokranjac, 3–2001, Ne- gotin, 50–52. 10 Aleksandar Obradović, op. cit.

104 Cvetković, S.: Aleksandar Obradović – Pro Libertate Concerto for Piano ... (99–109) method of the paraphrase.11 By relying on archaic layers of the national musi- cal idiom, the chosen material could be contextualized by creating a poetical correspondence between the work and certain modernist compositions in the Serbian music of the sixth and seventh decades of the last century, which only serves to place the Concerto within the coordinates of neoclassical resorting to canonical solutions, i.e. the already mastered thematic origins. However, in de- liberating on the incentive to select such a thematic circle, attention could also be directed to the topical, i.e. to the spirit of times when the work was written, and which was strongly marked by promoting a return to nationalist values. The concerto principle of the entire cycle is carried out by dense inter- weaving of the solo and orchestral parts, the correlation of which is conceived so that they travel equal distances in building a coherent musical entity. In the first and third movements, its character is marked by an increased expressivity, supported by skilful orchestral way of thinking dominated by an insistence on the figurated repetition of the established (harmonic) pattern in the accompani- ment, as well as the predominantly percussive treatment of the piano part.12 In certain moments, it is placed as the outermost voice of the musical tissue, while elsewhere it is treated almost like a figurated orchestral accompaniment func- tioning as the character generator. The primary trait of the thematic materials of the first and the last movements, thus functionalized, is not so much the melody as the metre and rhythm. Obradović achieves the expressionistic tension equally by the harshness of harmonic structures within a tonality that is as generalized as possible, contributed by cluster progressions (Example 6), as well as the oc- casional occurrences of aleatory elements in certain orchestral parts, also used to increase gesturality of the musical tissue. In terms of these parameters, the Third Piano Concerto is related to some of Obradović’s works written in the same period, especially to the Diptych for Piano and Strings (1999).13 Contrary

11 On the paraphrase as a compositional method particularly used in Neoclassicism, Vesna Mikić writes: “…parafraza, podrazumeva relativno strogu i doslednu upotrebu nekih karak- teristika dela iz prošlosti (teme, tema, strukture, i sl.). U ovom postupku umetnik po sopst- venoj želji prerađuje materijale i odseke već postojećeg/postojećih dela…” [“…paraphrase, implies a relatively strict and consequent use of certain traits of a work from the past (sub- ject, subjects, structure, etc.) In this procedure the artist, of his or her own accord, refashions the materials and sections of already existing work(s)…”] More on the paraphrase in: Vesna Mikić, Lica srpske muzike: neoklasicizam [Faces of Serbian Music: Neoclassicism], Fakultet muzičke umetnosti, Belgrade, 2009, 64. 12 Obradović foreshadowed such kind of compositional thinking and piano treatment in the Dip- tych for Piano and Strings. Cf. Sonja Marinković, “Dva diptiha Aleksandra Obradovića”, 93. 13 Cf. the analysis of the diptych in: Sonja Marinković, “Dva diptiha Aleksandra Obradovića”, 93.

105 New Sound 41, I/2013 to the described expressivity of the outer movements, the second movement, as the material plateau of the cycle, is created by an essentially different musical thinking. Based on the said sticheron from the Seventh Mode of Mokranjac’s Octoechos, it conveys a musical language nuanced by Late-Romanticist (and partly even Impressionist) compositional procedures, all the while being more clearly anchored in tonality. The predominance of the melodic principle is an- other contrasting distinction of the movement, while its closeness to the other movements could be found in the fact that Obradović here does not deviate from equating the soloist and orchestral roles, and so the thematism meanders along all the ‘protagonists’ of the musical tissue. Dramaturgically, Obradović’s Concerto presents a gradation that turns the last movement into the cycle’s focal point. This is not achieved by its formal structure, but mostly by its conception as the poetic outcome of the entire musical tissue which, after the complex mu- sical development in the previous two movements, is finally able to express the work’s message, through the subject Libertas. The Third Piano Concerto completes the image of Obradović’s composi- tional oeuvre, sharpening at the same time the insight into his endeavours in the last decade of his creative activity. In that respect, the concerto shows the coex- istence of various creative experiences, but also the author’s ability to skilfully join them within a unique stylistic procedure. As for the basic conclusions, one could say that, among the traces of the composer’s earlier interests, the concerto contains distant reminiscences of dodecaphony (the construction of the twelve- note subject in the first movement) or a departure from the domain of musical convention (even in the form of the traditionally treated Morse code signals in the third movement). Besides that, the concerto manifests Obradović’s cre- ative inclination for extending the range of possible paradigms from the history of music (the musical material from the Octoechos in the second movement). By these procedures, Aleksandar Obradović confirmed his openness to always ‘welcome’ new compositional challenges (or those resolved in a new way), al- beit to a slightly lesser extent than in certain works from his mature creative period. Nevertheless, along the lines of these intentions, Obradović through the Third Piano Concert liberates his Neoclassicism from a strict ‘academic’ shape, positioning it closer to the domain of a creative activity that is essentially arbi- trary, and thus always somewhat risky.

Translated by Goran Kapetanović

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Article received on 27 September 2013 Article accepted on 30 September 2013 UDC: 782 Dragana Jeremić Molnar University of Arts in Belgrade Faculty of Music Department of Musicology

SELF-PARODICAL CONSEQUENCES OF OPERATIC PARODY*

Abstract: With rare exceptions, the critical response to the opera The Perfect American, whose protagonist is Walt Disney, was lukewarm. For the most part, the critics blamed its modest result on Rudy Wurlitzer’s libretto, described as incoherent, dramatically limited and lame, even boring. The input of the composer Philip Glass, the most distinguished name in the artistic team that created The Perfect American, received higher marks, but even those who praised some of his compositional solutions (and especially his trade skills) unanimously concluded that the music nevertheless had not reached a high enough level to compensate for the deficiencies in the libretto. In the interpretations available so far, the opera was generally understood to be a (failed) attempt at depicting Disney as an insufficiently talented person with an idea, who built his empire by shamelessly appropri- ating the merits of those who, thanks to their talents, were able to carry out his idea. The author in this text wants to show that the opera can be perceived in quite a different way: as an allegory of contemporary American culture, torn between its cosmopolitism and humanistic openness, on the one hand, and provincialism and parochial rigidity, on the other; this duality is encapsulated in Disney’s character per se, hiding behind a porous façade of perfection. The text reads that Glass’s music did not succeed in supporting this dimension of Wurlitzer’s libretto, thus inadvertently adding a self-parodical layer to its parodical content. Since the composer failed to come to grips with the dramatic challenges he was facing, the music constantly circled in a hiatus between bold avant-garde preten- sions and hackneyed forms of minimalist mannerism. Key words: Glass, Disney, America, opera, minimalism.

* The paper was written within the Project No. 177019, carried out at the Department of Musicology of the Faculty of Music in Belgrade and funded by the Ministry of Science of the Republic of Serbia. Author contact information: [email protected]

110 Jeremić Molnar, D.: Self-parodical Consequences of Operatic Parody (110–116)

The world premiere of Philip Glass’s opera The Perfect American took place on 22nd January 2013 in the Teatro Real in Madrid, one of two opera houses that commissioned and co-produced the work. From 1st to 28th June it was presented to the British audience, on the stage of the other commissioning party, the Eng- lish National Opera in London.1 The libretto, written by Rudy Wurlitzer, was adapted from the novel by Peter Stephan Jungk. To the audience’s satisfaction, all the visual elements of the production (set design, costumes, choreography, animation, lighting) were entrusted to the members of the Improbable theatre company, led by the director Phelim McDermott.2 One of the London perfor- mances was an inspiration for writing this text.

* * * In 2001, Peter Stephan Jungk, American writer, translator and theatrical di- rector, wrote a provocative biographie romancée3 in the German language, titled Der König von Amerika (published in 2004 in English as The Perfect American), dealing with the last months in the life of a giant of the 20th-century American film industry – Walt Disney (1901–1966). The novel can be understood as a kind of attempt by the author to unmask the creator of a fascinating world in which, in his time, he also was absorbed naively and emotionally, like most of the children born in America (and elsewhere).4 The novel’s structure is episodic, and indisputable biographic facts (which the writer carefully collected)5 are combined with a whirl of fictional characters (among them the narrator, Wil- helm Dantine),6 situations and Disney’s thoughts, memories, fears, dreams and

1 The Australian premiere of the work has been announced and scheduled for 2014. 2 The ENO ensemble was conducted by Gareth Jones, and the leading roles were sung by Christopher Purves (Walt Disney), David Soar (Roy Disney), Janis Kelly (Hazel George), Donald Kaasch (William Dantine), Pamela Helen Stephen (Lillian Disney), Zachary James (Abraham Lincoln). 3 This genre determinant was given to the novel by the author personally: Peter Stephan Jungk, “Some thoughts concerning my novel, The Perfect American”, The Perfect Ameri- can, English National Opera 2012/13 season, ENO, London, 2013, 15. 4 Jungk spent the first five years of his childhood in Santa Monica, California, where he was born in 1952. 5 By his own admission, the writer has read every biography of Walt Disney he could ac- quire, and the best in his opinion are The Disney Version by Richard Schickel and Walt Disney – A Biography by Bob Thomas. Jungk, “Some thoughts concerning my novel, The Perfect American”, 13. 6 The novel is in fact the story of Dantine, an animator, who loves and hates Disney at the same time. At first, he is cruelly exploited by Disney, and then even more cruelly fired for taking part in establishing a trade union of animators and promoting leftist ideas. Torn by contradicting emotions towards his former employer, Dantine carries out a research in order

111 New Sound 41, I/2013 experiences, so that the boundary between the true and the fictional is blurred to the utmost. The author needed the imaginary character of Dantine the animator so as to creatively combine, through him (and his attitude towards Disney), two contrasting images of Walt Disney: the idealized one based on unconditional worship, which he had heard about in his childhood years from a family friend who was also a Disney’s associate, and the realistic and impartial one, built by the biographers of this filmmaker. Jungk personally, it seems, was closer to a critical interpretation of Disney’s character. The result of his demythologization of Walt Disney was the literary portrait of a deeply conservative (one could even say reactionary) personality who, in spite of world fame, remained trapped in the hopelessly narrow-minded views of the American backwater. (Nothing made Disney so nostalgic as the memory of the days at a farm in the little town of Marceline, Missouri, where he had lived for four years altogether.) In that reference, Jungk in his novel paraphrased Disney’s catch phrase, which he used often in public appearances: “My whole life, I’ve been hiding behind a mouse and a duck.”7 However, the very fact that he had gained fame, elevating him far above the farming world of idyllic Marceline, convinced Disney that he had become some sort of artist-prophet (so typical of Western Europe during the Romanticism). Thus, at the very beginning of the novel, the author makes the reader aware of the protagonist’s egotism, best exemplified by a kind of prayer/ mantra he utters at dawn every day: “I am a leader, a pioneer, I am one of the great men of our time, the words seem to echo within Walt. […] More people in the world know my name than that of Jesus Christ. Billions have seen at least one of my films. It’s something that never existed before me; an art form, an idea, a concept, that managed to address and move and delight the whole of mankind. I have created a universe. My fame will outlast the centuries.”8 First and foremost, Jungk’s novel parodies the image of the famous anima- tor, who stole the hearts of children (but also adults) in America and all over the world, who spoke the language of innocent children’s emotions, and who grad- ually became a true symbol of American normality and the American dream. Behind the smiling face with the signature moustache and kind eyes, Jungk uncovered the traits of an egomaniac, misogynist, even a racist, whose value system was a bizarre composite of Joseph Raymond ‘Joe’ McCarthy, a Midwest to expose Disney for an untalented but ambitious man, but also to immerse deeply into his world. 7 Peter Stephan Jungk, The Perfect American, trans. Michael Hofmann, Other Press (re- printed edition), New York, 2012, 30 and 140. 8 Ibid., 4.

112 Jeremić Molnar, D.: Self-parodical Consequences of Operatic Parody (110–116) farmer and a merciless capitalist.9 In the months leading to the death of Jungk’s Disney, covered by the novel, his already disturbed grasp on reality becomes almost caricature-like, since the thought of imminent death only intensifies his delusions of grandeur.

* * * Guided by such a literary basis, Rudy Wurlitzer wrote the libretto for the eponymous opera. He compressed Jungk’s text (leaving out some colourful characters and appreciably weakening an important plotline involving the nar- rator, Dantine), and devised a libretto of 11 scenes (organized into two acts), framed by the prologue and the epilogue. The episodic structure, typical of the novel, is even more pronounced in the libretto (particularly in the first act) and results in a sort of collage composition. Such an impression is mostly reinforced by the narration which, unlike the novel, is non-linear and built so that events from the present time (December 1966) are shifted to the recent past (Septem- ber and October of the same year) and vice versa, several times over. Wurlitzer placed his prologue in the space of St. Joseph’s Hospital in Burbank, California, with the expositional introduction of Disney as a patient. The dreary hospital atmosphere, burdened by the looming shadow of death and the role of a sick man corrode Disney’s façade of a strong, domineering personality and intensify his inner turmoil, shown in the prologue as apparitions of nightmarish flash- backs, conjuring up the memory of his days in idealized Marceline. By adding a prologue, Wurlitzer further strengthened the discontinuity of the plot, but he did create a link with the first scene of the first act (which really takes place in Marceline) and with the very end of the work (Disney’s death in the same hospital). The first act of the opera is more dynamic than the second, because it gradually reveals a complex microsocial network of people who were close and subordinate to Disney (the elder brother, Roy; the nurse, Hazel George; the wife, Lillian; the daughters), but it also introduces the characters who attack his ego (Dantine; the little girl, Lucy; the puppet of Abraham Lincoln) and are consequently, rudely driven away.10 The unquestionable pinnacle of the entire work is the fifth scene, the last one in the first act. It proceeds from the section of the novel that the director

9 A critic for the magazine A Publication of the Metropolitan Opera Guild Opera News, on the occasion of the Madrid premiere, wrote that Jungk in his book created a character of a monster. 10 In the second act, idolatrous Andy Warhol and the sick boy, Josh, who is a true admirer of Disney’s work, appear as a counterbalance to aggressive Dantine (and to little Lucy from the first act).

113 New Sound 41, I/2013

McDermott, in an interview, qualified as the most operatic one, the seed from which the entire opera has grown.11 In that scene, Disney is vainly trying to fix an audio-animatronic puppet of Abraham Lincoln, which he has constructed personally and which no longer functions in the way he had programmed it. He is having an interesting and bizarre ‘conversation’ with the malfunction- ing artificial Lincoln, who (only adding to the bizarre effect) he addresses as “Mister President”. This dialogue completely exposes and reveals his being torn apart. Lincoln is his idol,12 the one historic personality – the one certified “per- fect American” – who is, on the one hand, Disney’s gauge for the criteria of climbing the social ladder, fame and power of global influence, but from whom, on the other hand, he strives to disassociate as thoroughly as possible, since that personality upholds the values of equality, tolerance and democracy – the foundations of ‘another America’ which Disney does not want to have anything to do with. Disney is at a loss for what attitude to take towards the historical Lincoln, who attracts and repels him at the same time, and he does not know how to repair the artificial Lincoln confronting him; so, the talking and mov- ing puppet, at the end of the scene, attacks him and calls him names. The clash with ‘Lincoln’, at the end of the first act, is more devastating than death, at the end of the second act. For Disney, halfway through the opera, in fact clashes with the American reality (and his own claims to being ‘the perfect American’). This reality crushes him relentlessly, precisely because of the delusions he had about it (and about himself). The ‘delirious’ artificial Abraham Lincoln, which smoulders and eventually burns out, delivers the worst blow on Disney and thus reveals the true parodical edge of the work. In fact, the opera is not dominated by the tragic moment of the protagonist facing death that has been looming since the prologue. (At any rate, Disney knows perfectly well that death cannot destroy a myth, and at the same time, he is hoping to be frozen, and reanimated in the future, when the cure for cancer is discovered.) The tragedy lies in the principal character’s confrontation with the perversion of his own work. In Mc- Dermott’s staging of the end of the first act in The Perfect American, Disney’s entire imaginary world is incarnated in the bizarre ‘character’ of Lincoln, who is striking his maker almost like the ‘eternal villain’ Big Bad Pete would, in order to make him abandon his deeply wrong intentions and beliefs. The counterpart of this scene in the first act is the sixth scene in the second act: after Disney’s death, his formerly employed draughtsmen (led by Dantine) turn into animals

11 Cf. “Making it work. Adrian Mourby meets director McDermott”, in: The Perfect Ameri- can, The Perfect American. English National Opera 2012/13 season, ENO, London, 2013, 20. 12 In the novel, Disney talks of Lincoln as his idol. Jungk, The Perfect American, 29.

114 Jeremić Molnar, D.: Self-parodical Consequences of Operatic Parody (110–116) that, bearing only remote and very disturbing resemblance to the beautiful ani- mated characters of Disney’s world, indulge in a threatening dance to instigate their ‘righteous rebellion’ against the exploiter. What Wurlitzer made available to Glass was a libretto with great amount of prose text needing to be put to music, with insufficiently profiled, yet es- tablished (and even conflicting) relations between the characters, as well as an admittedly weak, dramatic plotline emerging from fragments within a sequence of loosely connected theatrical vignettes. Due to other commissions (his latest opera, The Lost, composed on Peter Handke’s play Spuren der Verirrten, was premiered last April in Linz, Austria), Glass was late with his compositional responsibilities on this project (for example, the staging in Madrid was com- pleted even before anyone had heard a single note of Glass’s music, while the singers and orchestra members were well into rehearsing the first act when they received the music for the second act).13 Thus, it is no wonder that the music, completed under pressure for time, became the weakest link in the whole op- eratic project. Glass’s music remained neutral, unimpressive and did not add any substantial component to the work. While the declamatory and monotonous vocal parts, throughout most of the opera, unfolded in complete indifference to the context, the inconspicuous, melodically and rhythmically uninventive (though not colourless) orchestral accompaniment functioned predominantly as a background, as occasional music in a theatre play. The result could not be any different because Glass approached the writing of the music for this opera as if it were just another of his ‘portrait operas’, devoid of all drama and adjusted to the logic of a hallucinatory stream of abstract images. In such type of true collage opera, an example of which was the infamous Kepler (2009), the funda- mental emptiness of the musical expression could be perfectly covered by the innovative technical props, dance numbers or stage effects. The Perfect Ameri- can became a sort of a trap, since it could not be reduced to another of Glass’s ‘portrait operas’ for which the music is written routinely, by stringing up inert minimalist musical phrases that correspond best to a fragmented structure and almost two-dimensional non-dramatic plot. Since the dramatic potential of the literary basis did not disappear completely from Wurlitzer’s libretto, it was nec- essary to compose truly operatic music, as required by the demands of its genre. After almost four decades of dissolving the boundaries between opera, musical theatre and theatre, it is apparent that Glass was not up to the task of composing music for an opera. Not only did the very successful innovative technical props,

13 The fact that creation of The Perfect American was unusual (dramatization – staging – music) was discussed by McDermott in the abovementioned interview. “Making it work. Adrian Mourby meets director McDermott”, 20.

115 New Sound 41, I/2013 dance numbers and stage effects that abounded in The Perfect American, fail to cover the mannerism of the composed music – they merely emphasized it. This was most apparent precisely in the key scene of the work – the last scene in the first act. When Disney engages in a bizarre monologue/dialogue with Abraham Lincoln’s puppet, thus lending a highly parodical character to the opera, the music keeps on circling at an unreduced distance, as if it were the conclusion of the film Koyaanisqatsi (1982), where Glass employed the incantations of the Hopi medicine men as an explanation for the explosion of the rocket and the fall of its last piece to the ground. The music in The Perfect American does not undergo transformations dictated by the libretto and, having no tangible reason for it, it becomes the means of its own self-parody. The audi- ence who carefully listened to Glass in the fifth scene in the first act could see him on the stage too, struggling with his own opera music. Disney’s incapacity to tame the rampant artificial Abraham Lincoln, who kept striking Disney for having made him so freakish, corresponded to Philip Glass’s powerlessness to overcome the minimalist mannerism that has been destroying the rules of the opera genre for far too long for it to be able to accept those rules when that was expected of it. Translated by Goran Kapetanović

116 ANALYSES

Article received on 22 September 2013 Article accepted on 30 September 2013 UDC: 786.2.087.5.089.6 Man-Ching Yu The Hong Kong Institute of Education Cultural and Creative Arts Department Musical Arts Division

TRANSFORMATIONS OF DIATONIC MATERIALS AND TONAL PROCEDURES IN LIGETI’S ETUDE NO. 15 “WHITE ON WHITE”

Abstract: This essay examines interrelationships of various diatonic materials that arise in Ligeti’s Etude No. 15 “White on White,” focusing on transformational properties be- tween different diatonic trichords. Ligeti’s distinctive treatments of diatonic materials reflect the utilization of triadic intervallic structures in transformational procedures. In particular, ic5 dominates in abundance, contributing to the consonant tonal property be- tween various pitch-class transformations among trichords, and that some are smoothly interconnected by common tones for preserving diatonic coherent sound. Additionally, some transformations are analogous to tonal procedures – harmonies progress from tonic to dominant or subdominant and vice versa – that manifests Ligeti’s pronounced reference to the context of the traditional common practice as three pitch-classes among the same types of trichords map onto each other solely by ic5. Along with the coherent diatonic sound that Ligeti forges, tonal contrasts are achieved through simultaneous tonal occur- rences being established by transformed pitch-classes, forming tonal pairings in third re- lationship with ics 3 and 4 that illuminate the traditionalistic tonic and mediant linkage prevailing in the nineteenth century. Keywords: Ligeti, transformation, double transformation, common tone, diatonic tri- chord, diatonic collection, micropolyphony, harmonic net-structure, tonal pairing, inter- val-class.

* Author contact information: [email protected]

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Ligeti’s musical styles underwent various metamorphoses during his com- positional career and his compositional styles can be divided into three different periods; each period showed substantial stylistic changes in terms of harmonic structures and languages. The musical style of his earlier period generally re- flects the influence of Bartók and Hungarian folklore materials1. After 1956, his music is characterized by dense micropolyphonic webs2 (Roig-Francoli, 1995). Besides micropolyphonic techniques, chromatic intervallic cells are utilized for generating a distinctive harmonic language called “harmonic net-structure.”3 In his late period after 1980, Ligeti’s musical style drastically shifted as he em- ployed numerous traditional and tonal elements, as he said: “In the late ‘50s and early ‘60s my music moved within harmonic fields filled out with chromaticism, whereas ten years later I composed diatonic music. I felt that chromaticism had been exhausted: the choice was between going “back” to diatonic music and going “forward” outside the sphere of tempered Music. (Varnai, 1983) Among the works in his late period, his Horn Trio composed in 1982 is the first piece in which Ligeti experimented with his new style.4 In this piece Ligeti’s use of major and minor harmonies with set-class 3–11 are evident, re- flecting the exploration of triadic sonorities without any reference to the syn- tax of common practice tonality. Along with set-class 3–11 various diatonic set-classes-3–2 [013], 3–6 [024], 3–7 [025], and 3–11 [037] – drawn from the diatonic collection 7–35 [013568A] can be sought in his later period works5; Ligeti’s particular uses of these generative trichords were regarded as a sort of typical signal6 because most of his late works comprise these set-classes serving

1 Among his works, Musica ricercata (1953) and String Quartet No. 1 Métamorphoses nocturnes (1953–1954) clearly manifest his earlier styles. (Searby, 2010) 2 Micropolyphonic web is the technique adopted by Ligeti where numerous independent chromatic lines are intertwined with each other to create a chromatic-filled complex sound clusters. Those techniques are manifested in his large-scale orchestral works such as Appari- tions (1958–59) and Atmospheres (1961) (Cope, 1997). Ligeti has also mentioned the impor- tant innovative concept in Gyoergy Ligeti in Conversation with Peter Varnai, Josef Haeusler, Claude Samuel and himself. (London: Eulenburg, 1983) 3 Harmonic Net-Structure is a continuous web of finely-woven lines in a constant interactive process of transformation of one or more parameters and his Ramification (1968–69) and String Quartet No. 2 (1968) are characterized by such techniques. (Roig-Francoli, 1995) 4 Ligeti himself said this Horn Trio was the first piece in his new style, belonging to the last period. (Szigeti 1984, p.210) 5 See Cuciurean (2012, pp. 225). 6 See Varnai (1983, p.29); the original interview was conducted in 1978. Cuciurean (2012, p.226) also confirms that the generated sonorities built from either conjoined 3–7 or 3–11 trichords will be subsets or supersets of the diatonic collection, 7–35, all of which assume an increasingly prominent role in the music of Ligeti’s so-called final period.

118 Man-Ching Yu: Transformations of Diatonic Materials ... (117–138) as harmonic devices for generating diatonic sound. All these trichords have tri- adic properties involving triadic intervallic structures-ics7 3, 4 and 5 – and those interval classes are crucial for pitch-class8 formation in his late works.9 Despite the evident change of his styles, the transformational properties of his earlier micropolyphonic works were frequently investigated. Miguel A. Roig (1995) focuses on the transformational processes10 of Ligeti’s Ramifica- tions; Jonathan Bernard (1987) mentions the harmonic processing and spatial contextual issue in Ligeti’s Lontano, whereas Bruce Reiprich (1978) focuses on the transformation of density in Lontano. However, more attention has been paid to investigating Ligeti’s late works recently. Clifton Callender (2007) in- vestigates the traditional tertian harmonic materials in Ligeti’s Etude No. VI “Arc-en-ciel”11; John Cuciurean (2012) gives an insightful inspection into the third movement “Bewegung” from Ligeti’s Three Pieces for Two Pianos (1976): he generalizes that the piece involves the amalgamation of the past and new stylistic approaches. Diatonic harmonies are marked by several prominent ca- dential points during the course of the piece, while canonic procedures asso- ciated with the unfolding of chromatic dyads are utilized. Thus, an apparent association between his earlier and later musical styles is evident in Ligeti’s late works. For gaining a deeper understanding of Ligeti’s late work, I investigate one of his piano solo pieces with newly transformed style – the first movement of Etude No. 15 “White on White.” This piece is rather distinct from his other late work in that it exclusively exhausts all the diatonic subsets drawn from the diatonic scale on C, rather than exhausting all the single pitches or chromatic

7 Ic, an abbreviation of interval-class, is the shortest distance between two notes in pitch- class space; pitch-class space is an associational circular space containing all the notes within a musical octave, and in this space, there is no differentiation between notes that are distinct by different octaves. For instance, although C4, C5, and C6 situate in different oc- taves position, they belong to the same point in pitch class space. (Straus 2005) 8 Pitch-class, being abbreviated as pc, is a set of pitches translated by integer notation into whole numbers regardless of their octaves position; e.g. C=0, C#=1, and D=2.(Straus 2005) 9 In Ligeti’s later period works, set-class 3–11 surfaces as a new Ligeti signal that begins to assume a more prominent role from the mid-1980s onwards. (Cuciurean 2012, p.225–226) 10 In the Roig-Francoli (1995) article, transformational properties have been addressed in Ligeti’s works written in the middle period. In his Ramifications, harmonic transformation is generated by constant intervallic expansion or contraction of trichordal cells. Chromatic fluctuation associated with intervallic expansion also occurs in his Second String Quartet; in his Chamber Concerto harmonic transformation is undergone by means of subtraction and addition of single pitches, effecting the symmetry of groups of pitches. 11 Callender (2007) uses neo-Riemannian theory to delineate the harmonic progressions in the piece and he also figures out that jazz harmonies partly influence the harmonic materials of the piece.

119 New Sound 41, I/2013 dyads within the chromatic scale benchmarked in his earlier works. I also pay specific attention to the transformational properties of pitch-classes at various levels and in different dimensions of the piece. Moreover, I further contend that Ligeti contrasts drastically with his earlier micropolyphonic techniques, which are prominently featured by saturating, unfolding, and transforming chromatic cells and dyads, by maximally employing consonant interval12 ic5 and preserv- ing tonalities and traditional approaches for governing harmonic relationships. As a matter of fact, the significance of ic5 has been highlighted in Ligeti’s Sketch Page I for Bewegung13. As illustrated in example 1, Ligeti writes four perfect fifths and the particular intervals serve as central arrival points from where various chromatic dyads unfold. The contrasting consonant quality of ic5 serves as a basis for displaying transformational process and tonal procedures throughout the first movement of “White on White.”

Example 1: Sketch Page I for Bewegung emphasizes perfect fifths

In Etude No. 15 “White on White,” diatonicism in association with conso- nant14 tonal sound based on all pitches of the white keys15 is so central that the sound reflects Ligeti’s application of transformational techniques. In the piece, all diatonic set-classes in various transpositional levels are exploited and they are more often displayed in a condensational form of trichordal configuration. These diatonic set-classes dominate the whole movement at various levels from vertical to horizontal dimensions, manifesting Ligeti’s use of economical post-

12 Here I contend that ics 1 and 5 are in stark contrasts in terms of the nature of dissonance and consonance. 13 See Cuciurean’s (2012, p. 223) essay. 14 Various theorists have delineated explicitly the level of consonances and dissonances. Ac- cording to Howard Hanson (1960), Vincent Persichetti (1961), and Paul Hindemith (1941), perfect intervals include perfect 4th and perfect 5th having the most consonant sound. 15 I refer to the white keys of the piano keyboard, reflecting the title “White on White.”

120 Man-Ching Yu: Transformations of Diatonic Materials ... (117–138) tonal materials16 for generating coherent sound. Additionally, a strict canonic relationship dominates between the upper and bottom layers of the piece and subsequently common tones extensively exist between adjacent trichords for displaying a smooth transformational process. The horizontal counterpoint-ori- ented canonic process combines with the vertical harmonic-oriented features of various trichordal materials, creating a substantive diatonic variety. Moreover, tonal procedures17 are manifested as a result of the transformations between trichords, and these particular triadic interval classes are employed predomi- nantly for transformations between trichords during the course of the piece. Nevertheless, the tonal procedures manifest Ligeti’s drawing on the past tech- niques and illuminate Ligeti’s special manipulation of diatonic materials in his late work.

Example 2: Chain of common tones between each adjacent trichords from ‘b’ to‘h’ in m. 1

Example 2 illustrates each trichordal configuration displayed in verti- cal dimension, and in m. 1 there are seven different trichordal configurations with different pitch classes in the upper and lower layers. Common tones are preserved between each pair of neighboring trichords, resulting from the strict canonic relationship between the upper and bottom layers from ‘b’ to ‘h.’ For instance, one common tone pc 9 exists between chord ‘b’ and chord ‘c’; two common tones pc 4 and 7 exist between chord ‘c’ and chord ‘d,’ and so forth. The constant preservation of common tones strongly conserves the affinity re- lationship and the similar diatonic sound between each pair of trichords, as well

16 Herein I use “post-tonal materials” to describe various diatonic set-classes in different transpositional relationships. 17 I use the term “tonal procedures” for referring to all the traditional common practices re- lated to harmonic progressions and forming tonalities.

121 New Sound 41, I/2013 as smoothing the transformational process between each chord; however, the common tones between each pair are in an octave relationship. As shown in example 2, pc 9 in chord ‘c’ is an octave lower than that in chord ‘b.’ Despite the “octave transfer”,18 the sense of sameness between the common tones is not destroyed, as they belong to the same pitch-classes, and it also offers an interesting way to echo the same pitch-classes in an octave equivalent relation- ship between each trichordal pairs. Ligeti draws on the characteristic of the har- monic progression of the traditional harmonic practice by preserving common tones between triadic materials, however, the common tones in this piece are in an octave registral relationship which is quite an interesting treatment.

Example 3: Transformation of different pcs between neighboring trichords from ‘b’ to ‘h’

Because of the vast amounts of common tones, transformations among non-common tones emerge between trichords. Example 3 reveals that extensive transformations occur between different pitch-classes. In trichord ‘b,’ pc 0 and pc 11 split into a dyad, by transforming into pcs 4 and 7; pc 9 in trichord ‘c’ transforms into pc 2 in trichord ‘d,’ similarly, pc 4 and pc 7 split into a dyad with pcs 7 and 9, and so forth. The interval classes of all the transformations be- tween pitch-classes are overwhelmingly dominated by ics5 and 3, which are the paramount intervallic structure of a triad. The transformations are all governed by the consonant triadic intervals for generating tonal sound and those massive chains of consonant skips19 of ics3 and 5 strongly stabilize the consonant and

18 The “octave transfer” that I address here is the spatial transposition of the common tones belonging to the same pitch-classes. 19 Here the consonant skip that I mention is an associational model, which is different from that of the concept used in the traditional Schenkerian Analysis. This consonant skip empha- sizes the triadic consonant intervallic classes, ic3, 4, and 5 operating on transformations be- tween trichords.

122 Man-Ching Yu: Transformations of Diatonic Materials ... (117–138) tonal quality of the passage. It should be noteworthy that ic5, which is consid- ered as the most consonant interval in a triad, exhibits its maximum occurrence. This interval plays a significant role in forging consonant and tonal sound in the piece, as well as reflecting the purity of diatonic sound.

Example 4: Double transformations between trichords ‘b’ and ‘c’,‘d’ and ‘e’, and ‘f’ and ‘g’

Some interesting tonal phenomenon arises as a result of the transforma- tions, leading to the formation of tonal pairing20 at the preliminary section of the piece. The formation later forecasts the emergences of other tonal parings during the course of the first two measures and it will be addressed in the ensu- ing discussion. As in example 2, trichords ‘b,’‘d,’ and ‘f’ at the bottom layer are character- ized by two voices and each transforms into two different pitches, and thus four transformations occur. Example 4 illustrates double transformations display be- tween trichords ‘b’ and ‘c’, ‘d’ and ‘e’, and ‘e’ and ‘f’. The result reveals that ic5 emerges in six transformational processes, ics3 and 4 appear twice, and ics0 and 2 show their minimum occurrences. Thus, it is evident that triadic intervallic class 5 dominates the double transformational processes. In addition, the impli- cation of the unions of two different triads, C major and E minor, is imaginarily generated by simultaneous consonant motions. The combination of the trans- formational processes of both triads results in tonal pairing, creating a double- tonic complex21 that comprises the pitches C-E-G-B. Apparently, a C tonality is potentially implicated in the complex and its significance gradually emerges

20 Tonal Pairing has been first addressed by Robert Bailey (1985) in his work on Wagner. It is generally defined as a situation where two tonics simultaneously occupy the same position within a tonal hierarchy. 21 Double-tonic complex has also been introduced by Robert Bailey (1985) and it is formed by the unions of two different triads in third relationship, as in this case, the combination of C major and E minor triads to form C-E-G-B.

123 New Sound 41, I/2013 during the course of the piece. For instance, its first arrival in trichord ‘h’ at the end of m.1 marks the first cadential point (see example 2). On the other hand, an A minor tonality gradually conforms for establishing tonal focus alongside the C tonal centre. Throughout the whole piece the simultaneous emergences of A minor and C major tonal centers play prominent roles in synthesizing the tonalities of the piece. The music is initiated with an important dyad with pcs0 and 11 at the first beat in m.1 and it transforms into pc9 in trichord ‘b,’ (see example 3); the trans- formation serves as a resolution resembling the traditional common practice by implicating an A minorish tonality. By interacting the A minorish trichord ‘b’ with pcs 4 and 7 in trichord ‘c’, a generalized tertian 9th chord is superimposed as shown in example 5. This tertian chord reveals the composer’s harmonic signature set-class 5–27, emerging in his later style.22 Moreover, the intervallic structure of the chord reflects an interval cycle dominating the single pitch- classes as shown in example 6. The ascending arpeggiation of pcs 2, 5, 9, and 0, with the exception of pc4, outline an interval cycle filled with ics 3 and 4. In other words, the intervallic pattern, ic3–ic4–ic3–ic4, is condensed within the A minorish tertian 9th chord in example 5. As we can see, consonant intervals ic3, ic4, and ic5 play constructive roles in synthesizing pitch materials in various dimensions at the musical surface even though the whole piece is chiefly domi- nated by post-tonal set-classes with dissonances minor 2nd and 7th and major 2nd and 7th. (Example 2) Interestingly, another occasion of tonal pairings can also be sought (Exam- ple 7), however, these tonal pairings between D- and F+23 comprise pitches pro- jected at a larger surface level and they are in third-related tonal relationships. As shown in example 7, non-dotted arrows indicate that transformations take place between different single pitch-classes, whereas dotted arrows represent common pitch-classes between the upper and lower layers. As mentioned previ- ously in example 3, by holding common tones between adjacent trichords, trans- formations of different pitch-classes take place between the lower and upper layers. In example 6, pc 9 in trichord ‘c’ transforms into pc 2 in trichord ‘d, ’ and thus due to the same pcs 9 possessed by trichords ‘b’ and ‘c,’ transforma- tion also takes place in the upper layer between pc 9 in trichord ‘b’ and pc 2 in trichord ‘d,’ and so forth. Subsequently, the chain of transformations takes place

22 Ligeti employs his typical trichordal signals as a family of subsets which appear as em- bedded structures within more complex surface harmonies that arise through transpositional combination of set-classes 3–2 (013), 3–6 (024), 3–7 (025), 3–10 (036), and 3–11 (037) (Cuciurean 2012, p. 225). 23 Here I use the signs + and – to denote major and minor respectively. (Straus 158)

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Example 5: Tertian 9th chord with root A is formed as a result of the superimposition of three triads, A-, C+, and E in m.1

Example 6: Interval cycle filled with ics3 and 4 formed by single pitch-classes extensively between different single pitch-classes in the upper layer as shown in example 7. The interval cycle that dominates the arpeggiated pitch-classes in example 7 is the same as the interval classes that dominate the transformations between different pitch-classes in the upper and lower layers in example 3. In other words, transformations govern the triadic arpeggiation of the pitch-classes in the upper layer in example 7. Furthermore, the importance of the single outlined pitch-classes in the upper layer in example 7 can also be manifested by the motional tendency of each pitch-class’s previous dyad. This is analogous to the resolution manner of the traditional common practice period, i.e. particular pitch in one chord re- solves to the neighboring pitch by means of stepwise motion. In this case, the unstable dyad on the down beat, pcs 0 and 11, in chord ‘a’, tends to gravitate toward the rather stable single pc 9 in chord ‘b’ on the upbeat and so as the rest of the trichords from ‘c’ to ‘j,’ however, the dyad with pcs 5 and 7 in chord ‘k’

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Example 7: Resolved pitches outline tonal pairings resolves to pc 4 in chord ‘n’ and this resolution is delayed by pcs 0 and 2 in be- tween. By combining the outlined resolved pitches in trichords ‘b,’‘d,’ ‘f,’ ‘h,’ and ‘j,’ three different triads can be formed, D-, F+, and A- triads as illustrated in example 7. Tonal pairings between D- and F+ as well as F+ and A- generate two pairs of third-related tonal centers. These pronounced tonal relationships hark back to the 19th century where third-related tonal centers are a common- place24. In addition, by combining all three triads together, an implicative tertian 9th chord can be formed as shown in example 8. The chord is made up of the superimposition of three different triads and the “upper structure25” of the chord is made up of an A- triad. Due to the uppermost pitches’ sounding of the “upper

Example 8: Another tertian 9th chord is formed as a result of the superimposition of the three triads, D-, F+, and A-

24 Tonal pairings in third-relationship are also manifested in other twentieth-century works; Brown (2009) noted the prevalence of third-related tonal pairing in Shostakovich’s works. 25 In jazz music, the term upper structure or upper structure triad refers to a voicing ap- proach developed by jazz pianists and arrangers, defined by the sounding of a major or minor triad in the uppermost pitches of a more complex harmony. (Ellenberger, 2005)

126 Man-Ching Yu: Transformations of Diatonic Materials ... (117–138) structure,” an A minorish tonality is again emphasized, and the implication of A minor tonality becomes pronounced near the end of m.2. In examples 5 and 8, the tertian 9th chords manifest several tonalities emerging at the same time for creating an interesting tonal phenomenon. Tonal pairings in third are reflected at different levels during the preliminary portion of the piece, and the triadic in- tervallic structure- ic3 and ic4– at the larger surface level in example 7 are also manifested in the transformational processes at the microscopic level between the trichords in examples 3 and 4.

Example 9: Two tonal complexes are in an ic5 relationship.

Another interesting phenomenon is that the two tertian tall chords are in an ic 5 transpositional relationship as shown in example 9. This ic 5 consonant interval interconnects the two multiple tonal complexes which resembles the tonal procedure: the cycle of 5ths in the traditional harmonic progressive context and the tonic-subdominant relationship. Additionally, common tones made up of an A minor triad are generated upon undergoing ic5 transposition. The pres- ence of the common tones reaffirms the prominence of the A minorish tonality despite the presence of tonal pairings. The confirmation of A minorish tonality can also be sought in m. 3 as shown in example 10, since another tonal pairing emerges between trichords ‘c1’ and ‘d1’.26 In example 10, pcs 4 and 5 of trichord ‘c1’ undergo transformation by splitting into pcs 9 and 0 of trichord ‘d1’ respectively. Again, ic5 dominates the transformations and reflects the consonant mo- tions between the pcs. Upon the transformational process, two different triads in third relationship are generated, A– and F+. Tonal center is swung between triads F+ and A-, however, A minor tonality is emphasized in trichord ‘e1’ by ic5 transforming the pc 11 in trichord ‘d1’ into the pc4 in trichord ‘e1,’ which is a complete A minor triad. It should be noteworthy that the A minor triad is the only triad emerging as a trichord in the whole piece, in this case, the trichord

26 For the sake of convenience, I label the trichords in m.3 with a1–h1 due to the fact that the contours of the soprano notes (the upper layer) in m.3 are the same as that of the soprano notes in m.1. Obviously, there is a close relationship of the soprano notes between m.1 and m.3.

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Example 10: Transformations between trichords ‘c1’ and ‘d1,’ and trichord ‘e1’ as an A minor triad

‘e1,’ and the crucial importance of this tonality is reinforced. In addition, one more interesting spot is that the tonality of A minor is made even more appar- ent by means of its tonic-dominant relationship with a E minor triad, which is formed by the arpeggiated transformation of the single pcs 7, 11, and 4 as il- lustrated in example 11. Thus, from mm.1–3 (example 3), an A minorish tonality makes its first appearance in trichords ‘b’ and ‘c,’ and during the course of the trichordal transformations from trichords ‘d’ to ‘n,’ A minorish tonality competes with C tonality in trichords ‘c’ and ‘h’ as well as other tonalities formed by tonal pair- ings from mm.1–2, and lastly it confirms in trichord ‘e1’ in m.3. In example 9, the A minorish tonality is restated at the second cadential point27 in trichord ‘h1.’ Although ‘h1’ is not an A minor triad, its tonality is subtly implied by expe- riencing a “dissonant counterpoint,28” where the pc 0 in trichord ‘g1’ resolves to pcs 9 and 11 in ‘h1.’ A minorish tonality gradually shifts to C majorish tonality from mm.4–5. Example 12 reveals the fact that the transformational single pitch-classes in the upper and lower layers, pcs 5 in trichords ‘q’ and ‘r,’ pcs 2 in trichords ‘s’ and ‘t,’ pcs 11 in trichords ‘u’ and ‘v,’ and pcs 7 in trichords ‘w’and ‘x,’ outline a dominant 7th triad of C+. The tonal polarity of music tends to gravitate to C by

27 Here I refer the cadential point to the apparent moment in which the music arrives at a rather stable tonality, ie. A– or C+. As a matter of fact, Ligeti favored employing particular harmonies for signifying important cadential arrival points in his micropolyphonic pieces (Cuciurean 226), and thus it is not surprising that he retained the similar technique and con- cept in the diatonic work. 28 Dissonance counterpoint differs from traditional counterpoint in that all the procedures of resolutions in the traditional counterpoint are reversed. It was first established by Charles Seeger in 1930.

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Example 11: Single pcs form E minor triad

Example 12: Single pcs form dominant 7th of C major in m.4 and the resolution of C in m.5 means of the strong resolutional tendency of the tritone, pcs 5 and 11 in m.4. Moreover, in m.5 the third cadential point takes place in the upper layer as pcs 2 and 4 in trichord ‘g2’ transforms into pc 0 in trichord ‘h2.’ In this passage from mm.4–5, the tonal procedure resembles traditional common practice by prepar- ing the dominant 7th chord to tonic, however, in this case, the dominant 7th chord is formed by the transformational single pitch-classes in a transverse and diago- nal manner, and that the pitch-classes are projected over a farther distance from the tonic pitch. Thus, from a large-scale tonal perspective, tonal paring between A- and C+ takes place from mm.1–5, and the polarity shifts from A- to C+ during the course of the first five measures. Even more, the third relationship between A and C equate with the major and relative minor key relationships prevailing in the traditional common practice period.

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In addition to the fact that ic5 transformations dominate different adjacent trichords (example 3), they also emerge exclusively between trichords with set- class [013] at a middleground level. Example 13 reveals the extensive transfor- mations between each type of sc [013].29 Most of the scs [013] exhibit single path transformations, i.e. one pitch maps onto another pitch between two scs. For example, in m.1, pcs0, 11, and 9 in trichord ‘b’ map onto pcs5, 4, and 2 in trichord ‘g’ by means of ic5 respectively. Moreover, most of the transformations occur between the first type of sc [013] in the shortest path. For instance, ic5 transformation connects between trichords ‘b’ and ‘g’ in m.1, between trichords ‘g’ and ‘d1,’ and so forth. Furthermore, some transformations diverge into the two different trichords with sc [013]; trichord ‘g’ in m.1 transforms into two trichords ‘d1’ and ‘h1’ in m.3. In the second type of sc [013], some transforma- tions are exhibited over a longer distance span; trichord ‘o’ in m.2 transforms into trichord ‘i’’ in m. 7. It is of interest to notice that trichord ‘i’’ is transformed by trichords ‘o,’ ‘r,’ and ‘c’’ at the same time because of their same pcs’ pos- session even though their pitch-class spaces are presented in different orders. In example 13, the extensive ic5 transformations between the two types of sc [013] are similar to the tonic-dominant relationship in the traditional common practice. Ligeti applies this tonal procedure to sc [013] and exhausts all these diatonic scs [013] throughout the movement, and they are presented in all trans- positional and inversional formats. The first type of sc [013] involves pitch- class sets (9,B,0) and (2,4,5) whereas the second type of sc [013] comprises pitch-class sets (4,5,7) and (B,0,2). All the pitch-classes regardless of any pitch- class spaces in sc [013] are derived from the diatonic collection with pitch-class set (B,0,2,4,5,7,9) As shown in example 14, maximally smooth30 transformations also occur between different types of sc [013] and are achieved by holding one or two common tones (indicated with lines). The transformational pcs are governed by ic5 for consonant motion (indicated with arrows), and thus the prominence of this interval not only reflects on governing between the same type of sc [013]

29 In example 13, I classify two types of sc [013]. The first type indicated with square is in an inversional transpositional relationship with the second type indicated with circle. Each type generates its own transformational paths. 30 Maximally smooth transformation is originated by Richard Cohn (1996) and it refers to the transformational process by holding the maximum number of common tones between two triads; only a single pitch within a defined set changes by semitone per unit move. Here I articulate the same concept on sc [013], however, ic5 rather than semi-tone or whole-tone is emphasized between the transformations. Furthermore, the transformations in example 14 rely on common tones rather than voice-leading procedure that induces mapping in a trans- positional inversional relationship. (Straus 2005)

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Example 13: Transformations between each type of sc [013] from mm.1–10.

(Example 13), but they also serve as a smoothing agent for transformation be- tween the two different types of sc [013]. Besides sc [013], transformations between scs [024] and those between [025] are also governed by ic 5 as shown in example 15. By treating C major as the central tonality in the passage from trichords ‘f’ to ‘k’, trichord ‘h,’ which is the first cadential point, serves as a central point for transformation. For sc

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Example 14: Transformations between different types of sc [013]

[024], all three pcs between trichords ‘f,’ ‘h,’ and ‘k’ experience functional pro- gressions in the context of traditional common practice. Pcs ‘5,’ ‘7,’ and ‘9’ in trichord ‘f’ transform into pcs ‘0,’ ‘2,’ and ‘4’ in trichord ‘h’ as a subdominant to tonic relationship and vice versa from trichords ‘h’ to ‘k.’ Interestingly, trichord ‘k’ splits into two [02] dyads ‘m’ and ‘n.’ Pcs ‘5’ and ‘7’ in trichord ‘k’ trans- form into pc ‘0’ in trichord ‘m’ and pc ‘2’ in trichord ‘n’ respectively, whereas pc ‘9’ in trichord ‘k’ transforms into two pcs, pc ‘2’ in trichord ‘m’ and pc ‘4’ in trichord ‘n.’ Another instance of ic5 transformation occurs between trichords

132 Man-Ching Yu: Transformations of Diatonic Materials ... (117–138)

Example 15: Scs [025] and [024] governed by ic5

‘h2’ and ‘b’’ in mm.5–6 where each pc in trichord ‘h2’ descends a perfect 4th in- terval becoming a new pc in trichord ‘b.’’ This transformation correlates to the functional harmonic progression from tonic to dominant in the traditional con- text. For sc [025], similar events happen, however, the transformations are dis- played over a larger distance between set-classes. Moreover, maximally smooth transformation exists between trichords ‘c’ and ‘d’ as well as trichords ‘s’ and ‘w’ due to the occurrence of two common tones in each trichordal pair. In each of these pairs, one pc transforms to another one by ic5; pc ‘9’ in trichord ‘c’ transforms to pc ‘2’ in trichords ‘d’ and ‘f1,’ and its reverse is applied between trichords ‘s’ and ‘w’. In m.5, all three pcs in trichord ‘a2’ transformed by ic5 generate three new pcs in trichord ‘e2.’ While serving trichord ‘h2’ as a C major tonic center, one can generalize that the progression from trichords ‘e2’ to ‘h2’ is from dominant to tonic, conveying a sense of perfect cadential closure. Examples 16 to 18 demonstrate an interesting phenomenon; numerous dif- ferent combinations of trichords with sc [027] transform into trichord ‘g1’ in m.3, and each transformation is achieved by a pair of [027] trichords and is operated by ic5. Most importantly, the prominence of trichord ‘g1’ is reflected

133 New Sound 41, I/2013

Example 16: Trichords ‘e’ and ‘l’ with sc [027] transform into trichord ‘g1’ with sc [027]

Example 17: Trichords ‘l’ and ‘p’ with sc [027] transform into trichord ‘g1’ with sc [027] on its transformation from the abundant pairs of trichords---‘e’ and ‘l’ (Example 16), ‘l’ and ‘p’ (Example 17), ‘p’ and ‘a1’ (Example 18). Trichord ‘g1’ com- prises pcs 0, 2, and 7; considering its prime form-pc 0, C-is the first pc in the set.31 Thus, the vast convergent transformations to pitch-class set (027) in ‘g1’

31 Here I regard pc 0 as the first pc in the (027), which is equivalent to the root of C major triad. Most importantly, pc 0 in (027) plays a central role in transformations as if the root of C major triad governs harmonic progressions.

134 Man-Ching Yu: Transformations of Diatonic Materials ... (117–138)

Example 18: Trichords ‘p’ and ‘a1’ with sc [027] transform into trichord ‘g1’ with sc [027] emphasize the centric role of pc 0 and implicate the central C tonality dominat- ing the rest of the piece. Example 19 reiterates the significance of pc (027) in m. 4; trichords ‘l’ and ‘p’ in m.2 transform into trichord ‘t’ in m. 4. Addition- ally, examples 20 and 21 show that both trichords ‘x’ and ‘f2’ in mm. 4 and 5 are ic5 transformed by trichords ‘g1’in m. 3 and ‘t’ in m. 4, and the secondary important role of trichords ‘x’ and ‘f2’ with pc (570) is made apparent by their ic5 relationships with trichords ‘g1’ and ‘t.’ In trichords ‘x’ and ‘f2’ pc 5 is the first pc in the set and correlated to pc (027) in a sense of a tonic to subdominant relationship in the functional context. In example 22, trichord ‘j’’ [027] in m. 7 is ic5 transformed by trichords ‘v’ in m.4 and ‘e’’ in m.6. This transformation takes place over a larger distance span that largely minimizes the important role of trichord ‘j.’’ Moreover, ‘j’’ is made up of pc (249) with pc 2 serving as a supertonic role to trichords ‘g1’ and ‘t.’ Generalizing the degree of prominence of different sc [027] members, member pc (027) plays its predominant role in determining the tonality of the piece; pc (570) has its secondary importance in connecting with pc (027) in a subdominant sense, whereas pc (249) has the least significant role in contributing to the overall transformation in the piece. Nev- ertheless, examples 16 to 22 generally manifest that ic5 transformations operate in trichords with sc [027], and that some are transformed by numerous pairs of [027] trichords at the same time within shorter distance spans, while one is transformed by just one pair of [027] trichords over a larger distance span, van- ishing its effect on establishing the tonality of the piece.

135 New Sound 41, I/2013

Example 19: Trichords ‘l’ and ‘p’ with sc [027] transform into trichord ‘t’ with sc [027]

Example 20: Trichords ‘g1’ and ‘t’ with sc [027] transform into trichord ‘x’ with sc [027]

Example 21: Trichords ‘g1’ and ‘t’ with sc [027] transform into trichord ‘f2’ with sc [027]

136 Man-Ching Yu: Transformations of Diatonic Materials ... (117–138)

Example 22: Trichords ‘v’ and ‘e’’ with sc [027] transform into trichord ‘j’’ with sc [0257]

In “White on White” Ligeti’s distinctive treatments of diatonic materi- als reflect tonal procedures governed by ic 5, resembling tonic-dominant and tonic-subdominant relationships in the traditional context as it dominates nu- merous pitch-classes’ transformations between set-classes [013], [024], [025], and [027] and the transformations are more often smoothly interconnected by means of common tones. Alongside with common tones, voice-leading trans- formations inducing equivalent mapping between set-classes also emerge and ic5 is the prominent operator between the transformations. Additionally, differ- ent tonalities are established by emphasizing transformational resolved pitch- classes, generating tonal ambiguousness by tonal pairings during the course of the piece. All tonal pairings are in third relationship with ics 3 and 4 that illu- minates the traditionalistic tonic and mediant linkage back in the 19th century. It is evident that triadic intervals- ics 3, 4, and 5– are profusely formed and used consistently; they are also central for transformations between each pair of adjacent trichords throughout the whole piece subject to the strict canonic procedures between the two layers. Similar to the transformation, unfolding, and saturation of chromatic cell, ic1, in his earlier micropolyphonic and “har- monic net-structure” compositions, the exclusive dominance of ic5 in this piece

137 New Sound 41, I/2013 resulting from transformational processes benchmarks his favorite utilization of a particular interval for forging and refining the transformational processes in his later diatonic works.

References

Bailey, R. (1969). The Genesis of Tristan und Isolde and a Study of Wagner’s Sketches and Drafts for the First Act. Ph.D. diss., Princeton University. Bernard, J. (1987). “Inaudible structures, audible music: Ligeti’s problem and his solution.” Music Analysis, 13, 207–236. Brown, S. (2009). “Axis Tonality and Submediant in the Music of Shostakovich.” Music The- ory Online, 15, 2. Callender, C. (2007). “Interaction of the lamento motif and jazz harmonies in György Ligeti’s Arc-en-ciel.” Intégral 21. Cope, D. (1997). Techniques of the Contemporary Composer. New York, New York: Schirmer Books. Cuciurean, J. (2012). “Aspects of Harmonic Structure, Voice Leading, and Aesthetic Function in György Ligeti’s in Zart Fliessender Bewegung.” Contemporary Music Review, 31, 221–238 Cohn, R. (1996). “Maximally Smooth Cycles, Hexatonic Systems, and the Analysis of Late- Romantic Triadic Progressions.” Music Analysis, 15, 9–40. Ellenberger, K. (2005). Materials and Concepts in Jazz Improvisation, 20. Hanson, H. (1960). Harmonic Materials of Modern Music. New York: Appleton-Century- Crofts. Hindemith, P. (1941 and 1942). The Craft of Musical Composition. New York: Eur-Am Music. Persichetti, V. (1961) Twentieth Century Harmony. New York: Norton.Reiprich, B. (1978). “Transformation of Coloration and Density in György Ligeti’s Lontano.”Perspectives of New Music, 16, 167–80. Roig-Francoli, M. (1995). “Harmonic and formal processes in Ligeti’s net-structure composi- tions.” Music Theory spectrum, 17, 242–267. Straus, J. (2005). Introduction to Post-tonal Theory. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Szigeti, I. (1984). “A Budapest interview with György Ligeti.” The New Hungarian Quarterly, 25, 205–210. Várnai, P. (1983). György Ligeti talking to Peter Varnai. In Ligeti in conversation. (G. J. Schabert, Trans.) (pp/13–82). London: Eulenburg Books.

138 STUDENT'S PAPERS

Article received on 19 September 2013 Article accepted on 30 September 2013 UDC: 785:316.774 785.6:785(436.1)"2013" Marija Maglov* University of Arts in Belgrade Faculty of Music Department of Musicology

THE VIENNA NEW YEAR’S CONCERT AS A MEDIA PHENOMENON1

Abstract: This paper is aimed at drawing attention to the problem of the media represen- tation of artistic music, through the case study of the television broadcast of the New Year’s Concert in Vienna. The text contains a brief historic summary of the concert and its broadcast within the European television network, Eurovision. Using this year’s broad- cast (2013) as an example, certain aspects are marked that potentially represent a starting point for further interpretations of the New Year’s Concert and, generally, the relationship between artistic music and media. Key words: the New Year’s Concert in Vienna, Eurovision, public broadcaster, media representation of class, media

Introduction For many people, watching the broadcast of the Vienna New Year’s Con- cert each 1st January is part of a festive ritual. Even those who do not watch

* Author contact information: [email protected] 1 This paper was written under the mentorship of Professor Vesna Mikić, PhD, within the course Theory and Practice of Media in Musicology, academic year 2012/13, study pro- gramme Musicology-Master, at the Department of Musicology at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade.

139 New Sound 41, I/2013 the broadcast know at least something about the concert: for example, that the repertoire consists mostly of pieces written by the Strauss family and that al- most every year, The Blue Danube waltz by Johann Strauss the Younger and the Radetzky March by Johann Strauss the Elder are performed as encores. Thanks to the medium of television, this concert, which cannot be attended by every- body, has nevertheless found its way into the lives of people from various coun- tries, most of all European, and the idea about it forms certain meanings among different European nations, whose members have separate cultural, social and class positions. Therefore, this concert is a media phenomenon that deserves particular attention. Generally speaking, the issue of the media presence and representation of artistic music is very interesting, yet it seems that it has not drawn the atten- tion of media theoreticians. I draw this conclusion from the consulted literature, which includes mostly books related to the medium of television, but also gen- eral overviews of key notions and concepts in media studies. However, music overall is not neglected in media and television studies. Popular music is one of the first ‘lessons’ about media theory, which includes the analysis of views of the Frankfurt School theoreticians, and regarding the television studies, dealing with the emergence of Music Television (MTV) is practically unavoidable and problematized because of, among other things, the revolutionary role of a song video in the music industry.2 As John Hartley wrote, the common denomina- tor of media studies and popular culture (including music) was their (lower) position compared to the traditional disciplines advocated by the dominant aca- demic public (the author speaks particularly about philosophy), i.e. compared to the dominant high culture.3 Thus, it seems that popular culture and the media are necessarily connected. Popular culture is certainly the dominant content of the media, while the traditional arts do not appear to be ‘alluring’ enough for the media, and so they are present either in specialized programmes (such as e.g. the ARTE and MEZZO channels, or RTS Digital in Serbia) or on special occasions (e.g. on a Day of Mourning). In Hartley’s opinion, it is the low media frequency of a particular content that makes that content valuable. Thus, he states that symphonic music can retain its ‘serious’ status precisely due to its low media frequency, while popular music, due to high media frequency, cannot escape the status of a commercial, ‘unworthy’ product.4

2 The need to present the makers of popular music on television too, instead of just on radio as was previously customary, expedited the changes in the music industry. Perhaps the best illustration of that is the title of the song “Video Killed the Radio Star” by The Buggles. 3 John Hartley, Television Truths, Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2008, 3–4. 4 John Hartley, op. cit., 56.

140 Maglov, M.: The Vienna New Year’s Concert as a Media Phenomenon (139–149)

Apart from what has been said about the media position of artistic music, one should also take into account whether the media are American or Euro- pean. American culture is considered a synonym for popular culture, which is therefore the most frequently represented in the American media, which are private property. On the other hand, Europe relies on the model of the ‘public broadcaster’, which in its beginnings had clearly defined its goals and mission to promote, among other things, the European cultural heritage, which includes precisely the works of traditional art.5 Since the Vienna New Year’s Concert is distributed through Eurovision, a European television network that mainly cov- ers the public broadcasters of most European countries, the particulars of the public broadcasters will be presented more thoroughly in the context of dealing with Eurovision. Besides, we shall give a brief historical summary of the Vienna New Year’s Concert. Since numerous authors in television studies have developed various approaches and concepts, which are, by their content, mostly related to popular culture, we shall not indulge in a detailed analysis of the concert broadcast. Instead, we shall point out certain aspects, such as the problem of the media representation of class in the New Year’s Concert broadcasts.

The New Year’s Concert in Vienna – a brief history The first of the many New Year’s Concerts in Vienna was held on 31st December 1939 in the Golden Hall of the Viennese Musikverein, with Clemens Krauss conducting, and the programme consisted entirely of compositions by Johann Strauss the Younger.6 The Vienna Philharmonic did not always foster the tradition of performing music by the Strauss family. Namely, although the orchestra during the 19th century held several concerts with Johann Strauss, who conducted his own music, it was Krauss who initiated the tradition of con- certs consisting only of music by the Strauss family, in performances within the Salzburg festival (1929–1933).7 Curiously enough, the interest in Strauss’s music, “the most Viennese music ever written”,8 emerged in the interwar pe-

5 Cf. “Public Service Broadcasting”, in: Critical dictionary of film and television theory (Roberta F. Pearson and Philip Simpson, eds.), Routledge, London – New York, 2001, 489– 490; “Public Service Broadcasting”, in: Bernadette Casey, Neil Casey, Ben Calvert, Liam French and Justin Lewis, Television Studies. The Key Concepts, Routledge, London – New York, 2002, 135–137. 6 The first concert’s programme can be seen at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_New_ Year%27s_Concert, accessed on 23rd January 2013. 7 http://www.wienerphilharmoniker.at/index.php?set_language=en&cccpage=newyearscon cert_history, accessed on 23rd January 2013. 8 Ibid.

141 New Sound 41, I/2013 riod, after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. At that time, the idea of the belle époque, “the golden age”, was still vividly remembered by the Viennese. It was the period of memories of the splendour and sumptu- ousness of the city, balls, waltzes, of times when newspapers contained more reports about culture than politics, as Stefan Zweig wrote in his memoirs.9 By the time the first New Year’s Concert was held, Vienna was far away from its glorious past, having become a province of Nazi Germany with the an- nexation of Austria the year before. Under such circumstances, organizing a New Year’s Concert awakened a prominent note of nostalgia, and precisely this image of Vienna as the city of culture would be strongly emphasized later on, when the invention of televised broadcasts would make it possible to use the concert increasingly for the promotion of Austrian culture and heritage, i.e. cultural and touristic marketing. However, regarding the concerts held during the Second World War, one should keep in mind that all the revenues went to the National-Socialist treasury (“Kriegswinterhilfswerk”), and that the con- ductor Krauss was forbidden to perform publicly for two years after the War. During that time, the concert was conducted by Josef Krips, and then Krauss again until 1954. Since 1941, the concert has been organized regularly every 1st January.10 After Krauss’s retirement, the New Year’s Concert was conducted by Willy Boskovsky, the concertmaster of Vienna Philharmonic, for the next 25 years. During that period, in 1959, the regular television broadcasts of the concert turned into a tradition. They are realized by the Austrian public broadcaster ÖRF and distributed by Eurovision. In 1980, the orchestra members invited the American conductor Lorin Maa- zel, who would conduct the New Year’s Concerts until 1986. Since 1980, adorn- ing the hall with flowers donated by the Italian city of San Remo has become another tradition. After 1986 it became customary to have different conductors from all over the world every year.11 The reason for the decision to have a new world-renowned conductor every year might have been the marketing, because the concert drew increasing media attention (the number of countries broadcast-

9 Štefan Cvajg, Jučerašnji svet [Stefan Zweig, Die Welt von gestern], trans. Aleksandar Tišma, Službeni glasnik, Belgrade, 2009 10 Apart from the concert on 1st January, whose televised broadcast is the subject of this paper, the Vienna Philharmonic organizes two more concerts, on the 30th and 31st December, with the same programme. 11 The first among these conductors was Herbert von Karajan, and the list of conductors who have performed at the New Year’s Concert in the subsequent years can be seen at: http://www.wienerphilharmoniker.at/index.php?set_language=en&cccpage=newyearsconce rt_history, accessed on 23rd January 2013.

142 Maglov, M.: The Vienna New Year’s Concert as a Media Phenomenon (139–149) ing the concert is greater by the year). Since 1979, audio and video recordings of the concert have become commercially available.12 Regarding the repertoire of the concerts, music by the Strauss family mem- bers still occupies the better part of them. Apart from their waltzes, polkas, marches, operetta overtures and other compositions, frequent programme en- tries are pieces by other Viennese composers, such as Josef Hellmesberger, Jo- seph Lanner, Otto Nikolai, Franz von Suppé and others. On anniversaries of great composers of artistic music, some of their works are included too. Thus, for example, 200 years from birth of Joseph Haydn was honoured in 2009, by the performance of the fourth movement of his “Farewell Symphony”, and this year’s concert was marked by the 200th anniversaries of Verdi’s and Wagner’s births. However, the most iconic segments of the concerts are the encores, three of them altogether. The first one is a fast polka of the conductor’s choice, the second is The Blue Danube waltz, and the third is the Radetzky March. The custom of performing the latter two compositions as encores was established only a few years after the concerts’ inception. The waltz was first included in the regular concert programme in 1945, and the Radetzky March was first per- formed in 1946 as an encore. However, only since 1958 have both compositions been regularly performed as encores, a custom skipped in just two instances: in 1967 the waltz was performed in the regular programme, and in 2005 conductor Lorin Maazel did not perform the Radetzky March as a mark of respect for the victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami in the previous year.13

Television broadcast of the New Year’s Concert. The Eurovision The television broadcast of the New Year’s Concert is a live telecast of the concert’s programme, which used to begin at 12.15 PM until 1990. Since then, the concert has had two parts and begins an hour earlier. During the intermis- sion, a short film made by the ÖRF is shown, usually promoting Austrian nature and culture. Besides, sometimes short “television postcards” are inserted into the main programme, mostly with similar content. Ballet numbers have also be- come a usual part of the concert, either pre-recorded or (since 1987) broadcast

12 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_New_Year%27s_Concert, accessed on 23rd January 2013. Thus PGP-RTS in 1988, with the Deutsche Grammophon license, released the LP re- cording of the New Year’s Concert in 1987 (240028 STEREO SOKOJ), while the compact disc (440060) and the audio cassette (540099 STEREO SOKOJ) with the same content were released in 1991. Information from the database of PGP-RTS. 13 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_New_Year%27s_Concert, accessed on 23rd January 2013.

143 New Sound 41, I/2013 live from Schönbrunn Palace.14 Regarding the television broadcast, it is worth noting that it has always been realized using the most advanced technology, from the introduction of the PAL standard for colour television, analogue stereo sound, to contemporary digital television of high definition – HDTV and multi- channel digital audio – Dolby Digital 5.1. Since 2010, the concert has also been broadcast as a live stream over the Internet. As previously said, the concert’s television broadcast has been organized since 1959. This concert is one of several events broadcast by Eurovision, the television network of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).15 Besides the New Year’s Concert, the most famous music event organized and broadcast by Eurovision is the Eurovision Song Contest, a pop music competition. It is typi- cal for European television to dedicate equal importance to popular and artis- tic music, i.e. the respective concert broadcasts, in Eurovision’s “programme schedule”. This is nothing out of the ordinary, keeping in mind the basic idea of every public broadcaster in Europe, hence Eurovision too, which is “the repre- sentative of public service broadcasting in Europe”.16 The concept of public service broadcasting and changes that have occurred in that concept during the 20th century are a complex issue whose details will be left aside for now.17 It is important to present some basic features of a public broadcaster which can be recognized in the contemporary concept of Eurovision too, as well as perceived from the official position of the European Broadcasting Union: this network exists “to promote and develop a number of public interest purposes, based on values such as human rights, freedom of expression, democ- racy, cultural diversity …) and to help its Members to serve the interests of the general public in the best possible manner”.18 In short, a public broadcaster can be defined as a system aimed at working in the public interest instead of a par- ticular commercial or political interest.19 It is marked by a balance of tastes to be satisfied, given that it reaches out to the broad audience.20 We should keep in

14 http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neujahrskonzert_der_Wiener_Philharmoniker, accessed on 23rd January 2013. 15 The list of member states can be seen at: http://sr.wikipedia.org/sr-el/Списак_чланица_ Европске_радиодифузне_уније, accessed on 23rd January 2013. 16 http://www3.ebu.ch/files/live/sites/ebu/files/About/EBU%20Code%20of%20Ethics.pdf, accessed on 23rd January 2013. 17 More on that in: Critical dictionary of film and television theory, op. cit.; Television Stud- ies. The Key Concepts, op. cit. 18 http://www3.ebu.ch/files/live/sites/ebu/files/About/EBU%20Code%20of%20Ethics.pdf 19 Cf. Critical dictionary of film and television theory, op. cit. 20 Ričard Paterson, “Televizija”, in: Uvod u studije medija (Adam Brigs i Pol Kobli, ur. [Richard Paterson, “Television” in: The media: an introduction (Adam Briggs and Paul Cob- ley, eds.)], trans. Irena Šentevska, Clio, Belgrade, 2005.

144 Maglov, M.: The Vienna New Year’s Concert as a Media Phenomenon (139–149) mind that public broadcasters are often regulated by state administration; hence they are not completely independent of all kinds of politics. The difference from commercial broadcasters is that public broadcasters try to ensure freedom of expression for different voices, although most of the time their programme will be strongly coloured by the ideology of the dominant policy, especially in times of crisis. As far as the programme ideas of public broadcasters are concerned, they are based on the opinions of John Reith, the first Director-General of the BBC. Reith advocated broadcasting content which would “shape and ‘promote’ public taste,”21 and which included theatre plays, artistic music, poetry and so on. Obviously, Reith’s ideas were defined by his notion of general culture as the culture of the upper middle class and by a personal hostility towards popular culture. Although conceptual changes in public service broadcasting gradually led to a departure from Reith’s ideas, with the inclusion of more elements of entertainment and popular culture, his ideas can still be recognized in the public broadcasters’ obligation to present an educational content based precisely on the traditional arts and their canonical works. Besides, the prominent place taken by artistic music in the concept of Eurovision also speaks of a strong awareness that this music is an important part of European tradition. The values that Eurovision also endeavours to support, and for which purpose it was presumably established in 1950, are the ideas of the European solidarity. Namely, the united media could “… spread ideas and beliefs, con- veying to the audience messages about identity and unity within a diverse set of cultures”.22 The New Year’s Concert has obviously proven to be an appropri- ate content, promoting the ideas of peace, humanity and “love among nations”. This is also underlined by the views of the Viennese Philharmonic Orchestra, which was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador of the World Health Organiza- tion in 2005. What stands out among the views is that the orchestra “has made it its mission to communicate the humanitarian message of music into the daily lives and consciousness of its listeners”, as well as the musicians’ endeavour to implement the motto of Beethoven’s Missa solemnis – “From the heart, to the heart”.23 With such a notion of the New Year’s Concert, it seems that this event is really not a problematic spot in the television programme or culture generally. The impression is reinforced by an interesting fact about the attitude of the Soviet authorities towards the New Year’s Concert broadcasts during the Cold War. Namely, although the major part of the media content broadcast in the

21 Cf. Critical dictionary of film and television theory, op. cit. 22 Cf. Ričard Paterson, op. cit. 23 http://www.wienerphilharmoniker.at, accessed on 23rd January 2013.

145 New Sound 41, I/2013

West European countries was strictly controlled and often officially banned in the countries behind the ‘Iron Curtain’, the New Year’s Concert was one of the rare events whose live broadcast was allowed.24

* * * Despite the New Year’s Concert appearing to be an area of ‘innocence’ in the media and culture, which seemingly, at the height of general optimism at the beginning of a new year, should eliminate all wondering about class, racial, gender, social, economic issues of modern society and provide a moment of ‘reconciliation’, the question inevitably arises: Is that really so? As Hartley says, “[a] certain critical suspicion of media manipulation is always healthy, because the motives of those who exploit TV commercially and politically are not entirely pure”.25 On the other hand, John Fiske emphasizes that, to understand television in this way, we need to see it and its programmes as potentials of meaning rather than as commodities.26 An additional reason for such an approach is that television is a very powerful medium and while watch- ing it, “[we] are not consuming a product but using the imaginative resources of story, song, sight, and sound – some of the most powerful tools known to hu- manity – to think about identity, relationship, and community, in real time and space”.27 We should nevertheless keep in mind that the experience of watching television is always personal and strongly shaped by social and cultural deter- minants, such as gender, age-group, family, class, nation, and ethnicity.28 There- fore, television and consumers are involved in an interactive relationship, and given the many foregoing disparities among the general audience, it is clear that the ways in which television functions in a society are extremely diverse, and no theoretical apparatus can fully provide an adequate insight into all of them.29 However, I shall try to outline certain aspects which might be interesting for further interpretations. For example, the analysis of the concert and its programme give rise to further considerations about the problem of the popularization of artistic music, which has been particularly interesting since the introduction of the mass elec-

24 http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concerto_di_Capodanno_di_Vienna, accessed on 23rd Janu- ary 2013. 25 John Hartley, op. cit., 4. 26 John Fiske, Television culture: popular pleasures and politics, Routledge, London – New York, 1987, 13. 27 John Hartley, op. cit., 6. 28 Ibid., 5. 29 Cf. John Fiske, op. cit., 2.

146 Maglov, M.: The Vienna New Year’s Concert as a Media Phenomenon (139–149) tronic media in the 20th century. Although this would require complex research and interpretation, the results could pinpoint the works from the canonical rep- ertoire of artistic music which are particularly agreeable to the general audi- ence. These issues could be oriented towards searching for the answer in the very structure of certain works, or else in the analysis of a discourse in which the awareness about particular works is formed that precisely those composi- tions are able to ‘enlighten’ and represent the achievements of supreme art in the best possible way. It would also be interesting to analyse the myth of artistic music as one which ‘transcends boundaries,’ making it suitable for occasions such as the New Year, when the idea of a possible future without conflicts is celebrated. But does artistic music really bring reconciliation every single time? Or is it, on the contrary, is it the area which defines the difference?30 Actually, where it concerns the New Year’s Concert, it is interesting to think in what measure this concert underlines certain differences – for example, class distinctions? The New Year’s Concert is an exclusive event, and the op- portunity to attend such a manifestation is a matter of prestige, or possibly luck. The latter case refers to a commercial venture by the concert’s management, which organizes an annual lottery in which the applicants, provided their names are drawn, can buy tickets for the concert at greatly reduced prices. However, for most viewers, attending the concert is beyond their reach. The tickets are exceedingly expensive, and some seats in the hall belong to certain families, who have the right to hand down the use of them from generation to generation. The television image leaves no doubt about exclusivity: the magnificence of the hall adorned with gilt and floral arrangements, and the audience in formal attire, among whom one can often see the faces of the political or aristocratic elite. What kind of attitude towards the concert and the music performed at it can be developed by the inhabitants of some other ‘world’ who watch the broad- cast? Issues of class and the images of a class in the media, though ignored in media studies for a while, are very explicitly imposed in this case. Questions arise about one’s own class position when facing the representation of the repre- sentation of a class displayed on the screen, or its values. As Joanna Lacey un- derscores, the analysis of class is not just the analysis of scenes of the working class; it is the analysis of the image of members of the middle class and upper classes; it should deal with examining the ways in which spectators perceive various images of a class. How do we understand what it means to be a member

30 Cf. e.g. Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of “cultural capital”. Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction. A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste, Harvard University Press, 1984.

147 New Sound 41, I/2013 of the working class, the middle, or upper class? Is it rooted in experience, or in mediated ways of seeing and getting to know the Other class?31 This issue is further complicated by the fact that the concert, in one way or another, has nevertheless become a part of the tradition of many families from various classes, all thanks to broadcasting. Television has introduced a kind of ‘democratization,’ where something that was meant for ‘the chosen’ minority became available to everybody. It is as if the live telecast of the concert dispels the event’s aura of exclusivity, making it accessible to all. But is that really so, or is it just an illusion, a strategy by a society which aspires to blur the boundar- ies between the classes? A special segment in the concert broadcast is a short film during the inter- mission. This year (2013) the subject was “Honeymoon”. It has already been mentioned that the pre-recorded material telecast during the concert most often has a very clear purpose: to present the travel destinations of Austria. The very fact that this marketing action powerfully promotes the culture of a country for political and commercial purposes, the action which includes all the above mentioned connotations of Vienna as the city of culture, apparently is not so guileless. However, this year’s film “Honeymoon” is a particularly interesting case. Namely, it is a story about a couple who spend their honeymoon travelling through various regions of Lower Austria, and their adventures are accompanied with recorded scenes from appropriate picturesque communities. The couple, however, soon turn out to be not just any couple enjoying romance and nature, but an upper class couple who can afford an expensive vacation with cham- pagne and a diamond necklace as the husband’s gift to the wife. Obviously, a very clear class positioning, and hence the clear message as to who the target group of this film is. The use of diamonds in the content of popular culture was analysed by Fiske, who states that the meaning of jewellery in the code of gen- der is clear. “Jewels are the coins by which the female-as-patriarchal-commod- ity is bought, and wearing them is the sign both of her possession by a man, and of his economic and social status.”32 Diamonds in this context are used as a gift that every man (the ideal tourist in Austria) should, naturally, provide his wife with, whereby “the economics of patriarchy are the same for all classes”.33 Let alone the fact that diamonds are not accessible to all classes. Obviously, here Fiske distinguishes the meaning of patriarchy as the dominant meaning. So, this

31 Cf. Džoana Lejsi, “Društvena klasa. Identifikovanje klasnih karakteristika u medijskim tekstovima” [Joanna Lacey, “Social class. Identifying characteristics of class in media texts”], in: Uvod u studije medija, op. cit., 527. 32 John Fiske, op. cit., 13. 33 Ibid.

148 Maglov, M.: The Vienna New Year’s Concert as a Media Phenomenon (139–149) is highlighted in the promotional film, the soundtrack of which (a collage of various compositions, from Mozart to Piazzolla) is played by members of dif- ferent groups of the Vienna Philharmonic. Is patriarchal domination present in this orchestra as well? It is enough to watch a video recording of the concert and count the female members: there is but a handful of women. Out of 135 active musicians in the orchestra members list, only eight are women.34 Judging by its structure and the overall programme of the concert broadcast, including the said film, it seems that the orchestra is advocating – subtly but undeniably – the ideology of patriarchal capitalism. Fiske spots the indicators of this ideology in the content of popular culture, but it is obvious that the media image of artistic music would also provide interesting material for a similar analysis.

* * * In this paper I have tried to emphasize the importance of the media rep- resentation of artistic music. Although many music lovers, musicians and all those who feel that artistic music is not represented enough in the media need to follow the rare media contents dedicated to artistic music with acclaim, be- nevolence and delight, this should not weaken the awareness that each media content, including this one, needs to be observed critically. It is precisely the media position of artistic music that can direct our attention to a multitude of questions about society in which this music is the vehicle of certain meanings and the indicator of different power relations.

Translated by Goran Kapetanović

34 http://www.wienerphilharmoniker.at/index.php?set_language=en&cccpage=musicians, accessed on 23rd January 2013.

149 New Sound 41, I/2013

150 FESTIVALS AND SYMPOSIA

Article received on 12 September 2013 grade, with the lesser participation of works Article accepted on 30 September 2013 by students from other institutions of higher UDC: 786.5.091.4(497.11)"2013"(049.32) education in Serbia and abroad. The focus of the programme, consisting of works written for smaller chamber ensembles, re- flected the curricular demands at the De- partment of Composition, which only Stefan Cvetković reinforced the observation that this edition University of Arts in Belgrade of the festival only added to its distinction Faculty of Music as the “place of reflection” of achievements Department of Musicology strictly within an academic context. Such emphasis was chosen pragmatically, due to deficiency of available performing appara- FESTIVAL KoMA 8.5 AND 9 tuses within the parent faculties, and so the event became the primary venue for live performance and the recording of newly composed works. For this exact reason, the Having been adjusted to organiza- organizers paid special attention once again tional conditions, the latest iteration of the to the quality of the performing element; festival Koncerti mladih autora [Young Au- hence, among other distinguished musi- thors’ Concerts, KoMA] was arranged in cians, the festival stage featured the mem- the Belgrade Philharmonic Hall on two bers of the renowned ensemble Gudači separate dates – 17th December 2012 and Svetog Đorđa [St. George Strings], as well 29th March 2013. This duality, however, did as eminent domestic soloists. not bring about any conceptual change to The total of four concerts (two in each the ordinarily designed programme of the festival segment) included twenty works manifestation, which was yet again, for the by students of master’s and doctoral aca- most part, based on a review of the annual demic studies. The diversity of the per- production, first of all, of students of com- formed works’ titles confirmed the position at the Faculty of Music in Bel- pronounced poetical and aesthetical hetero- geneity of musical production by the youngest generation of creators which, * Author contact information: [email protected] covering a wide stylistic scope, shed a light

151 New Sound 41, I/2013 on the predominant compositional dis- cio] for piano by Vladan Gecin, Sonata for course based upon building a work through violin and piano by Jug Konstantin motivic transformations over the entire Marković, or Koncertantna muzika [Mu- range of possible procedures, with just a sica Concertante] for viola solo, 16 strings sporadic use of the electronic medium. and harpsichord by Vladimir Korać – cov- Along the lines of these considerations, one ered the stylistic range from contemporary can also note the absence of experimental interpretations of Neo-Impressionism to interventions, elements of performance art Neo-Expressionist solutions. Along these or other contemporary solutions. lines, one can note the predominance of The thematic areas within which the those compositional patterns, which allow present production is positioned are mostly for the more immediate manifestation of inspired by a literary paradigm (transposed affectations. In that respect, the common into either vocal or instrumental media), or acoustic idiom in these authors’ works is a by certain genre or formal models, or by biting dichotomy between the pronounced musical heritage of an artistic or folklore sonority and the reduction of sound, which provenance. Although the musical language in certain cases is colouristically treated. It of individual pieces corresponded to the was the occasional colouristic shadings in expected level of individual creative orien- the works by Jug Konstantin Marković and tations, the intersection of poetical and aes- Vladan Gecin that created an impressionist thetical properties of the entire production, sensibility of lyrical segments of the musi- in general, gravitated towards a modernist cal tissue; however, it is telling that the pre- language which, apart from a range of di- dominant character of not only these works, verse compositional solutions, principally but also the ones previously mentioned, is showed the aspiration of the young creators highly dramatic. The dramatic sections in to express themselves in a form demanding the pieces by Lazar Đorđević, Vladimir an “autonomous” musical meaning. The Korać and Vladan Gecin were exactly the origin of this focus, on the one hand, can primary areas where sonority was mani- suggest personal artistic sensibilities and fested, while lyricism, ranging from melan- positions of the authors, while on the other, choly to resignation, was functionalized perhaps even as the generator of what has primarily as the echo of dramatic events. just been said, one should validate the na- Folklore-inspired subjects, used in ture of the curricular demands based on Varijacije na temu Zasp’o Janko [Varia- mastering compositional and technical tions on the Theme “Zasp’o Janko”] for skills, which by themselves direct the cre- violin, violoncello and piano by Branislav ative potential towards the construction of Stojanović and in the work Vlasinka (folk a musical language and structure that are dance from Southern Serbia) for saxophone often hermetic and semantically self-refer- and piano by Mirjana Veljković, inspired ential. the authors mostly by their particular musi- Compositions whose titles suggested cal qualities which were used to build an the applied formal model or the character artificial musical structure. The connection of the work – such as Duo for violin and to the originals was not transparently ap- piano by Lazar Đorđević, Kapričo [Capric- plied in the pieces, but neither was it en-

152 Festivals and Symposia tirely avoided. While Mirjana Veljković technical work taken from more moderate used the distinctive rhythmic pulse, indi- stylistic patterns. Thus, the consistent use cating a distant relationship to a well- of a trained voice could be given as an ar- known dance from Southern Serbia, gument for the previous statement. While Branislav Stojanović created his reminis- the compositions Da imenuješ senke zvezda cence of a folk song by spinning out a me- [If You Gave Names to the Stars’ Shadows] lodic line, relying only on certain intervallic by Marko Atanacković, after the verses of patterns taken from the original paradigm. Dušan Matić, and Brankusijeva ptica Somewhat different attitude towards the anđela [Brancusi’s Angel Bird] by Milana folklore idiom could be heard in the work Milošević, after the epic poem by Adam Vuna, igla, kanap, kosti [Wool, Needle, Puslojić, were conceived as songs for voice String, Bones] for flute and accordion by and piano with impressionist overtones, a Draško Adžić, inspired by Wallachian predominantly atonal work Jesen [Herbst] magic rituals. The construction of the by Aleksandar Beljaković, for soprano, vi- work’s imaginary folklore was based on olin and piano, after the verses of Reiner harmonic and rhythmical associations to Maria Rilke, showed the author’s orienta- the music of Eastern Serbia, weakened by tion towards somewhat more contemporary the harsh acoustic confrontations of the two expression, melodically more austere and instruments, whose purpose was to amplify expressionist in nature. Unlike Miša the expressive effect of the music. Cvijović’s work Senka moje duše [La som- An important segment of the produc- bra de mi alma] for mezzo-soprano, flute tion presented at the festival were lyric and piano – written to the poem by Feder- songs, clad in various chamber forms. The ico García Lorca – which can be described authors’ orientation towards the classical as introspective lyrical fantasy, in which pinnacles of domestic and foreign poetry the author reached for an economical com- suggested their urge to position themselves positional procedure, the cycle Gurije for creatively within the discourse of high art. soprano and string quartet by Nemanja The academistic approach to the creative Sovtić was carried out as a vocal-instru- act, apparent in almost all of the works in mental form in which the instrumental and this genre, certainly corresponded with the vocal-instrumental movements were inter- context in which the musical pieces were laced. This work, inspired by the poetry of written, but it could also be perceived as a Stevan Raičković, was marked by a repeti- sign of the young authors’ disinterest in tiveness and gradual change in the treat- more contemporary types of musical ex- ment of the material, which is nostalgic and pression. However, the character of mod- intimate in character. ernist musical language, at the level of the Two works that could be qualified as entire production, was not determined by atypical for the production presented at this an avant-garde way of thinking, which year’s festival were written by Ivan would have involved some more radical Vukosavljević and the young Slovenian musical solutions from the rich heritage of composer, Dominik Steklasa. Inspired by the previous century, but was primarily the martial arts, Vukosavljević wrote Kick- constituted through compositional and boxing for tape, two trumpets, trombone

153 New Sound 41, I/2013 and tuba. The work’s musical idiom and [Legend of Sleepers, an Instant and a the linguistic component recorded on tape Dream] reached for Danilo Kiš’s Encik- refer to the world of popular culture. Ste- lopedija mrtvih [The Encyclopaedia of the klasa’s composition titled Searching for…? Dead], presenting his imagination of the for two accordions deals with the subject of scene on the Celion Hill. The work Pet the critique of modern society and wonder- slika Petra Lubarde [Five Paintings by ing about its sense. Conceiving it as a tis- Petar Lubarda] for string quartet by Jelena sue of timbres with occasional motivic Srdić was an attempt at transposing an im- digressions, the author also employed the pression left by particular visual works into production of special acoustic effects on a musical medium, and in that respect, the the instruments, which only reinforced the personal impression was used only as the impression given by his slightly radical source of a creative “game” whose result composition. can be established only as a conditional An array of works written for smaller reference to the object of inspiration. With chamber ensembles and slightly larger or- its Neoclassical hues and elements of a chestral apparatuses presented the produc- grotesque, the work Marko Kraljević i vila tion of master’s and doctoral candidates of [Prince Marko and the Fairy] for two clar- composition. The pieces performed re- inets and piano by Marko Kovač employed flected already shaped artistic personalities, polytonal sound and playfully complex confirming the authors’ individual affinity metrical and rhythmical contours. for thematic spaces they had already con- The most complex compositions per- quered. In that respect, the spiritual reso- formed at this year’s KoMA were the works nance which Stanko Simić had previously by Vladimir Trmčić and Sonja Mutić. established with the creativity of Alexander Abandoning the discourse of homogenous Scriabin received its specific materializa- musical style, Trmčić in Concerto grosso tion in the composition Lestvičnik [Clima- for alto flute, vibraphone and amplified cus] for eight wind instruments and piano. harpsichord employed the fusion of various In Lestvičnik, Simić related his musical in- formal patterns and aesthetic principles. spiration by the 6th-century work Ladder, Although oriented towards the Baroque conceived around the idea of the gradual concert tradition, the composition also re- ascension of the soul to perfection and uni- lied on elements of the Baroque motet fication with the universe, to Scriabin’s “passing” through the author’s minimalist programme of The Poem of Ecstasy, com- prism. The largely suspended melodic com- patible by ideas and dramaturgy. Inspired ponent, the insistence on long held notes, by works of domestic artistic heritage were timbres and their changes, as well as the the compositions by Matija Anđelković and minimalist treatment of the figures and sec- Jelena Srdić. Unlike the majority of vocal- tions of the musical tissue – all of this ren- instrumental works performed at the festi- dered primary significance to the general val, which in various ways treated acoustic image of the work instead of fo- masterpieces of domestic and foreign po- cusing on its individual layers. A similar etry, Anđelković in his composition Leg- concept of “integral” sound was also car- enda o spavačima, magnovenje i san ried out in the work Inicijacija [Initiation]

154 Festivals and Symposia for chamber orchestra by Sonja Mutić. * * * Confirming her dedication to the research of the acoustic and sonic properties of the As a venue presenting the youngest classical instrumental apparatus, the author generation’s artistic musical production, in this work merely extended the continuity KoMA in its latest edition fulfilled the of her own creative interest, examining the pragmatic purpose of public premiere per- possibilities of achieving dramaturgical formances and recordings of new works. consistency within a larger musical form. At the same time, in terms of the quality of Liberated from the melodic component, its programme, confirmed this year as well, present only in the shape of repetitive mo- KoMA has shaped up as a cultural manifes- tivic figurations, the work was based on the tation of the first order, open even to much acoustic polyphony of a heterogeneous in- wider audiences interested in the composi- strumental body, where the constant tional creativity of the upcoming genera- changes of rhythm and meter, as well as the tion. On the eve of its tenth anniversary, its diversified dynamics, were the basic mov- continuity plainly reflects its importance ing forces of the dramaturgical develop- and the value of the idea it promotes. ment. Translated by Goran Kapetanović

155 New Sound 41, I/2013

156 REVIEWS

Article received on 13 September 2013 these valuable parameters, on the other. Article accepted on 30 September 2013 Numerous praises by critics and acknowl- UDC: 78.087.612.1(086.76)(049.32) edgments by peers and audiences, who fol- 78.071.2:929 Арсикин И. lowed most of her performances during her relatively short but intensive career which, from 1970 to 1985, gave a particular nu- Ana Kotevska* ance to the rich musical scene of the then Serbian Musicological Society Yugoslavia, are not adequately reinforced in acoustic archives, discography and video recordings. The fact is that the fragile, most of all lyrical voice, symbiotical with lied RELEASES OF FMU, BELGRADE and capable of transforming into a dramatic Irina Arsikin or coloratura soprano of this long-standing CD 1 / CD 2 soloist of the Radio-Television Belgrade FMU 002 Mixed Choir, the ensemble whose reputa- Fakultet muzičke umetnosti tion she has elevated to the international Belgrade / Serbia level, has not appeared on any sound car- rier released by PGP, the label affiliated to the public broadcasting service. Neither were other performers spared this grievous Irina Arsikin (1938), a soprano, is an negligence, even though they too were exceptional figure in the Serbian art of in- symbols of the RTB ensembles, such as terpretation, whose career, in the general mezzo-soprano Aleksandra Ivanović, who, opinion, attests to her unique vocal and ar- during the 1970s, was also a trade mark of tistic individuality, exclusive dedication to the RTB Choir. concert singing, wide repertoire ranging Recently, these huge oversights were from Baroque to the 20th century music, au- partly compensated by the Faculty of Music dacity to take on premiere performances of and their release of a double CD in homage contemporary authors, particularly Serbian, to Professor Irina Arsikin, with a selection on the one hand, and paradoxically – to the of the scarce live and studio recordings, small number of preserved marks of all preserved in the Radio Belgrade Acoustic Archive and in private collections. This * Author contact information: valuable, although belated document was [email protected] released with the help of the Ministry of

157 New Sound 41, I/2013

Culture of the Republic of Serbia in 1,000 carried on the last third of the first disc and copies, which are not subject to sale, and it the beginning of the second one – contain- was signed by the editor Katarina Erić and ing Psalm radosny [Cheerful Psalm] by the sound engineer Đorđe Petrović. Augustyn Bloch, extremely striking and With a very good dramaturgical con- demanding, in spite of the title; the lyrical cept, designed most probably in consulta- substance of Pokošeni osmesi [Smiles tion with the artist personally, the release Swept Away], one of the most exciting reclaims from oblivion her principal reper- works by Zlatan Vauda, with the Belgrade toire areas – and the most important in- Wind Quintet; and seven songs by Hugo stances of cooperation with famous Wolf, whose noble vocal aura is intensified ensembles, conductors and artists (the Ser- by Stanko Šepić’s pianism – represents the bian Broadcasting Corporation Choir and pinnacle of Irina Arsikin’s art, her voice, Orchestra, the Belgrade Philharmonic with refined, subtle and powerful at the same Veronika Dudarova, the Belgrade Wind time, and her unfailing intuition which in- Quintet, pianists Dušan Trbojević and spired the musicians she collaborated Stanko Šepić…) with… For all those who followed her per- The recording of the Kyrie, Benedic- formance, this is an evocation of the most tus and Agnus Dei from Haydn’s Nelson perfect concert moments that she is remem- Mass, made in January 1983 at the RTB bered for. Symphony Orchestra concert with Borivoje Unfortunately, for those who will only Simić conducting, and Vivaldi’s Laudate become acquainted with Irina Arsikin for pueri, also recorded live in 1978 with the the first time through this release, the ac- ensemble Pro musica conducted by Đura companying booklet provides only the Jakšić, are the symmetrical and extroverted most basic data on the artist and her career. frame of this double CD, in spite of being One would think that the “eloquent inter- just excerpts from huge live vocal-instru- stices” in the brief text of the booklet and mental production marked by Irina Ar- scant data on the front and back covers sikin’s prowess. All the other included once again fulfil a double agenda – unques- works – except for the cycle Tražim pomilo- tioning acclamation and persistent silence vanje [I am Seeking a Pardon] by Stanojlo at the same time – which has consistently Rajičić, in a not exactly perfect but power- followed this exceptional artistic personal- ful and dramatic concert version with the ity. The fact that only the words IRINA Belgrade Philharmonic and Veronika Du- ARSIKIN are written across the image of darova from 1981, and the decorative Kolo an open eye on the covers and the discs is [Round Dance] by Josif Marinković with more than a sufficient stimulus for recogni- the RTB Choir – belong to the domain of tion and enjoyment among the older Bel- chamber and intimate music, such as four grade audience. However, younger listeners songs by Kornelije Stanković, selected and/or foreign users and partners whom compositions from Lirika [Lyric Pieces] by FMU probably presents with this non-com- Petar Konjović, Nyolc magyar népdal mercial release, published with the aim of [Eight Hungarian Folk Songs] by Béla saving from oblivion the acoustic record- Bartók… The central section of the release, ings of people who have built the history of

158 Reviews this scientific and educational institution, Article received on 13 September 2013 should at least have been familiarized with Article accepted on 30 September 2013 the vocation of this concert singer. Nor can UDC: 786.2.083.089.6(086.76)(049.32) the producer’s note that these were live re- 78.071.2:929 Трбојевић Д. cordings refer to all the included numbers, since even a cursory listening will lead to Dušan Trbojević, the conclusion that Bloch’s and Vauda’s Antologija srpske klavirske muzike / works have been highly professionally re- Retrospektiva alized in a studio environment (in 1979 and Anthology of Serbian Piano Music / 1978 respectively, according to the card Retrospective file of the Radio Belgrade Acoustic Ar- CD 1 / CD 2, FMU 003 chive). Due to the omission of the record- Fakultet muzičke umetnosti ing date, one is unable to position various Belgrade / Serbia phases of Irina Arsikin on a timeline and to perceive her development, while the omis- A double album with the recordings of sion of the names of the sound engineer pianist Dušan Trbojević (1925–2011), re- and the producers in charge of making leased shortly before his death, bears addi- these uneven live and studio recordings, tional significance as a monument looming created, as we ascertained, in 1972–1980, over the finished creativity of this multifac- suggests a disregard of established customs eted, inquisitive and socially engaged art- when using copyrighted recordings. ist. The carefully prepared and realized Thanks to the publishing activities of project by the FMU (Nataša Danilović, the FMU, this album which freezes eight editor; Đorđe Petrović, mastering) is sup- years of Irina Arsikin’s creativity, besides plemented by a thorough, informative and the noted deficiencies, presents the period expertly written text by Dragana Jeremić of her most intense stage activity and re- Molnar, PhD, which sheds light on various veals the range of her artistic interests, the aspects of his professional career, over half pinnacles of achievement and the skill of a century long, as a soloist, chamber musi- cooperation with a number of distinguished cian, composer, teacher, proactive partici- ensembles and soloists, and thus latently, in pant in musical life and launcher of a large between the lines, it speaks of the music number of initiatives which marked the and repertoire policy thirty years ago and second half of the 20th century. Besides the today, as well as of us all. restricted choice of recordings available to the producers, the discs’ content reflects the important and most productive reper- toire areas that promoted Trbojević into a cornerstone personality of Serbian pianism. The image would probably be more com- plete with appendices, such as a review of Trbojević’s compositional creativity (So- nata rustica or Tri igre [Three Dances], for example, performed by the author), and

159 New Sound 41, I/2013 fragments of his warm and communicative Although this album also combines studio spoken word which lent a special colour to and live recordings, the acoustic result and all of his public appearances, especially the performance level are well-balanced, when he performed pieces by Serbian au- which suggest strict production criteria thors. Also, by selecting material recorded when selecting among several available ver- from 1964 to 2010, the producers managed sions of certain works. However, the best to outline the evolutionary processes and are the studio recordings, such as the bril- constants in a long and fruitful career. liant and rich Milošević’s Sonatina from The first CD, titled Anthology of Ser- 1926, and Radenković’s lesser known Con- bian Piano Music, includes works by com- certino from 1958, which is surprisingly posers with whom Trbojević had an vital even today. Hence, it is all the more unceasingly intimate and privileged rela- regrettable that we are denied information tionship, such as Josip Slavenski (Iz Jugo- about the recording date and the names of slavije [From Yugoslavia]), Predrag the radio crew to whom we owe these suc- Milošević (Sonatina), Milutin Radenković cessful and well-preserved moments of (Concertino for piano and orchestra), and Trbojević’s pianism. Three of Mokranjac’s Dejan Despić (Nokturno [Nocturne]), as compositions from three different periods of well as three pieces by Vasilije Mokranjac, his creativity – Sonatina in C major from which occupy almost half of the total dura- 1954, Odjeci [Echoes] from 1973, and tion of the first disc and represent the centre- Poema [Epic Poem] for piano and orchestra piece of the entire album. All the five authors from 1983 – have certainly not been in- (among whom one should also add Vlasti- cluded at random. Trbojević in the said text mir Peričić) satisfy the double initial criteria perceives them as a kind of triptych in which which Trbojević, by his own admission, ad- “…se iskristalisala i muzička i ljudska hered to when approaching a new composi- ličnost Mokranjčeva… uvek prisutan, rekao tion as a “practical performer” who pays bih neizlečiv bol, uz stalno osećanje tra- attention to “…autorski tekst (pre svega nje- gičnog… ali i uporna traganja, napor da se govu sadržajnu stranu) i ličnost autora, nje- čovek oslobodi čvrstih okova nemira i sum- gov odnos prema muzici, i životu, eventualnu nji, čežnja za mirom, skladom i slobodnim povezanost nekog događaja ili stanja sa visinama i prostorima” [“…Mokra njac’s određenim delom itd.” [“…the composer’s musical and human personality have crystal- text (most of all, its content) and the author’s lized… an ever present pain, I would say personality, his attitude towards music and incurable, with a permanent feeling of trag- life, possible relatedness of a certain event edy… but also a persistent quest, an effort to or condition with a particular work, etc.”]1 liberate the human being from the heavy chains of turmoil and doubt, a longing for 1 Dušan Trbojević, Mesto „Odjeka“ i „Poeme peace, harmony and free skies and spaces”].2 za klavir i orkestar“ u opusu Vasilija Mokranjca [The place of “Odjeci” and “Poema za klavir i Mokra njac – Proceedings of the symposium on orkestar” in the oeuvre of Vasilije Mokranjac], the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the in: Život i delo Vasilija Mokranjca – Zbornik sa composer’s death], SOKOJ-MIC, Belgrade, simpozijuma povodom 20 godina od 2005, 101. kompozitorove smrti [Life and work of Vasilije 2 Ibid., 104.

160 Reviews

Although he constantly returned to these ensemble, convincing formal organization scores over the decades, performed and re- and musical interpretation, not so dramatic corded them, always discovering some new as concertante in character, and relies on details, some deeper dimension, the chosen large and expressive dynamic arches with- versions of all three works are live: the first out particular insistence on details. Apart two at a concert in 2004, while Poema was from showing the serious promise of the realized at a RTB Symphony Orchestra tour, young Trbojević, this recording, after five with Vančo Čavdarski as the conductor, in decades, is an interesting acoustic docu- Spain in 1986. The golden centre of the ment about the aesthetics of interpretation album are the classical Odjeci, with their and the listeners’ response in the 1950s in condensed yet enigmatic form, pianistic and Belgrade, when moderation and balance in harmonic splendour, which Trbojević, all parameters overruled attempts at indi- through numerous performances (140 times, vidualistic interpretations of music. The according to his tally), recordings and teach- other included works, which Trbojević per- ing, elevated to the level of a symbol of Ser- formed publicly when he was older – in bian piano music of the late 20th century, 2000 and 2010 respectively – especially leaving them as a legacy to the following Debussy’s Preludes, are marked by a dif- generations of pianists. ferent sensibility, becoming absorbed in Retrospective, which is the title of the new tonal colours, with an insistence on second CD, concisely reminds us of rests full of eloquent silence and reverbera- Trbojević’s standard concert repertoire, tions. One could say that near the end of which, unlike the domain of contemporary his life, after decades of activity, investing pieces which he approached as a member energy into maintaining the dynamism of of chamber ensembles (especially within musical life, and promoting authentic mu- the Studio for Piano Sound), mostly in- sical values, Trbojević in the miniatures cluded the celebrities of Classicism, Ro- strived to reveal his inner voice and reach, manticism and Impressionism, with such as in Debussy’s Clair de lune, “peace, har- cornerstone authors as Beethoven, Chopin, mony, free skies and spaces” which he Wagner, Scriabin, Debussy. The digitalized evoked when talking about V. Mokranjac. (occasionally fuzzy) recording of Beet- Given our state of affairs, even before hoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto, made in this album, Dušan Trbojević’s art had rela- 1964 with the RTB Symphony Orchestra tively good sound-carrier coverage and conducted by Živojin Zdravković, presents valuation, but in spite of that, this ambi- a rising 39-year-old pianist, who exudes tious release by the Faculty of Music, initi- the energy and self-confidence gained in ated during the pianist’s life, today his studies with Kendall Taylor, and who represents a valuable cornerstone docu- manifests his objective nature, mostly lyri- ment about a finished creativity and a trib- cal. His interpretation of Beethoven, though ute to a striking personality in the Serbian not technically flawless either in the soloist art of interpretation. or orchestral parts, unfolds in a confident understanding with the conductor and the Translated by Goran Kapetanović

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Article received on 23 September 2013 first result of the project was released in Article accepted on 30 September 2013 2011, with the support of the Ministry of UDC: 782(086.76)(049.32) Culture of the Republic of Serbia and the 784.2.087.62/.67:785.11(086.76)(049.32) Institute for Textbook Publishing. It was a double compact disc with the recordings of works by the composer and academician Stanojlo Rajičić – the opera Simonida and Ivana Petković* the symphonic song cycle Na liparu [In a University of Arts in Belgrade Linden Grove] – whose creativity and over- Faculty of Music all activity strongly marked the develop- Department of Musicology ment of Serbian and Yugoslav music in the 20th century. Pursuant to the main idea of the Petar Konjović: Probuđeni arhiv project – to eventually in- clude/digitalize and suitably present all the Ženidba Miloševa [The Wedding of important works of Serbian artistic music, Miloš] and Seljaci [Peasants] as well as the continuous development of Double Compact Disc performance in Serbia – the cooperation EDITION PROBUĐENI ARHIV between the Musicological Institute of [AWAKENED ARCHIVE] SASA and the Radio Belgrade continued in Released by Musicological Institute of 2012. The second CD release within the SASA, Radio Belgrade Broadcasting project contains two operas by one of the Corporation, Institute for Textbook most significant Serbian operatic compos- Publishing Belgrade, 2012 ers – Petar Konjović (1883–1970): Ženidba Miloševa, “romantična opera u tri čina” [“romantic opera in three acts”] and Sel- jaci, “narodna opera u tri čina” [“popular After the Musicological Institute of opera in three acts”]. the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences Partial recordings of Konjović’s early (SASA) had celebrated its 60th anniversary opera, which was at the same time one of in 2009, and the Radio Belgrade in the the first Serbian achievements in the genre same year had reached eighty years of ac- – the composer revised his first draft of tivity, the two institutions joined their pro- Ženidba Miloševa upon returning from his fessional forces and initiated a cooperative studies in Prague (1903/1904), at Miloje project titled Probuđeni arhiv (Project Milojević’s suggestion, then made further Manager: Danica Petrović, PhD, Director amendments prior to the premiere in Za- of the Musicological Institute of SASA; greb (25th April 1917), when the opera was Project Coordinator: Branka Vuković, As- renamed Vilin veo [The Fairy’s Veil] due to sistant Director of Radio Belgrade). The Austro-Hungarian censorship, and finally edited the work yet again, preparing a new * Author contact information: performance in Zagreb (4th October 1922) [email protected] – are presented on the first disc. Record-

162 Reviews ings of Ženidba Miloševa kept in the Radio Zvonimir Krnetić, Tomislav Reno, Nikola Belgrade Archive are incomplete; hence, Mitić, Aleksandar Veselinović, Dušan instead of the first act, the first compact Janković, Olga Đokić, Olga Milošević and disc contains the orchestral suite (six move- Milica Miladinović. ments) and three fragments, the second act The compact disc is supplied with a performed integrally and the “Festive detailed and very expertly written pro- March” from the third act. The material gramme booklet in the Serbian and English was recorded in 1958 (three fragments languages, supplemented with visual mate- from the first act, the second act), 1962 (or- rial, i.e. photographs from various perfor- chestral suite from the first act) and 1969 mances of the operas, kept in the Archive (“Festive March” from the third act). The of the Musicological Institute of SASA. conductors were Oskar Danon, Živojin The texts about the composers and their Zdravković and Milan Horvat; the ensem- position in the history of Serbian music, bles were the Radio-Television Belgrade the historical and stylistic aspects of the Choir and Symphony Orchestra and the works and detailed synopses of the operas Zagreb Philharmonic, while the soloists were written by Melita Milin, PhD, transla- were Radmila Vasović-Bakočević, Drago tion into English was done by Charles Rob- Starc, Mirjana Vrčević, Žarko Cvejić, ertson, graphic design by Milan Janić, and Dušan Popović, Dušan Cvejić and Zora the sound design and mastering by Zoran Mojsilović. Marinković. The entire preparation of this The second compact disc of the release was supported by the Ministry of Probuđeni arhiv edition contains the inte- Culture, Information and Information Soci- gral recording of Konjović’s opera Seljaci, ety of the Republic of Serbia, and the man- written in 1951 after Janko Veselinović’s ufacturing was facilitated by the Scientific play Đido [The Hero], and premiered in Work Fund of SASA and the Institute for 1952 at the National Theatre in Belgrade. Textbook Publishing. The specific quality of this acoustic docu- The new CD release within the ment is the fact that the overture (performed Probuđeni arhiv project not only success- by the Radio-Television Belgrade Sym- fully continues the series of ‘overviews’ of phony Orchestra, conducted by Franc Kli- paradigmatic works of Serbian (operatic) nar, in 1968) and the three operatic acts music, but also reveals, both to the domes- (the Radio-Television Belgrade Choir and tic and foreign audience, the Radio Bel- Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Boris- grade’s rich and unique sound archive. lav Pašćan, in 1960) were recorded sepa- rately. The roles were sung by Žarko Translated by Goran Kapetanović Cvejić, Nikola Jančić, Đorđe Đurđević,

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Article received on 14 September 2013 odologically diverse,2 the texts included in Article accepted on 30 September 2013 this book are the result of the author’s UDC: 783.25:271.2(075.8)(049.32) years-long systematic, practical theological and research activity in the area of mono- phonic chant and choral church music. Marina Marković* Thus, the items are marked by the consis- tent interlocking of a viewpoint based upon deliberation about the issues related to the Predrag Miodrag: art of church singing from the theological aspect, and the viewpoint of a musically OGLEDI O SRPSKOJ educated practitioner and competent con- CRKVENOJ MUZICI noisseur of the particular musical substance [ESSAYS ON SERBIAN at hand. CHURCH MUSIC] In its 276 pages, the book Ogledi o Belgrade, Visoka škola – srpskoj crkvenoj muzici contains an intro- Akademija Srpske pravoslavne duction (pp. 11–14), chapters with primary crkve za umetnosti i content (pp. 15–180), summaries in the konservaciju, 2012, 276 pages English and Russian languages (pp. 181– 184), a table of names (pp. 181–184), a note about the author (pp. 191–194), and a chapter with sheet music examples (pp. 195–276). The volume also includes two Ogledi o srpskoj crkvenoj muzici1 is compact discs with acoustic records of the the title of the first as yet published book extensive sheet music material, presented by theologist, chanter and church choir in the chapter with the examples. For the conductor Predrag Miodrag, one of few most part, the acoustic records exhibit the contemporary theologians and practical ex- excellent chanting skills of the author him- perts in the field of Serbian church chant, self.3 whose interests are directed towards the Advocating the standpoint that a history of traditional Serbian sacral singing church song, either monophonic or poly- and issues of its liturgical use, but also to- phonic, is a sung prayer, Predrag Miodrag wards the questions of Orthodox church 2 music in the wider geographic area. Writ- Skeleton of the book are the papers written for scientific meetings and round tables, as well as ten on various occasions over a time span contributions for paper collections and journals. of two and a half decades, and thus meth- The book also includes modified transcripts of public lectures, interviews and a tour report. * Author contact information: 3 Besides Predrag Miodrag, the examples from [email protected] the book are chanted by Jovan and Vasilije 1 Predrag Miodrag, Ogledi o srpskoj crkvenoj Stojanović, students of the Orthodox Theologi- muzici, Belgrade, Visoka škola – Akademija cal Academy in Saint Petersburg, as well as Srpske pravoslavne crkve za umetnosti i konser- Petar Mrakić, deacon of the Saint Lazarus vaciju, 2012, X + 276 pages. Church (Lazarica) in Sydney, Australia.

164 Reviews equates the notions of church music and melodies, which would, unlike the current the liturgical act in the narrow sense, com- one, allow for the more efficient reduction prehending monophonic chant and choral of the liturgical text to a musical expres- church music as two forms of liturgy. How- sion, thus functioning as “zajednički, uza- ever, the author takes into account their jamni jezik, kako sveštenoslužitelja, tako i specific liturgical function and defines svih vernika” [“a common, mutual lan- them as musical systems of sorts, whose guage, both of ordained clergy and all the application within a church service is aimed believers”].5 One contribution deals with at “na svečan način donesu do vernika tek- affinity between church melodies and the stovi crkvenih pesama… i pobude kod njih folk singing heritage of Serbia. najpobožnija osećanja” [“rendering the The second part of the book includes a verses of church songs to the believers in a text about the beginnings and development solemn manner… and inspiring in them the of church singing in Russia and Serbia, as most pious sentiments”].4 Thus, the book well as an essay about the, so far, only chapters are organized into two parts: the known (and unsuccessful!) attempt to in- first one deals with the issues of mono- troduce the organ in the Orthodox liturgy, phonic chant (“Srpsko narodno crkveno which took place in the Russian Orthodox pojanje” [“Serbian Popular Church Church in the second decade of the 20th Chant”]), and the second with the numer- century. Putting forward a host of observa- ous questions related to choral church cre- tions about the performance aspect of ation (“Horska crkvena muzika” [“Choral church music, based upon personal theo- Church Music”]). Each part deals with six logical and artistic experience, Predrag Mi- subjects. odrag also deals with the appropriateness The first part of the book Ogledi o of the concert performance of church srpskoj crkvenoj muzici contains writings music, often debated about in theological about the history of liturgical chant in the and musical circles, as well as the issue of Serbian Orthodox Church, about the intro- formulating relevant criteria for choosing duction of chant in seminaries and the cul- the numbers and deciding on their order in tivation of the chanting skills in them, as programmes of sacral music concerts. This well as a contribution about general and al- group of texts is concluded by a report from ways topical issues of relations between a concert tour that the book’s author made the Orthodox liturgy and religious art, with as choirmaster with the Choir of the Fac- a special review of the role of the art of re- ulty of Orthodox Theology in the USA dur- ligious singing in the liturgical act itself. ing the 1980s. The author also deals with the particulars Examining the historical aspects of of articulation of the verses from the Epis- Serbian chant, Predrag Miodrag focuses on tles, the Acts of the Apostles and the Gos- the issues of its origin and periodization, pels in the liturgical practice of the past and but also delves into the characteristics of the present, and reiterates the necessity of old Serbian chant, referring on multiple oc- devising a notational system for church casions to the opinions of distinguished

4 Cf. Predrag Miodrag, op. cit., 20. 5 Cf. Predrag Miodrag, op. cit., 81.

165 New Sound 41, I/2013 scholars – musicologists, theologists and the beauty of heavenly archetypes, as the literary historians – related to these issues. most perfect aesthetic degree, through the He concentrates on the particulars of Ser- visible and cognitive existence of the beau- bian chant in the first stage of its develop- tiful in church painting and music. Hence, ment, in the period which “započinje na the term “angeloglasno pjenije” [“angel- zajedničkoj sveslovenskoj osnovi, pa se voiced singing”] is used for liturgical sing- utemeljuje i razvija na srpskoj redakciji ing, treated both as a chanted liturgy and a bogoslužbenih tekstova, nastaloj u form of religious artistic expression. In Mi- književno-reformatorskoj delatnosti sveto- odrag’s opinion, beauty is the means to ex- savske škole, a traje sve do pojave prvih press the truth of Christian religion, which, zapisa srpskog pojanja s kraja XIV veka” applied through the entity of the liturgical [“stemmed from a common pan-Slavonic melody, has the purpose of making it easier foundation, and relied on and progressed for the believers to understand and adopt from the Serbian redaction of liturgical the content of a church song. Ipso facto, the texts, arising from the literary and reforma- author stresses the precedence of the utili- tory activities of St. Sava and his followers, tarian function of liturgical chant, com- ending with the appearance of the earliest pared to the importance of its purely written records of Serbian chant in the late aesthetic effect; he stresses, therefore, su- 14th century”],6 as well as its importance premacy of the role that is also demon- for the liturgical practice of the period in strated in the act of the musical articulation question, drawing conclusions based upon of the texts from the Epistles, the Acts of the data taken from Serbian hagiographic the Apostles and the Gospels during the di- literature, also quoted in the text. vine service. In a report on the ethos of the art of In a review of the place and role of religious singing, Predrag Miodrag deliber- choral music in the Orthodox Church, ates on the basic role of liturgical chant, not whose foundation and development in our only as a form of divine service but gener- midst he rightfully ascribes to the vigorous ally as a religious art. Thus, here he intro- contacts with Russia and Ukraine, consoli- duces the category of the beautiful, in the dated in the 18th century (by that time sacral sense of the aesthetically sublime, and polyphony had already become widespread points out that beauty is one of the funda- in Russia), Predrag Miodrag is of the opin- mental determinants of both the Orthodox ion that, among all the forms of the art of liturgy and religious art. Reminding us of religious singing, it is monophonic chant the basic postulates of the Christian inter- that essentially corresponds to the authen- pretation of Neo-Platonism, which per- tic liturgical purpose, since “potpuna moć ceives reality as the materialization of izražajnosti osećanja pripada melodiji” spiritual prototypes, the author advocates [“only melody has the full power to express the viewpoint that the beauty of the divine feelings”].7 However, he also states that service is a reflection of divine beauty, as choral musical expression can partially sat- well as the result of the aspiration to attain isfy basic liturgical demands – be it old

6 Cf. Predrag Miodrag, op. cit., 24. 7 Cf. Predrag Miodrag, op. cit., 178.

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Russian polyphony, Serbian choral church ful for its general readership. music of the 19th century, or contemporary In the book Ogledi o srpskoj crkvenoj choral religious creativity – provided that muzici, Predrag Miodrag has presented a the conception of the musical work should wealth of relatively new, less known facts not disturb the organic connection between about Orthodox Church music. He has skil- melody and word, that the beauty of the fully used the literature in the best sense, external form should not replace “odsutnu but has also embarked further, leaving his neposrednost i lepotu, koja sebi stvara personal imprint on the subjects he se- način i oblik osećanja” [“the absence of lected. However, in spite of the abundance immediacy and beauty, which of itself cre- of quoted editions and number of biblio- ates the manner and form of emotions”]8 graphical citations relevant to the subject and that the very act of articulating the of each chapter in turn, the book, unfortu- work should not transgress the boundary nately, does not contain a separate list of between the liturgical and the concert ap- referential literature. proach to its performance. As one of the Given the scale of the starting point more recent forms of religious art, choral and the complexity of the approach to the church music has long since completed its issues of the art of religious singing in our initial developmental stage and found its country, the book Ogledi o srpskoj crkvenoj place in the practical activities of certain muzici will certainly find a broad reader- local churches in Serbia, says Miodrag. ship, not only among musicians, theolo- Thus, for him, the liturgical foundation of gists, church chanters or historians of choral singing is the Church’s response to religious art, but also among all the edu- the new influences on the existing church cated readers interested in deepening their musical canon: the practice of liturgical knowledge about Serbian musical heri- singing took a step outside of the canon, tage. which ulteriorly has encompassed a new musical expression. Translated by Goran Kapetanović As stated above, the second part of the book includes a large chapter with musical appendices, where each sheet music ex- ample is accompanied with the explanation as to what kind of church song it is, what its liturgical purpose is and whose melo- graphic notation it is, if a more recent mel- ody of Serbian religious chant is in question. However, it remains unclear what criteria have been used for the selection of the published sheet music material because the book does not offer an explanation in that respect, which would certainly be use-

8 Ibid.

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Article received on 21 September 2013 The lead article in the first part of the Article accepted on 30 September 2013 book is an in-depth study by Mirjana UDC: 78.01(082)(049.32) Veselinović-Hofman on “Nostalgia be- 781.1(082)(049.32) tween primary and tertiary emotion in postmodern music”. Nostalgia, as a kind of emotion, can be expressed and func- Nico Schüler* tionalized in a variety of ways in art work, Texas State University as well as in all spheres of life. This excel- lent study provides two detailed examples of nostalgia in postmodern music: in Al- fred Schnittke’s Concerto Grosso No. 1 Vesna Mikić, Ivana Perković, for two violins, harpsichord, prepared Tijana Popović Mlađenović, and piano and strings (1976–77) and in Zoran Mirjana Veselinović-Hofman. Eds. Erić’s Helium in a Small Box for strings Between Nostalgia, Utopia, and (1991). Based on notions by Edmund Hus- Realities. Belgrade: University of serl and Thomas Clifton, Veselinović- Arts in Belgrade, 2012. Hofman shows how the music can cause (Musicological Studies: Collections of nostalgic responses and that tertiary artic- Papers, vol. 4) ulated nostalgia does not necessarily lead ISBN 978-86-88619-17-2. 400 pages. to the feeling of nostalgia in the listener’s primary emotion, especially considering the constantly changing relations between the music and the listener. But if nostalgia Between Nostalgia, Utopia, and Re- does become a primary emotion, it can be alities, published as Volume Four of the identified as unintentionally inherent to series “Musicological Studies: Collections the music or as intentionally produced of Papers” by the Department of Musicol- through music. ogy within the Faculty of Music at the Uni- The well-known Slovenian music versity of Arts in Belgrade, comprises 36 scholar Leon Stefanija relates nostalgia as articles originally presented at the interna- an emotion to various musical styles, tional conference with the same title, held genres, and compositions. The paper re- in Belgrade in April 2010. Offering the veals some universal cognitive constraints. highest quality research, the volume offers Delineating between the phenomena of a rich view on the problems of nostalgia, nostalgia as semantic constitutive particles utopia, and identities in music, from a mul- (such as happiness and sadness), Stefanija titude of methodological approaches. The specifically distinguishes between imagi- book is divided into two main parts: one on nary historical places and universal values “Musical Embodiments of Nostalgia / Uto- induced by or attached to music. Examples pia” and one on “Identities”. from punk music, as well as from avant- garde music, make these discussions very valuable. * Author contact information: [email protected]

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Numerous other papers enrich the The second part of the book is dedi- ‘picture’ of musical embodiments of nostal- cated to the topic of identities, specifically gia / Utopia. For example, musicologist Ti- to nostalgic and Utopian strategies of creat- jana Popović Mlađenović focuses on ing (national) identities and, thus, ‘musico- nostalgia and Utopia related to the waltz, logical maps’. Most of the focus is on specifically as a genre of longing for lost Eastern Europe, having struggled with the time and the Utopian space of the musically processes of finding national identities. For fantastic. Annegret Huber illuminates the example, Bogumila Mika examines how aspects of Utopia and nostalgia in and musical quotations have been used as nos- around Fanny and Wilhelm Hensel’s cycles talgic symbols, to preserve the national Das Jahr(1841) and Reise-Album 1839- identity of Poland. Kanni Labi deliberates 1840. Srđan Atanasovski questions whether on the importance of patriotic songs in de- Schubert simply references Schiller’s An veloping a national identity and a national die Freude in his Great Symphony in C Utopia of independence, pointing out that major, or whether Schubert’s intention was such patriotic songs have not lost their to pay tribute to Schiller, picturing a Uto- meaning and importance even after Esto- pian vision of a better world. Antonio Bal- nian independence was restored in 1991. dassarre writes on nostalgia and Utopia in Danutė Petrauskaitė summarizes the Bruckner’s symphonic music, and Igor Lithuanian national character and gives ex- Radeta on Ravel’s lost paradise in “Ondine” amples of nostalgia in Lithuania’s music from Gaspard de la Nuit for piano (1908). culture of the 20th century and how nostal- The ‘nostalgic’ composer George Enescu is gia can induce both positive emotions (ide- the focus of Beat A. Föllmi, demonstrating alization of the past) and negative emotions that nostalgia is an important hermeneutical (suffering and absence of perspective). category for Romanian music of the early Rūta Stanevičiūtė argues that the more than 20th century. The book also offers well-sup- two hundred songs about the Lithuanian ported scholarship on John Cage’s Utopia- capital Vilnius display multiculturality and nism (Ivana Miladinović Prica), the lack of a single identity, yet define the insti tutionalized ideologies, creativity, and city of Vilnius and contribute to the con- technology (Adam Ferguson), Pierre ceptualization of cultural identity; two Schaeffer’s concept of musique concrète songs in particular are analyzed. (Biljana Srećković), Mikis Theodorakis’ Other interesting ‘identities’ studies ‘universal’ music (Kalliopi Stiga), quota- deal with contemporary ethno-musicians in tions of the 19th century in late 20th-century Serbia (Mladen Marković), performing tra- music (Lauren Redhead), Lojze Lebič’s ditional music and dance in Serbia (Mir- postmodernism (Gregor Pompe), Nietz- jana Zakić and Selena Rakočević), the folk sche’s lost dream for the (re-) birth of trag- dance kolo (Olivera Vasić), music and pa- edy (Ana Petrov), Wagner’s Ring (Paulo F. triotism (Roksanda Pejović), the Utopian de Castro), Puccini’s operas (Kunio Hara), vision of the New German School (Ruth Alban Berg’s Lulu (Milena Medić), and Seehaber), nostalgia in Austro-Hungarian Manolis Kalomiris’ opera Konstantinos music around 1918 (Stefan Schmidl), Uto- Palaiologos (Alexandros Charkiolakis). pist nostalgia in balancing traditional ver-

169 New Sound 41, I/2013 sus modern values in today’s Macedonian Cowell. Two studies (by Marko Aleksić society (Branka Kostić-Marković), nostal- and by Vesna Mikić) concentrate on nostal- gia as a narrative genre in the context of gia and reality, distribution and marketing, American alternative country music as well as identity in the popular music of (Nikola Dedić), artistic reflections of the the former Yugoslavia. military invasion of northern Cyprus in This volume on Between Nostalgia, 1974 (Georgia Petroudi), and nostalgia in a Utopia, and Realities includes numerous globalized world (Tatjana Böhme-Mehner musical examples and useful bibliographies and Klaus Mehner). on each topic. It shows the excellent edito- A well-documented article on Conlon rial work done by the editors, Vesna Mikić, Nancarrow as a music critic – specifically Ivana Perković, Tijana Popović Mlađenović, between 1939 and 1941 – by Dragana and Mirjana Veselinović-Hofman. With its Stojanović-Novičić analyzes Nancarrow’s many original contributions, this book will interpretations of the trends in American be of great value to musicologists, ethno- music of that time and compares his writ- musicologists, and music theorists alike. ing style to the critical narrative of Henry

170 DEFENDED THESES

Article received on 18 September 2013 research of the dialogue and the mutual re- Article accepted on 30 September 2013 lation established between the tradition of UDC: 783.089.6 Serbian spiritual chants and contemporary 78.071.1:929 Марић Љ. compositional procedures. Different com- ponents of musical trend were analysed in the light of the competing categories - ar- Sanda Dodik* chaic and modern, achieving what was the University of Banja Luka main objective of the work and the answer Academy of Arts to the question as to how much and in what Department of Music Theory way these opposing categories influence and Pedagogy the musical features and the shaping of the total sound space. This research provided an insight into compositional means and CONNECTION BETWEEN procedures, accomplishing the objectives ARCHAIC AND MODERN of the work: by focusing on the polarity of “archaic – modern” light was shed on the SOUND IN THE CYCLE OF specific method of application on the ele- THE MUSIC OF OCTOECHOS ments of the Octoechos, transformation, BY LJUBICA MARIĆ and identifying the manner of integrating the Octoechos into the contemporary tonal- harmony system, and defining the tonality, The doctoral thesis entitled as “Con- correlation of the horizontal and vertical nection between Archaic and Modern Sound in the Cycle of The Music of Oc- with the cooperation of Professor Mirjana Živković as a co-mentor, was defended on the toechos by Ljubica Marić”,1 is focused on 7th June 2013 at the Academy of Arts of The University of Banja Luka, before a board * Author contact information: consisting of: Sonja Marinković, PhD, Full [email protected] Professor at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade 1 Doctoral dissertation “Connection between (mentor); Ivan Čavlović, PhD, Full Professor at Archaic and Modern Sound in the Cycle of the Music Academy in Sarajevo (head of the The Music of Octoechos by Ljubica Marić” board); and Vesna Mikić, PhD, Associate submitted to the Academy of Arts of the Professor at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade. University in Banja Luka and done under the The doctoral dissertation consisted of 234 pages mentorship of Full Professor Sonja Marinković, (font Times New Roman, font size 12).

171 New Sound 41, I/2013 complex, as well as the typology of the dynamism of the musical flow. For expla- vertical configurations. nations of the observed problems and the The research is theoretical with an internal logic, as well as in situations where analytical approach towards the selected the total sound product is deprived of any echo compositions, and the final result was kind of tonal direction, the method of de- obtained through the synthesis of the ob- scription, along with comparison and iden- servations that were made during the work. tification of analogies was applied. Since the author’s unique expression is This research showed the presence of based on specific solutions of tonal organi- elements of the Octoechos in the linear and zation, in which the elements of the Oc- vertical trends of the contemporary musical toechos modality interweave with the script, and as well defined tonally and non- elements of widely understood tonality, classical harmonic processes. Additionally, different methods of analysis, various pro- light was shed on the manner of integrating cedures and analytical tools were com- melodies from the Octoechos into the the- bined, enabling the recognition of all the matic material, and attention was paid to elements and components of the musical non-classical patterns of development flow. Considering the composition in which based on folk tradition, as well. The analy- the polyphonic manner of presentation is sis confirmed the hypothesis of the coexis- dominant, the starting and basic method of tence of the old and the new, and proved analysis relies on tracking the linear flows, that the coordinating action of these two linear-melodic progression and their impact opposing categories achieved a wide range on shaping the vertical. In examining the of unique solutions in the field of tonal- vertical component, a foothold was found harmonic dynamism, formal organization, in Hindemith’s theory which was adapted thematism, rhythm, metrics, orchestration to the material being observed and pre- and articulation. sented the means whereby it was possible to establish the quality and degree of ten- Key words: Ljubica Marić, The Music of sion of the individual accords, their inter- Octoechos, Octoechos, tonality, harmony. relations as well as the static – kinetic

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CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE

Tijana Popović Mladjenović, Ph.D., musicologist, Associate Professor in the Depart- ment of Musicology at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade; President of the managing board of the Serbian Musicological Society; member of the managing board of the Composers’ Association of Serbia, and the board of the Matica Srpska Department of Stage Art and Music; member of the International Musicological Society, and the Inter- national Project on Musical Signification; former member of the editorial board of the musicological journal Musical Wave, and the editorial staff of the Ars Musica series published by Clio, Belgrade.

Milan Milojković, M.A.. musicologist, assistant professor in the Department of Musi- cology and Ethnomusicology at the Faculty of Arts in Novi Sad, student of Phd studies of Musicology in the Department of Musicology at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, member of governing board of Serbian Musicological Society, music editor at Radio Begrade Third Programme.

Lidia Ader, Ph.D., musicologist, senior researcher at the Rimsky-Korsakov Museum- Apartment in St Petersburg; Artistic director of the Center for New Technology in the Arts "Art-parkING", lecturer in the Mariinsky Theatre.

Selena Rakočević, Ph.D., ethnomusicologist/ethnochoreologist, assistant professor in the Department of Etnomusicology at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade. Liason for dance within the board of the ICTMs Study Group on Music and Dance of Southeastern Europe.

Iva Nenić, M.Phil., ethnomusicologist/cultural theorist; teaching assistant and doctoral candidate at the Department of Ethnomusicology, Faculty of Music in Belgrade.

Stefan Cvetković, M.A., musicologist, Ph.D. student of musicology in the Department of Musicology at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade.

Dragana Jeremić Molnar, Ph.D., musicologist, an associate professor in the Depart- ment od Musicology at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade.

Man-Ching Donald Yu, Ph.D., composer and theorist, a full-time lecturer at the Hong Kong Institute of Education, Musical Arts Division of the Cultural and Creative Arts Department.

Marija Maglov, musicologist, Ph.D. student of musicology in the Department of Musi- cology at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade.

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Ana Kotevska, M.A., musicologist, President of the Serbian Musicological Society,member of the Editorial Board, International Magazine for Music New Sound.

Ivana Petković, M.A., musicologist, Ph.D. candidate; Assistant teacher for the field of musicology at the Department of Musicology of the Faculty of Music of the University of Arts in Belgrade; Executive Secretary of the Serbian Musicological Society.

Marina Marković, M.A., musicologists, Teaching Collaborator at the Department of Musicology, Faculty of Music, University of Arts in Belgrade, Ph.D. student at the same institution. Member of Serbian Musicological Society.

Nico Schüler, Ph.D., full professor of Music Theory and Musicology, School of Music, Texas State University.

Sanda Dodik, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Department of Music Theory and Peda- gogy at the Academy of Arts in Banja Luka.

174 Language editor: Tamara Rodwell-Jovanović

Proofreader: Agencija Kapetanović

Prepress: Dušan Ćasić

Printed by: TON plus, Belgrade

Circulation: 400 copies

Publication of this issue was sponsored by: The Ministry of Culture – Republic of Serbia The Ministry of Education and Science – Republic of Serbia Sokoj – Serbian Music Authors' Organization

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CIP – Katalogizacija u publikaciji Narodna biblioteka Srbije, Beograd 78 NEW Sound : international Journal of Music / editor-in-chief Mirjana Veselinović-Hofman. – 1993, no. 1– . – Belgrade : Department of Musicology Faculty of Music, 1993– (Belgrade : Ton plus). – 24 cm Dostupno i na: http://www.newsound.org.rs. – Polugodišnje. – Ima izdanje na drugom jeziku: Нови звук = ISSN 0354-4362 ISSN 0354-818X = New Sound COBISS.SR-ID 102800647

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