The Fourteenth Garland (1908, first performed on January 13,1909) consists of songs from Bosnia, or more precisely from Bosnian urban folklore, which is characterized by melodic breadth and a fair amount of melisma. This applies to the first song, Mother Chides, a ballad with a vigorous unison beginning, and also to the melancholy, harmony-rich second song, Every Bird in the Forest, and especially to the fourth, Why Is Travnik So Misty with their exceptionally wide range of melody, harmonized in homophonic, sonorous choral texture. They contrast with the lively movement, transparent sonority and flexible polyphony of the third song, A Girl Speaks, while in the last song, The Green Pine-tree each stanza slowly introduces the brisk nucleus of the melody. It may be accidental that all the songs except the third show similarities in melody or rhythm, but this adds to the unity of the cycle.
XIV Garland Verses