Like the Tenth, the Fifteenth Garland (1909, first performed on January 13, 1910) includes songs from Macedonia, the melody or rhythm particularly marked. The elegiac Marija, Pretty Marija is done in fine harmonic polyphony, each stanza accompanied by a spirited refrain. Moon Shines Bright has the character of a scherzo, punctuated by sudden metric changes. Even more marked is the rhythm of the third song, May God Punish Him, with its dominant 5/8 beat. The tenor solo, Nine Years, breathes an oriental atmosphere, and the delightful final song, Dinka Planted Basil, after a cleverly devised canon imitation in the middle stanza, leads to a somewhat unexpected but effective end. (With this song is a note by Mokranjac: “Lengthen the last quaver in each measure”, which means that the 2/4 measure scored is actually 9/16 or – if the dotted quaver with semiquaver is taken as quaver + semiquaver – actually the characteristic Macedonian measure 8/16 = 3+2+3!).
XV Garland Verses | Musics note