The days of Mokranjac

With a few exceptions (some solo songs, music for a play Ivko 's Saint's Day, five fugues for string instruments during his student days) Mokranjac's entire opus consists of choral music. In his fifteen "garlands of songs" (rukoveti) he created a classic pattern for the artistic stylization of folk songs and provided a firm basis for the national movement in Serbian music. The "garland" pattern also includes Coastal Melodies, sets of Hungarian and Russian songs written when the Belgrade Choral Society was touring these countries, and also Turkish and Rumanian songs. Less important are his compositions setting verse to music. Of special interest is his witty choral scherzo Goatherd, one of his finest achievements in the creative use of folk themes.

Mokranjac devoted a large part of his opus 10 Orthodox religious music, based largely on the traditional chanting in Serbian churches. This includes his monumental Liturgy (Divine Office of St. John Cnr\sosiom), Requiem, Akathist, Two songs for Good Frida\'. Praise the Lord, Glorification of St. Suva, and other works comparable in quality .to his best in secular music. Closely associated with his composing was his mclographic work: recording the folk songs ot Kosovo (only a small part published posthumously), a collection of Folk Songs and Dances from Levac'and two important collections of church chants: Octoechos and Holiday Chants. The forewords to ihe Folk Songs... and Octoechos are the first studies in Serbian ethnomusicology.

Yet what is it that makes Mokranjac's works seem so alive and fresh today when many contemporary Serbian composers have been all but forgotten? The reason is not simply thai almost his entire opus was inspired by the folk idiom (or traditional church music), for Mokranjac was not the only one to do this. In the middle of the 19th century Kornelije Stankovi^ had already staled his romantic thesis that Serbian art music should be developed on the foundations of Serbian folk music. Bringing to Serbia the spirit of the Slovenian revival, Davorin Jenko had attempted to find kinship with the musical folklore of his new home. Josif Marinkovic, theonly composer whose importance can be compared with Mokranjac, brought an artistic quality to this national
style. Mokranjac, however, plunged deeper into the spirit of the folk melody, emphasizing through stylization the hidden values of anonymous folk tradition. With a sure hand he selected from this treasury what was most valuable and best reflected the spirit and life of the people. Here one notices traces of a realistic approach that were certainly not accidental since Mokranjac's beginnings parallel the development of realism in Serbian literature.

He clad folk motifs in robes of pure, rich choral harmony, framing them in a coherent formal structure. Thus, the "adaptation" of folk melodies became original compositions, and for several decades Mokranjac was a model for all Serbian composers attempting a national musicidiom, from Stanislav Binicki, Petar Krslic and Isidor Bajic, through Petar Konjovic, Milojc Milojevic, Slevan Hrislic and Kosta Manojiovic, to Marko Tajcevic, Milenko fcvkovic or Svetomir Nasiasijevic. Such composers appeared in later generations as well, and Mokranjac's influence did not bypass composers with similar aspirations among other Yugoslav peoples.

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