Ira Prodanov Krajišnik

RELIGIOUS INSPIRATION IN SERBIAN MUSIC AFTER 1945 ¹

The doctoral dissertation Religious inspiration in Serbian music after 1945 probes into the scantily researched area of Serbian music history dealing with works inspired by religion, but intended primarily for performing in secular venues and concert halls. Included here are a large number of musical oeuvres which were not an object of the research of church music due to the fact that they were not ecclesiastical in the real sense of the word, that is, they were not composed according to any kind of extramusical ceremonial rules. In regards to the intimations of certain religious elements, thus “spiritualized”, they failed to find a special place even within the studies of Serbian secular music. In recent years, however, the rapid increase in Serbian music of the number of oeuvres with various religious connotations has indicated the need to explore their contents, as well as the socio-historical and sociological context within which they occurred. Hence, the field of contemporary Serbian history of music where the intertwining of musicology, art history, sociology, sociology of religion, theology and other culturological sciences occurs was explored.

In the introduction of the topic, the methodology of the scientific research is expounded, the contents of particular chapters, as well as the most important references.

The first chapter Religion. Religious music is dedicated to studying the terminology linked with religion and religious music through the commentaries of studies and texts by J. Derrida, L. Kolakowski, B. Russell, E. Fromm, V. Jerotić, Dj. Šušnjić, D. Djordjević, M. Eliade, E. Baruh Vahtel, N. Berdjajev, L. Deiss, D. Petrović, D. Stefanović, K. Kavarnos, I. Perković, K. Gottwald and many other estheticians, theologians, historians, and musicologists. Due to the obscurity of the definitions of the concepts of church music, worship music, spiritual music and others, the term religious music was selected, deemed the most adequate to define the works inspired by religion dealt with in the continuation of the dissertation from the historical, sociological, as well as musicological aspects.

In the second chapter, Secularization and dеsecularization, the alienation of society from religion after World War II was presented, with the interpretations of the most significant sociologists of religion, as well as the reversible process of returning to faith which has been taking place in Serbia from the beginning of the 1990s.

The third chapter, The religious inspiration in Serbian visual arts and literature after 1945, is dedicated to presenting the authors and works in the history of Serbian visual art (L. Vozarević, L. Vujaklija, M. Prodanović, Milić od Mačve et al.) and literature (I. Andrić, V. Drašković, S. Selenić, M. Pavić et al.) of the mentioned period, which in various ways correlated with religion.

The central chapter of the dissertation analyzes the treatment of religious topics in the opuses of over twenty mid-20^th century Serbian composers. Through the works of J. Slavenski, Lj. Marić, E. Kiralj, R. Maksimović, S. Atanacković, Z. Hristić, I. Jevtić, V. Milanković, M. Rogulja, M. Štatkić, A. Vrebalov and others, the issue of the relationship of the authors with religion was put forward, as well as the religious in the creative process and the reasons for the appearance of this subject matter in their works.

A separate chapter was allocated to the research of religious inspiration in Serbian pop and rock music. Looking into this popular, though less researched medium, has proven to be very useful, as the conclusions regarding it have augmented the validity of data obtained earlier in the area of art music.

In the last, concluding chapter, a classification was also made, based on a “critical mass” of religious works, to those opuses in which a religious topic appears as an endeavor to stress the national, and those where religious elements are a way of underscoring solely the religious. It has, therefore, been concluded that in all the art categories of the second half of the last century, Serbian authors had grasped for religion for two different reasons – either to underscore their national identity, or to present the worshiping of god as such. The final conclusion of the dissertation contains the following “diagnosis”: the social approach to religion, caused first by secularization and then by desecularization, has in the second half of the 20th century been significantly reflected on Serbian art in general, as well as music. Thus, once more it was shown that music, along with other art forms, is in a constant dependency from society and that, as such, it is its “mirror”.

The doctoral dissertation Religious inspiration in Serbian music after 1945 contains 214 pages, eight art and 45 music instances, an addendum with the composers’ biographies and a list of references.

Translated by Elizabeta Holt