STEVAN MOKRANJAC - MASTER OF SERBIAN CLASSICAL MUSIC

BIJELJINA, SEPTEMBER 27 /SRNA/ - Serbian composer Stevan Stojanović Mokranjac /1856-1914/, a member of the Serbian Royal Academy and conductor of the Belgrade Singing Society who left a lasting mark on Serbian classical music, died on September 28, 1914.

Mokranjac completed secondary school in Belgrade and later graduated from the natural sciences and mathematics department of the Great School. While still a secondary school student, he was a member of the Serbian Singing Society, and he received his musical education in Munich, Rome and Leipzig.

After returning to Belgrade, Mokranjac developed a wide-ranging musical career and became conductor of the Belgrade Singing Society, which gained international recognition under his leadership.

Mokranjac's body of work is regarded as one of the most important stages in the development of Serbian national music in the 19th century.

Stevan Mokranjac was a professor and director of the Serbian Music School, today the Mokranjac Music School, as well as an initiator of the Association of Singing Societies, while Serbia's first string quartet was founded thanks to his efforts.

He was a corresponding member of the Serbian Royal Academy /today the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts/.

His best-known works include Rukoveti /15 choral suites based on folk motifs from different parts of Serbia, BiH, North Macedonia and Bulgaria/, Primorski napjevi, the humorous scherzo Kozar, as well as music for Orthodox worship.

Mokranjac's transcriptions of folk songs and dances with melodies from the Levač region are also well known, along with two important collections of Serbian church chants, Osmoglasnik and Strano pjenije.

In his principal work, Rukoveti, Mokranjac created a distinctive form of rhapsody by shaping folk songs with a refined sense of their harmonic, melodic and textual characteristics.

His sacred compositions, inspired by traditional Orthodox church chants, are regarded as masterpieces of Serbian church music.

Since 1965, the choral music festival "Mokranjac Days" has traditionally been held every September.