Vasilije Mokranjac

Vasilije Mokranjac (Belgrade, 11 September 1923 – Belgrade, 27 May 1984) was a Serbian composer, professor of composition at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade and a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

He was one of the most prominent Serbian composers in the second half of the 20th century.

Although famed for his symphonies, he also wrote piano music, as well as music for radio, film and theatre.

He won the most prestigious awards in former Yugoslavia, including the October Prize, the award of the Yugoslav Radio-Diffusion, as well as the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Vasilije Mokranjac was born into one of the most prominent Serbian musical dynasties.

His father, the cellist Jovan Mokranjac, was a nephew of the composer Stevan Stojanović Mokranjac; his mother Jelena, of Czech origin, was also a cellist.

However, Vasilije Mokranjac chose to study piano: from 1932 to 1942 he was studying privately with Alexei Butakov, and then he enrolled at the Belgrade Music Academy (nowadays Faculty of Music) to study with Emil Hajek; he graduated in 1948.

Among his student works, one finds relatively successful neo-romantic pieces such as Theme with Variations for piano (1947), String Quartet (1949), as well as his diploma work Dramatic Ouverture (1950).

Mokranjac's piano works are very virtuosic and they reveal their author as an experienced pianist.

It is not an exaggeration to say that Mokranjac's piano works rank among the very best pages of Serbian music.

Almost all of his piano works have been published and they have long established themselves both as popular concert pieces, often performed by the most distinguished pianists, and as irreplaceable instructive pieces, taught and played at almost all music schools in Serbia.

A majority of his piano works have been written either in the form of the suite, or a cycle of miniatures; in both cases, they consist of a number of character pieces.

From 1948 to 1956 he taught at music schools “Josif Marinković” and “Mokranjac” (named after his grandfather) in Belgrade.

However, while studying piano, he became interested in composing music, so he enrolled to study composition with Stanojlo Rajičić and graduated in 1951.

After graduating, he devoted himself to composing and teaching, and he never performed as a pianist.

The piano works such as Etudes (1951–52), Two Sonatinas (1953–54), Fragments (1956) and Six Dances (1950–57) demonstrate Mokranjac's departure from neo-romanticism and its enrichment with elements of jazz and blues, of Bartok's “barbaro” style and Hindemith's neoclassicism.

As to harmony, Mokranjac expands his basically tonal idiom with bitonal and bimodal episodes.

Individual movements in these works are usually written in traditional, rounded forms (such as ternary form) and they can be performed independently from the rest of the cycle.

However, Mokranjac aimed to achieve a coherent whole on the realm of the entire cycle, and the individual movements have precisely defined roles in the dramaturgy of the work.

Mokranjac's typical piano texture is multilayered: it is distinguished by “hidden” melodies in inner parts, dense polyphony, broken Chords in open positions, and frequent pedals which contribute towards the static or ambivalent feel of the harmony.

(The only exceptions are two Sonatinas from 1953–54, as well as Sonata Romantica written in 1947, when Mokranjac was still a student).

In 1956 he became a Lecturer at the Music Academy; in 1965 he was promoted into a Senior Lecturer, and in 1972 he became a Professor.

Concertino for piano, two harps and strings (1958) rounds up Mokranjac's first creative phase.

In this three-movement work, Mokranjac combines an essentially neo-baroque form and content with elements of stylised folklore.

The central period of Mokranjac's output is mostly devoted to orchestral works.

It is dominated by three symphonies (written in 1961, 1965 and 1967 respectively).

In his First Symphony, Mokranjac introduces a core motif – a “chord” consisting of a perfect fourth and major seventh.

From 1962 to 1965 he held the post of the President of Association of Serbian Composers.

He became an Associate Member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in 1967, and in 1976 he was elected a full member.

Also in 1976, he received the award for lifetime achievement.

In 1984, he jumped from the window of his New Belgrade flat, for unknown reasons.

Given his premature death, Mokranjac also had many unfinished works.

He was survived by his wife Olga and daughter Alexandra.

Vasilije Mokranjac's entire oeuvre is dedicated to instrumental music.

His personal style can be positioned within the broadly defined neoclassicism and moderated modernism.

Mokranjac's early output is mostly neo-romantic, but embroidered with elements of stylised folklore: such a stylistic orientation was forced upon young composers after the end of World War Two, when the ideology of Socialist Realism, “imported” from the USSR, was prescribed by the cultural officials.

Furthermore, Mokranjac's composition teacher Stanojlo Rajičić was a conservative, who insisted that his students should express themselves in traditional forms of absolute music (such as sonata-form).

On the other hand, Mokranjac's mature works exhibit a synthesis of neo-expressionist and neo-impressionistic elements.

Mokranjac's oeuvre can be divided in three stages, distinguishable by the visible changes in the composer's stylistic orientation, but also by the changing interest in certain genres and performing forces.

Almost all of Mokranjac's early works are written for piano (except for the works written during his studies at the Music Academy, when he had to write for various ensembles).