{"id":188741,"date":"2025-09-28T10:42:21","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T08:42:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/?p=188741"},"modified":"2025-09-28T10:42:22","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T08:42:22","slug":"the-greatest-national-composer-how-stevan-mokranjac-became-serbias-first-musical-project-photo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/the-greatest-national-composer-how-stevan-mokranjac-became-serbias-first-musical-project-photo\/","title":{"rendered":"THE GREATEST NATIONAL COMPOSER: How Stevan Mokranjac Became Serbia’s First ‘Musical Project’! (PHOTO)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Patronage and endowment are almost as old as human society, and they experienced their peak in Serbia during the last decades of the 19th century<\/strong>, when, thanks to the support of the state and individuals, an increasing number of talented, but not so well-off, young men (and later young women) went to Europe for schooling. They would become the backbone of the flourishing of Belgrade and Serbia in times when the world was rushing with great strides into a new century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among them was a modest high school student, originally from Negotin, who would eventually rise to become one of the most significant figures in Serbian music\u2014Stevan Stojanovi\u0107 Mokranjac<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Successor to Kornelije Stankovi\u0107<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Stevan Stojanovi\u0107 Mokranjac was born in Negotin in 1856<\/strong>, but his life path would bring him to Belgrade fifteen years later, where he became a high school student. From an early age, he grew up on folk songs and church chanting, and he incorporated the familiar sounds into the strict notes of the violin practice he attended in the second grade of high school. This did not please his teacher, who refused to teach him further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This did not discourage the young Stevan at all; he began to write down his first songs, and due to his exceptional voice, he soon became a member of the Belgrade Singing Society<\/strong>. His joining the choir was a true precedent because he was not old enough. Besides that, Mokranjac was well-known and popular among society, and many Belgrade bohemians welcomed the dawn with his song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His undeniable talent and close friendship with the choir members, it would turn out, would be crucial for his future life<\/strong>. Namely, after the sudden and premature death of Kornelije Stankovi\u0107<\/strong>, Serbian music was left without its greatest and most important composer. In the desire to fill this void, the Belgrade Singing Society, in 1877, sent an invitation to singing societies in Serbia and the diaspora to submit their proposals for which \u201cyoung Serb\u201d could be sent for music studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The search lasted two years, partly due to unfavorable responses from other singing societies and partly due to the wars in which Serbia participated. However, the solution was in front of the Society’s management all along. Namely, after long consideration and delay, it was decided in 1879<\/strong> that the young choirmaster Stevan Stojanovi\u0107 Mokranjac would be sent to study in Munich<\/strong>. It was a decision that would become the cornerstone of Serbian academic musical culture<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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PREKRE\u010cEN MURAL \u010cARLIJU KIRKU U BEOGRADU: „To je delo iste levi\u010darske ideologije koja je Kirka ko\u0161tala \u017eivota“<\/a><\/blockquote>