Description
It's October 3rd, 1990, in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. An evening concert unfolds in the modest auditorium of the Faculty of Music, marking the first in the 'XXth century' series organized by the Third Program of Radio Belgrade. The program showcases premiere performances of compositions by Miloš Petrović, Nataša Bogojević, Zoran Erić, Miša Savić, Biljana Vasiljević, Miroslav Štatkić, and Milimir Drašković—all of them more or less closely connected to minimalist and postminimalist musical languages. Miloš Petrović, playing the harpsichord, introduces his own "La premiere suite pour le clavecin de Mihailo de Peć," and its resonance within the auditorium echoes like a bomb.The presentation text from Petrović's book "Mihailo from Peć" (Mihajlo iz Peći, Belgrade, 2002) elucidates why this composition elicited such a robust response from both the audience and professionals in the music world: "Did you know that Mihajlo from Peć is the only Serbian baroque composer? (...) Mihajlo from Peć was expunged from the history of music under the decree of King Louis XIV, who also mandated the destruction of all of Mihailo's manuscripts and prohibited any mention of his name or existence… (...) Miloš Petrović acquired the information for this biography from an unknown source..."
Baroque and Renaissance periods did not exist in Serbian music. The stir caused by Petrović's suite, later transformed into (never performed) opera, and subsequently modified into a cantata—all under the same title, Mihailo iz Peći—resulted from Petrović's bold and critical commentary on art-world procedures and power relations. He achieved this by using the persona of a non-existent Serbian Baroque composer. Petrović envisioned a revision of Serbian music history that could compare with Western canons.
This paper aims to explore the relationships between the suite, opera, and cantata "Mihajlo iz Peći." It seeks to discuss the intervening power of Petrović's project at the time, examining its resonance with current socio-political moments. Above all, the goal is to understand the meanings produced by music that merges the repetitive grid of postminimalism with the French harpsichord repertoire and the musical heritage of the Levant.
| Period | 28 May 2024 → 1 Jun 2024 |
|---|---|
| Event title | MINIMALIST INTERSECTIONS : The Ninth International Conference on Music and Minimalism |
| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Belgrade, SerbiaShow on map |