Josif Marinković's Lieder

Abstract

Josif Marinković appeared on the Serbian music scene in the 80th years of the last century and continued to compose intensively for more than fifty years. He remained a consistent romantic though in this period important changes were taking place in the development of Serbian and Yugoslav music. It is therefore comprehensible that throughout his life he felt a special affinity towards the solo-song with piano accompaniment which is a typical form of romanticism. Having acquired a technical knowledge corresponding to the European standards of that time he succeeded to raise the Serbian solo-song to a higher level than anyone before him. In this way he gave the Serbian lied a new quality which we can perceive in the form of his songs, in their technical structure, in the tendency to intensify the expression and in the psychological interpretation of the text. Marinković was the first composer whose most important achievements are not based on the application of the folk-song in artistic music. His activity as a composer is important within the process of the formation of a national musical language and so many particularly successful results were achieved in his solo-songs. Marinković's solo-songs can be devided into two kinds: songs with original musical ideas composed on the basis of artistic poetry and songs in a national idiom also composed on verses from artistic poetry. A considerably greater part of his solo-songs belong to the first kind and among them there are also the most successful examples. He paid special attention to a correct accentuation and declamation of the text in this works. The piano accompaniment is an essential part of the entire musical-poetic expression which is in this way intensified. The solo-songs belonging to the second kind are less developed formally than those of the first kind, yet they left a distinctive trace in Serbian music. A considerable retardation is noticeable if we compare the solo-songs by Marinković with the European development of the lied in that period. This retardation which is characteristic for Serbian music in general can be explained on the grounds of a specific political, economic and cultural situation in Serbia. Nevertheless it remains an important fact that Marinković was the first Serbian composer to cultivate the solo-song throughout his life. The works he created in this form represent the highest achievements of Serbian lied in the period of romanticism.