From Myth to Reality: Stevan Stojanović Mokranjac and Serbian Church Music

Abstract

In this paper, we will focus on the historical reconstruction of Stevan Stojanović Mokranjac’s work in the field of melography and pedagogy of Serbian church chant. Since the prestigious status he reached among his contemporaries, as well as musicologists and music historians of the recent past, both as a melographer and expert in Serbian church chant of his time, has rarely been questioned or objectively approached, we decided to reconsider some of the dominant interpretations of his activities in this domain. For that purpose, we conducted a thorough research of archival resources and press material from the late 19th century onward aiming at a critical examination of Mokranjac’s role in the popularization of concepts of the Karlovac and Belgrade church chant styles, his undertakings in the documentation of monophonic church chants, and, finally, his approach to the teaching of chant singing in Saint Sava’s Seminary. We will underline the discrepancy between the created image of Mokranjac as an indisputable authority in the field and historical data, which point to the significance of his symbolic (and social) capital in the process of gaining broader recognition.