Reviving Forgotten Music of the Past: the Creative Work of Nikola Sudarević and an Analysis of His Choral Suite "Podrinke No. 1"

Saša Božidarević; Marko Aleksić; Dina  Vojvodić Nikolić

doi:10.5937/10.5937/newso2566133B

Saša Božidarević University of Priština with a temporary seat in Kosovska Mitrovica, Faculty of Arts Zvečan – Kosovska Mitrovica
Marko Aleksić University of Arts in Belgrade, Faculty of Music, Department of Music Theory
Dina Vojvodić Nikolić University of Priština with a temporary seat in Kosovska Mitrovica, Faculty of Arts Zvečan – Kosovska Mitrovica

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5937/10.5937/newso2566133B

Keywords: Nikola Sudarević, tailor, composer, Serbian music, choral music, variedstrophic form, harmony, tonality

Abstract

This article initiates a comprehensive investigation of the life and work of Nikola Sudarević (1878–1943), a prominent yet insufficiently known figure in Serbian cultural history, who left a significant mark on both the tailoring craft and musical art. As the center of the analysis of Sudarević’s compositional methods, we chose his work Podrinke No. 1 for mixed choir and baritone solo because the methods employed in it became a template for his later choral works. In this choral suite, Sudarević demonstrates exceptional inventiveness in reshaping the traditional strophic form. Instead of literal repetition, he consistently applies variation procedures, achieving a nuanced musical flow through changes in texture, choral “orchestration”, and the structure of folklore citations. Each song is given a distinct dramaturgical arc, building a complete and expressively-diverse musical architecture. This article analyzes specific solutions in melodic and scale organization, the tonal plan, and the ways of achieving harmonic variation as the fundamental element of the varied-strophic form. Special attention is given to the specificities in the use of non-altered and altered chords that characterize the composition. The ultimate goal is to illuminate the importance of Sudarević’s contribution to Serbian music and to highlight the need for further research into forgotten composers in Serbian musical history.

Author Biographies

Saša Božidarević, University of Priština with a temporary seat in Kosovska Mitrovica, Faculty of Arts Zvečan – Kosovska Mitrovica

(b. 1967), Ph.D., is Professor at the Faculty of Arts in Zvečan – Kosovska Mitrovica. He graduated from the Department of Music Pedagogy at the Faculty of Arts in Priština in 1992. He completed his postgraduate studies in 2010 at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade (under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Miloje Nikolić). He obtained his Ph.D. (supervised by Prof. Dr. Sonja Marinković) from the Department of Music Theory at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade in 2016,with a thesis titled “Intertextual and Quotation Procedures in Rukoveti (Garlands) and Related Forms in Serbian Choral Music of the Second Half of the 20th Century.” His primary field of research and scholarly interest is Serbian choral music of folk provenance. He has participated in
numerous scholarly conferences in Serbia and abroad (Belgrade, Niš, Kragujevac, Kosovska Mitrovica, Gornji Milanovac, Sarajevo, Banja Luka, etc.). Aside from teaching at the Faculty of Arts in Zvečan – Kosovska Mitrovica, Božidarević is a lecturer in the Music Production and Sound Design study program at the Academy of Arts in Belgrade. He has given a series of invited lectures in the field of vocal music at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, the Faculty of Arts in Niš, the Faculty of Philology and Arts in Kragujevac, and at the festival "Mokranjac Days" in Negotin. He is the author of two monographs in the field of vocal music: Mokranjac's Codes in Choral Garlands of the Second Half of the 20th Century (Faculty of Arts in Zvečan – Kosovska Mitrovica, 2018) and Art Song Inspired by Folklore in Serbian Music until World War Two – An Analytical View (Faculty of Arts in Zvečan – Kosovska Mitrovica, 2022). He has published a large number of academic and professional articles and reviews in national and international journals for music and culture: Muzikologija, Novi Zvuk, Mokranjac, Nasleđe, and in proceedings from scholarly conferences in Serbia and abroad. Božidarević is one of the recipients of the Honorary Diploma of the 53rd "Mokranjac Days" in Negotin in 2018. He is the head of the scientific project Science and Art in Kosovo and Metohija – From Inspiration to Synthesis at the Faculty of Arts in Zvečan – Kosovska Mitrovica, and he is a member of the Serbian Musicological Society.

Marko Aleksić, University of Arts in Belgrade, Faculty of Music, Department of Music Theory

(b. 1977), Ph.D., is Assistant Professor in the Department of Music Theory at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade. He obtained his undergraduate and Master’s degrees from the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, and in 2021 he defended his doctoral dissertation in Music Theory, titled “The Role of Harmony in Forming the Network of Interpretive Relationships in German Opera and Symphonic Lied of the Second Half of the Nineteenth and the Beginning of the Twentieth Century”. He has worked at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade since 2001, and since 2022 he has been a guest lecturer at the Faculty of Arts in Zvečan – Kosovska Mitrovica. The areas of his professional interest include music theory and analysis, especially harmony, harmonic analysis, and interpretive music analysis, as well as the analysis of popular music genres. He has presented his research at numerous national and international scholarly conferences (Belgrade, Kragujevac, Banja Luka, Ljubljana, Vienna, etc.). To date, he has published over 25 papers in national and international journals and proceedings. He was a scholarship recipient of the Fund for the Development of Scientific and Artistic Youth of the Republic of Serbia, as well as the Royal Norwegian Embassy. On several occasions, he has served as a member of juries at competitions in the fields of harmony and music analysis for high school students. Aleksić has edited several books published by the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, and he is a member of the Serbian Society for Music Theory and the Serbian Musicological Society.

Dina Vojvodić Nikolić, University of Priština with a temporary seat in Kosovska Mitrovica, Faculty of Arts Zvečan – Kosovska Mitrovica

(b. 1990), a musicologist, received her Ph.D. in 2021 from the Department of Musicology at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade. She has published one scholarly monograph – Morton Feldman: Establishing a Creative Identity (2016), and over 30 articles in journals of international and national significance and in proceedings from national and international scholarly conferences in which she has participated. Her field of scholarly interest relates to the reception of Serbian music in the daily and periodical press, as well as a critical-musicological review of writings on music by Serbian and foreign authors. Vojvodić Nikolić is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Arts in Zvečan – Kosovska Mitrovica, and she is a member of the Serbian Musicological Society, the Serbian Composers’ Association (the Music Writers Section), and a collaborating member of Matica Srpska in Novi Sad. She is the coordinator of the scientific project Science and Art in Kosovo and Metohija: From Inspiration to Synthesis. She is a member of the editorial board of the interdisciplinary scientific journal Triptih and the thematic proceedings Traditional and Contemporary in Art and Education, published by the Faculty of Arts in Zvečan – Kosovska Mitrovica.