For current activities of the Summer Chant Schools “In Memory of Kornelije” please visit web-site http://drustvo-karlovci.org.rs/ (in Serbian)
Institute of Musicology and Popular Science
(Adapted from article Danica Petrović, “Institute of Musicology, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (1948-2010)”, Muzikologija 10 /2010/: 11–58.)
Under the influence of the British school of musicology, to which belonged both one of the first members of the Institute Kosta P. Manojlović, and Dimitrije Stefanović, the research done at the Institute always had a strong practical and applicable side. The need both to make the research results known to wider audiences and to have them debated in the international set up led to a series of specific activities of the members of the Institute.
Since 1969 the Study Choir, under the leadership of Dimitrije Stefanović, has worked under the auspicies of the Institute. During the first decade the choir performed only Medieval Christian music, while later it expended its repertoire to include Serbian, Russian and Bulgarian choir music. The choir also occassionally performed western early music, as well as the secular works of Kornelije Stanković and Stevan Mokranjac. At the time when the choir started its work performing Orthodox church music was neither welcome nor politicaly acceptable. Over the years the choir performed in various places throughout Europe, among others in the Canterbury Cathedral, Prunksaal of the Austrian National Library, ancient ‘Odeon’ and modern ‘Megaron’ halls in Athens.
The Institute has also organised three music exhibitions in the Gallery of the Serbian Academy of Sciences: the first one, ‘Serbian Music through the Centuries’, was set up by Stana Ðurić-Klajn to celebrate the Institute’s 25th anniversary (1973); the second was organised by Danica Petrović commemorated the 150th anniversary of the First Belgrade Singing Society (2004), the oldest music institution in Belgrade; the third one celebrated the 100th anniversary of birth of composer Ljubica Marić (2009) and was organised by Melita Milin in cooperation with the Department of Arts and Music of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
From 1975 to 1978 Dragutin Gostuški hosted at the Institute the so called ‘Meetings on Tuesdays’. The ‘meetings’ were usually roundtable discussions or lectures dedicated to a specific topics which were attended by members of Belgrade academic and cultural circles. Many of these discussions were recorded and they provide valuable insight into intellectual and cultural life in Belgrade during the 1970s.
The last eighteen years in cooperation with the Society for Preservation of Traditions and Development of Sremski Karlovci and several dioceses of the Serbian Orthodox church, Danica Petrović organised over thirty-five summer courses of the Sebrian church chant ‘to the memory of Kornelije Stanković’ in Sremski Karlovci, Topola, Aranđelovac, Jošanica Monastery, Niš, Trstenik, Prokuplje, Szentendre and Budapest. Ethnomusicologist Jelena Jovanović has been singing for years with a vocal group ‘Moba’. She also teaches groups interestind in folk singing.
The members of the Institute have not only participated in numerous radio and TV programmes, but have over the years been authors of several important educational TV programmes of TV Belgrade and TV Novi Sad:
- Stana Đurić-Klajn participated in the RTS series on history of Serbian music.
- Film Old Serbian Music, made in the monastery of Staro Nagoričano, featured the Study Choir of the Institute of Musicology with Dimitrije Stefanović as a conductor (director Rade Mladjenović, RTS, 1973).
- Radmila Petrović was the author of the short film Natama on the customs of eastern Serbia.
- Dragutin Gostuški participated in the eight-episode music series: The Birth of Serbian Music Culture (director Snežana Nikolajević, 1986-7).
- Danica Petrović participated in the programme Neumatic Notation in European history (a part of the series of programmes on music notation, director Snežana Nikolaević, RTS – TV Belgrade)
- Great Migrations and Serbian Chant. On the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the Great Migrations (director Zoran Hristić, RTS, 1990).
- Four-part seeries about the history of Serbian church chant: 1. Chanter and scribe in the medieval Serbain culture; 2. Serbian church music under the Ottoman rule; 3. Between Byzantium and Europe – Serbian churh chant in the 18th century; 4. Choral church chant in the 19th and 20th centuries (author Danica Petrović, director Branislava Gekić, RTS – TV Novi Sad, 1994-95).
- The Institute of Musicology of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (RTS-TV Belgrade, 2001)
- From Remembrance to the Future. On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Institute of Musicology (director Snežana Nikolajević, RTS-TV Belgrade, 2006).
It would be too much to list all the popular lectures for school children, students, and general population (especially in our diaspora in Europe and the United States) which some members of the Institute have held over the years both in Serbia and abroad.