22 Aug In Memoriam: Prof. Dr Danica Petrović
The Institute of Musicology of SASA is deeply saddened by the passing of Prof. Danica Petrović, PhD, principal research fellow, a distinguished musicologist and professor. Danica Petrović’s entire working life had been tied to the Institute of Musicology of SASA, where, for a number of years (2001–2013), she also performed the duty of the Institute’s director. She passed away on 20 August, in Belgrade.
Born in Belgrade (1945), Danica Petrović completed her musicology studies at the Music Academy (today, the Faculty of Music) in 1970, when she also began working at the Institute. During her postgraduate studies, she advanced her knowledge in Oxford (1971), Munich and Beuren, and defended her doctoral thesis (Octoechos in the Musical Tradition of South Slavs) in 1980, at the Faculty of Philosophy in Ljubljana. A close collaborator of academician Dimitrije Stefanović since the start of her work at the Institute, Danica Petrović has persistently researched the tradition of the Serbian church music, becoming recognised in both country and abroad as one of the best experts in that field. Since its very foundation (1967), she has actively participated in the work of the Institute’s Study Choir, which was managed by academician Stefanović.
Apart from 250 studies and articles published in Serbian and several other world languages, her copious body of work includes editing and review of the important capital publication Collected Works of Kornelije Stanković (2004, 2007, 2014, 2023), collections of chanting of Nenad Barački (1995, 2000) and Tihomir Ostojić (2010), as well as notation and audio collections The Founders of Hilandar in Orthodox Chant, for which the Vuk Karadžić’s Foundation awarded her the Award for Science (1999). Incessantly dedicated to fundamental research, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the First Belgrade Singing Company, she organised an exhibition at the Gallery of SASA and was the editor of the book on the history of the Company (2004).
She has also given numerous contributions in the field of lexicography, collaborating as an author and member of the editorial board with the leading national and international encyclopaedias, lexicons, and dictionaries. For her active participation in the work on the Russian Orthodox Encyclopaedia she received the Patriarchal Grammata from the Russian Patriarch Alexy II in January 2008.
From 1993 to 2010, she taught History of the National Music at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, where she assisted the first generation of musicologists, masters and doctors of science, complete their studies.
She has organised several scientific meetings of the Institute, which also produced proceedings (e.g. on Petar Konjović and Stevan Hristić), at the SASA and Matica Srpska, continuously closely collaborating with both institutions.
With great dedication and enthusiasm, she supported the preservation of the tradition of the church choral music, organising and managing over thirty schools of church chanting Korneliju u spomen in Sremski Karlovci, at the Jošanica Monastery, in Szentendre and Budapest (Hungary), in Niš, Trstenik, and Prokuplje. She passed her knowledge generously to the wider audiences, by giving a great number of popular lectures in the country and abroad, appearing in the media and organising TV series on the development of Serbian church music.
Long-term leader of the scientific projects of the Institute of Musicology of the SASA and Matica Srpska, initiator and deputy editor-in-chief of the Matica Srpska Journal of Stage Arts and Music, member of the International Society of Orthodox Church Music in Joensuu, Finland, the American Society of Byzantine Music and Hymnology, as well as the group Cantus Planus withing the International Musicological Society, Danica Petrović has left a deep mark on the history of the Institute of Musicology of the SASA, Serbian music, art, and culture.