Renaissance Music in Serbia

During the course of my continuing research into the music of Serbia, it was drawn to my attention by my friend and colleague Professor Bogdan Djaković that there were, in a certain choral archive in Belgrade, a number of adaptations of 16th-century Latin motets, with adaptations of the texts in Slavonic. Though intrigued, I was unable actually to pursue this enquiry until some years later, and should like to record here my gratitude to the present Director of the First Belgrade Choral Society, Svetlana Vilić, who generously granted me access to the archive and dispensed of her time in order to further my investigations. The scores in question include both sacred and secular music by composers including Marenzio and Monteverdi and, in particular, Palestrina. Their inclusion in the repertoire of the Society was the result of the training and initiative of the composer and conductor Kosta P. Manojlović. What is interesting about this, apart from the fact that the liturgical works are part of the western tradition, is the fact that they were provided with Slavonic singing translations. In this paper I will discuss these works and the impact that Manojlović’s interest in his repertoire had on the subsequent development of contemporary church music in Serbia