The 'Stevan Mokranjac' award for 2005 Dejan Despić: Diptych for English horn and string instruments

Abstract

In 2005 academician Dejan Despić celebrated the 75th birthday and 50 years of his fruitful work (180 opuses!). Six concerts held in Belgrade, Novi Sad and Kragujevac were the excellent occasion for the remarkable retrospective of Despić's most successful works. Still extremely active on many various fields, during the last decade Despić composed 55 new works; many of them were the results of composer's close collaboration with most prominent musicians, whose art often inspired his investigations for new coloristic combinations within the classical, mostly chamber sound. Previous excellent collaboration with Yasna Miličić-Brandstater, world-wide known oboist and English horn player, encouraged Despić to compose an inspired concerto piece for English horn and strings - Diptych, op. 166 (2003). The work had its premiere in Belgrade, on November the 18th, at the concert in the Atrium-hall of National Museum. The following year, the jury of the Serbian Composers' Association recognized Diptych as the best achievement of Serbian composers in the previous concert season and awarded it with the prestigious prize "Stevan Mokranjac." This article gives a concise description of the awarded composition and searches tor the answer whether the work represents just an excellent, typical example of Gebrauchsinusik or - as the author would say - the piece of "music as unsaid poetry.".

Nagrada Udruženja kompozitora Srbije "Stevan Mokranjac" za 2005. godinu dodeljena je kompozitoru Dejanu Despiću za delo Diptih za engleski rog i gudače (op. 166, 2003). U radu se ukazuje na okolnosti pod kojima je kompozicija nastala i, putem sažetog prikaza kompozicije, utvrđuje njeno mesto u obimnom kompozitorskom opusu autora, koji je 2005. godine obeležio pola veka svog stvaranja.