The Birth of the Serbian National Music Project Under the Influence of Diplomacy

Abstract

The aspiration to take a general perspective of the development of Serbian church and art music in the 19th century within the broader sociopolitical and cultural context implies, according to recent findings, revision of the accepted theses in music historiography. One such recent scholarly endeavor has shed new light on the circumstances in which the Serbian national music program was initiated in Vienna, primarily associated in the second half of the 19th century with the name Kornelije Stanković (see Appendix, Figure 1). This paper also shows that the Serbian “Enlightenment” in music at the time of rising nationalism(s) could be considered in the context of actual diplomatic activities that the church and political exponents of Orthodox nations took in the Habsburg capital. Structurally, there are two narratives that eventually meet toward the end of the paper. The first is related to the introduction of polyphony in Greek liturgical practice in Vienna. This music novelty gave rise to conflicting opinions expressed in the diplomatic dispatches that the Patriarch of Constantinople, residing in Fener, exchanged with Serbian Metropolitan Josif Rajačić (see Appendix, Figure 2), a church representative of all Orthodox citizens in Vienna. The second narrative in this paper follows the role that protopresbyter Mikhail Fyodorovich Raevsky (see Appendix, Figure 3), an influential Russian diplomat in Vienna, played in the creation of Pan-Slavic, therefore also Serbian, cultural politics and national music tendencies. Rajačić and Raevsky played important, if not decisive, roles in the overall social matrix from which Kornelije Stanković—not by chance and not exclusively owing to his artistic talent—entered the Serbian music stage. For this reason, particular attention is paid to these two figures, although there was a pleiad of high-ranking individuals in the Serbian circles of the time who contributed to the development, direction and promotion of creative endeavors of the young Kornelije Stanković. The final part of the paper shows in what manner Stanković was praised for his musical mission during his short life with global and national importance, of which he was adamantly convinced.