CHURCH MUSIC IN THE WRITINGS OF THE COMPOSER SRĐAN JAĆIMOVIĆ

Abstract

The paper is written with the idea of presenting the theoretical work of the renowned Serbian composer, pedagogue, and producer, Srđan Jaćimović (1960–2006), more specifically his relation to church music, with reference to his selected works: On the Differences in the Tradition of Chanting between Byzantium and Serbia (2021), On Authenticity in the Music of the Serbian Church (1992), and On Contemporary Interpretations of Byzantine Church Music (1993). The central part of this paper is dedicated to presenting the key features of church chants in Byzantium and Serbia, taking into account the scale system, texture, type of melodic movement, consideration of consonance and dissonance, treatment of liturgical text, and the attitude to 'progress' in music. Additionally, the paper presents the composer's understanding of the authenticity of music in the Serbian church, taking into consideration the circumstances that influenced its development, while in the discussion of contemporary interpretations of Byzantine church music, Jaćimović addressed the problems caused by the work of Western Byzantinists due to inadequate transcription. The aim of the paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of substantial views of the composer regarding various aspects of Byzantine and Serbian church music, with a particular emphasis on the anomalies present in the interpretation of Byzantine church music.