From Electroacustic Music to Byzantine Cantillation and Vice Versa: Vladimir Jovanović, Composer

Abstract

The relationship between the artist and the time in which he creates is almost always two-way – the historical moment forms choices, styles and artistic expression, while the artist himself becomes the symbol of the epoch, with its individuality and particularity. In music as the most abstract act of creation, this connection may not be so obvious. It is relatively easy to get out of time frames, and its interpretations often lose the connection to the historical context in which they originated. The aim of this paper is to illustrate the various aspects of this connection, as well as to show a rich life path and the development of an artist, on the example of the life and professional path of the composer Vladimir Jovanović (1956-2016). He crossed the path from electroacoustic music to composing in the key of the Byzantine, Ecclesiastical, Liturgical expression, pointing to various aspects of the musical and creative postmodern, searching for this ideal form of artistic inspiration, which is always a quest for Truth. At the end of his life, he worked at the same time on composing in both music genres, whose messages in his pieces were constantly intertwined.