Petar Konjovic

Konjović, Petar

 

Born May 5, 1883, Čurug, Bačka; died Oct. 1, 1970, in Belgrade. Yugoslav composer; one of the founders of the Serbian national school of composition. Member of the Czech (1938) and Serbian (1946) academies of sciences.

In 1906, Konjovic graduated from K. Stecker’s course in composition at the Prague Conservatory, where he also studied conducting. He worked as a music teacher, conductor, and producer-director in opera houses in various cities in Yugoslavia. From 1939 to 1950 he was a professor (rector from 1939 to 1943 and 1945 to 1947) at the Academy of Music and from 1948 to 1954 director of the Institute of Musicology (which he founded) of the Serbian Academy of Sciences in Belgrade.

In his creative work, in which the operatic genre occupies the most important place, Konjović relied on a realistic folk foundation. He was the author of five operas, including Koštana (composed and performed in 1931; second edition, 1949), which brought him fame in Europe, as well as orchestral compositions (including the symphonic poem Makar Čudra, after Gorky, 1944), two string quartets, choral works, romances, and adaptations of folk songs (including My Land, five parts, 1923–56), which were an important landmark in the study of Yugoslav musical folklore and theater and church music. His contribution as a musicologist is also important. He was the author of mono-graphs on S. Mokranjac (1956) and M. Milojevic (1954), classic figures in Serbian music, as well as several collections of articles.

WORKS

Ogledi o muzici. Belgrade, 1965.

REFERENCES

Iampol’skii, I. “Pamiati Petara Konevicha.” Sovetskaia muzyka, 1970, no. 12.
Zvuk, 1963, no. 58. (Dedicated to Konjovic’s 80th birthday.)

I. M. IAMPOL’SKII