THE PEARLS OF THE SONGS FROM SERBIA

.......”The Pearls of the songs from Serbia”, are merely a part of an ambitions and greater project, conceived by performer MA tenor Slavko Nikolic. The project has been tackled with sincere wish to present and bring to the limelight (for the first time since WWII) the Serbian songs as a whole, honouring thus the nation and people...
The scores composed at the turn of the centuries by Krstic, Bajic, Binicki, Hristic, Milojevic, Konjovic, out of the way of the mainstream, which was at the time Impressionism, whose most famous representatives were Debussy (his music for piano, in particular), Ravel (wonderful songs with the lyrics of French symbolists) De Falla, Albeniz ... Yet, it was the period when the modern music was born: Prokofyev (one of the most original composers ever) Stravinsky (in the outset he introduced Russian folk music elements into Impressionism, then connected himself with Expressionism and, finally, dodecaphony) Schenberg (introduced the new system, unrelated to the rules of harmony) Hindemith (decisive Antiromanticist, who applied principles of atonal music).

.......New ways of composing were discovered and new aesthetics proclaimed... Our songs were left behind those novelties and experiments. They could not then (as much as they can not today) surprise, with regards to their harmony, or structure, perhaps even rhythm, but those works, many of them having been inspired by folk songs, made when Serbian country was still in the making after five-centuries-long Turkish rule, seem to whisper to us. We owe our gratitude to music, which helped us through the hard times.
.......However, their special appeal is the inspiration: ”Chansa”, ”The song of Sicily”, ”Autumn elegy”, sincere naivety with the permanent elongation of absolute faith: ”Once Upon a Time There Was a Rose”, ”Elegy”, incomparable chaste inherent to the Orthodox modesty: ”Believe me, I do love you”, ”Near your windows”, ”Heartache”, they are romantic and-eoipso-immortal, because those values will be precious till the end of time: ”Stojanke”, ”If your eyes were mine”... All those songs glow like the gems of Beauty, for which great Dostoevsky used to say it would change the world?! Those gems as if generated by the lyrics:

”to sow with enchantment FLICKERING
to mix it with your TEARS
to put it in your HEART
to shape it with your SOUL”

.......Among those poetic songs, a special place is reserved for ”You’re breathing and dancing” by prominent contemporary Serbian composer Konstantin Babic, who being a humanist and artist of rare originality, overlaps reality, love and fantasy...
.......But when we come to think of the discontinuity of the Serbian culture, having been created under the unfavorable circumstances of war, slavery, uprising, dechristinization, exile, perdition, we realize the reason why that precursor of the ensuing DRAMA of this nation is more tragical and fatal than Hamlet’s TO BE OR NOT TO BE, since it was mandatory TO BE, regardless of the hideous price... The DRAMA, present even today, reverberates with the real patriots, the artists in particular the artists who are coming to grips with the times each in his own manner. There is a saying that ”in the days of war, Muses keep silence”... As far as contemporary Serbian composer Milovan Filipovic is concerned, not only do they break the silence, but also, in conjunction with his great talent, they present his song with authentic and outstanding expressiveness.

......By mere dint of his works, Filipovic reassures our faith in creative work of our day, when the artistic music seems to have distanced itself from the modern man, having lost - with regards to the listeners and music-lovers - its high degree of authenticity and aesthetic effect. His imaginative and abamding invention, rich in sounds, colors and rhythms of this region is entwined through his songs... The chord (C-A-E-Bţ-B#) at the end of the songs... The most painful grief is after the late brother (which triumphed at the competition of RTS in 1997) reminds us like the soul of the bell of the Hilandar church that ”the beginning of wisdom, the fear of God, and who wants to be rescued, must subdue and follow the thorny path” ... and for that matter there’s a song ”O Serbia, rise”...