Balkanophonia

A man from the people, in love with nature, Slavenski spent a great part of his life at the sources of folk creativity. Studying folklore in an unusual way in his time, Slavenski discovered the furthest and cleanest sources of folk music – hearing where it orginates from. He is not a folklore romantic; He is a man of the present, who does not register anything, but makes conclusions. While modern composers avoided folklore, he created contemporary music out of it and out of his per- sonality – an eminent representative of a new concept of folklore.

In Balkanophonia Slavenski has worked on folklore motifs from various parts of the Balkans. According to him, it has become “a manifestation of sounds from the Balkans, the country of racial wealth and strength, colorfulness, diversity, the land of southern joy, Slavic intense mysticism, oriental nostalgia and archaic poetry.”

Among the most popular and most performed works of Slavenski is the suite Balkanophonia, in which the author, in his lively interest in the folklore of not only Yugoslav but also other peoples, gave a musical panorama of the Balkans. Temperamental dance rhythms and melancholy overflowing with melodies of light melodies, bright orchestral color and fierce harmonic conflicts.

All this is combined into an artistic synthesis of extraordinary strength. It was performed for the first time, under the name Balkan Symphony, on May 6, 1928 in Belgrade. It was performed at the Berlin Theatre on 25 January 1929 which served as an important starting-point for its successful European tour (Warsaw on 12 April; Hamburg on 22 May; Nurenberg on 26 May) and later performances took place in Paris (in 1939), London, the USA and Japan.

Balkanophonia

A man from the people, in love with nature, Slavenski spent a great part of his life at the sources of folk creativity. Studying folklore in an unusual way in his time, Slavenski discovered the furthest and cleanest sources of folk music – hearing where it orginates from. He is not a folklore romantic; He is a man of the present, who does not register anything, but makes conclusions. While modern composers avoided folklore, he created contemporary music out of it and out of his per- sonality – an eminent representative of a new concept of folklore.

In Balkanophonia Slavenski has worked on folklore motifs from various parts of the Balkans. According to him, it has become “a manifestation of sounds from the Balkans, the country of racial wealth and strength, colorfulness, diversity, the land of southern joy, Slavic intense mysticism, oriental nostalgia and archaic poetry.”