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ABOUT
THE SERBS : Great Serbs
Serbian History | Great Serbs Music
(Stevan Mokranjac, Vasilije Mokranjac, Ljubica Maric, Dragutin Gostuski)
MUSIC Stevan Stojanovic Mokranjac, Music composer (1856-1914) While
studying in Munich (with J. Rheinberger), Rome (with A. Parisotti) and
Leipzig (with S. Jadassohn), Mokranjac developed a strong interest in several
fields, becoming an active contributor to the art of music. From 1887 until
his twilight years he was a conductor of the Belgrade Singers' Society,
leading performances all over the world.
Vasilije Mokranjac, Music composer (1923-1984) Vasilije
Mokranjac is one of the greatest Serbian composers of the 20th century.
In spite of great professional and public recognition Vasilije Mokranjac
avoided publicity. Introvert by nature and devoted to the consuming quest
for the cognition of the truths of life and art, he was reluctant to follow
any superficial musical, social or other fashion.
Ljubica Maric, Music composer (1909- ) Ljubica
Maric is one of the most interesting personalities in modern Serbian music.
She is known for her passionate interest in the search for a new sound
and expression, as well as for her thoughtful, philosophical preoccupations
which are the basis of some of her most significant works. She studied
in Belgrade with Josip Slavenski and in Prague with J. Suk and A. Haba.
In addition she attended courses in conducting given by N. Malko in Prague
and H. Scherchen in Strasbourg. She was a professor at the Belgrade Academy
of Music and she is a corresponding member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences
and Arts. Her hitherto most significant work is the cantata Songs of Space,
in which there are seven lapidary inscriptions from medieval tomb monuments
of Bosnian Bogumils - touching expression of never ending contemplations
on life and death - shaped in bold means of expression to form an impressive
musical entity. Likewise, very interesting is the cycle The Music of Octoechos,
based on the tunes from the Serbian Octoechos, which were amalgamated with
up-to-date idiom in an original manner. Lately, Maric is composing exclusively
chamber music. Her pieces are performed all around the world.
Dragutin Gostuski, Music composer, musicologist, and art historian (1923-1998) Dragutin
Gostuski is the author of the capital study in the field of comparative
aesthetics - The Time of Art, and the author of the book Music
science as a model for an interdisciplinary research. He worked at
the Institute for Musicology at the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
" Levicari-intelektualci
niti imaju ideologiju, ni praktican, odredjen program, ni jasnu predstavu
o svom i tudjem mestu u istoriji. No, po prirodi stvari, imali bi u odredjenom
trenutku ogromnu moc kojom bi se neizbezno posluzili da ceo ovaj svet povuku
u propast. Ja to najozbiljnije mislim. " (Dragutin Gostuski, NIN 1979.g.)
POETRY AND LITERATURE Ivo Andric, Author, Nobel Laureate (1892-1975) Ivo Andric
was born in Travnik (Bosnia). He studied philosophy in Vienna, Krakow and
Graz, where he received a doctorate in 1924. In 1911, Andric began publishing
his works, mainly poetry and prose. From 1920 to 1941 he served as the
ambassador of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia to Germany and after WWII, he worked
as professional writer. Ivo Andric won the Nobel Prize for literature in
1961. His works have been translated and published in most of the main
world languages.
Milorad Pavic, Author (1929 – ) Serbian
prose writer and poet, historian of Serbian literature of XVII - XIX century,
expert on Serbian Baroque and symbolistic poetry, translator of Pushkin
and Byron, university professor (lectures at New Sorbonne, Vienna, Novi
Sad, Freiburg, Regensburg, Belgrade), full Member of Serbian Academy of
Sciences and Arts (elected 1991), member of Société Européenne
de Culture and of the International Council of the Moscow periodical "Inostrannaya
Literatura."
Jovan Ducic, Poet and Diplomat (~1872–1943) Born in
Trebinje, Herzegovina, Ducic became a school teacher in Bijeljina and Mostar.
However, he was soon forced to move to a monastery school in Zitomislic
by the Austro-Hungarian government due to his openly expressed Serbian
patriotism (*at that time Bosnia-Herzegovina was de facto incorporated
into the Austro-Hungarian Empire while parts of Serbia reserved independence).
Ducic subsequently pursued higher studies in Switzerland and entered Serbian
diplomatic service in 1907. He served in Istanbul, Sofia, Rome, Athens,
Cairo, Madrid and Lisabon and he also became the first Yugoslav ambassador
to Romania in 1937. Ducic spoke several foreign languages and he is remembered
as a distinguished diplomat. More importantly, Ducic endowed us with a
wealth of Serbian poetry, depicting romantic love, love for God and love
for his home country – Serbia.
Charles Simic, Poet and Professor of English (1938– ) Charles
Simic was born on May 9, 1938, in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. In 1953 he left
Yugoslavia with his mother and brother to join his father in the United
States. They lived in and around Chicago until 1958. His first poems were
published in 1959, when he was twenty-one. In 1961 he was drafted into
the U.S. Army, and in 1966 he earned his Bachelor's degree from New York
University. His first full-length collection of poems, What the Grass Says,
was published the following year. Since then he has published more than
sixty books in the U.S. and abroad, among them Jackstraws (Harcourt Brace,
1999), which was named a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times;
Walking the Black Cat (Harcourt Brace, 1996), which was a finalist for
the National Book Award in poetry; A Wedding in Hell (1994); Hotel Insomnia
(1992); The World Doesn't End: Prose Poems (1990), for which he received
the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry; Selected Poems: 1963-1983 (1990); and Unending
Blues (1986). He has also published many translations of French, Serbian,
Croatian, Macedonian, and Slovenian poetry, and four books of essays, most
recently Orphan Factory (University of Michigan Press, 1998). He was also
the guest editor of The Best American Poetry 1992. Elected a Chancellor
of The Academy of American Poets in 2000, his many awards include fellowships
from the Guggenheim Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, and the National
Endowment for the Arts. Since 1973 he has lived in New Hampshire, where
he is Professor of English at the University of New Hampshire.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Mihailo I. Pupin, Serbian-American Inventor, Electrical Engineer, Scientist, Educator, and Pulitzer Prize Winner, (1858-1935) Mihailo
(Michael) Pupin is the inventor of X-ray photography method still in universal
use. In his 1899 essay, entitled "Transmission Over Non-Uniform Conductors,"
Pupin provided the first mathematical treatment of electrical transmission.
This theory is the foundation of the modern electrical filters that are
used intensly in data transmission. Pupin devised a means of greatly extending
the range of long-distance telephone communication by placing loading coils
(of wire) at predetermined intervals along the transmitting wire. Pupin
revolutionized telephonic cable transmission by developing a new type of
artificial line to be used in duplex underground and submarine telephone
cables. His invention greatly extended the range of telephone's long-distance
use. Pupin taught at Columbia University from 1889-1935, lecturing in mathematical
physics. Physics Department at Columbia University bears his name to this
day. Pupin received the Pulitzer Prize for his autobiography "From Immigrant
to Inventor."
Nikola Tesla, Serbian-American Inventor, Electrical Engineer, and Scientist, (1856-1943) Nikola
Tesla invented: a telephone repeater, rotating magnetic field principle,
polyphase alternating-current system, induction motor, alternating-current
power transmission, Tesla coil transformer, wireless communication, radio,
fluorescent lights, and more than 700 other patents. The unit for magnetic
field is named after Tesla.
Jovan Karamata, Mathematician (1902-1967) This most
distinguished Serbian analyst is best known for his theory of regularly
varying sequences and theorems of Tauberian type (often called "Karamata’s
tauberian theorems"). Karamata served as a professor at the University
of Belgrade, but moved following WWII due to communist persecution, continuing
his work in Switzerland.
Djuro Kurepa, Mathematician (1907-1993) Probably
the best known Serbian mathematician of the second half of the twentieth
century. Kurepa had an immense influence on the development of mathematics
in the former Yugoslavia. He was a professor at the University of Zagreb
and, from the sixties, he taught at the University of Belgrade, where he
established a strong logic school. Kurepa’s most renowned work is in logic
and set theory, and particularly in the tree theory where important notion
of "Kurepa tree" bears his name.
Mihailo Petrovic - Alas, Mathematician (1868-1943) Mihailo
Petrovic - Alas is the most important Serbian mathematician of the first
half of the twentieth century. Educated in Paris during the golden days
of French Mathematics, he played a crucial role in establishing mathematics
in Serbia. Differential equations and phenomenology represented his main
scientific interests. Petrovic was a passionate fisherman, and enjoyed
company of ordinary people who knew him simply as "Alas" (fisherman in
Serbian).
Copyright ©2000 SANE, Inc. For free and fair use only.
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