One of my new Serbian friends, Marija Masnikosa, who did her doctoral dissertation on postminimalist music from Serbia (not master’s, as I originally reported), has sent me a CD of string orchestra pieces by the composers she wrote about. All of them are intriguing, with many moments of surprising loveliness, and all seven are going on Postclassic Radio post-haste.  The composers represented are (and I apologize that I can’t input the correct diacritical markings, most of the C’s have accents or carets above them) Zoran Eric, Katarina Miljkovic, Milan Mihajlovic, Vuk Kulenovic (two pieces), Isidora Zebeljan, and Ognjen Bogdanovic. (This is one of the rare times in which I am relieved that I never made it into classical-music radio as I once aspired to, because I doubt my ability to pronounce any of these names correctly.) Another Serbian musicologist friend, Dragana Stojanovic-Novicic (author of an upcoming book on Vinko Globokar), is in town working at Bard College’s Cage Archive, and we agreed today that, if the old music world was France, Germany, and Elliott Carter, the new one is more typically The Netherlands, Serbia, and Downtown. All in all, Serbia is making a startlingly bold bid to take its place at the international new-music table. You miss out, you’ll be behind the times.
Kyle Gann on music after the fact
