Other names Kosta Name Kosta Manojlovic | Role Composer | |
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Full Name Konstantin Manojlovic Born December 4, 1890 ( 1890-12-04 ) Krnjevo, Smederevo, Kingdom of Serbia Died November 2, 1949, Belgrade, Serbia | ||
Tebe pojem we sing thee by serbian composer kosta manojlovic
Konstantin "Kosta" P. Manojlović (Serbian: Коста Манојловић; December 4, 1890 – November 2, 1949) was a Serbian composer, ethnomusicologist, educator and choral conductor.
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Early years
Konstantin Manojlović was born in Krnjevo near the town of Velika Plana on December 4, 1890. After completing elementary school, he continued his education at "Saint Sava" seminary where he graduated in 1910. He then attended the Serbian Music School (now known as the Mokranjac Music School) where he was a student of Stevan Stojanović Mokranjac. From 1910 to 1912 he worked as a teacher, first in Ćuprija then in Belgrade. In 1912, he received a scholarship for his further education in Moscow and Munich. His studies were interrupted twice because of the Balkan Wars. During the First World War, he participated in the Serbian army's retreat through Albania and belonged to the group of Serbian soldiers stationed at Corfu. There, he established a military choir in 1916. In 1917 Manojlović studied at Oxford University, where he gained an appreciation for old vocal polyphony, graduating in 1919 with his work On the Rivers of Babylon.
Career
Manojlović started composing his Liturgija za muški hor ("Liturgy for Male Choir") in Kragujevac after the start of the First World War, completing it in 1916 during his convalescence at a military hospital in the Albanian town of Fier. During the period 1919–31, he was choir-master of the Belgrade Choral Society and in the period 1931–39, at the Mokranjac Society.
A conductor of the First Belgrade Singing Society, he also served as the executive secretary of the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra (1923–40) and of the Yugoslav Choral Union (1926–32). He was involved in the establishment of the Society of Yugoslav Music Authors (Serbian: Удружење југословенских музичких аутора, УЈМА) Manojlović was also instrumental in the establishment of the Belgrade Music Academy, serving as its first rector in 1937–39 and working as a teacher there until 1946. For political reasons, he was forced into retirement from the organization.
Manojlović and others, such as Mokranjac, Kornelije Stanković, Petar Konjović, Miloje Milojević, and Stevan Hristić, were some of the first composers of Serbia's harmonized religious music. Of his contemporaries, Manojlović was characterized as a traditionalist, along with Svetolik Pascan, Milenko Paunović, and Sava Selesković, while Josip Slavenski was considered a modernist. Some of his Albanian vocal arrangements were for urban songs. Manojlović's 1933 collection of six choral songs based on folk songs from Albania was titled The Songs from the Land of Skenderbeg (Serbian: Песме земље Скендербегове).
He died in Belgrade on November 2, 1949. Muzička škola "Kosta Manojlović", Zemun: 1939–1989 was published on the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Kosta Manojlović Music School.