Page 415 - Weiss, Jernej, ur. 2017. Glasbene migracije: stičišče evropske glasbene raznolikosti - Musical Migrations: Crossroads of European Musical Diversity. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 1
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a serbian composer in france: national identity and cosmopolitanism ...
him, Serbia and France. Damnianovitch’s exploration of western Christi-
anity is reflected in Les tentations de Saint Antoine (Temptations of St. An-
thony) for string orchestra, a work with finely controlled contrasts and, in
Damnianovitch’s recognisable style, based on modality and minimalism.
The composer is aware of the fact that because of his double national iden-
tity, he is also a stranger in both countries, though not to the point of be-
ing marginalised in them as composer. To put it in a different way: he chose
to be independent, consciously avoiding being part of the mainstreams in
both countries. It should be added that Damnianovitch has also composed
a number of works without reference to traditional cultures. Such is the
case of The Bells for mixed choir (2000–2001), based on Edgar Allan Poe’s
poem, a work that has absorbed elements of the contemporary popular cul-
ture of the Parisian suburbs.23
In the 19th century, at a time of growing national self-consciousness
and, especially later, in troubled times, cosmopolitanism in music was re-
garded as the opposite of adopting nationally specific means of expression,
as “an absence of roots, folk spirit, developed subjectivity, or the capacity to
transmit authentic feeling –– to name only those qualities Wagner claimed
to be fatally lacking in Mendelssohn and Meyerbeer.”24 Even today, such
tension can be noticed, although in a much smaller degree, in works be-
longing to the so-called “rooted cosmopolitanism” that is seen as partiality
to native or other countries where one has lived a certain amount of time.
“Rooted cosmopolitanism” contains both a universalistic basis and some
forms of partiality towards one’s own national culture, maintaining a dia-
logue between them, a fruitful coexistence.25 The works of Alexandre Dam-
nianovitch belong to those that prove that cosmopolitanism and the attach-
ment to one’s nation can co-exist in contemporary art music, as well as in
other spheres of culture.
In an attempt to answer the question posed at the beginning of this
article regarding the effects of emigration on Damnianovitch’s work as a
composer, it could be asserted that it was most beneficial for him to have
had the opportunity during his Paris studies to obtain great profession-
23 In that work Sylvie Nicephor has detected a transposition of rap music techniques.
See her article: “Alexandre Damnianovitch: de l’Orient à l’Occident,” Muzikologija,
5 (2005): 176.
24 Dana Gooley, “Cosmopolitanism in the Age of Nationalism,” Introduction, Journal
of the American Musicological Society, 66/2 (2013): 524.
25 See: Kwame Anthony Appiah, The Ethics of Identity (New Jersey: Princeton Univer-
sity Press, 2005), 222–223.
413
him, Serbia and France. Damnianovitch’s exploration of western Christi-
anity is reflected in Les tentations de Saint Antoine (Temptations of St. An-
thony) for string orchestra, a work with finely controlled contrasts and, in
Damnianovitch’s recognisable style, based on modality and minimalism.
The composer is aware of the fact that because of his double national iden-
tity, he is also a stranger in both countries, though not to the point of be-
ing marginalised in them as composer. To put it in a different way: he chose
to be independent, consciously avoiding being part of the mainstreams in
both countries. It should be added that Damnianovitch has also composed
a number of works without reference to traditional cultures. Such is the
case of The Bells for mixed choir (2000–2001), based on Edgar Allan Poe’s
poem, a work that has absorbed elements of the contemporary popular cul-
ture of the Parisian suburbs.23
In the 19th century, at a time of growing national self-consciousness
and, especially later, in troubled times, cosmopolitanism in music was re-
garded as the opposite of adopting nationally specific means of expression,
as “an absence of roots, folk spirit, developed subjectivity, or the capacity to
transmit authentic feeling –– to name only those qualities Wagner claimed
to be fatally lacking in Mendelssohn and Meyerbeer.”24 Even today, such
tension can be noticed, although in a much smaller degree, in works be-
longing to the so-called “rooted cosmopolitanism” that is seen as partiality
to native or other countries where one has lived a certain amount of time.
“Rooted cosmopolitanism” contains both a universalistic basis and some
forms of partiality towards one’s own national culture, maintaining a dia-
logue between them, a fruitful coexistence.25 The works of Alexandre Dam-
nianovitch belong to those that prove that cosmopolitanism and the attach-
ment to one’s nation can co-exist in contemporary art music, as well as in
other spheres of culture.
In an attempt to answer the question posed at the beginning of this
article regarding the effects of emigration on Damnianovitch’s work as a
composer, it could be asserted that it was most beneficial for him to have
had the opportunity during his Paris studies to obtain great profession-
23 In that work Sylvie Nicephor has detected a transposition of rap music techniques.
See her article: “Alexandre Damnianovitch: de l’Orient à l’Occident,” Muzikologija,
5 (2005): 176.
24 Dana Gooley, “Cosmopolitanism in the Age of Nationalism,” Introduction, Journal
of the American Musicological Society, 66/2 (2013): 524.
25 See: Kwame Anthony Appiah, The Ethics of Identity (New Jersey: Princeton Univer-
sity Press, 2005), 222–223.
413
