Word and melody in the opus of Momcilo and Svetomir Nastasijevic
Authors: Peno Vesna 
Published: February 2014

In the house of artistically gifted family Nastasijevic where renowned
Belgrade artists used to gather together during the twenties and thirties of
the previous century, music was nothing but an excuse for regular meetings.
The art of sound represented a backbone of one system of poetics in the
shaping of which Nastasijevic brothers as well as their close contemporaries
and faithful friends truly found the common ground. Rethinking the music
phenomenon brought them close to their otherwise remote relatives by thought
- to Greek philosophers, but also to French and especially Russian symbolists
whose opinions they shared. A pursue for, on one hand, an authentically
native but, on the other, cosmopolitan spirit and universal values, marked
the creative output of Momcilo, a writer and a pivot of Nastasijevic family,
but also the overall creative engagement of his brothers. They all shared
common aesthetic standards, attempting to apply these in their respective
artistic media as well as in synergy, in their joint ventures. In music
dramas entitled Medjulusko blago and Djuradj Brankovic, for which Momcilo wrote
the script and Svetomir composed the music, the brothers tried to transform
into deeds the Nastasijevic-like convictions regarding music. The aim was to
re-find and turn a native - homeland melody into sound. This melody
represented a ?golden ratio point? in which all arts meet; it is a kind of a
spiritual totality embodying one form of spiritual existence which cannot be
reached otherwise but from the ?homeland soil?. They believed they would
reach the archetype of national identity and, at the same time, of the
universal being by harking at and perpetual crying for the forgotten sound of
words. Momcilo?s poetic concept demanded necessary interventions in respect
to the dramatic genre. In his essay Dramsko stvaralastvo i pozoriste kod nas,
he unequivocally opposed to what he argued to be a decadent and artistically
senseless Serbian stage, a place wherefrom an individual and the world he
lives in are being superficially analyzed, a place that only serves for mass
entertainment, propagation of political and social convictions, and which in
its character is getting closer to movie industry. By discarding realistic
proc?d?, the poet reached for a myth in Medjulusko blago whereas in Djuradj
Brankovic he turned to historical themes. In both of these he delved deep in
the essence of drama. His poetic expression had therefore to become dense,
more a premonition than a statement, so that it necessarily needed melody as
an attribute. Music is a pivot of Medjulusko blago, which Nastasijevic
brothers emphasized to be not an opera, or Wagnerian music drama, but a drama
meant for being interpreted through singing and nothing but singing. The
drama is a music one because the very storyline and the characters? words
were supposed to emanate music expression, and music was to drive the
characters to a tragic conflict and actualize the antique fatum that
permeated, resonated in and guided all creatures. The words and the melody
were meant to be inseparable in Djuradj Brankovic music drama as well. To what
extent their music works actualized what the ?Nastasijevic manifesto?
theoretically proclaimed is to be left to be considered in some other topical
study.