Vuckovic, Vojislav

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Vučkovič, Vojislav

Vučkovič, Vojislav, Serbian conductor, musicologist, and composer; b. Pirot, Oct. 18,1910; d. (murdered by the German police) Belgrade, Dec. 25,1942. He went to Prague and studied composition with Karel and conducting with Malko at the Cons., becoming a pupil in Suk’s master class in composition there in 1943. Vuckovic also took courses in musicology at the Univ. of Prague (Ph.D., 1934). He then returned to Belgrade, where he was active as a conductor, lecturer, broadcaster, and writer on music; he also taught at the Stankovic Music School. He publ. pamphlets on the materialistic interpretation of music in the light of Marxist dialectics. He was in the resistance movement during the German occupation of his homeland but was hunted down and murdered. His collected essays were publ. as Studije, eseji, kritike (Belgrade, 1968). After a period of composition in the expressionistic manner (including the application of quarter- tones), he abruptly changed his style out of ideological considerations and embraced programmatic realism.

Works

dramatic: Ballet: Covek koji je ukrao sunce (The Man Who Stole the Sun; 1940). ORCH.: Overture for Chamber Orch. (1933); 3 syms.: No. 1 (1933), No. 2 (1942; unfinished; orchestrated by P. Osghian), and No. 3, Heroic Oratoriofor Soloists, Chorus, and Orch. (1942; unfinished; sorchestrated by A. Obradovic; Cetinje, Sept. 5,1951); Zavestanje Modesta Musorgskog (Modest Mussorgsky’s Legacy; 1940); Oza-reni put (The Radiant Road), symphonic poem (1940); Vesnik bure (The Harbinger of the Storm), symphonic poem (1941); Burevesnik (Stormy Petrel), symphonic poem (1942; Belgrade, Dec. 25,1944). OTHER: Chamber music; choral works; songs.