Marić, Ljubica

Marić, Ljubica, remarkable Serbian composer; b. Kragujevac, March 18, 1909. She studied with Josip Slavenski in Belgrade, then went to Prague, where she took composition courses with Suk and Alois Hába at the Cons. She also studied conducting with Malko in Prague (1929–32) and with Scherchen in Strasbourg (1933), and then returned to Prague for more study with Hába in his special quarter tone classes (1936–37). She subsequently taught at the Stankovic School of Music in Belgrade. During the period of Nazi occupation of Serbia, she was an active participant in the resistance. After the liberation, she was a member of the teaching staff of the Belgrade Academy of Music (1945–67). In her music, she adopted a global type of modern technique, utilizing variable tonal configurations, atonal melodic progressions, and microtonal structures while adhering to traditional forms of composition.

Works

orch.:Passacaglia (Belgrade, April 21, 1958). chamber: String Quartet (1931); Wind Quintet (1932); Trio for Clarinet, Trombone, and Double Bass (1937); Violin Sonata (1948); numerous piano pieces. vocal: 2 cantatas: Pesme prostora (Songs of Space), based on inscriptions on the graves of Bogomils, a heretical religious sect of the Middle Ages (Belgrade, Dec. 8, 1956) and Prag sna (Threshold of Dream), chamber cantata for Narrator, Soprano, Alto, and Instrumental Ensemble (1961; Opatija, Oct. 30, 1965); Slovo svetlosti (Sound of Light), oratorio, after medieval Serbian poetry (1966); songs. other: 4 modern realizations of the Serbian Octoichos: Muzika oktoiha No. 1 for Orch. (Belgrade, Feb. 28, 1959), Vizan-tijski koncert (Byzantine Concerto) for Piano and Orch. (Belgrade, June 4, 1963), Ostinato super thema octoicha for String Quintet, Harp, and Piano (Warsaw, Sept. 27, 1963), and Sim-fonija oktoiha(1964).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire