Music in Laza Kostić’s Artistic Creation

Abstract

Music can be found in many different layers of Laza Kostić’s work. This is a result of Kostić’s broad education and musical experience, as well as impressions acquired through the collaboration with musicians and people from different professions whose everyday lives involved music. Laza Kostić wrote about various “musical themes” in his prose, documentary works, in his correspondence and in different articles in periodical journals, especially in On Politics, On Art and in The Book About Zmaj, in which he explains his view of poetry and reconsiders different works of art, some of the famous musical pieces. Being inspired by music in many ways, Kostić referred to this form of art both explicitly and indirectly throughout his numerous lyrical creations. Simply, music was omnipresent in his poetic and narrative language.
The paper comprises three segments. First considered is the status of music in the poet’s everyday life, that is, the status of Laza Kostić in the social circles of musicians, with a special focus on his acquaintance and collaboration with Kornelije Stanković and Jovan Paču. Then, the place of music in his critiques (reviews of musical events, public concerts of famous musicians, besedas, and various cultural-artistic parties with literary and musical programs) is also brought to light. Finally, the presence of “music” as an idea, concept, theme, or inspiration for poetic creation is commented on; on the list of motives which refer to music are fairy, sounds, harmony, lyre, gusle, tambura, kolo, singing (poj), and playing (svirka).
The above-mentioned aspects of the main subject are commented on with regard to the wider social and cultural context of the epoch, the status of musical culture and education among Serbs, and the role of music in the process of development of the national idea in the second half of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, as well as the contribution of Laza Kostić’s work to the comprehension of “music” as a specific topos in the Serbian Romantic literature.