Stevan Hristić

Stevan Hristić (Serbian Cyrillic: Стеван Христић; 19 June 1885 – 21 August 1958) was Serbian composer, conductor, pedagogue, and music writer. A prominent representative of the late romanticist style in Serbian music of the first half of the 20th century.

Hristić started his music education at the Serbian Music School in Belgrade (established by St. Mokranjac) and continued his studies in Leipzig (1904–08) where he received instruction in composition from S. Krehl and R. Hofmann, and in conducting from A. Nikisch. Following a brief period of teaching at the Serbian Music School, he spent time in Rome, Moscow, and Paris (1910–12). Upon his return to Belgrade before the start of the World War I, Hristić began his conducting career at the National Theatre and resumed pedagogical activities at the Serbian Music School as well as at the Seminary. Between the two World Wars he contributed to the development of Belgrade musical life as: a founder and the first principal conductor of the Belgrade Philharmonic (1923–34), conductor at the Belgrade Opera House (director 1925–35), and one of the founders and first professors of the Belgrade Music Academy (composition professor 1937–50 and president 1943–44). He was inducted into the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (1950) and was in charge of the Institute of Musicology. Hristić was also among the founders and a longtime president of the Serbian Association of Composers.

Hristić’s oeuvre consists of large-scale though not numerous works: opera The Dusk (1925), ballet The legend of Ohrid (1947), oratorio Resurrection (1912), several orchestral pieces (incidental music for stage), works of sacred music (Liturgy and Opelo (Orthodox Requiem)), concert pieces (Symphonic fantasy for violin and orchestra and The Rhapsody for piano and orchestra), choral compositions (Autumn and The Dubrovnik requiem), and chamber vocal lyrical pieces (“There once was a rose,” “The Swallow,” “Elegy,” “An evening on the reef,” and “The blossom”). Hristić’s musical language is characterized by melodic inventiveness, colorful orchestration, late romanticist and partially impressionistic harmonies, and clarity and transparency of formal structure. By his primarily romanticist orientation, Hristić somewhat differs from his contemporaries Konjović and Milojević whose works manifest more radical ventures toward a contemporary stylistic expression. Hristić appears closer to the Mokranjac origins, whereas his oeuvre represents a transition from the romanticist groundwork toward contemporary trends. Hristić’s most significant work, The legend of Ohrid is at the same time the first full-evening ballet in Serbian music.

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