Marko Kovač (1990, Trebinje) is the author Slovenian antitheses, this year's order from BEMUS, which is undoubtedly an honor for all composers from this area, especially those who are just starting their careers.
Marko Kovač has just been admitted to Doctoral academic studies in composition at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade. Before BEMUS, his composition was performed as part of the 2013 Cello Fest festival in Belgrade. The Dragon and the Emperor's Son, fairy tale for cello and 14 strings as an order from the festival, and in 2014 as an order from Kotor-art, it was performed Dinaric suite, ten pictures for oboe, clarinet, fagot, horn and piano.
"WEATHER": What was your first reaction to the invitation to compose for this year's BEMUS?
MARKO KOVAČ: As a relatively young man, twenty-five years old, I feel extremely honored by the fact that such a respected and prestigious festival as BEMUS commissioned a composition from me. Last year at the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, at the promotion of Vasilij Mokranjec's piano music disc, I met academician Svetislav Božić, the selector of BEMUS. His proposal at the time, which was very unexpected for me, to include my composition in the festival program, first caused a reaction in me that was something between the realization of the most wonderful dream and disbelief. That unusual feeling of positive shock continues to this day and is even more intense as the day of the concert, where my work will be performed, approaches.
How did you approach the work on this one of yours? Duo for piano and orchestra, interesting name Slovenian antithesis? Was there something different about the way this composition was seasoned than usual??
Slovenian antithesis, duo for piano and orchestra is a composition I wrote during the Master's academic studies in the class of academician Isidore Žebeljan, and it represents my final thesis. The piece consists of two movements, separated by an interlude, and is inspired by the imaginary folklore music of the people of the ancient Balkans.
I approached the composition process in a similar way as with many of the earlier works. That process resembles, for example, working in a mine - it takes a lot of effort, searching and dedication to find a small, specific precious stone as a result of all this. Often, that effort is, to put it conditionally, in vain, because sometimes nothing valuable is embodied from it. This is exactly what used to frustrate me because I felt that I was working in vain and that my efforts were not always rewarded with the expected result, however, it seems to me that over time I have learned to enjoy the process of searching in itself. I surrender myself to music and improvisation at the piano with my heart and soul, without calculations and excessive rational awareness of the process. This, of course, does not mean that there is no control in improvisation. After a certain amount of time spent at the instrument, some small initial idea is born, and for the way and path of its further development and shaping, I rely exclusively on intuition. This is what my composing process looks like in the shortest terms.
The Slavic antithesis you not only wrote it but also perform it as a soloist?
This is not a rare phenomenon. Almost all great composers were very good at playing at least one instrument, and Rachmaninov, Prokofiev and Bartok were also excellent pianists, and they used to play their compositions at concerts. In that sense, they are my role models. I actually find those performances - when the composer plays his work - the most interesting, because they are the most original.
Your musical beginnings are connected with the piano.
In my native Trebinje, I graduated from a lower music school, but also took my first steps as a composer as a thirteen-year-old, received an award for it, and even recorded a music video! But that's another story. I was forced to move to Podgorica in order to continue playing music, and I managed to quickly finish high school in three years in the class of prof. Anke Asanović. When I had to decide between studying piano and composition, I contacted academician Vlastimir Trajković, a professor at the Department of Composition and Orchestration at FMU in Belgrade, with whose valuable consultation I managed to pass the demanding entrance exam. At the time when I was still coming for consultations with professor Trajković, I felt uncertainty and thought about my near future, always sitting on the same bench in Manjež park while waiting for those classes. From that perspective, Belgrade seemed to me like a city full of nervousness, and I well remember the incessant symphony of car sirens, which did not allow me to concentrate.
How did the meeting with your professor Isidora Žebeljan affect you?? How she introduced you to the very process of composing, which was her key tip?
To be honest, I was not sufficiently familiar with Professor Žebeljan's work when I became her student. But when I first heard her composition Horses of Saint Mark, illumination for orchestra, it was like the revelation of a completely new and wonderful world for me. Her perhaps key advice for all students is to appreciate the fact that music is a flow of energy. Listening together with us to selected compositions, which include the classics of the twentieth century, but also some other alternative artistic directions, the professor tries to develop a healthy musical taste in us students, which is very important and necessary for a composer. He is, in my opinion, one of the most important factors of talent.
You chose classical music is it a brave choice in this day and age? Did you create contemporary art? what, except in such exceptional circumstances as BEMUS, there is enough audience and admirers? What is left for the young man?, to a graduate composer, to work in order to live from music and for it, without allowing himself to overstep the boundaries and betray his ideals?
New works of contemporary creativity in Serbia can rarely be heard within the framework of specialized festivals such as, for example, the Tribune of Composers. It is not difficult to notice that the audience at festivals of this type is mostly composed of musicians themselves - composers, musicologists, musicians - and that a wider layer of "ordinary" music lovers and admirers is absent. Part of the music we write is also due to the fact that our concert halls are sometimes half-empty. I consider myself and my generation obliged to do everything to change the situation for the better. I think that first of all, the music itself must always be uncompromisingly high-quality and impressive. In addition to it, we need excellent musicians who will reproduce it, and therefore, appropriate financial resources. If strong marketing and media presence were added to all this, it seems to me that the results and the state of our music scene would be promising.
Do you expect anything to change in your composing life after this BEMUS a? As a young creator, do you wish for some change in the overall social climate?, when it comes to artistic music and artistic expression in general?
As for me personally, I don't expect any significant change in the sphere of my composing process after BEMUS. In fact, I want to keep and preserve as long as possible the joy of creation that I have had so far. And when it comes to life in general, I would like to find a job that I will be satisfied with and I will strive to finish the doctoral studies that I have just started in the near future. In the social climate, I hope and expect that more attention will be paid to young authors, my colleagues who certainly deserve it, and that my case will not be a lone exception.
