“The creator, who draws the most vital juices from tradition and its essential song, has created a work that, according to its archetypal and utopian core, is extremely independent and guiding. (…) With this new vision of the flute sound, achieved in the works for the flute by EnrikoJosif, the ontologization of the art of the flute on our soil was performed.
Miodrag Azanjac
“It rarely happens in an artist, a performer, as in the case of flutist MiodragAzanjac,to unite so harmoniously, so tensely, powerfully the creativeness and the performance and the thoughtand the aesthetic and the ethical in tonal expression and the renewal and the reform and all that is connected with the flute, starting from its mythical sacral antiquities through antiqueto today’s desacralized speeds.“
Enriko Josif
The article Two Strikes of Lightning in Our Musical Stagnation by Pavle Stefanović (1901 – 1905), which testifies to the author’s perception of the concert from 1954 at which the works of Dušan Radić (1929 – 2010) and Enriko Josif (1924 – 2003) were performed, is very familiar to us. It could be said that its title still resonates. However, the question arises: To what extent do we really know today the creative poetics of Enriko Josef? Before we reach the year 2024, in which – we believe – significant musical questions will be opened by marking the centenary of the composer’s birth, we will, on this occasion, shed light on certain aspects of the fruitful cooperation between composer Enriko Josif and flutist Miodrag Azanjac (1932 – 1997), established on the line composer – performer and, therefore, the “flute language” of the composer.
Several strong threads connected the two personalities who – each in his own domain – left important traces in the history of Serbian music. Among them, first of all, is the art of sounding and playing the flute. Borislav Čičovački pointed out that the flute was “the composer’s favorite instrument”, and Azanjac himself claimed that Enriko Josif was “a composer of the flute, not a composer for the flute”, because “he wrote works for the flute that require new knowledge about the flute and search for a new poetics and a new way of playing, and he was not satisfied with the already existing ones”. This instrument (in its various register variants) intrigued EnrikoJosifdue to its specific expressiveness, which the renowned flutist MiodragAzanjac expressed in a unique way with his interpretation, thus initiating the creation of Josif’s works, which he later premiered.
MiodragAzanjac, a longtime professor of flute at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, concert soloist, first flutist of the Belgrade Philharmonic and a member of the Belgrade Wind Quintet, studied in the class of JakovSrejović (1904-1996) and perfected himself with leading flutists of his time in Paris and Siena.Apart from the substantial improvement of flute performance in Serbia, Azanjac’s contribution to Serbian flute playing is also reflected in the development, more precisely, the “Europeanization” of Serbian flute pedagogy. It took place predominantly in the Flute Choir, a unique formation whose founder and artistic director, that is, the conductor, was Miodrag Azanjac.
The Belgrade Flute Choir was founded in 1977, and consisted of students of the Faculty of Music, young flutists/students and professors of music high-schools. The notable performances of the Flute Choir in Belgrade, Opatija and at concerts organized by Radio Belgrade were followed and supported by the professional public. Many authors emphasize the fact that the Flute Choir was an exceptional phenomenon in Serbian but also in European flute art, which, by inspiring many of our authors(for example Enriko Josif, Ingeborg Bugarinović (1953), Grana Stojković (1955) and Ivana Stefanović (1948) )) to dedicate their compositions to this ensemble, consequently contributed to the expansion of the flute repertoire. In this way, the profiling of the “flute language” of our music creators was encouraged, which ranged from the “traditional” treatment of instrument(s) to the use of extended flute techniques. Therefore, we can agree with the established opinion that the Flute Choir represented a unique community of Serbian flutists and composers, since the (premiere) performance of the works of our authors was one of the dominant lines of its activity.
According to the flutist StanislavaVuksanović, the first work for Miodrag Azanjac’s Flute Choir was written by academician EnrikoJosif in 1978: the composition Evocation for two trumpets, harp and flute choir, therefore, has historical value. Apart from Josif, Ingeborg Bugarinović, EnrikoJosif’s student, has been recognized as a significant composer of works for flute and Flute Choir and as the author of numerous “flute” compositions, including: Flute for flute choir, string quintet, brass quintet and harp (1979), Death of Black George for flute choir and tenor solo (1980), Coral fantasy for flute choir (1981), as well as the “project”Flute Iconostasis of the Serbian People. Ingeborg Bugarinovićhas also done transcriptions of already existing works of various European authors for this unique ensemble. We could have recently heard her arrangement of certain segments of Bach’s Fugue Art BWV 1080 at the BUNT festival. 7.0 performed by the ensemble Flautino Lola Classic, founded in 2010 under the artistic direction of LjubišaJovanović (1957); this chamber ensemble represents a continuation of the performing tradition of the Azanjac’sFlute Choir.
When considering the relationship between Josif and Azanjac, it is crucial to point out that the affection for the artistic expression of the “Other” was mutual. Such types of recognition are quite clearly read from written traces, which are of a considerable format. For example, EnrikoJosif noted that Azanjac was a “singer of the tone flute” and as such he was “the first among the firsts in our country and not only in our country”. “Philosophical thinking”, which Josip Andreis attributed to Josif’s poetics, could be related to Azanjac’s reflections on music. As the author of numerous articles in which he discussed aesthetic and poetic issues about flute sound, (Serbian) flute art and music in general, Azanjac recognized Josif’s position in (Serbian) flute playing, emphasizing that “world flute modernismhas been significantly enriched by one original tributary, Belgrade flute modernism, whose breath is found in the works for the flute by Enriko Josef: in the Ballad, Dreams, Hamlet, Psalmody”.
In addition to the above-mentioned works – Ballad for solo flute (1970), Dreams for flute, harp and piano (1964), Hamlet, stage visions for flute, harpsichord and viola da gamba (1969), PsalmodyI and PsalmodyII for solo flute (1970) – we can also single out from Josif’s “flute opus” the Lyrical Symphony for four flutes, harp and string orchestra (1956), Signs II for flute, harpsichord, harp, cello and flute choir (1987), Songs of Speech for flute, flute choir and cello (1988), Epic tune for flute and cello (1988), Largo nobile for two flutes and harp (s.a.), Monody for flute and harp (s.a.),Song for voice, flute and harp (s.a.), Record for two flutes (s.a.), Diptych for flute choir and piano (s.a.) and Singing for flute and trumpet choir (s.a.).In them are recognized, according to ZoricaPremate, “neo-baroque contemporary musical script”, which implies, on the one hand, “Larpurlartistictreatment of sound as beauty itself” (Josip Andreis), and on the other, commitment “to melody (…), continuity of human singing ”(MiodragAzanjac), psalmodic “singing” and “songs of speech“ (Psalmody I, Psalmody II, Singing, Songs of Speech), for monody and narrative speech (Ballad), baroque polyphonic weaving, lyricism (Lyrical Symphony), modality (Ballad, Psalmody I, Psalmody II), actions that give the “impression of constant improvisation” (VlastimirPeričić) and (neo)impressionist sound colour, especially noticeable in Dreams and Lyrical Symphony.
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