Kosta P. Manojlović and the teaching of liturgical singing

Abstract

In this paper we deal with Kosta Manojlović's engagement in the field of church music education, especially within curricula of the Pravoslavno-bogoslovski fakultet [Faculty of Orthodox Theology] in Belgrade, aiming to answer two research question: one, regarding different aspects of Manojlović's work at the between 1923 and 1937, and the other, dealing with ways in which his writings on the Serbian Orthodox church music were affected by the historical, social, and cultural milieu of the interwar period. An analysis of Manojlović's teaching catalogues for the Faculty of Orthodox Theology between 1923/24 and 1936/37, showed three basic models in syllabus organisation: in his early teaching career, he was teaching two subjects "Octoechos" and "History of Serbian Orthodox Church Singing Church Choral Music" (in 1923/24); as mid-career teacher (between 1924/25 and 1934/35) he was teaching "Octoechos" and "Strano pjenije", while in the last years spent at the school Manojlović's teaching subjects were "History of Church Music" and "Octoechos and General Chant". However, the most important aspects of Manojlović's teaching philosophy are not available in syllabus of his courses. For that reasons, we turned to his published writings, having in mind his plans for introducing more research tools into curricula of the Faculty of Orthodox Theology. He advocated the introduction of scientific methods: in his opinion, this was the only acceptable and credible method for an academic approach to Serbian sacred music. Among many subjects in the field of Serbian Orthodox music, Kosta P. Manojlović wrote about the relevance of Serbian medieval literature, and he was one of the first authors who recognized the importance of this subject for expanding the horizon of otherwise modest knowledge of medieval music. We explain the ways in which some of his readings of the genre of žitije (vita), the life of a saint, were influenced by the discourse of svetosavlje and the idea of emphasizing the ethnic as part of the Christian, without taking into account the process of idealization, which is a canonical element of the genre of žitije. The picture of Kosta Manojlović's teaching practice presented in this article is generally more detailed and enriched with new data and analysis of certain aspects of his work. Unfortunately, it was not possible to follow the long-term effects of his interventions and actions at the Univerzitet u Beogradu [University of Belgrade] as the Faculty of Orthodox Theology was split from the University in 1952. Manojlović had the difficult task of building his career as a university teacher in an environment that was not always supportive of his efforts, especially when it came to his integration of research into teaching, but he did accomplish his task by integrating his knowledge, acting and being. His integration of research and practical work in the field of Serbian chant, even if we may not agree with all his conclusions, was visionary and is still a valid, and the most preferred, approach to the subject.