Dragana Jovanović, DMA, associate professor at the Music Theory Department of the Faculty of Music in Belgrade. A fully mature composer, whose poetics comprises various styles, techniques, and genres.

I wrote Three Songs for Aneta (1. A String of Gold, 2. Rain Fell, 3. If Someone Hit Me with a Stone) in 2015 for an extraordinary artist and the string septet of Ensemble Metamorphosis. For many years now, I have collaborated in various projects with each of the seven soloists who premièred the piece in 2015. Two of the songs are settings of folk lyrics (Povila se and Pade kiša), while the third song parodies the New Testament proverb, ‘If someone hit you with a stone…’  Corresponding to the texts, the music is based on elements of folklore and contemporary music tendencies.

A string of gold bent down from a clear sky
Bent down to my dear godfather’s silky bosom.
’Twas not a gold string from the sky,
’Twas fair Ruža from a good house.
A string of gold bent down from a clear sky,
Bent down to my dear father-in-law and his bosom of silk.
’Twas not a string of gold from a clear sky,
’Twas fair Ruža from a good house.

The rain came down and a bit of snow
The river came down from one hill to the next
The river’s high but there’s nowhere a bridge
My dear mother, where is my beloved.
He’s on the other side of the river
My dear mother, he’ll go to another girl.
He won’t, my daughter, my white grapes,
He loves you, he’ll have to come.

If someone hits me with a stone,
I’ll hit them with a mouldy bun,
oh ho, hi, eeha, hi
– with mayonnaise on it!