Jasna Veljanović

Jasna Veljanović (1980, Germany/Serbia) earned her BA degree in composition at the National Music Academy of Ukraine and then continued her education at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade: she acquired an MA in composition in 2007, completed specialist studies in music theory in 2010, and is currently pursuing a doctoral degree at the same department.
In her creative work, Veljanović is especially focused on the voice and chamber compositions for special ensembles. During the past several years, in collaboration with colleagues from the Faculty of Philology and Arts in Kragujevac, Serbia, she has focused on expanding the repertory for accordion and viola, producing pieces such as Fantazija na pesmu Desanke Maksimović „Nemam više vremena“ (Fantasy on Desanka Maksimović’s Poem “I Have No More Time”) for accordion, Threnody for the Old Times for viola and accordion, and Suite for Solo Viola.
Veljanović participated in the 17th, 18th, 19th, 22nd, and 24th International Review of Composers.
Works by Veljanović have been performed in Serbia (Kragujevac, Belgrade, Niš, Smederevo, and Novi Sad) and abroad (Croatia, Ukraine, Slovenia, Georgia, Czech Republic, Germany, and Denmark).
She works as an associate professor at the Music Theory and Pedagogy Division of the Department of Music at the Faculty of Philology and Arts in Kragujevac.

Tužbalica za starim vremenima (Threnody for the Old Times) for viola and accordion is dedicated to the performers Saša Mirković and Vladimir Blagojević. Its aesthetic conception rests on a contemporary composer’s lament for the past, when this type of music was more appreciated and composers’ approach to composition was seemingly less complicated, because their choices in terms of aesthetics, style, and genre were clearer and their role in society more prominent and useful. Therefore, as a master of an obsolete yet costly craft, the composer seeks security in musical devices of the past. The piece comprises four segments. The opening segment reveals a fully rounded melody and tonality, whilst manifesting its frustrations in its rhythmic image. The second part is fragmentary. Although its harmonic sweetness generates the impression of tonality, it is simultaneously marginalised by virtue of its non-functionality. The third part invokes the past by means of contrapuntal variations and melody – its neo-classicist overtones culminate with a quotation from Shostakovich’s Fugue Op. 87, No. 1. Its harmony is bimodal. This is followed by a transition to the final segment, which features some important motives from the opening of the piece. It provides the most faithful illustration of the character of this threnody, because its compact and uniform texture, as well as docile sounds, express the composer’s quiet coming to terms with her time, along with a general feeling of futility.