Miloš Zatkalik (1959, Serbia) graduated in composition at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade with Vasilije Mokranjac and Rajko Maksimović. He attended courses in the USA and United Kingdom. Miloš Zatkalik is associated professor at and head of the Department for Music Theory at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade. He also teaches at the Academy of Arts in Banjaluka. He gave lectures in Canada, Norway, USA, Germany, and Slovenia.

Pieces: orchestral (Minas Tirit; What’s He to Hecuba; Of Saralinda, Xingu and the Duke Swallowed by Golem – a fable for large orchestra), chamber (The Mad Carriage-Greeter from Ch’u, Lost fragments II, Song of a Dead One), chamber orchestra (Lost fragments,  Dum incerta petimus) solo music (flute, viola, violoncello, piano), songs with piano accompaniment. His pieces were performed in Spain, Germany, Canada, USA, and Russia.

He published papers in national and international journals and magazines. Research fields: relations of music and literature/linguistics, analysis of 20th century music, psychoanalytical foundations of music analysis. He is the author of the first Serbian music analysis textbook in electronic form.

Zatkalik is the member of the Serbian Composers Association. He was the Director of the International Review of Composers in 2003, member of the Jury for the Mokranjac Award. He has also graduated in English language and literature from the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade.

Four Visions of Absence
I
One forebodes that which is absent. Which is not there. Yet. And perhaps it is not there at all.
II
Menace is a premonition of the event. Threat is a simulacrum of action. The life of action is the death of the threat.
III
Enigma is a parasite of meaning. Enigma is a threat to meaning. The life of meaning is the death of enigma.
IV
An ostinato motive thwarted the action in the fourth movement. It has been thwarted itself in the fourth movement. Likewise in the third. Likewise in the second. And, particularly in the first.

Or, would these be but the moments of the idea’s absence?