Rajko Maksimović (1935–2024) completed his studies in composition in 1961 with prof. Predrag Milosevic at the Academy of Music in Belgrade (now: Faculty of Music – FMU). He finished postgraduate studies at the same academy in 1965. He spent a year at Princeton University (N.J. – USA) through the Fulbright program, where he was mainly concerned with electronic music.

Until his retirement, he worked as a professor of composition and orchestration at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade. He also taught composition at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, and worked at the Chair for sound recording and design of the Faculty of Drama Arts in Belgrade.

Maksimović’s works have been performed in Serbia and abroad. The most significant part of his opus is devoted to large scale choral and vocal-instrumental works. He received many awards for his work: “Hristić” Award for his Piano concerto, “Mokranjac” Award for Testamenat vladike crnogorskog P. P. Njegoša, October Award of the City of Belgrade for Pasija Svetoga kneza Lazara and “Vuk” Award for life achievement. He had three well-received whole-evening monographic concerts – in 1987, 1996 and 2006. The majority of his major works were recorded on LP records and CDs for the company PGP RTS. In 1995 TV Novi Sad made a 50 minutes’ film about Rajko Maksimović and his works. He wrote and published an autobiographical-memoirist trilogy That’s the Way It Was (1998, 2001, 2002), and in 2008 in cooperation with Milos Jevtić – The Speech of Music.

About the piece

Diptih [Diptych]for orchestra consists of two short orchestra pieces: I – Not to Be or to Be? (1969) and II – Eppur si Muove (1970). The work as a whole belongs to Maksimović’s creative phase which is primarily characterised by the use of aleatoric procedures.