Vladimir Tošić (b. 1949) is a composer, multimedia artist and full professor of the Faculty of Music in Belgrade (now retired).

He completed the studies of composition in the class of Vasilije Mokranjac. He started his career in music pedagogy at the schools of music “Stanković” and “Mokranjac” in Belgrade. Since 1986 he taught music-theoretical subjects (counterpoint, harmony and musical forms) at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade.

Tošić’s works are regularly performed in Serbia and all over the world: in the USA, England, France, Netherlands, Brazil, Argentina, etc. He won the First prize of the International competition for composers “Thomas Bloch” (Paris, 2000), and Third prize of the competition for composers Gitarrentage für Kinder (Germany, 2011).

The most important works by Vladimir Tošić include Varial, Dual, Trial, Voksal, Fisija, Altus, Medial… All these pieces exist in several versions, for various instruments and ensembles.

For the past ten years Tošić has been very active as a composer for feature fiction and documentary films, produced by the Serbian Radio and Television: Račak (2022), Košare (2019), Srbi na Krfu (2016), Srbija u velikom ratu (2014), Milunka Savić (2013), Vek odvažnih 1, 2 (2012), Na raskršću istorije (2011), Poslednji dan Zorana Đinđića (2006), and others.

About the piece

Etnos [Ethnos] for gusle, accordion, string orchestra and percussion is a piece dedicated to Bojana and Nikola Peković.

I met Nikola in spring 2023 and he asked me to write a piece for his sister and him, since there hasn’t been any music composed for such an ensemble. I was really surprised by this proposition because I never would have had such an idea on my own. However, his persuasiveness and enthusiasm were such that in September and October 2023 I wrote this work.

The piece is entitled Etnos which is the acronym of the words ETHNO and SEQUENCE. Ethno, because I use two instruments, gusle and accordion, which are very prominent in Serbian folk music, and sequence because it is, together with repetitiveness and processual thinking, the main compositional technique on which this work is based.

Of course, I could not change myself in terms of compositional style, but I tried very hard to adapt and move closer to this duo.

The work is based on a continuous dialogue between gusle and accordion. While gusle bring a simple melody of small ambitus – which is consistent with its very nature, accordion replies with a highly chromatised virtuoso part. The piece, which consists of five segments, unfolds in this same spirit throughout.

For this year’s Review of Composers, I made a version for accordion and orchestra. The part of gusle is taken over by first violins.