The Ascent and Decline of Serbian Symphonic Music

Abstract

In this article I analyze how state policies and infrastructure influence art music in a given place and time. My study focuses on the rapid and substantial development of the previously almost non-existent Serbian symphony between the end of World War II and the dissolution of socialist Yugoslavia. Over these decades, several conditions existed that enabled symphonic music to flourish; these are described in the article. The crucial importance of those conditions was, unfortunately, confirmed after the dissolution of the SFR Yugoslavia, the ensuing civil war, and the consequent dissolution of the entire infrastructure of systemic support for new music, which led to an equally rapid and irreversible decline in symphonic production.