Treatment of the Poetic Text of Crnjanski and Characteristics of the Harmonic Language in the Sumatra Song by Svetislav Božić

The inspiration of Svetislav Božić by the literary works of Miloš Crnjanski, which dates from 1989 to the present day, resulted in numerous works by which we can trace the connection between the two artists, as well as the style, aesthetics, artistic fantasy and creative credo of the composer. The subject of our research is a song for female voice and piano – Sumatra, the key poem of the cycle on which Crnjanski conceived an entire poetic-theoretical concept of the avant-garde literary program – Sumatraism. The work follows Božić's "librettistic" work on the poetic template whose continuity and integrity are retained by the composer using minimal interventions, additionally emphasizing the value of Sumatra, as well as other poems. Božić's creative path starts from a complete analysis of the poetic text, positioning the main points of emotional experience, the atmosphere of sensory images and the "space of happiness", and musicalisation of the literary source without transforming it. In the architecture of Sumatra, attention is drawn to the diversity of the harmonic palette: from consonant modal chords in triadand expressive seventh-chord forms to the particularly significant role of colouristic nuances of the minor ninth-chord in sporadic gradation to the eleventh chord and the sonority of the whole-scale feature on the stylistic basis of Debussy – Scriabin, but always in the strict function of musical dramaturgy with the preservation of tonality. In this context, the stylistic corridor of Sumatra follows a wide arc of intertwining of Romanticism and Impressionism origin with a national idiom of a wide range of means, radiating precious, complex meanings. Despite the accumulation of heritage of European music that belongs to him in terms of artistic freedom, Božić does not fall under its influence, since the dominant principle of his expression is created by national indigeneity in the use of modernized elements of national tradition, sometimes discreetly interwoven, thus confirming that "under other conditions, in another time, does the same thing as Mokranjac".