Page 226 - Weiss, Jernej, ur./ed. 2026 Skladateljska društva nekoč in danes.../Composers’ Societies Past and Present...

Skladateljska društva nekoč in danes | Composers’ Societies Past and Present
entirely to the Union of Yugoslav Composers, and edited by its former pres-
ident, composer Predrag Milošević. It includes contributions by composer
and conductor Oskar Danon, musicologist Roksanda Pejović (1929–2018),
and others. What makes this publication particularly significant is that
many of its authors were themselves participants in the history of SAKOJ
and/or conducted interviews with senior composers, drawing on their first-
hand experiences with the institution. Pejović is also the author of a publi-
cation marking the anniversary of UKS, A historical overview of the devel-
8
opment of the Association of Composers of Serbia in 1965, which is also the
9
only thematic publication dedicated to this organization to date. An exam-
ple of a scientific approach to this topic after the dissolution of Yugoslavia
is an article by musicologist Vesna Mikić (1967–2019) dealing not only with
SAKOJ and its establishment, but also interconnections between SAKOJ
and its republic organizations. Finally, we could collect some fragments
10
of history about SAKOJ and UKS in the journals Sound (Zvuk), Pro Musi-
ca, Književne novine, and Borba. Still, the state of research on this topic is
fragmented into separate case studies about composers who were members
of SAKOJ and UKS, in which institutions were only marginally mentioned.
To this end, we will present several examples of cultural cooperation
to illustrate its mechanisms and strategies of action, with a special focus on
the exchange of cultural workers and the principles of establishing copy-
right. In order to contextualize these examples, we will briefly discuss the
socio-historical context in which these networks were established, as well
as explore the periods during which they were questioned, in alignment
with broader political interests. It is particularly important to emphasize
the significance of operating through institutional structures, that is, the
role of associations in this process.

Socio-Political Context and Circumstances
It is well known that Yugoslav-Soviet relations in the period after World
War II were largely based on viewing the Soviet model as exemplary, span-

8 Roksanda Pejović, Istorijski pregled razvoja Udruženja kompozitora Srbije (Beograd:
Udruženje kompozitora Srbije, 1965).
th
9 A monograph dedicated to marking the 80 anniversary of its founding is currently
in preparation by musicologists: Sonja Marinković, Stefan Cvetković, Ivana Miladi-
nović Prica, and Biljana Leković.
10 Vesna Mikić, “O UKS-u i DSS-u SKJ/SAKOJ-u (u kontekstu politike) DDD,” in Us-
tanove, politika in glasba v Sloveniji in Srbiji 1945–1963, eds. Tatjana Marković and
Leon Stefanija (Ljubljana: Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete, 2015), 177–99.

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