Stefanija Leshkova

New Pieces by Macedonian Composers
 Created between 1991-2001

          The database about the new pieces by Macedonian composers created in the period between 1991-2001 was a direct outcome of the project “The Influence of the Economic Factors on the Production of New Artistic Music in Macedonia between 1991 and 2001”.
 Macedonian music culture underwent turbulent changes in this period as a result of the changes of the political and the economic system. We know that the creation of new music is a very complex phenomenon, and numerous factors play role in the final outcome. Still, some factors have bigger impact, and without any doubts, among them is the economic environment.
 Our research starts with the formation of a database about the new pieces. We defined the fields we needed for further theoretical elaboration in accordance to the goals of the project. Our paper will present the  distribution of the results of the data we collected.
 

          The fields of the database

         In accordance with our interest, we have selected the following fields, i.e. categories:
1. Name of the composer
2. Title of the piece
3. Year of creation of the piece
4. Duration
5. Instrumentation
6. Form
7. Commissioned by
8. First performance
9. Recordings
10. Printed by

        The eighth field includes three subcategories regarding the first performance: when, where and who performed it.
 Also, as we will see later, we grouped certain data to ease further statistical elaboration.
 

         Sources

       Our main source for collecting the data were the composers themselves. For the deceased ones we collected the data from their families, and two graduate papers at UKIM FM (Vesna Belicanec’s paper on Mihajlo Nikolovski, and Zanina Raleva’s paper on Tomislav Zografski). Also, some of the composers left Macedonia, and we used e-mail communication to obtain the missing data. In addition, we used the programs of the festival “Days of Macedonian Music” where most of the new pieces were performed or commissioned for. We also used Marko Kolovski’s book on Macedonian composers for comparison of our data, especially, for the missing data.
 

         The results

         First field -name of the composer

         We have registered 22 composers who lived in Macedonia during this period. We present them by alphabetical Cyrilic order, family name first:

Avramovski Risto (1943), Andreevska Jana (1967), Brangjolica Ljubomir (1932), Buzarovski Dimitrije (1952), Glishic Zhivoin (1954), Golabovski Sotir (1937), Zografski Tomislav (1933-2000), Ivanovski Blagoja (1921—1994), Kavaj Sladjana (1967), Kolarovski Goce (1959), Kodjobashija Jane (1942), Lekovski Aleksandar (1933) Manchev Tome (1950), Nikoleski Dimche (1943-1998), Nikolovski Vanja (1968), Nikolovski Vlastimir (1925-2001), Nikolovski Mihajlo (1934-1994), Ortakov Dragoslav (1928), Stojkov Stojan (1941), Toshevski Stojche (1943), Canev Blagoj (1937), Shuplevski Dragan (1933-2000).

        There were an additional two Macedonian composers, Toma Prosev (1931-1996) (who wasn’t in Macedonia during this period), and Miroslav Spasov (1964)  (also wasn’t in Macedonia, so we could not collect the data about the compositions he wrote while he was living in Macedonia). We did excluded them from this list.
 Also, the list does not contain data about the group of young composers who left Macedonia after their graduation (Pande Shahov, Evdokija Danailovska, Nikola Kodjabashija, Katerina Pejovska and Goran Nachevski).
 

       Second field - title of the piece

        This field presents the total production of the period - 203 music pieces.
 In this number we did not include one piece by Tomislav Zografski, and the compositions written by Dragan Shuplevski, which were not supplied with a date of creation.
 Combining the first two fields, we obtained the following results (table next page).

       The mean is equal to 9.2. Of course, statistically the mean only points out to the average number of pieces, which could have different duration, instrumentation, forms etc.
 
 

         Third field - Year of creation of the piece

         One of the central categories of our interest is the number of pieces by the year of creation.  In fact, this is one of the variables which is significant for our point of interest - the influence of economic factors.

    The mean in this category is 18.45.

 Even though these this numbers do not render the real presentation of the type of the pieces, the graph shows a decreaseing in the period between 1995-1996.

         The fourth field - Duration

         We entered the precise duration of each piece in out database. Still, the statistical significance from our point of view, i.e. the economic factors,  can be concluded from larger rounding. Therefore we grouped the duration in eight subcategories:
up to 10 minutes, 20 min., 30 min., 40 min., 50 min., 60 min., above 60 min, and unknown.

With this grouping we got the following results:

 The mean was 25.37. It is obvious that the largest number of pieces (83) is included in the first group (up to 10 minutes). Also, the second group (up to 20 minutes) is close (72) and already in the third group we have decrease to 23 pieces. This shows that 76% of our population of new pieces is in the category below 20 minutes.
 

         Fifth field - instrumentation

         We also did some grouping (still keeping the full description of the instrumentation) in this category:
- solo vocal, instruments, or with accompaniment (duo)
- choir
- trio to octet
- chamber orchestra
- orchestra
- choir and orchestra.

The following results were obtained:

 Again, it was important to look at the distribution of these categories by their year of creation.
 

          The graphs showed that the general distribution correlated to the groups of instrumentation by year does not show a consistent pattern, i.e. the results are very divergent. One of the possible explanations is that we are working within a small population, which could be insufficient for drawing general conclusions.
 

           Sixth field - Form

          The starting point for the definition of the categories we will be using  in this field was the number of movements. Consequently, we developed two categories: one-movement pieces and cyclical pieces.

          Having in mind that the sonata cycle is more complicated than the cycles using the song form (for instance ? suite), or some of the other forms (rondo, variation form etc.), we added the sonata cycle as a separate form.

         We also concluded that we need to separate these three categories from the operas and oratorios, which require special compositional efforts. Thus, we came to the final division in four categories:
- one-movement
- cyclical forms
- sonata cycle
- opera/oratorio.

The results were the following:
 

 The mean in this category is 50.75.
 

 The conclusions in this field are similar to the previous ones, again mainly because of the small population, especially when we start segmenting it by year.

         Seventh field - commissions

         The conclusions about the incentives of the composers to write new music can not avoid commissions.

We assumed several categories in this field:
- SOKOM (The Association of Composers of Macedonia, the major institution which stimulated the authors to create new pieces)
- Other Macedonian institutions  (such as the Philharmonic Orchestra, MRT etc.)
- Foreign institutions or individuals
- Unknown data about the commissions
- No commissions (where the composers confirmed that the piece was not commissioned).

         The conclusion regarding this set of data points out that 40% of the pieces were commissioned, which in Macedonia is still the main source of reimbursement of the composers for their works.
 

        Eighth field - first performance

 This field was subdivided into three subcategories:
- the time of the first performance,
- where  it was performed and
- who were the performers.

 Having in mind the interests of this paper, we will present only the number of pieces which had their first performance during this period. The festival “Days of Macedonian Music”, i.e. the main institution dealing with the promotion of the new music, is an additional important category. Thus, we created the following fields regarding  the first performance:
- Days of Macedonian Music (DMM)
- Other festivals and concerts
- Unperformed
- Unknown.

 The distribution of the results in this field are the following:

 The results confirmed the conclusion that DMM is the central institution motivating Macedonian composers to write music.
 

         Ninth field - Recordings

        “Days of Macedonian Music” is the main institution which stimulates the composers to record their pieces. As Macedonian Radio and TV was the only institution making professional recordings of classical and contemporary music until recently ( when the new studios at UKIM FM were established), the collection of data was simple and we only had four categories:
- DMM
- Recordings at MRTV
- Unrecorded
- Unknown.
 The distribution of the results in this field are the following:

         We can state that the fact that 64% of the compositions have been recorded for MRTV programs (live or studio recordings), speaks both for the interest of this institution in supporting Macedonian composers, and the preservation of the performance on carriers which can be used repeatedly.
 

          Tenth field - Printings

          We used the term printings for this field as a more adequate equivalent than publishing, because part of the publishing activities are covered under performance and recording. In this field our interest covered only the number of printed scores. While the official data from SOCOM proves that only ten scores were printed, we should take into consideration that most of the scores, (especially in the second half of the period we surveyed), exist in computer format, which enables immediate publishing. In fact, the composer Dimitrije Buzarovski appears as a publisher of all his scores in this format.
 

           Further steps

          This database is not the only material we collected regarding our project. In addition, we have distributed a questionnaire, with the goal of collecting the composers’ opinions regarding the financial incentives for the creation of new music. We have also collected the data about the commission fees, the costs of the performance, and the distribution of the royalties.

 After the statistical analysis of this material, we plan to develop hypothetical models regarding:
- the costs for the performance
- the revenue which can be generated as a reimbursement for the artistic work of the composer.

          We hope that our conclusions will help in the understanding of the composers’ behavior in the new economic environment of  Macedonia.