Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times. The central norms of this tradition became codified between 1550 and 1900, which is known as the common practice period.

European music is largely distinguished from many other non-European and popular musical forms by its system of staff notation, in use since about the 16th century. Western staff notation is used by composers to prescribe to the performer the pitch, speed, meter, individual rhythms and exact execution of a piece of music. This leaves less room for practices such as improvisation and ''ad libitum'' ornamentation, that are frequently heard in non-European art music (as in Indian classical music and Japanese traditional music) and popular music.

The term "classical music" did not appear until the early 19th century, in an attempt to "canonize" the period from Johann Sebastian Bach to Beethoven as a golden age. The earliest reference to "classical music" recorded by the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' is from about 1836.

Characteristics

Given the extremely broad variety of forms, styles, genres, and historical periods generally perceived as being described by the term "classical music," it is difficult to list characteristics that can be attributed to all works of that type. Vague descriptions are plentiful, such as describing classical music as anything that "lasts a long time," a statement made rather moot when one considers contemporary composers who are described as classical; or music that has certain instruments like violins, which are also found in other genres. However, there are characteristics that classical music contains that few or no other genres of music contain.

Literature

The most outstanding and particular characteristic of classical music is that the repertoire tends to be written down. Composers and performers alike are typically highly literate in understanding notation and the written quality of the music has, in addition to preserving the works, led to a high level of complexity within them.

Instrumentation

The instruments used in most classical music were largely invented before the mid-19th century (often much earlier), and codified in the 18th and 19th centuries. They consist of the instruments found in an orchestra, together with a few other solo instruments (such as the piano, harpsichord, and organ). The symphony orchestra is the most widely known medium for classical music. The orchestra includes members of the string, woodwind, brass, and percussion families.

Electric instruments such as the electric guitar appear occasionally in the classical music of the 20th and 21st centuries. Both classical and popular musicians have experimented in recent decades with electronic instruments such as the synthesizer, electric and digital techniques such as the use of sampled or computer-generated sounds, and the sounds of instruments from other cultures such as the gamelan.

None of the bass instruments existed until the Renaissance. In Medieval music, instruments are divided in two categories: loud instruments for use outdoors or in church, and quieter instruments for indoor use. The Baroque orchestra consisted of flutes, oboes, horns and violins, occasionally with trumpets and timpani. Many instruments which are associated today with popular music used to have important roles in early classical music, such as bagpipes, vihuelas, hurdy-gurdies and some woodwind instruments. On the other hand, instruments such as the acoustic guitar, which used to be associated mainly with popular music, have gained prominence in classical music through the 19th and 20th centuries.

While equal temperament became gradually accepted as the dominant musical temperament during the 19th century, different historical temperaments are often used for music from earlier periods. For instance, music of the English Renaissance is often performed in mean tone temperament. Keyboards almost all share a common layout (often called the piano keyboard).

Form

Whereas the majority of popular styles lend themselves to the song form, classical music can also take on the form of the concerto, symphony, sonata, opera, dance music, suite, étude, symphonic poem, and others.

Classical composers often aspire to imbue their music with a very complex relationship between its affective (emotional) content and the intellectual means by which it is achieved. Many of the most esteemed works of classical music make use of musical development, the process by which a musical idea or motif is repeated in different contexts or in altered form. The sonata form and fugue employ rigorous forms of musical development.

Technical execution

Along with a desire for composers to attain high technical achievement in writing their music, performers of classical music are faced with similar goals of technical mastery, as demonstrated by the proportionately high amount of schooling and private study most successful classical musicians have had when compared to "popular" genre musicians, and the large number of secondary schools, including conservatories, dedicated to the study of classical music. The only other genre in the Western world with comparable secondary education opportunities is jazz.

Complexity

Performance of classical music repertoire demands a significant level of technical mastery on the part of the musician; proficiency in sight-reading and ensemble playing, thorough understanding of tonal and harmonic principles, knowledge of performance practice, and a familiarity with the style/musical idiom inherent to a given period, composer or musical work are among the most essential of skills for the classically trained musician.

Works of classical repertoire often exhibit artistic complexity through the use of thematic development, phrasing, harmonization, modulation (change of key), texture, and, of course, musical form itself. Larger-scale compositional forms (such as that of the symphony, concerto, opera or oratorio, for example) usually represent a hierarchy of smaller units consisting of phrases, periods, sections, and movements. Musical analysis of a composition aims at achieving greater understanding of it, leading to more meaningful hearing and a greater appreciation of the composer's style.

Society

Often perceived as opulent or signifying some aspect of upper-level society, classical music has generally never been as popular with working-class society. However, the traditional perception that only upper-class society has access to and appreciation for classical music, or even that classical music represents the upper-class society, may not be true, given that many working classical musicians fall somewhere in the middle-class income range in the United States, and that classical concertgoers and CD buyers are not necessarily upper class. Even in the Classical era, Mozart's opere buffe such as ''Così fan tutte'' were popular with the general public.

Classical music regularly features in pop culture, forming background music for movies, television programs and advertisements. As a result most people in the Western World regularly and often unknowingly listen to classical music; thus, it can be argued that the relatively low levels of recorded music sales may not be a good indicator of its actual popularity. In more recent times the association of certain classical pieces with major events has led to brief upsurges in interest in particular classical genres. A good example of this was the choice of ''Nessun dorma'' from Giacomo Puccini's opera ''Turandot'' as the theme tune for the 1990 FIFA World Cup, which led to a noticeable increase in popular interest in opera and in particular in tenor arias, which led to the huge sellout concerts by The Three Tenors. Such events are often cited as helping to drive increases in the audiences at many classical concerts that have been observed in recent times.

History

The major time divisions of classical music are the early music period, which includes Medieval (500–1400) and Renaissance (1400–1600), the Common practice period, which includes the Baroque (1600–1750), Classical (1750–1830) and Romantic (1815–1910) periods, and the modern and contemporary period, which includes 20th century (1900–2000) and contemporary (1975–current).

The dates are generalizations, since the periods overlapped and the categories are somewhat arbitrary. For example, the use of counterpoint and fugue, which is considered characteristic of the Baroque era, was continued by Haydn, who is classified as typical of the Classical period. Beethoven, who is often described as a founder of the Romantic period, and Brahms, who is classified as Romantic, also used counterpoint and fugue, but other characteristics of their music define their period.

The prefix ''neo'' is used to describe a 20th century or contemporary composition written in the style of an earlier period, such as Classical or Romantic. Stravinsky's ''Pulcinella'', for example, is a neoclassical composition because it is stylistically similar to works of the Classical period.

Roots

The roots of Western classical music lie in early Christian liturgical music, and its influences date back to the Ancient Greeks. Development of individual tones and scales was done by ancient Greeks such as Aristoxenus and Pythagoras. Pythagoras created a tuning system and helped to codify musical notation. Ancient Greek instruments such as the aulos (a reed instrument) and the lyre (a stringed instrument similar to a small harp) eventually led to the modern-day instruments of a classical orchestra. The antecedent to the early period was the era of ancient music from before the fall of the Roman Empire (476 AD). Very little music survives from this time, most of it from Ancient Greece.

Early Period

The Medieval period includes music from after the fall of Rome to about 1400. Monophonic chant, also called plainsong or Gregorian Chant, was the dominant form until about 1100. Polyphonic (multi-voiced) music developed from monophonic chant throughout the late Middle Ages and into the Renaissance, including the more complex voicings of motets. The Renaissance period was from 1400 to 1600. It was characterized by greater use of instrumentation, multiple interweaving melodic lines, and the use of the first bass instruments. Social dancing became more widespread, so musical forms appropriate to accompanying dance began to standardize.

It is in this time that the notation of music on a staff and other elements of musical notation began to take shape. This invention made possible the separation of the composition of a piece of music from its ''transmission''; without written music, transmission was oral, and subject to change every time it was transmitted. With a musical score, a work of music could be performed without the composer's presence. The invention of the movable-type printing press in the 15th century had far-reaching consequences on the preservation and transmission of music.

Typical stringed instruments of the Early Period include the harp, lute, vielle, and psaltery, while wind instruments included the flute family (including recorder), shawm (an early member of the oboe family), trumpet, and the bagpipe. Simple pipe organs existed, but were largely confined to churches, although there were portable varieties. Later in the period, early versions of keyboard instruments like the clavichord and harpsichord began to appear. Stringed instruments such as the viol had emerged by the 16th century, as had a wider variety of brass and reed instruments. Printing enabled the standardization of descriptions and specifications of instruments, as well as instruction in their use.

Common Practice Period

The Common Practice Period is when many of the ideas that make up western classical music took shape, standardized, or were codified. It began with the Baroque era, running from roughly 1600 to the middle of the 18th century. The Classical era followed, ending roughly around 1820. The Romantic era ran through the 19th century, ending about 1910.

Baroque music

Baroque music is characterized by the use of complex tonal counterpoint and the use of a basso continuo, a continuous bass line. Music became more complex in comparison with the songs of earlier periods. The beginnings of the sonata form took shape in the canzona, as did a more formalized notion of theme and variations. The tonalities of major and minor as means for managing dissonance and chromaticism in music took full shape.

During the Baroque era, keyboard music played on the harpsichord and pipe organ became increasingly popular, and the violin family of stringed instruments took the form generally seen today. Opera as a staged musical drama began to differentiate itself from earlier musical and dramatic forms, and vocal forms like the cantata and oratorio became more common. Vocalists began adding embellishments to melodies. Instrumental ensembles began to distinguish and standardize by size, giving rise to the early orchestra for larger ensembles, with chamber music being written for smaller groups of instruments where parts are played by individual (instead of massed) instruments. The concerto as a vehicle for solo performance accompanied by an orchestra became widespread, although the relationship between soloist and orchestra was relatively simple. The theories surrounding equal temperament began to be put in wider practice, especially as it enabled a wider range of chromatic possibilities in hard-to-tune keyboard instruments. Although Bach did not use equal temperament, as a modern piano is generally tuned, changes in the temperaments from the meantone system, common at the time, to various temperaments that made modulation between all keys musically acceptable, made possible Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier.

Classical period music

The Classical period, from about 1750 to 1820, established many of the norms of composition, presentation, and style, and was also when the piano became the predominant keyboard instrument. The ''basic'' forces required for an orchestra became somewhat standardized (although they would grow as the potential of a wider array of instruments was developed in the following centuries). Chamber music grew to include ensembles with as many as 8–10 performers for serenades. Opera continued to develop, with regional styles in Italy, France, and German-speaking lands. The ''opera buffa'', a form of comic opera, rose in popularity. The symphony came into its own as a musical form, and the concerto was developed as a vehicle for displays of virtuoso playing skill. Orchestras no longer required a harpsichord (which had been part of the traditional ''continuo'' in the Baroque style), and were often led by the lead violinist (now called the concertmaster).

Wind instruments became more refined in the Classical period. While double reeded instruments like the oboe and bassoon became somewhat standardized in the Baroque, the clarinet family of single reeds was not widely used until Mozart expanded its role in orchestral, chamber, and concerto settings.

Romantic era music

The music of the Romantic era, from roughly the second decade of the 19th century to the early 20th century, was characterized by increased attention to an extended melodic line, as well as expressive and emotional elements, paralleling romanticism in other art forms. Musical forms began to break from the Classical era forms (even as those were being codified), with free-form pieces like nocturnes, fantasias, and preludes being written where accepted ideas about the exposition and development of themes were ignored or minimized. The music became more chromatic, dissonant, and tonally colorful, with tensions (with respect to accepted norms of the older forms) about key signatures increasing. The art song (or ''Lied'') came to maturity in this era, as did the epic scales of grand opera, ultimately transcended by Richard Wagner's Ring cycle.

In the 19th century, musical institutions emerged from the control of wealthy patrons, as composers and musicians could construct lives independent of the nobility. Increasing interest in music by the growing middle classes throughout western Europe spurred the creation of organizations for the teaching, performance, and preservation of music. The piano, which achieved its modern construction in this era (in part due to industrial advances in metallurgy) became widely popular with the middle class, whose demands for the instrument spurred a large number of piano builders. Many symphony orchestras date their founding to this era. Some musicians and composers were the stars of the day; some, like Franz Liszt and Niccolò Paganini, fulfilled both roles.

The family of instruments used, especially in orchestras, grew. A wider array of percussion instruments began to appear. Brass instruments took on larger roles, as the introduction of rotary valves made it possible for them to play a wider range of notes. The size of the orchestra (typically around 40 in the Classical era) grew to be over 100. Gustav Mahler's 1906 ''Symphony No. 8'', for example, has been performed with over 150 instrumentalists and choirs of over 400.

European cultural ideas and institutions began to follow colonial expansion into other parts of the world. There was also a rise, especially toward the end of the era, of nationalism in music (echoing, in some cases, political sentiments of the time), as composers such as Edvard Grieg, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and Antonín Dvořák echoed traditional music of their homelands in their compositions.

20th century, modern, and contemporary music

Modernism (1905–1985) marked a period when many composers rejected certain values of the common practice period, such as traditional tonality, melody, instrumentation, and structure. Composers, academics, and musicians developed extensions of music theory and technique. 20th century classical music, encompassing a wide variety of post-Romantic styles composed through the year 1999, includes late Romantic, Modern and Postmodern styles of composition. The term "contemporary music" is sometimes used to describe music composed in the late 20th century through to the present day.

Significance of written notation

Modernist view of the significance of the score

The modernist views hold that Classical music is considered primarily a ''written'' musical tradition, preserved in music notation, as opposed to being transmitted orally, by rote, or by recordings of particular performances. While there are differences between particular performances of a classical work, a piece of classical music is generally held to transcend any interpretation of it. The use of musical notation is an effective method for transmitting classical music, since the written music contains the technical instructions for performing the work. The written score, however, does not usually contain explicit instructions as to how to interpret the piece in terms of production or performance, apart from directions for dynamics, tempo and expression (to a certain extent). This is left to the discretion of the performers, who are guided by their personal experience and musical education, their knowledge of the work's idiom, their personal artistic tastes, and the accumulated body of historic performance practices.

Criticism of the modernist view

Some critics express the opinion that it is only from the mid 19th century, and especially in the 20th century, that the score began to hold such a high significance. Previously, improvisation, rhythmic flexibility, improvisatory deviation from the score and oral tradition of playing was integral to style of music. Yet in the 20th century, this oral tradition and passing on of stylistic features within classical music disappeared. Instead, musicians use the score to play music, yet even given the score, there is considerable controversy about how to perform the works. Some of this controversy relates to the fact that this score-centric approach has led to performing styles that emphasize metrically strict block-rhythms (just as the music is notated in the score).

Some quotes that highlight this criticism of modernist overvaluing of the score:

''[...]one of the most stubborn modern misconceptions concerning baroque music is that a metronomic regularity was intended'' (Baroque Interpretation in Grove 5th edition by Robert Donington)

''Too many teachers, conditioned to 20th Century ideas, teach Bach and other Baroque music exactly the wrong way. This leads to what musicologist Sol Babitz calls "sewing machine Bach."'' ''[...] tendency to look alike, sound alike and think alike. The conservatories are at fault and they have been at fault for many years now. Any sensitive musician going around the World has noted the same thing. The conservatories, from Moscow and Leningrad to Juilliard, Curtis and Indiana, are producing a standardized product. [...] clarity, undeviating rhythm, easy technique, "musicianship". I put the word musicianship in quotes, because as often as not, it is a false kind of musicianship – a musicianship that sees the tree and not the forest, that takes care of the detail but ignores the big picture; a musicianship that is tied to the printed note rather than to emotional meaning of a piece.The fact remains that there is a dreadful uniformity today and also an appalling lack of knowledge about the culture and performance traditions of the past.'' (Music Schools Turning out Robots? by Harold C. Schonberg)

Improvisation

Improvisation once played an important role in classical music. A remnant of this improvisatory tradition in classical music can be heard in the cadenza, a passage found mostly in concertos and solo works, designed to allow skilled performers to exhibit their virtuoso skills on the instrument. Traditionally this was improvised by the performer; however, it is often written for (or occasionally by) the performer beforehand. Improvisation is also an important aspect in authentic performances of operas of Baroque era and of bel canto (especially operas of Vincenzo Bellini), and is best exemplified by the ''da capo aria'', a form by which famous singers typically perform variations of the thematic matter of the aria in the recapitulation section ('B section' / the 'da capo' part). An example is Beverly Sills' complex, albeit pre-written, variation of ''Da tempeste il legno infranto'' from Händel's ''Giulio Cesare''.

Its written transmission, along with the veneration bestowed on certain classical works, has led to the expectation that performers will play a work in a way that realizes in detail the original intentions of the composer. During the 19th century the details that composers put in their scores generally increased. Yet the opposite trend – admiration of performers for new "interpretations" of the composer's work – can be seen, and it is not unknown for a composer to praise a performer for achieving a better realization of the original intent than the composer was able to imagine. Thus, classical performers often achieve very high reputations for their musicianship, even if they do not compose themselves. Generally however, it is the composers who are remembered more than the performers.

Another consequence of the primacy of the composer's written score is that this has led to the state, where today improvisation plays a relatively minor role in classical music, in sharp contrast to musicians who lived during the baroque, classical and romantic era. Improvisation in classical music performance was common during both the Baroque era and in the nineteenth, yet lessened strongly during the 2nd half of the 19th and in the 20th centuries. Recently the performance of such music by modern classical musicians has been enriched by a revival of the old improvisational practices. During the classical period, Mozart and Beethoven often improvised the cadenzas to their piano concertos (and thereby encouraged others to do so), but they also provided written cadenzas for use by other soloists. In opera, the practice of singing strictly by the score i.e. ''come scritto'', is famously propagated by Maria Callas, who called this practice 'straitjacketing' and implied that it allows the intention of the composer to be understood better, especially during studying the music for the first time.

Relationship to other music traditions

Popular music

Classical music has often incorporated elements or material from popular music of the composer's time. Examples include occasional music such as Brahms' use of student drinking songs in his ''Academic Festival Overture'', genres exemplified by Kurt Weill's ''The Threepenny Opera'', and the influence of jazz on early- and mid-20th century composers including Maurice Ravel, exemplified by the movement entitled "Blues" in his sonata for violin and piano. Certain postmodern, minimalist and postminimalist classical composers acknowledge a debt to popular music.

There are numerous examples of influence in the opposite direction, including popular songs based on classical music, the use to which ''Pachelbel's Canon'' has been put since the 1970s, and the musical crossover phenomenon, where classical musicians have achieved success in the popular music arena.

Folk music

Composers of classical music have often made use of folk music (music created by musicians who are commonly not classically trained, often from a purely oral tradition). Some composers, like Dvořák and Smetana, have used folk themes to impart a nationalist flavor to their work, while others (like Bartók) have used specific themes lifted whole from their folk-music origins.

Commercialism

Certain staples of classical music are often used commercially (either in advertising or in movie soundtracks). In television commercials, several passages have become clichéd, particularly the opening of Richard Strauss' ''Also sprach Zarathustra'' (made famous in the film ''2001: A Space Odyssey'') and the opening section "O Fortuna" of Carl Orff's ''Carmina Burana''; other examples include the ''Dies Irae'' from the Verdi Requiem, Edvard Grieg's ''In the Hall of the Mountain King'' from ''Peer Gynt'', the opening bars of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5, Wagner's ''Ride of the Valkyries'' from ''Die Walküre'', Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee", and excerpts of Aaron Copland's ''Rodeo''.

Similarly, movies and television often revert to standard, clichéd snatches of classical music to convey refinement or opulence: some of the most-often heard pieces in this category include Mozart's ''Eine kleine Nachtmusik'', Vivaldi's ''Four Seasons'', Mussorgsky's ''Night on Bald Mountain'', and Rossini's ''William Tell Overture''.

Education

Throughout history, parents have often made sure that their children receive classical music training from a young age. Some parents pursue music lessons for their children for social reasons or in an effort to instill a sense of self-discipline. Some believe that knowledge of important works of classical music is part of a good general education.

During the 1990s, several research papers and popular books wrote on what came to be called the "Mozart effect": an observed temporary, small elevation of scores on certain tests as a result of listening to Mozart's works. The approach has been popularized in a book by Don Campbell, and is based on an experiment published in ''Nature'' suggesting that listening to Mozart temporarily boosted students' IQ by 8 to 9 points. This popularized version of the theory was expressed succinctly by a ''New York Times'' music columnist: "researchers... have determined that listening to Mozart actually makes you smarter." Promoters marketed CDs claimed to induce the effect. Florida passed a law requiring toddlers in state-run schools to listen to classical music every day, and in 1998 the governor of Georgia budgeted $105,000 per year to provide every child born in Georgia with a tape or CD of classical music. One of the co-authors of the original studies of the Mozart effect commented "I don't think it can hurt. I'm all for exposing children to wonderful cultural experiences. But I do think the money could be better spent on music education programs."

See also

Notes

References

Kennedy, Michael (2006), ''The Oxford Dictionary of Music'', 985 pages, ISBN 0-19-861459-4

Further reading

Copland, Aaron;(1957) – ''What to listen for in music''. McGraw Hill.-10: 7018981026 (paperback).

Grout, Donald Jay; Palisca, Claude V. (1996) – ''A History of Western Music'', Fifth Edition. W.W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-96904-5 (hardcover).

Hanning, Barbara Russano; Grout, Donald Jay (1998 rev. 2009) – ''Concise History of Western Music''. W.W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-92803-9 (hardcover).

Johnson, Julian (2002). ''Who Needs Classical Music?: Cultural Choice and Musical Value''. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-514681-6.

Kamien, Roger (2008) – ''Music: An Appreciation'' Sixth Brief Edition ISBN 978-0-07-340134-8

Lihoreau, Tim; Fry, Stephen (2004) – ''Stephen Fry's Incomplete and Utter History of Classical Music''. Boxtree. ISBN 978-0-7522-2534-0

Scholes, Percy Alfred; Arnold, Denis (photographer) (1988) – ''The New Oxford Companion to Music''. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-311316-3 (paperback).

Taruskin, Richard (2005, rev. Paperback version 2009) – ''Oxford History of Western Music''. Oxford University Press (USA). ISBN 978-0-19-516979-9 (Hardback), ISBN 978-0-19-538630-1 (Paperback)

External links

Historical classical recordings from the British Library Sound Archive

Category:European music

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Coordinates	22°34′12″N17°5′1″N
name	Emir Kusturica
birth name	Emir Kusturica
birth date	November 24, 1954
birth place	Sarajevo, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina,SFR Yugoslavia
other names	Emir
nationality	Serbian
ethnic	[Bosniak]]
occupation	Film director and screenwriter
years active	1978–present
spouse	Maja Kusturica
children	Stribor KusturicaDunja Kusturica
website	www.kustu.com }}

Emir Nemanja Kusturica (Cyrillic: Емир Немања Кустурица, ), (born 24 November 1954 in Sarajevo) is a Serbian filmmaker, actor and musician, recognized for several internationally acclaimed feature films. He is a two-time winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes (for ''When Father Was Away on Business'' and ''Underground''), as well as being a ''Commander'' of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Since the mid-2000s, Kusturica's primary residence is Drvengrad, a village in the Mokra Gora region of Serbia. He had portions of the historic village reconstructed for his film ''Life Is a Miracle''.

Life and work

Early life and works

Born to Murat Kusturica, a journalist employed at the Sarajevo's Secretariat of Information, and Senka Numankadić, a court secretary, Emir grew up as the only child of a secular Bosnian Muslim family in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina, then a constituent republic within Yugoslavia.

Emir was something of a delinquent while growing up in the Sarajevo neighbourhood of Gorica, according to his own account. Through his father's friendship with the well-known director Hajrudin "Šiba" Krvavac, 17-year-old Emir got a small part in Krvavac's 1972 ''Valter brani Sarajevo'', a partisan film funded by the Yugoslav state.

After graduating from the Film Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU) in 1978, Kusturica began directing made-for-TV television shorts in then-Yugoslavia. He made his feature film debut in 1981 with ''Do You Remember Dolly Bell?'', which won the prestigious Golden Lion for Best First Work at that year's Venice Film Festival. From 1981 to 1988, he was a lecturer at the Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo (''Akademija Scenskih Umjetnosti'') and art director of Open Stage Obala (''Otvorena scena Obala'').

His second feature film, ''When Father Was Away on Business'' (1985), earned a ''Palme d'Or'' at Cannes and five Yugoslavian movie awards, as well as a nomination for an American Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. Kusturica wrote the screenplays for both ''Do You Remember Dolly Bell?'' and ''When Father Was Away on Business'' in collaboration with Abdulah Sidran. In 1989, Kusturica earned more accolades for ''Time of the Gypsies'', a film about Romani culture and the exploitation of their youth.

1990s

Kusturica continued to make highly regarded films into the next decade, including his American debut, the absurdist comedy ''Arizona Dream'' (1993). He won the Palme d'Or for his black comedy epic, ''Underground'' (1995), based upon a scenario of Dušan Kovačević, a noted Serbian playwright.

In 1998, he won the Venice Film Festival's Silver Lion for Best Direction for ''Black Cat, White Cat'', a farcical comedy set in a Gypsy (Romany) settlement on the banks of the Danube. The music for the film was composed by the Belgrade-based band No Smoking Orchestra.

Recent life and work

In 2001, Kusturica directed ''Super 8 Stories'', a documentary road and concert movie about The No Smoking Orchestra, of which he is a band member. He was appointed ''President of the Jury'' of the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.

His film, ''Maradona'', a documentary on Argentine soccer star Diego Maradona, was released in Italy in May 2007. It premiered in France during the Cannes Film Festival in 2008.

His film ''Promise Me This'' premiered at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. During 2007, Kusturica prepared a punk opera, ''Times of the Gypsies''. The premiere took place in June 2007, at the ''Opéra Bastille'' in Paris. The next month, Kusturica directed the music video to Manu Chao's single "Rainin In Paradize", from the latter's forthcoming album.

On 8 September 2007, Kusturica was appointed a UNICEF National Ambassador for Serbia, alongside Ana Ivanović, Jelena Janković and Aleksandar Đorđević.

Since January 2008, Kusturica annually organizes a private Küstendorf Film Festival. Its first installment was held at Drvengrad, a village built for his film ''Life Is a Miracle'', from 14 to 21 January 2008.

His next film, ''Cool Water'', is a comedy set against the background of a Middle East conflict. Filming started in November 2010 in Germany. It is the first time Emir Kusturica directed a film which he did not write.

At the 64th Cannes Film Festival, held 11–22 May 2011, Kusturica presided over the jury of the ''Un Certain Regard'' section of the festival's official selection. On 14 May, in Cannes, he was invested with the insignia of Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, the highest decoration in France.

Acting

Kusturica first performed in ''The Widow of St. Pierre'' (2000), a movie by director Patrice Leconte. In 2002, Emir Kusturica appeared as an electric guitar player/security specialist in ''The Good Thief'', directed by Neil Jordan.

In the French movie ''L'affaire Farewell'' (2009), he played the role of Russian KGB agent Colonel Sergei Gregoriev, the central focus of a web of intrigue between warring governments and rival spy agencies. He conveyed effortless charisma, authority and humor.

Music

From 1986 until 1988, Kusturica played bass guitar in Zabranjeno Pušenje, a rock band from Sarajevo (SR Bosnia and Herzegovina).

Although Kusturica played a minor musical role in the band, he returned to the group following the ''Black Cat, White Cat'' film and the band's name changed to Emir Kusturica & The No Smoking Orchestra. In 1999, the No Smoking Orchestra recorded a new album, ''Unza Unza Time'', produced by the Universal record company, as well as a music video, directed by Emir Kusturica. The band has been touring internationally since 1999.

The musician and composer Goran Bregović has created music for three of Kusturica's films: ''Time of the Gypsies'', ''Arizona Dream'', which featured Iggy Pop; and ''Underground''.

Writing

Kusturica's autobiography, ''Smrt je neprovjerena glasina'' (''Death is an Unverified Rumour''), was published in October 2010 in Belgrade by Novosti AD. The launch took place on 26 October during Belgrade Book Fair and was attended by Nele Karajlić, Dušan Kovačević, Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremić, Vojislav Koštunica. Released only in Serbia, Montenegro, and Republika Srpska, the book was initially printed in 20,000 copies that were quickly sold. Second printing in 32,000 copies was out in November and it too sold within weeks. On 8 December, the third printing in 40,000 copies was out and promoted a day later at Belgrade's Dom Sindikata. In February 2011, fourth printing with further 10,000 copies was out and soon the sale of 100,000th copy was announced.

Translations were released in Italy on 30 March 2011 under the title ''Dove sono in questa storia'' ("Where am I in this Story"), in France on 6 April 2011 as ''Où suis-je dans cette histoire ?'', and in Germany in September 2011 as ''Der Tod ist ein unbestätigtes Gerücht''.

Controversy

Work

Kusturica and his work have provoked controversy at home and abroad. ''Underground'', scripted by Dušan Kovačević, was partly financed by state-owned Yugoslav television. It recounted the history of Yugoslavia from World War II until the conflict in the 1990s. Some critics claimed Kusturica promoted a pro-Serbian view of the Yugoslav Wars, including ethnic animosities during WWII. Some Bosnian and French critics claimed the film contained pro-Serb propaganda.

French philosopher and writer Alain Finkielkraut, a supporter of the Croatian nationalist leader Franjo Tuđman, denounced the Cannes Film Festival's jury award, saying,

"In recognizing 'Underground', the Cannes jury thought it was honouring a creator with a thriving imagination. In fact, it has honoured a servile and flashy illustrator of criminal clichés. The Cannes jury highly praised a version of the most hackneyed and deceitful Serb propaganda. The devil himself could not have conceived so cruel an outrage against Bosnia, nor such a grotesque epilogue to Western incompetence and frivolity."

It was later revealed that Finkielkraut had not seen the film before writing his criticism. French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy made a film criticizing ''Underground''.

In a discussion with Bernard-Henri Levy, the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek said,

"I hope we share another point, which is – to be brutal – hatred of [director] Emir Kusturica. ''Underground'' is one of the most horrible films that I've seen. What kind of Yugoslav society do you see in Kusturica's ''Underground''? A society where people fornicate, drink, fight – a kind of eternal orgy."

The Bosnian novelist Aleksandar Hemon, who was born in Sarajevo and emigrated to the United States before the war, said ''Underground'' downplays Serbian atrocities by presenting "the Balkan war as a product of collective, innate, savage madness."

Politics

Kusturica has been criticised for appearing to agree with Slobodan Milošević’s propaganda during the Bosnian War. Andrej Nikolaidis, a Montenegrin writer, said:

"Considering he proclaimed his dead father a Serb, and himself, Emir, an Orthodox Christian, he easily chose his own in the Bosnian War. He recognized them in Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić. He wasn't there to fire cannon barrages, but whenever he could, with his artistic and media get-up he provided them an alibi for every killed Muslim who didn't want to admit that he was originally an 'Orthodox Christian'."

The journalist quoted Kusturica's numerous pro-Milošević public statements, and used photos Kusturica hugging Jovica Stanišić (chief of Serbian State Security Service. Stanišić is being tried for war crimes in the Hague. He also showed Kusturica with Milorad Vučelić (director of Serbian television) and Zoran Lilić (at the time president of Yugoslavia). Kusturica sued Nikolaidis and the ''Monitor'' newspaper for civil damages at the Supreme Court of Montenegro. Andrej Nikolaidis, columnist for the Montenegrin weekly ''Monitor'', was ordered to pay $6,490 to Kusturica for calling the famed director a "media star of Milosevic's war machinery". The judge ruled that the evidence was not credible enough. In the end Nikolaidis and the paper were fined 12,000 euros for breaking the code of journalism by calling Kusturica "stupid, ugly and corrupt" in the article. The Bosnian Writers Association sponsored a petition calling for the recall of the verdict, because they believed it denied basic human rights (of free speech). The petition was supported and signed by prominent intellectuals and many students from former Yugoslavia and abroad.

In October 2010 Kusturica withdrew from the jury of Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival after being publicly criticized and accused by Turkish director Semih Kaplanoğlu and Turkish minister of culture Ertuğrul Günay over his alleged remarks and opinions about the Bosnian War. The Turkish media reported that Kusturica repeatedly downplayed the number killed and the rapes of Muslim women. It was not clear when Kusturica was supposed to have made those comments, but the daily ''Milliyet'' said that Kusturica denied the allegations. Public sentiment in Turkey was whipped up against Kusturica to the point that a couple of days after Kusturica left Turkey, there were news reports that a mob of youths in Antalya physically assaulted Swiss actor Michael Neuenschwander (in town to promote his movie ''180° – Wenn deine Welt plötzlich Kopf steht'') because they mistook him for Kusturica. Later Neuenschwander's press agent declared there was no physical assault and that Neuenschwander was only verbally abused by a small group.

Personal

Kusturica moved to Serbia, where he lives in a village which was constructed for one of his films. On Đurđevdan (St. George's Day) in 2005, he was baptised into the Serbian Orthodox Church as Nemanja Kusturica (Немања Кустурица) in Savina monastery near Herceg Novi, Montenegro. To his critics who considered this the final betrayal of his Bosnian Muslim roots, he replied that: "My father was an atheist and he always described himself as a Serb. OK, maybe we were Muslim for 250 years, but we were Orthodox before that and deep down we were always Serbs, religion cannot change that. We only became Muslims to survive the Turks."

He traces his family origin before the conversion to Islam, to the Babić family, precisely to a ''Kusturica'' that helped build the Arslanagić bridge in the 18th century, that hailed from Bileća (He took the surname Kusturica when Islamized).

At the 2007 parliamentary elections, he gave indirect support to Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica and his right wing Democratic Party of Serbia. In 2007, he also supported the Serbian campaign Solidarity - Kosovo is Serbia, a campaign against the unilateral separation of the Serbian province of Kosovo.

He is currently living in Drvengrad, Serbia, the village which he had built for his film ''Life Is a Miracle''. Kusturica holds Serbian and French citizenships.

Marriage and family

Emir Kusturica is married to Maja Mandić, daughter of a "Bosnian Serb (Miloš Mandić) and a Slovene-Croat (Ljerka Kušec), making their children, Stribor, 30, and Dunja, 24, Slovene-Croat-Bosnian-Muslim Serbs." Their children are much like the mixed population of the former Yugoslavia.

Filmography

;As director

''Guernica'', 1978, short

''The Brides Are Coming'' (''Nevjeste dolaze''), 1978, TV film

''Buffet Titanic'' (''Bife Titanik''), 1979, TV film

''Do You Remember Dolly Bell?'' (''Sjećaš li se Dolly Bell''), 1981

''Nije čovjek ko ne umre'', 1984, TV film

''When Father Was Away on Business'' (''Otac na službenom putu''), 1985

''Time of the Gypsies'' (''Dom za vešanje''), 1988

''Arizona Dream'', 1993

''Underground'' (''Podzemlje''), 1995

''Black Cat, White Cat'' (''Crna mačka, beli mačor''), 1998

''Super 8 Stories'', 2001, documentary

''Life Is a Miracle'' (''Život je čudo''), 2004

''Promise Me This'' (''Zavet''), 2007

''Maradona'', 2008, documentary

''Tweaker's Delight'', 2011 (pre-production)

''Cool Water'', 2012 (pre-production)

''Wild Roses, Tender Roses'', 2012 (pre-production)

;As actor

''The Widow of Saint-Pierre'', 2000

''The Good Thief'', 2002

''L'affaire Farewell'' (''Farewell''), 2010

Awards

1st prize on Student's Film Festival in Karlovy Vary, (1978) for ''Guernica''

Golden Lion for "Best First Work" in Venice Film Festival, (1981) for ''Do You Remember Dolly Bell?''

Golden palm Cannes Film Festival, (1985) for ''When Father Was Away on Business''

FIPRESCI prize Cannes Film Festival, (1985) for ''When Father Was Away on Business''

Best Foreign Language Academy Award Nomination, (1985) for ''When Father Was Away on Business''

Best Director award at Cannes Film Festival, (1989) for ''Time of Gypsies'' Silver Bear – Special Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival, (1993) for ''Arizona Dream'' Golden Palm at Cannes Film Festival, (1995) for ''Underground''

Silver Plate of best documentary at Chicago International Film Festival, (2001) for ''Super 8 Stories''

Cinema Prize of the French Education System at Cannes Festival (2004) for ''Life is a Miracle''

Best European Union Film at César Awards, (2005) for ''Life is a Miracle''

Philippe Rotthier European Architecture Award, (2005) for Küstendorf village in Serbia

On 10 February 2007, Kusturica received Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France's highest order in recognition of significant contribution to the arts.

Emir Kusturica is the winner of the ''Philippe Rotthier European Architecture Award'' for his Küstendorf ethnic village project (also called Drvengrad – a “wooden town”) on Mt. Zlatibor, Serbia, in 2005. The prize is awarded every three years by the Brussels ''Foundation for Architecture''.

In 2004, The Prix de l'Education nationale (National Education Prize) honored Emir Kusturica and his film ''Život je čudo'' (Life is a Miracle).

References

Bibliography

Gocic, Goran: "The Cinema of Emir Kusturica: Notes from the Underground", Wallflower Press, London, 2001.

Irodanova, Dina: Emir Kusturica. London. British Film Institute 2002.

Imsirevic, Almir: "Based on a Truth Story", Sarajevo, 2007.

External links

No Smoking Orchestra – Band official site

Komuna Belgrade

Interview with Kusturica on Black Cat, White Cat

RTS interview, 26 April 2006 Etno selo Nemanje Kusturice na Mećavniku, May, 2007 – www.ciode.ca

Category:1954 births Category:Living people Category:People from Sarajevo Category:Serbian film directors Category:Yugoslav musicians Category:Eastern Orthodox Christians from Serbia Category:Yugoslav film directors Category:Bosnia and Herzegovina film directors Category:Golden Arena for Best Director winners Category:Roberto Rossellini Prize recipients Category:Venice Best Director Silver Lion winners Category:Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Category:Bass guitarists Category:Alumni of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague Category:Serbian former Muslims Category:Converts to Eastern Orthodoxy from Islam Category:UNICEF people Category:Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina Category:Bosniaks of Bosnia and Herzegovina

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