Serbian Late Twentieth-Century Neo-Avant-Garde: Minimalist Music by Vladimir Tošić and Miroslav Miša Savić

Abstract

This article examines selected minimalist compositions by Vladimir Tošić and Miroslav Miša Savić, two members of the neo-avant-garde composers group, Opus 4, whose activities created a unique artistic paradigm on the Serbian art music scene. While the group's work clearly referred to experimental trends in the United States (minimalism, Fluxus, multimedia, and conceptual art), it also retained a significant ‘trace’ of European post-war modernism, embodied in the group's commitment to serialist modes of organising musical material. Thus, the ‘integral minimalism’ of Savić and Tošić (within the unique aesthetics of Opus 4) unites both European and American post-war neo-avant-garde concepts. This study situates Tošić's and Savić's minimalist works within the Serbian late twentieth-century ‘new music’ context and is dedicated to the neo-avant-garde minimalist oeuvres of the two composers.