Đuro Živković, also rendered as Djuro Zivkovic (Serbian Cyrillic: Ђуро Живковић; born 1975), is a Serbian-Swedish composer and violinist.
He has developed a variety of compositional techniques such as polyrhythmic improvisation, special harmony-based scales, microtones, layer-polyphony and heterophony.
[3] In May 2021, Zivkovic was one of 10 new members elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, alongside Marika Field, Katarina Karnéus, Jonas Knutsson, Sten Sandell, Richard Sparks, Keiko Abe, Giancarlo Andretta, Stefan Dohr, and Quincy Jones.
The sonata is a step forward from its precedents (Bartok or Shostakovich) in both sound and technique, and is indeed a very serious and complex work of young Zivkovic.
Sighs, sound phrases, wide vibrato, glissandos... everything in this music is in a function of some unusual fascination, spiritual and intuitive onomatopoeias and brave identification of the world of angels.
It seems that Zivkovic finds the right theme for the music that he is long in it, but above all - it has given a strong original term for his unusual and supernatural inspiration, stands almost alone in its over-sense beauty.
(review by Milorad Marinkovic)Paul Valery's poem of the same name inspired Živković for the piece commissioned and dedicated to famous mezzo-soprano Anna Larsson and chamber ensemble Sonanza, who gave its premiere.
However, the ‘information’ about their own depths to which they allegedly descend is conveyed to the individuals through a work of art, a phenomenon whose ontological and phenomenological foundation relies on institutional support and social engagement – in other words, it stems from the place it occupies in a society’s production structure.
Also, the knowledge of ‘the depths of the heart’ comes from a composer who mastered the technique, and is not likely to use all of those fantasies to snap the audience out of their lethargy and confront them with the current problems.
On the contrary, by eliminating uncertainty he induces us to ‘descend’ somewhere where ‘eternity’ overpowers current problems, and that place he calls ‘the heart’ of ‘the spiritual.’ Živković, therefore, as a creator, builds the image of a guardian of tradition who, thanks to his technical skills, transcends national boundaries, proving the ‘propriety’ and ‘extra-temporality’ of his construction of Serbian heritage, which, if adequately mediated, will demonstrate its value by closeness to universal ‘truths’.
Djuro Zivkovic sovereignly rules with the modern compositional and musical techniques, which stand deep in the function of his artistic individuality that possesses a finished aesthetic style.
The first movement is entitled "Ich ruf zu Dir, Herr Jesu Christ", as a spiritual reminiscence of Bach's chorale prelude BWV 639.
Ierotheos commented the concert with these words: The dramatic plot and composer's powerful expression made highly emotional the audience's experience and contemplation over the holy texts of St Simeon's Hymns, which were sung and extolled in Greek, English and Church-Slavonic by the vocal soloist Carina Vinke and the Choir of Monastery Kovilj.
This liturgical drama, which is conceived foremost as a musical-dramatic work, overcame its artistic framework by penetrating, at moments, into the sphere of a true clergic worship.
Being impressed and affected by the miraculous synthesis of contemporary melodies and ancient church music - which infused at all times the prayers and sermons of St Symeon, soaked in repentance and weeping, but also in hope of re-seeing the Face of God - viewers and listeners of this liturgical and all-human drama left the Nykirken church in a sacred silence, continuing to experience and live the same drama even outside of its own divine space.The Ancient Mode is a compositional technique based on a synthetic scale called "ancient scale", constructed and used by composer Djuro Zivkovic in his compositions since 2004.
Investigating scale classes with 7 tones shows that major (and its related) has the highest difference-tone integrity, which is opposite to the ancient mode.