While his melodies reveal their “origins in our lands,” Radić rarely resorts to direct quotations of folk tunes, and by frequently treating vocal parts in an instrumental fashion, he emphasizes a rhythmic component.
This concert entailed a debate among critics centered on the questions of modernism and realism, directing, each from their own perspective, the path Serbian music should follow in the future.
Radić's oeuvre consists of stage works—opera Love, that's the main thing and ballet The Ballad of the vagabond moon; vocal-instrumental compositions The Scull-Tower, The Standup country, Awaiting Maria, Scenes from the countryside, The Name list, Landscapes, and The Besieged gaiety; orchestral pieces a Symphony, Sinfonietta, Two Symphonic images, Divertimento, Concertino, and Variations on a folk theme; as well as chamber and solo pieces.
The ballet's socio-psychological plot tinted by fantasy, Radić set to music by prevalently neoclassic expression, with particular attention devoted to rhythm which frequently implies jazz.
Prologue and Scene One: The Poet, otherwise a clerk in a science institute, consistently feels that he does not belong to the world surrounding him – at the soccer game, at the beach, and through the failure with his secretary.
The green comet is unsuccessfully luring him; the public opinion of the Universe is offended by his indifference, and the Poet is finally forced to escape by jumping back to Earth.
Scene Three: On Earth, the Poet is still searching for the woman of his dreams; momentarily it seems as he had found her in a pub, but what follows is yet another disappointment and he continues his vagabond pursuit (Peričić 1969: 409).
The event when the Poet declares “Alone on the stage,” potentially leads toward the voidance of distinction between performers and audience as an exit from the work itself, its self-relativization, and as an anticipation of a significant element of contemporary theatre in general.
Radić explained the background of his ballet as follows: “As a young composer, the beginner, I was alarmed by the new revelations, new information, and still vivid memories of the war (WW II) horrors.
I would think that the incorporation of pantomime and contained acrobatics would enhance customary expression of classical ballet.” The Two Symphonic images (1953) comprise a diptych, featuring in the final movement a female choir and solo mezzo-soprano conjoint with orchestra.
As a motto for this work, Radić in the score inscribed a quotation from Oscar Wilde’s De Profundis: “...and I know that for me, to whom flowers are part of desire, there are tears waiting in the petals of some rose.” The first image based upon a freely treated sonata form yields the thematic material in the brass and a scherzo-like line of complex meter.
Gungulice for mixed choir was inspired by folk tunes and works of Stevan Mokranjac, while the actual material for this composition originated in the collection of Vladimir Đorđević entitled From the prewar Serbia.
Radić here used his usual models of simulation of folk and popular music, as well as those known from the history of avant-gardes such as Aleatory, performance, sound poetry, and electronic media.