Born in Negotin in 1856, Mokranjac studied music in Belgrade, Munich, Rome and Leipzig while in his twenties.

Close to the Serbian border with Romania and Bulgaria, Negotin was a small town of just over 3,000 inhabitants at the time of his birth.

[3] Mokranjac's father, a prosperous restaurant owner who in 1850 had built the house in which the Stojanović family lived, died two days before his son's birth.

[8] The choir was successful both in Serbia and abroad[9] and under his leadership it became respected and well known throughout Central Europe and Russia because of its high performance standard and repertoire, which was made up of many Serbian folk songs, as well as pieces composed by Mokranjac himself.

[9] During this time, Mokranjac married Marija, a member of the choir who was twenty years his junior.

Early in his career, Mokranjac recorded Serbian Orthodox church chants in staff notation.

A gifted composer,[5] he first published a book of church melodies in 1908, titled Octoechoes[7] or "Eight Tones" (Serbian: Osmoglasnik).

Published in Belgrade, it became the basic textbook for students in Serbian Orthodox seminaries following World War I.

Travelling often to Levač and Kosovo to collect and record traditional melodies, Mokranjac played a significant role in promoting music from the rural areas of Serbia.

In 1913, Mokranjac composed the eighty-second and final piece of "Garlands", titled Winter Days (Serbian: Zimski dani).

[18] His last and unfinished composition for a choir, based on the poem Zimnji dani by Jovan Jovanović Zmaj, was finished by Aleksandra Vrebalov and performed in 2015.