Mokranjac’s secular and spiritual choir compositions are woven into the cultural heritage of Serbia and the World and they became the part of history but also a part of our everyday music practice inspiring young artists and performers.

His life was highly influenced by church and folk songs, and he used these two types of music as inspiration for his work. His most famous pieces are the fifteen Rukoveti (literally: Works of hand) — a collection of songs and music based on motives of Serbian folk music from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia Proper, Montenegro, Kosovo and Metohija, Macedonia and Bulgaria. His other prominent folk-based works include Primorski napevi (Coastal songs), and Kozar.

A significant number of his works were made for otrhodox church services. Such as the Božanstvena Liturgija Svetog Jovana Zlatoustog (The Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom), from which the Heruvimska pesma (Cherubic Hymn) is most famous. Another two famous religious pieces are Tebe Boga Hvalim (We praise thee, God) and Veličanje Sv. Savi (Glory to St. Sava), as well as Osmoglasnik (Eight voices singing)

Establishing the grounds of ethnomusicology by noting down over three hundred (300) folk melodies from different parts of the country, Mokranjac made way to other various fields: he was a renownd conductor of the Belgrade Singing Society with which he toured the country and abroad (Russia, Turkey, Bulgaria), founded the String Quartet for which he played himself (1899) and together with Cvetko Manojlovic and Stanislav Binicki he placed the grounds of Serbian music pedagogy, founding the Sebian Music School (1899). Today, it is the music school “Mokranjac” in Belgrade, in which Mokranjac taught theoretical subjects and was its first director until 1913.

(Contribution by Bojan Kovincic <harmolipi@gmail.com>.)