By the Rivers of Babylon

Luka Sorkočević (1734 – 1789) became in 1752 a member of the Great Council, and he negotiated with France on behalf of the Republic in 1776 and with Joseph II in 1781–2. He studied music with G.A. Valente in Dubrovnik and then for some time around 1757 with Rinaldo di Capua in Rome; his entire compositional activity falls between the years 1754 and 1770. He was acquainted with Metastasio, Haydn and Gluck. His symphonies, written for the orchestra he maintained in his household, are in three movements, conceived in the standard Italian idiom of the time. In the psalm Babilonskiem nad riekama (By the Rivers of Babylon) it would seem that the link with Luka and Antun Sorkočević is confirmed, but the handwriting issue is again important. Both the original Croatian version based on a translation of Psalm 137 (136) by Ignjat Đurđević, noted by a copyist at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, and an Italian translation (traduzione dallo Slavo) of 1812 are extant, which might perhaps confirm that Antun had a hand in the creation of this version...