Invitation, Song and Dance for String Quartet, Op. 16

Jakov Gotovac concluded his Invitation, Song and Dance for string quartet in E major, op. 16, in Zagreb on October 22, 1932. The composition is an interesting musical collage of fragments of folk songs and dances that the author borrowed (they were partially literal quotations) as raw material, creating out of it a masterly voluminous music, rich in its sound, in which the texture of the four stringed instruments comes close in places to that of an orchestra. The Invitation, which is a kind of short interlude to the whole piece, is imagined as an expressive and melancholic recitative, in which the main slow-tempo melody (largo), with its great emotional charge, is stated by the cello, the other strings accompanying it with terse and robust short chords. Song, conceived in E major, is lyrical and full of intense emotion, transparently instrumented, however, and airy in its sound. The uncommon theme of the Dance is a quote from the folk song Shepherd on the Hills from western Macedonia: Gotovac refracted this ardent melody with its uncommon beauty in the prism of his unusual musical inspiration, clad it in a luxurious musical garb, effectively instrumenting it for the four stringed instruments. The suggestive and poignant musical substance, the elementary beauty of the archetypal folk music underpinning, and his masterly arrangement, are sufficient guarantee that this composition will always find a place for itself on the world’s concert platforms.