Seven Symphonies

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. The most interesting compositions in his oeuvre are the symphonies (1750 – 1770). With one exception they are in three movements (fast - moderate - fast), representing a transition between Baroque music and Classicism in form and content, and set for four-part strings and winds a due (mostly two oboes and two horns). Sorkočević adheres to a homophonic structure, articulates the phrases in small, sometimes asymmetrical units, with animated rhythm, frequently employed syncopations, and changing accentuation. In this music on the way from Baroque mono-thematicism to classical bi-thematicism, one already has an inkling of a second theme as a »cantabler Satz« in the first movements; thus it proceeds from Baroque bipartite structure to the tripartite structure of mature Classicism, with the traces of a mosaic-like middle part in the first movement. The middle movements are always written for a string ensemble and are marked by noble and gallant melodies. The third movements are markedly motoric and often designed in three parts. One encounters Mannheim ornamentation in the melodies and the instrumentation is transparent, even though it remains in part indefinable in some compositions.