23.09.2015.

The book "March on the Drina - - The Great War transformed into a poem" presented

In the Gala Hall of the Central Military Club, the latest edition of Odbrana Media Center was presented today, titled "March on the Drina - The Great War transformed into a poem" by Jasna Jojic.

The book inspired by the composition that followed the fate of the Serbian people during the Great War, the promotion, in addition to the authors, was [resented by Deputy Director of Odbrana Media Center Lt. Col. Zoran Krupez, prof. Dr. Milivoje Pavlovic, and the author of the March on the Drina, writer, journalist and diplomat Miloje Popovic Kavaja.

Lt. Col. Krupez singled out as a particularly interesting detail one of the subtitles of the book, "To the beat of the warrior’s heart," and recalled that one of the reasons for the edition was the centenary of the legendary composition by Stanislav Binicki and half a century since Miloje Popovic Kavaja had written the eponymous poem, which is sung as its lyrics.

- Today, the powerful chords of the march are recognizable everywhere in the world and are a symbol of the cries, tears, painful defiance and heroism of those who survived the war and who are the pride of all of us today.

Speaking about the book which, as he pointed out, was conceived as a monograph on a march, and practically gained the dimensions of "the invaluable feat in literary musical archeology", prof. Dr. Milivoje Pavlovic said that, in addition to following the path of creation and survival of an extraordinary literary and musical work, it reconstructed and widened the socio-historical context, that is, informed us of a time in which the events of the war had had a decisive influence on the fusion of otherwise jagged lines of Serbian patriotic ideas into one national liberation direction.

- My colleague Jasna Jojic bestowed us with a comprehensive book based on verifiable data, provided in a methodologically convincing manner - professor said, adding that the book would contribute to future gatherings around the ideas and values that are indisputable for the most citizens.

The author of the book, a longtime journalist of "Novosti" Jasna Jojic, who had researched the origin and the path of a composition, the most performed one in the Balkans, and one poem, said that she was extremely honoured for having succeeded in "creating a little history textbook from a book", from the prism of a beautiful composition that reminds us of who we are and where we come from.

She thanked Odbrana Media Center on the very successful cooperation, "because they implemented the joint multimedia project in a very a short time ".

- The book contains quite a lot of data, photos and testimonies, and I am very glad that, in addition to the path of the composition March on the Drina, it touches on a lot of small and great people from our area, and deals with Stanislav Binicki, a giant of our culture, to whom we have not worthily thanked for all he did for us - the author said and recalled of some of the interesting facts of his life.

With piano accompaniment by Nikola Rackov, the author of the poem which is sung to the composition by Binicki, Miloje Popovic Kavaja, recited verses created in 1964, on the occasion of celebrating half a century of the Battle of Cer, whose symbol was "March on the Drina", the composition of the Serbian musical great.

The book "March on the Drina - The Great War transformed into a poem" comes with a multimedia DVD with a documentary film "The Battle of Cer" by Military Film Centre Zastava Film and the music part presenting "March on the Drina" in two versions, performed by the Art Ensemble of the Ministry of Defence "Stanislav Binicki" and Radomir Mihajlovic Tocak. As a special gift to readers, the verses of the poem "March on the Drina" are narrated by their author Miloje Popovic Kavaja.