Papandopulo's opuses were marked by features of the “national music style”, as it was called, that is, of patterns from
folk music (either direct quotations or in the sense of the raw material and modal scale structures), while cosmopolitan influences are also appreciable: the application of composition technique elements of the
neo-Classical style:
polyphonic in structure, with
Baroque energy and vital rhythmic movement, elementary touches of
Impressionist and
Expressionist musical idioms. Along with a treatment of the instruments that makes great demands on skill, technique and virtuosity, very visible are the optimism and serenity that permeate the music to the full. Connoisseurs of the composer's oeuvre of the earlier creative period pick out as the most successful works his
Laudamus (Slavoslovije),
cantata for solo voices, mixed voice choir and orchestra;
Sinfonietta for
String Orchestra (published by Breitkopf und Härtel),
Zlato / Gold, a mime
ballet with singing and orchestra; the brilliant, bravura
Concerto da camera for Solo Soprano, Violin and Seven Wind Instruments (published by Vienna's
Universal Edition) and the most important Croatian religious works from the end of that period of Papandopulo's creativity – the oratorio for solo voices and a male a cappella choir
Muka Gospodina našega Isukrsta / The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ and
Hrvatska misa / Croatian Mass for soloists and a cappella mixed voice choir. In his mature creative period, Papandopulo retains elements of folk music idiom, but also addresses the achievements of the European musical
Moderne, without “departing from the traditional formants of musical cells, from the settled development of motif and facture or the well-established laws of melodic movement.” This period, revolving around the temporal axis of the end of
World War II (1945), lasted until about 1956, and gave rise to a number of very successful compositions marked by recent history – the creation of the new state and events from the National Liberation War (
Symphony No. 2,
Poema o Neretvi / Poem about the Neretva,
Stojanka majka Knežopoljka / Stojanka, A Knežopolje Mother, a musical poem for soprano solo, choir and large orchestra,
Obnova / Reconstruction, a symphonic movement for large orchestra). In time his music became more dissonant, rougher in harmony and melody. In the mid-1950s he integrated into his composing technical arsenal elements of
dodecaphony,
jazz (most vigorously in the late fifties and early sixties;
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No 3,
Mosaic for Classical String Quartet and Jazz Quartet,
Capriccio for Violin Solo and Jazz Quartet,
Ein Orchestermosaik and so on). Later,
pop came in, as did other technical composition techniques of the
avant-garde in music of the
20th century, although he retained an ironical distance from some of them, subjecting them on occasions to irony or parody. The origin of part of Papandopulo's oeuvre of the 1960s and 1970s is related to his guest appearances and acquaintanceships with musicians in the then divided
Germany (FRG and GDR), where he had opportunities to meet outstanding artistic personalities, as well as recent European musical creation. , island of
Krk Ideologically grounded aesthetic worldviews never inhibited Papandopulo in his choice of non-musical subjects for his own works; he always found, in each one of them, universal ideas, profound human values. At the beginning of this work he found non-musical stimuli in topics related to the older strata of the folk tradition – in “legends, rites and myths” (
Svatovske / Bridal, Dodolice, a Folk Ritual for the Solo Soprano, Piano and Girl's Choir Op 2,
Zlato / Gold, Utva zlatokrila / Ruddy Shellduck). Later, after 1950, very curiously, he drew his inspiration from apparently diametrically opposed worldviews. At the same time he would write compositions of religious topics – from the Croatian Catholic mass with traces and elements of
Glagolitic chant (
Osorski rekvijem / Osor Requiem, Pučka poljička misa / Folk Mass from Poljica, the cantata
Jubilate and a number of smaller religious works) and also monumental works of socialist realism (inspired by the ideology and poetics of the post-war socialist revolution and the
People's Liberation War, such as the musical-poetical work
Pasija po srcu / Passion After the Heart, the poetic-musical vision
Credo, 1943 – cycle of songs to words by
Ivan Goran Kovačić) as well as those inspired by Croatian history (the cantatas
Libertas, Pohvala Dubrovniku /
In Praise of Dubrovnik, Non bene pro toto libertas venditur auro,
Mile Gojslavica and the triptych for mixed voice choir and large symphony orchestra
Istarske freske / Istrian Frescos and so on). Papandopulo composed almost to the day of his death. In all these works he showed himself a master of his craft. As well as a number of concerts and solo works for individual instruments Papandopulo left a marked trace on the ballet and opera of his time. His six
operas and 15
ballets have demonstrated their anthological values in the many repeated performances at home and around the world. He composed music for an impressive number of stage productions and films, and also devoted some of his opuses for children and young people (puppet performances, instrumental compositions and instrumental concerti). A large number of his works feature an authentic and typically Papandopulo buoyant and infectious musical humour (in a large range from tonal play full of brightness to flippancy and rough musical grotesquery) in which he often quotes themes of other authors (
Grotesque for Tuba,
Piano and Percussion,
Pop Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra,
Magic Flute,
Papandopulijada,
Divertimento alla pasticcio and so on). It is not possible to give a concise, pithy and yet comprehensive evaluation of Papandopulo's vast oeuvre from today's point of view because of the inaccessibility of the scores. Nevertheless,
Dubravko Detoni, himself a composer, did make an effort in this direction in the following words: “If it were necessary to utter some kind of definition, then a summation of Papandopulo’s oeuvre should be sought in its being some kind of synthesis of all the more important modern influences from world music in combination with rhythmical, melodic and harmonic features of the
Croatian folk melody.” Irrespective of the time of composition or the stylistic or musical expressive orientation, Papandopulo's “music very easily and spontaneously makes direct contact with the listener”, and musicians are glad to play it. Boris Papandopulo played an important role as an arranger of folk songs from the wider region (
Central Europe) and as populariser and arranger of works of other composers. This particularly refers to anthological compositions of Croatian concertante and operatic music, some of which he revitalised and put on the stage in his own arrangement (some of the works of
Lisinski,
Zajc and
Krežma, for example). ==Selected works==