Josip Runjanin or Josif Runjanin was a Croatian and Serbian composer and lieutenant-colonel of the Austro-Hungarian Army.
Background
The Runjanin family hailed from the village of Runjani in Jadar, in the Drina valley of western Serbia. The family moved to Bijeljina in Bosnia in 1718 when Austria conquered Serbia. Most of the family"s members fled once again, during the Second Great Migration of Serbs in 1739 when the territories south of the Sava and Danube rivers were reoccupied by the Ottomans.
The family found refuge in Osijek in the Habsburg-controlled Slavonia.
One Đorđe Runjanin then settled in the village of Grk, in Syrmia with his family. Đorđe"s son Stojak was a Serbian Orthodox priest in Kuzmin until his death in 1758.
Stojak fathered Vasilije who was the father of Petar (another Orthodox minister), and whose son was Ignjat (1798-1710 November 1876) who was an Austrian army captain in Vinkovci. Josip was the eldest of Ignjat"s 7 children.
Career
He is best known for composing the melody of the Croatian national anthem. Runjanin was born in December 1821 and baptized in the Orthodox Church of Pentecost in Vinkovci. He received his education in Vinkovci, and then Sremski Karlovci.
He served in the Imperial Army as a cadet in the town of Glina along the Military Frontier.
There, he was introduced to the Illyrist circles, where he met noted poet Antun Mihanović. lieutenant is generally agreed that Runjanin, an amateur musician, composed the music for Mihanović"s patriotic Croatian song Lijepa naša domovina in 1846 using inspiration from Gaetano Donizetti"s aria O sole piu ratto a sorger t’appresta from the 3rd act of his opera Lucia di Lammermoor, according to Croatian musicologist Josip Andreis.
His song Ljubimo te naša diko was composed using motives from Donizetti"s L"elisir d"amore. Ljubimo te Naša Diko (Hrvati svome banu) was composed in honour of the ban of Croatia Josip Jelačić.
An obedient soldier, Runjanin was later made colonel.
In 1864 at the age of 43, Runjanin married the daughter of the pensioned captain Toma Perković. As a representative of the First Banate regiment, he entered the Croatian Assembly in 1865. After retirement, Runjanin moved to Novi Sad where he died at the age of 57 on 2 February 1878 and was buried at the Serbian Orthodox Ascension Cemetery (Uspensko groblje).
There are several schools in Croatia named after Runjanin, most notably the elementary Music School of Josip Runjanin (Osnovna glazbena škola Josipa Runjanina) in Vinkovci.