Croatia on Music Theory Print

Alfi Kabiljo

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Alfons “Alfi” Kabiljo (; 22 December 1935 – 1 April 2025) was a Croatian composer and musician. He was composing for over 60 years. Kabiljo was a president of the Croatian Composers’ Society () and a member of the FIDOF organization. Later, he wrote soundtracks for various films, including the 1991 film Scissors, starring Sharon Stone and Ronny Cox, and the 1986 film The Girl. He also wrote soundtracks for over 100 television episodes, including the Croatian TV mini-series Ljubav ili smrt, based on a novel by Ivan Kušan, the TV series Ne daj se Floki, and series about the famous inventor Nikola Tesla. His songs have been sung by award-winning singers such as Ivo Robić and Tereza Kesovija. Kabiljo’s best-selling and best known work is the musical Jalta, Jalta, for which he received the 2004 Porin award for the magnum opus. To date, the musical has been released in audio format three times and it had its first premiere in 1971. All three releases were sold out decades ago. References Further reading * External links * * Alfi Kabiljo’s filmography at Fandango.com * Alfi Kabiljo at Hollywood.com *

Antun Dobronić

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Antun Dobronić (; 2 April 1878 – 12 December 1955) was a Croatian composer and pupil of Vítězslav Novák. He studied at the Prague Conservatory from 1910 to 1912. From 1922 to 1940, he served as professor at the Zagreb Academy of Music. His works show a strong streak of Croatian nationalism, which also is manifest in his writings on music. He sought to integrate high culture music techniques with traditional Croatian folk elements. Dobronić was a prolific composer. He composed eight symphonies and six ballets. He also composed operas, chamber music, and works for choirs. Biography Dobronić was born on April 2, 1878, the ninth and last child of the family of Prošper and Barbara (). He had his first contact with music listening to two Jelsa (Hvar) brass bands. He had his first lesson in music from a priest, Pavao Matijević, and went on studying by himself with the help of various textbooks, and later on by correspondence as well. From time to time he went to Split to have lessons from the composer Josip Hatze. He studied to be a teacher in the Normal School in Arbanasi near Zadar. He had his first position as a teacher on Hvar Island in the villages of Gdinj and Vrisnik, then on the i

Antun Sorkočević

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Antun Sorkočević (, ; 12 December 1775 – February 1841) was a diplomat, writer, composer and member of Ragusan nobility (chevalier des odres de Saint Maurice et de Saint Lazare demeurant a Paris). He was Medo Pucić’s cousin, and a good friend of Marko Bruerović. He also held the position of Mayor of Dubrovnik during the French Empire. Sorkočević was born in Dubrovnik. His father was Luka Sorkočević and mother, Paula Bonda (1743-1811). Like his father, he was a composer. Antun studied in Rome, and after 1806 led the Republic of Ragusa’s diplomatic representation in Paris where he was the last ambassador of the Republic in France, where he spent 35 years of his life. In Paris he wrote Postanak i propast Republike Dubrovačke (The Rise and Fall of the Republic of Dubrovnik) in which he proposed that Dubrovnik should join Boka Kotorska, Montenegro and Serbia to make it one nation. The pamphlet was banned in Austria. He also put forth the idea of creating a separate region comprising the Republic and Boka Kotorska under the Austrian Empire after French occupation of these lands (Illyrian provinces). Antun first married Catterina Schneider in 1820 in Venice. His second wife was Paola Labb

Božidar Širola

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Dr. Božidar Širola (1889 in Žakanje – 1956 in Zagreb) was a Croatian composer, organologist, musicologist, ethnomusicologist, and museum administrator. He is known as a composer of almost all musical forms in classical music. Compositions * V protuletju: pet stavaka za sopran i gudački kvartet op. E.5 * 24 dvoglasne invencije u svim dur i mol premetima za klavir (24 two part inventions in all major and minor keys for piano) * Suita iz “Šume Striborove” for piano * Düsseldorfer Foxtrott (Text: Peter Korfmacher) (22.VI.1955) * Koncertni andante, op. D 24 * Plavo more - tango * Žudnja : (sopran i klavir) (12.II.1947) Oratorios * Zrtva Abrahamova (Abraham’s Sacrifice)(1924) * Zivot, i spomen slavnih ucitelja sv. brace Cirila i Metoda, apostola slavenskih (The Lives and Memory of the Glorious Teachers and Brothers, Saints Cyril and Methodius, Apostles to the Slavs - oratorio)(1927) * Posljednja pricest sv. Jeronima (The Last Communion of St. Jerome)(1928) * Muka i smrt Kristuseva (The Passion and Death of Christ)(1928) * Seljak (The Peasant)(1931) Piano sonatas * IX. sonata za klavir f-mol (25-IX-1955) * VIII. sonata za klavir F-dur (Zagreb 1954) * VII. sonata za klavir d-mol (Zagreb 19

Bruno Bjelinski

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Bruno Bjelinski (born Bruno Weiss; 1 November 1909 – 3 September 1992) was one of the most influential Croatian composers in the 20th century. He was extremely prolific as a composer. His unique musical style was built upon the music of Poulenc, Hindemith, Ravel and Milhaud. He developed his own and recognizable musical language with the elements of neoclassicism. Bjelinski composed six operas, three ballets, 15 symphonies, 2 cello concertos, a cantata, piano music, songs, chamber music, and concertos for piano, violin, viola, bassoon, flute, and piano duo. He also composed music for the Croatian football movie Plavi 9. Biography Bjelinski was born in Trieste into a Jewish family. His mother died very early in his life so his father brought him to Zagreb where he was nurtured by his grandmother. In his youth, he played violin and piano. Later he changed his surname from Weiss to Bjelinski (derivation of the word bijeli, meaning ‘white’ in Croatian). He doctored in law at the University of Zagreb and later studied music at the Zagreb Academy of Music under Blagoje Bersa and Franjo Dugan. Bjelinski started composing in the 1930s. By the beginning of World War II, he had finished his

Carlo Antonio Nagli

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Carlo Antonio Nagli (c. 16805 November 1756) was an Italian composer of Baroque music who was one of a number of Italian Baroque musicians to live in Croatia. He is considered a central figure of late Baroque music of the city of Split. Biography Born at the end of the 17th century in Rimini, Nagli completed religious and musical studies in Italy. He arrived in Dalmatia in 1707, and was named maestro di cappella of the Split Cathedral in November of the same year, which he remained until possibly 1726 and then again from 1738 to 1743. While in Dalmatia, he lived at the Franciscan monastery of the Church of St. Francis in Split, becoming guardian of the friary after 1710. He is known to have briefly been at the Franciscan monastery of Šibenik. In 1743, Nagli returned to Italy, having accepted the role of chapelmaster of the basilica of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in Venice. He died in Venice in 1756. Works Few of his works have been preserved. Among the preserved pieces are two masses, and four credos. The manuscripts of both masses are kept in the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris, while three of the credos are in the archive of the Cathedral of Saint Domnius in Split. O

Darko Hajsek

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Darko Hajsek (born 22 September 1959) is a Croatian composer. He composed (and by itself orchestrated) a respectable opus of more than 650 musical works, concert and musical-stage forms, ranging from small, instrumental and chamber shape to big orchestral symphonic works and ten large music and music-theatrical works of contemporary forms and synthesis involving opera, musical theatre and ballet, stage music and other musical forms. His music has been performed in productions of companies such as Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb, NT Varaždin, Croatian National Theatre in Split, Croatian National Theatre in Osijek, Gavella Drama Theatre, Zagreb Youth Theatre, Zagreb Theatre Komedija, City Theater Žar Ptica, Satirical Theatre Kerempuh Zagreb, Cankarjev Dom-Ljubljana, Maribor Slovene National Theatre, then Croatian Radiotelevision, Orpheus, Suzy, Zagreb Film, Maxima-movie, Inter-movie, Positive film, with numerous performances in Croatia and in a number of European and non-European countries. Early life Since the beginning of his involvement with music of classical foundation Hajsek showed tendencies towards a broader spectrum of musical expressions and has developed the ability to

Dejan Orešković

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Dejan Orešković (born March 24, 1970), also known by his nickname Klo, is a Croatian record producer and guitarist. He is a current member of rock band Zabranjeno Pušenje and a former member of heavy metal band Divlje jagode. Life and career Orešković was born and raised in Slavonski Brod, SFR Yugoslavia (nowadays Croatia). At the age of six he went to his first music concert. It was the Bijelo Dugme concert, because his parents were their fans. Shortly thereafter, he had got an acoustic guitar and learned to play the first song “The House of the Rising Sun”. By the end of elementary education, he started playing in his first rock band with whom he plays songs of the Rolling Stones and similar rock bands. In the following period, he played in various local bands, and in 1988, he became a member of the most popular local band Casablanca, at that time in a contract with Jugoton. At the beginning of the Croatian War of Independence he relocated to Munich, Germany. He performed on their last four studio albums; Muzej revolucije (2009), Radovi na cesti (2013), Šok i nevjerica (2018), and Karamba! (2022). In 2025, he performed on the band’s two live albums, Pušenje ubija and Uživo u Lisi

Igor Kuljerić

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Igor Kuljerić (February 1, 1938 – April 20, 2006) was an important Croatian composer and conductor. His large opus followed the stylistic changes and evolutions of 20th and 21st century music. Biography Born in the coastal city of Šibenik on the Adriatic Sea, Kuljerić graduated in composition from Zagreb Academy of Music and received a grant from the Italian government to study opera repertoire at La Scala in Milan, Italy. Attracted by the new movements in contemporary music, he participated in the experiments held in the Studio di fonologia musicale (Studio for musical phonology) at RAI with Luigi Nono and in Monte Carlo with Igor Markevitch. From 1960 to 1967 he served as the rehearsal and assistant conductor of the Opera of Croatian National Theater in Zagreb and later became a member of the famed I Solisti di Zagreb ensemble as harpsichordist and assistant to the director Antonio Janigro. His conducting debut in 1967 during the Zagreb soloists’ tour in the United States, followed by positive reviews in the New York and Boston press led to his permanent appointment as conductor at Croatian Radiotelevision. From 1968 till the early ’80s he served as the conductor of Croatian Radi

Ivan Božičević

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ivan Božičević (born 27 May 1961 in Belgrade, Serbia) is a Croatian composer, organist, pianist, and jazz musician. Biography Božičević was born in Belgrade. After initial piano studies, he joined the composition class of A. Obradović at the Belgrade Faculty of Music. He graduated in 1984, earning a master’s degree in 1989. Until 2001 he occupied a teaching post for Harmony, Counterpoint and Analysis there and at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad. In December 2001 he moved to Split, Croatia, where he started working as a freelance artist. As of 2018, he leads the composition class at the Split Academy of Arts. From 1984 to 1988 he studied organ at the Hochschule für Musik in Frankfurt with the renowned professor Edgar Krapp. His work encompasses a broad repertoire, with special emphasis on baroque and modern music. Specializes early organ music in Salamanca (with Guy Bovet and Montserrat Torrent). Gives many successful concerts in Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States. His creative output encompasses five symphonic works, orchestral, chamber, choir and soloistic works, as well as electronic compositions and jazz music. He received numerou

Ivan Lukačić

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Marko Ivan Lukačić (Lucacich or Lucacih, Fr. Joannes de Sibinico) (Šibenik, baptized 7 April 1587 – Split, September 20, 1648) was a Croatian-born musician and composer of the Renaissance and early Baroque. Biography Lukačić’s exact date of birth is unknown; in 1587 he was baptised in Šibenik where it is believed he was born. Ten years later he entered the Franciscan order when he accepted his monastic name Ivan. In 1600 he was sent to Italy where he studied theology and music. In 1612 he has signed himself as baccalaureus, while on 23 March 1615 he was awarded in Rome the degree of Magister Musices (master of music). In 1614 he participated as maestro di cappella at the feast of St Jerome in the Saint Jerome of the Slavs church in Rome. He returned to Šibenik in 1618 and two years later he moved to Split, where he became prior of the Franciscan monastery in addition to being director of music at the cathedral, where he lived until his death. While Lukačić’s sojourn in Italy is insufficiently documented, his engagement in Split, both as a prior and musician, left quite a record of first-class importance for the musical life of that time in Dalmatia. Works Sacrae cantiones singulis

Ivo Josipović

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ivo Josipović (; born 28 August 1957) is a Croatian academic, jurist, composer, and politician who served as the president of Croatia from 2010 to 2015. Josipović entered politics as a member of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (SKJ), and played a key role in the democratic transformation of the League of Communists of Croatia (SKH) into the Social Democratic Party (SDP) as the author of its first statute. He left politics in 1994, but returned in 2003, winning a seat in the Croatian Parliament running as an independent candidate on the SDP party list. He won re-election to parliament as a member of the SDP in 2007. Josipović was inaugurated on 18 February 2010, at St. Mark’s Square in Zagreb. His term officially began at midnight on 19 February. Josipović sought reelection in the 2014–15 presidential election held on 28 December 2014. He was supported by the centre-left four-party Kukuriku coalition, led by the SDP. Josipović won 38.46% of the vote in the first round, finishing narrowly ahead of conservative HDZ candidate Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović. They entered a run-off, which took place on 11 January 2015 and which Josipović ultimately lost by a slim margin of around 32,500

Luka Sorkočević

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Count Luka Sorkočević (; January 13, 1734 – September 11, 1789) was composer from the Republic of Ragusa. His music has been preserved, like other Sorkočević family possessions, in the archives of the Dubrovnik Franciscan convent. He is known as the first Croatian symphonist. Biography Luka (Lukša) Sorkočević was born in Dubrovnik and received an extensive education. His music teacher was the Italian composer Giuseppe Valentini, who was maestro di cappella of Dubrovnik Cathedral in the 1750s. He continued his education in Rome where he studied musical composition with Rinaldo di Capua. Later, Sorkočević married a girl from the Luccari (Lukarević) family and held several posts in various branches of Dubrovnik politics and society. During his relatively brief stint in Vienna as the ambassador to the imperial court he met several leading composers of his time, like Gluck and Haydn, and the famous poet Metastasio – a valuable experience for his later life and work. With serious health problems, he committed suicide by throwing himself from the third floor of his palace in Dubrovnik in 1789, at the age of 55. Although he also wrote a few vocal pieces, his most interesting works are the

Marko Rothmüller

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Marko Rothmüller (born Aaron Rothmüller; 31 December 190820 January 1993) was a Croatian operatic baritone, composer and pianist. Early life and education Rothmüller was born in the village of Trnjani near Slavonski Brod to a Jewish family, who owned a store. He was raised with five siblings (three brothers and two sisters): Branko, Avraham, Erich Cvi, Tilika and Elvira. When he was four, Rothmüller moved to Zagreb with his parents Josef and Ana (née Hahn) Rothmüller. He studied at Zagreb Music Academy at the University of Zagreb. He later went to Vienna to train under Regina Weiss, Franz Steiner and Alban Berg. He lived and worked in Zagreb until 1935. Career In 1932 he made his debut in Hamburg, with the role of Ottokar in Der Freischütz and was immediately ranked among the leading European interpreters of heroic baritone roles. Because of antisemitism in Nazi Germany, Rothmüller returned home to Zagreb in 1933. In 1935 he moved to Zurich, where until 1947 he was a permanent member of the Zurich opera emphasizing the roles in Verdi and Wagner operas. Between 1946 and 1949, he was a member of the Vienna State Opera. In London’s Royal Opera House, Rothmüller made his debut in 1939

Pavle Dešpalj

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Pavle Dešpalj (18 June 1934 – 16 December 2021) was a Croatian composer and conductor. Biography Pavle Dešpalj graduated from Music Academy in Zagreb where he studied composition with Prof. Stjepan Šulek. In 1961 he founded Zadar’s festival, Music Evenings in St. Donat’s, also the Zadar Chamber Orchestra. Between 1962 and 1967 he was the chief conductor of Zagreb Radio Television Symphony Orchestra. In 1968 he began conducting the Florida Symphony Orchestra, Orlando and the Orlando Opera, and between 1970 and 1981 he was their music director. From 1981 to 1986 he was the principal conductor of the Zagreb Philharmonic. From 1981 to 1983, he was the music program director of Dubrovnik Summer Festival, between 1987 and 1995 conducting professor at the Zagreb Academy of Music and between 1995 and 1998, conductor of the Tokyo Geidai Philharmonic Orchestra and professor at the Tokyo National University. Since 1998 he was the chief conductor of the Croatian Chamber Orchestra, since 2000 of the Split Chamber Orchestra and guest conductor of renowned Croatian orchestras as well as Croatian National Theatre’s Opera and Ballet. Pavle Dešpalj led Zagreb’s orchestras on numerous tours around Eu

Ruben Radica

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ruben Radica (19 May 1931 – 28 July 2021) was a Croatian composer. Biography He was born in Split, Yugoslavia, and acquired a music grounding from his grandfather, the composer Josip Hatze. At the Zagreb Academy he graduated from the conducting class of Slavko Zlatić (1957) and from the composition class of Milko Kelemen (1958). In addition he attended classes in Siena, Paris and Darmstadt, given by Vito Frazzi, René Leibowitz, Olivier Messiaen, György Ligeti, Pierre Boulez and Henri Pousseur. Career Radica taught at the Sarajevo Music Academy from 1959 to 1963, and then joined the faculty of the Zagreb Academy of music, lecturing in musical theory. As a composer, Radica’s early style was essentially neo-classical; in the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Nikša Gligo instances the compositions in Četiri dramatska epigrama (Four Dramatic Epigrams, 1959), and the Concerto abbreviato (1960). Gligo comments that some of Radica’s later works, with a focus on the relation between speech patterns and “motivic musical ideas”, have a style reminiscent of Janáček and early Stravinsky. References External links *

Tihomir Pop Asanović

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Tihomir “Pop” Asanović (born 16 November 1948) is a Croatian jazz-rock and fusion keyboardist, Hammond organ player and composer. Asanović is a keyboardist who played in the 1970s and in early 1980s in various Yugoslavian musical line-ups and toured with them around the world. On the 1973 tour with Boško Petrović in East Berlin, he was proclaimed as being the fourth best jazz organist in Europe. Career Asanović finished musical high school in Skopje. At 16 years, he started to perform with big dancing orchestra of RTV Skopje. When he was 18 years old, he relocated to Germany, where he performed for one year with the band Montenegro Five, then he joined the band The Generals and toured with them through Switzerland, where Janez Bončina also joined the band. After the release of this album Janez Bončina invited Asanović to the newly established band September, whose other members were Petar Ugrin, Čarli Novak, Braco Doblekar and Ratko Divjak; who has also left the band Time. In between Jugoslovenska Pop Selekcija band was formed, whose members were all great instrumentalists from the former SFR Yugoslavia. Along with Asanović the authors of the songs were Janez Bončina, Dado Topić an

Vinko Jelić

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Vinko Jelić (1596 - after 22 July 1636) was a Croatian Baroque composer, singer and musician. He is considered among the most prominent European creators of the early Baroque chamber sacred concerto. He is also considered as the most prolific Croatian Baroque composer, along with Ivan Lukačić. A total of 69 of Jelić’s vocal (soloist and choral) and 12 instrumental works have been preserved; several compositions with lost tenor lines were supplemented by Lovro Županović, the editor of Jelić’s works. Life He was born in Rijeka in 1596. From 1606, with his older brother Petar (d. 1609), he was a choirboy singer in the court chapel of Archduke Ferdinand in Graz, where his teacher was the Italian Matthias Ferrabosco, then deputy music director. After a one-year stay in Rijeka in 1609, he returned to Graz in 1610 and, becoming a pupil of the Ferdinandeum, attended grammar school and participated in church music as a discantist. He then studied at the Jesuit University in Graz and graduated from theology in 1617; at the same time, he was an instrumentalist in the court chapel from 1615. In 1618, he entered the service of Ferdinand’s brother, Archduke Leopold, administrator of the dioceses

Zdenko Runjić

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Zdenko Runjić (26 October 1942 – 27 October 2004) was a Croatian songwriter. His career spanned decades in the former Yugoslavia and Croatia. Biography Runjić was born on 26 October 1942 in the village of Garčin near Slavonski Brod. Many of his songs were inspired by the folk traditions of Dalmatia. The songs became classics and Runjić helped the careers of many notable Croatian musicians such as Oliver Dragojević, Doris Dragović and Meri Cetinić. He was especially successful at the Split Music Festival. He wrote almost 700 songs which sold several million copies in both albums and singles.More than 200 songs were written for Dragojević alone. He was also a successful businessman and music producer. He owned a record company called Skalinada. In 1993, following a dispute with the Split Music Festival organisers, he founded the rival music festival called Melodije Hrvatskog Jadrana (Melodies of the Croatian Adriatic), which is ongoing as of 2025. On 27 October 2004, Runjić died in Krapinske Toplice from a stroke while recovering from a heart attack. See also *Croatian music References External links *Discography of Zdenko Runjić *Some audio clips

Žiga Hirschler

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Žiga Hirschler (21 March 1894, Velika Trnovitica near Bjelovar – 1941 Jasenovac concentration camp) was a Croatian-Jewish composer, music critic and publicist who was killed during the Holocaust. Life Hirschler was born in Zagreb, to a Croatian Jewish family. He completed musical studies in 1917 at the Agram conservatory of the Croatian Music Institute in Zagreb. Hirschler composed orchestral, piano, vocal and dramatic works, and showed a tendency towards popular music. He was one of the most famous music critics in Zagreb between the two world wars. Hirschler was editor of Musician magazine. With his writing in the Večernji vjesnik and Jutarnji list he closely followed Croatian composers. As a Jew Hirschler faced persecution by Ustaše and Nazis. During the last days of his life, Hirschler didn’t leave his apartment. He just had an intense correspondence with Paula Rendi, waiting for her to give him a pass so that he could cross over to a “free zone”. That unfortunately never happened. Hirschler wrote his last letters on 12 September 1941. In one such letter, he dedicated a song to Rendi for her birthday. In late 1941 Hirschler was killed at the Jasenovac concentration camp. Works