Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on Music Theory Print

Avgust Ipavec

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Avgust Ipavec (2 June 1940 – 3 October 2023) was a Slovenian Roman Catholic priest and composer. Biography Ipavec was born at the onset of World War II in Gorizia. In the 1960s, he studied theology at the in Ljubljana and was ordained a priest in 1966 in . He graduated from composition at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana in 1974. After graduation, he moved to Vienna to further his musical knowledge, and he then worked there as a hospital priest for almost 50 years. In his free time, he composed works mostly for large ensembles, such as oratorios, symphonies, and cantatas. His major compositions were the Christmas Pastorale; the oratory titled (“The Mass in the Field”) he wrote for the 900th anniversary of Cistercians in Stična; the only existent mass in four languages titled (“The Mass of the Nations”); and the symphony Colours of the Green Emerald, which premiered in September 2016, dedicated to the memory of the 100th anniversary of World War I. He occasionally visited his house in Bovec. In December 2006, the Chancellor of Austria awarded Ipavec the Decoration of Merit in Gold of the Republic of Austria for his music, which “connects peoples as music is the only language that c

Blaž Arnič

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Blaž Arnič (31 January 1901 – 1 February 1970) was a Slovenian symphonic composer. Born in Luče, Lower Styria, Austria-Hungary, Arnič grew up on an isolated farmstead near Mount Raduha in the Kamnik Alps. He taught himself how to play the accordion, and at the age of nineteen moved to Ljubljana to study music. Life Arnič studied composing at the Ljubljana Conservatory, and later (1930-1932) at the New Vienna Conservatory, under the tutelage of Professor Rudolf Nilius, with advanced composition in Warsaw, Kraków In 1943 Arnič was arrested for his political views, and in 1944 he was sent to the Dachau concentration camp, where he became seriously ill (eventually causing him to go blind in one eye). His music has been compared to that of Bruckner and classified as “neo-romantic realism.” Arnič developed from a neo-romantic base, but avoided the dissonance of the Expressionists. The first film for which Arnič wrote music was Partizanske bolnice v Sloveniji in 1948, a documentary about a partisan infirmary. In 1955, Milan Kumar of Triglav Film made a 452-minute film entitled Ples čarovnic starring ballerina Stanislava Brezovar which featured Arnič’s symphonic poem by the same name. In 2

Ivana Lang

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Ivana Lang (15 November 1912 – 2 January 1982) was a Croatian composer, pianist and piano teacher. She was born in Zagreb, Croatia, Austro-Hungarian Empire). She completed piano studies in 1937 at the Music Academy in Zagreb. Ivana Lang composed orchestral works (concert for piano and orchestra), chamber music, an opera (“The Captain of Kastav”, ) and two ballets, “False Knight” () and “Dance of the Ghosts” (). Works (selection) *Agnus Dei for soprano and chamber ensemble Op 15 (1942) *Melodramas for voice and piano, Op 21 (1942) *Grotesque, for symphony orchestra Op 11 (1942) *Concerto for piano and orchestra Op 22 (1944) *The Silent Shadows, ballet in 3 acts Op 52 (1959) *To a Nameless One, four-song cycle for mezzo-soprano and piano Op 75 (1970) *Four Bagatelles for piano Op 59 (1962) *Four Bagatelles for harp and strings Op 86 (1974) *Four Compositions for piano Op 50 (1961) *The Black Olive, song cycle of five songs for dramatic soprano and piano Op 49 (1959) *Two Songs by Domjanić for voice and piano Op 17 (1942) *Two Istrian Songs from Pazin for female choir and piano Op 39 (1952) *The Dance of the Black People, ballet act with piano accompaniment Op 36 (1950) See also *Musi

Ivo Josipović

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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

Jakob Jež

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Jakob Jež (23 November 1928 – 8 March 2022) was a Slovenian composer. Life Jakob Jež was born on 23 November 1928 in Boštanj, a village in eastern Slovenia. In 1954, he graduated from the Academy of Music in Ljubljana, Department of Music History. His dissertation, defended in 1959, focused on the early works of Slovenian composer Marij Kogoj. Kogoj remained a consistent influence for Jež throughout his career. Although he did not obtain a degree in composition, Jež studied composition with Marijan Lipovský and Karol Pahor. The Lexicon of Yugoslav Music describes his musical style as follows: “By adopting some modern compositional procedures, Jež creates a distinctive musical language, full of intimate expressiveness, with a developed sense of colour, lyricism and loose structures - a modern and contemporary language which is never incomprehensibly aggressive.” Jež taught throughout his career, first at a music school and a high school, and then at the Music and Ballet School in Ljubljana (1955–1970). From 1992 until his retirement, he was a full-time professor of music education at the Faculty of Pedagogy in Ljubljana. From 1960 to 1965, he was a member of the composers’ group Pro

Jakov Gotovac

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Jakov Gotovac (; October 11, 1895 – October 16, 1982) was a Croatian composer and conductor of classical music. His comedic opera, Ero s onoga svijeta (Ero the Joker), Croatia’s best-known opera, was first performed in Zagreb in 1935. Biography Gotovac was born in Split (then part of Austria-Hungary) and initially had little if any formal education in music. He was fortunate to be encouraged and supported by Josip Hatze, Cyril Metoděj Hrazdira and Antun Dobronić who instilled him with a nationalistic orientation in music. He started as a law student in Zagreb, but switched to writing music in 1920. In Vienna, he studied in the class of Joseph Marx. Back home, in 1922 he worked with Masaryk’s Philharmonia Society Kolo founded in Šibenik by Vice Iljadica in 1899. In 1923 he moved to Zagreb, where he kept working both as conductor and composer until his death. Between 1923 and 1958, he was the opera conductor at the Croatian National Theatre (Hrvatsko narodno kazalište), and leader of an academic musical society Mladost, and of the choir Vladimir Nazor. His best-known work is Ero s onoga svijeta (a libretto written by Milan Begović) which has been performed on all continents except Austr

Janez Matičič

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Janez Matičič (3 June 1926 – 18 April 2022) was a Slovenian composer and pianist. He was a regular member of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts starting in 2007. Matičič was born in Ljubljana, and was the brother of writer Nada Matičič. He graduated in composition from the Ljubljana Academy of Music in 1950 and conducting in 1951. From 1959 to 1961 he studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. Then, from 1959 to 1975, he collaborated with the Groupe de Recherches Musicales, who were experimenting with electroacoustic music under the direction of Pierre Schaeffer. Among Matičič’s works are two concertos for piano and orchestra, a concerto for cello and orchestra, and a number of pieces created in a modernist and experimental mode. In 2007 he received the Prešeren Award for his lifetime achievement in music. He died on April 17, 2022, at the age of 95. Works (Selection) Choir and Orchestra *Vision for choir and orchestra, op. 19 (1950) *Artemis for choir and orchestra, op. 69 (2012) Orchestra *Symphony No. 1, op. 21 (1950–1953) *Suite for string orchestra, op. 24 (1951–1955) *Trans…, op. 56 (1997) *Symphony No. 2, op. 58 (1997) Solo Instrument and Orchestra *Piano Concerto No. 1,

Jani Golob

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Jani Golob (born 18 January 1948) is a Slovenian composer, violinist, arranger and professor. His music opus is often on the thin line of classic, pop and jazz. Golob has composed operas, ballets, orchestral works, chamber and vocal music, and music for television and for advertising purposes. His most important works are probably three operas: Krpan’s mare (1992), Medeja (1999) and Love Capital (2010); and others as Four Slovene Folk Songs (1979 and 2005), Concerto for violin and orchestra (1998) and ballet The Baptism at the Savica (1989). He is most recognized by his contribution in Slovenian popular music. His internationally best-known piece of work is the unofficially named “Planica Slow Motion Theme” (1997), an instrumental piece of music played in slow motion replays annually on worldwide broadcasting of FIS Ski Jumping/Flying World Cup events from Planica, Slovenia. Especially because of this melody Golob became famous worldwide. Each year since 1997 this piece of music is played in Planica slow motion replays live to millions of people worldwide. Other hit songs are “Prisluhni školjki/A Song In a Seashell” (1985), “Moja dežela/My Country” (1986) and “Pustite nam ta svet/L

Jože Humer

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Jože Humer (24 June 1936 – 13 June 2012) was a Slovenian composer, choirmaster, lyricist, translator, and cultural organiser. He was also a judge, a secretary of the Supreme Court of Slovenia, In March 2012, he was decorated by Slovenian President Danilo Türk with the Order for Merits of Slovenia, with a rationale that described him as an “above-average deserving personality of the Slovenian cultural life.” References

Ljubica Marić

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Ljubica Marić (Љубица Марић , 18 March 1909 – 17 September 2003) was a composer from Yugoslavia. She was a pupil of Josip Štolcer-Slavenski. She was known for being inspired by Byzantine Orthodox church music. She was professor at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade and a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Ljubica Marić is considered to be the most original Serbian composer of the twentieth century and musically the most influential one. Life Born in Kragujevac, Serbia to Father Pavle and Mother Katarina née Đorđević, a descendant of Vojvoda Čolak-Anta Simeonović, one of the leaders of the First Serbian Uprising. Ljubica traveled a huge artistic and intellectual journey in order to facilitate the advancement of Serbian music. She was the first Serbian to get a diploma in composition in 1929. At the State Conservatory in Prague, she attended postgraduate studies under Josef Suk. While she was a student, she received praise in festivals in Amsterdam, Strasbourg and Prague. She was described as a genially gifted woman, and her music was promoted by the great supporter of contemporary music, Hermann Scherchen. Her music was performed by the most important chamber ensemble

Lojze Lebič

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Lojze Lebič (born 23 August 1934) is a Slovenian composer and conductor of choral and instrumental music. Life Lebič was born on 23 August 1934 in Prevalje, in the Carinthia region of Slovenia (then part of Yugoslavia). He attended the University of Ljubljana for a bachelor’s degree in archaeology and the Academy of Music in Ljubljana, where he studied with composition with Marjan Kozina and conducting with Danilo Švara. He was the youngest member of the Pro musica viva group, a group of composers based in Ljubljana that was advocated for Slovenian modernism. Music Lebič’s early style was fairly traditional, but his work from after 1965 demonstrates the influence of the European avant-garde. The opening of Slovenia to foreign travel in the 1950s and 60s allowed for greater musical and cultural exchange with the rest of Yugoslavia and Europe, encouraging the development of a Slovenian avant garde. Lebič’s 1965 works Meditacije za dva for viola and cello and the cantata Požgana trava are examples of his use of new melodic and vocal techniques. Later, he developed a style that balanced respect for traditional culture with cosmopolitan modernism. References Further reading *Barbo, Matj

Marina Tucaković

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Marina Tucaković (; 4 November 1953 – 19 September 2021) was a Serbian lyricist and songwriter. Born and raised in Belgrade, Tucaković first started writing songs at the age of 19. After the success of “Dodirni mi kolena” (“Touch my knees”) by the Yugoslav rock group Zana and vocalist Zana Nimani, she continued working with numerous Yugoslav musical acts. Before transitioning to folk music, she collaborated with various Yugoslav pop, rock, and new wave acts, including Oliver Mandić, Zana, Slađana Milošević, and Oliver Dragojević. In the 2000s and 2010s, she continued to write for many folk artists from Serbia and collaborated with numerous pop and folk musicians from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and North Macedonia, such as Ceca Ražnatović, Džej Ramadanovski, Toše Proeski, Severina, Magazin, Jelena Karleuša, Lepa Brena, Neda Ukraden, Selma Bajrami, Dino Merlin, Mišo Kovač, Massimo Savić, Aca Lukas, Ana Nikolić, Doris Dragović, Maja Odžaklijevska, Zdravko Čolić and many others. Many of the songs she wrote are considered some of the greatest hits of all time in the Balkans. She was also widely regarded as one of the most influential and respected Serbian lyricists. Throughout her

Marjan Kozina

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Marjan Kozina (4 June 1907 – 19 June 1966) was a Slovene composer. He is considered one of the most important Slovene composers of the 20th century. His best known works include a symphony, composed in stages through the late 1940s; the opera Equinox, completed in 1943; two ballets from the early 1950s, and the music for the film On Our Own Land (Na svoji zemlji), which he later arranged into a suite for orchestra. Life Kozina was born to a musical family in Novo Mesto, then part of Austria-Hungary. In Ljubljana, Kozina began studying philosophy and mathematics and in the same time also piano and violin, but later completely turned to the study of music. He graduated from composition in Vienna in 1930, and completed the studies of conducting and composition also in Prague. After his return from Prague he worked for a short time (1932–34) at Ljubljana and Maribor Opera, and then worked at Maribor Music Society (). From 1940 until 1943 and from 1945 until 1947, he worked as a music teacher at the Academy of Music in Belgrade. In World War II, his house was bombed in an air raid and his wife imprisoned by the Gestapo. In September 1943, after the capitulation of Italy, he joined the S

Milan Mihajlović

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Milan Mihajlović (; born 3 July 1945 in Belgrade) is a Serbian composer, music pedagogue and conductor. Biography Mihajlović was born in a musical family: his father, Konstantin, studied composition and conducting at the Belgrade Music Academy, and with his brother Nedeljko, founded an ensemble for light music and toured Europe and the Middle East. Mihajlović graduated in composition (Stanojlo Rajičić, 1970), and conducting (Živojin Zdravković, 1969) at the Belgrade Music Academy where he also acquired his M.A. degree (1978). For a short time he attended master courses in Cologne and Salzburg. From 1975 to 2010, Mihajlović worked at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, teaching at the Department of Music Theory and, from 1997, at the Department of Composition and Orchestration. He also taught composition at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad. He was the Secretary and Head of the Department of Music Theory, and, from 2002 to 2009, the Dean of the Belgrade Faculty of Music. He is one of the founders of the Ensemble for Contemporary Music, as well as the contemporary music festival – the International Review of Composers (1992). He was the director of the IRC festival from 1992 to 2002, and

Mladen Guteša

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Mladen “Bobby” Guteša (; 16 December 1923 – 2 December 2015), also known as Mladen Gutesha, was an orchestra conductor, composer, and arranger of Serbo-Yugoslav origin who lived and worked in Germany and Switzerland. He worked under his real name, as well as the pseudonyms Gert Bauer, Sonny Steffen, and Chris Halmon. He mainly composed pieces for jazz, symphony and dance orchestras, as well as film. Contemporary critics have often referred to him as “the Quincy Jones of Yugoslav jazz”. Life and work Guteša taught himself the trombone in 1941 and studied conducting at the Faculty of Music at the University of Arts in Belgrade for five years, from 1945 to 1949. While still a student, he played trombone with the Belgrade Radio Orchestra starting from 1943. In 1946 he became a trombonist in Bojan Adamič’s orchestra. He emigrated to Germany the same year, where he played the trombone in jazz ensembles in US officers’ clubs in Frankfurt. There he came into contact with Benny Goodman and arranged several pieces for him. Guteša worked as a trombonist for Kurt Edelhagen and also became a sought-after arranger for German radio stations, where he also wrote the arrangements (Walkin and ‘Round

Pavel Šivic

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Pavel Šivic (born February 2, 1908, in Radovljica, Slovenia — died May 31, 1995, in Ljubljana ) was a Slovenian composer, concert pianist, and music educator. Šivic wrote the libretto to this opera himself, which is based on the 1967 play of the same name by Andrej Hieng. He was also active as concert pianist and accompanist in Ljubljana; contributing greatly to the music life of that city. He was given the Prešeren Award in 1965. Partial list of works *Oj, ta prešmentana ljubezen Oh, that Cursed Love (operetta in 3 Acts, libretto by M. Simončič); 29 April 1931 *Dogodek v mestu Gogi An Event in the Town of Goga (ballet), 1967 *Cortesova vrnitev The Return of Cortés , 1971 (opera in 3 Acts, libretto by Šivic, after A. Hieng); 20 March 1974 *Svitanje The Daybreak (opera in 1 Act, libretto by Šivic, after B. Šömen); 10 May 1979 *Samorog The Unicorn (opera in 3 Acts, libretto by Šivic, after G. Strniša), 1981 *Kaznovana radovednost Curiosity Punished (Children’s opera in 1 Act, libretto by Šivic and V. Rudolph); 9 February 1988 *Hiša iz kart (opera), 1989 References

Primož Ramovš

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Primož Ramovš (March 20, 1921 – January 10, 1999) was a Slovenian composer and librarian. Life Ramovš was born in Ljubljana, then the administrative centre of the Slovenian part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. He studied at the Ljubljana Academy of Music from 1935 to 1941 under Slavko Osterc. Afterwards, he studied in Siena under Vito Frazzi in 1941 and in Rome with Goffredo Petrassi and Alfredo Casella from 1941 to 1943. From 1945, he worked as a librarian at the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts and was the director of its library from 1952 until 1987. He also taught at the Ljubljana Conservatory from 1948 to 1964. He died in Ljubljana at the age of 78 years. Musical style Ramovš was a pioneer of Slovenian musical avant-garde and one of the most prolific Slovenian composers. Throughout his career, Ramovš wrote almost exclusively instrumental music, for which he found inspiration in the abstract world. His works from the 1960s and 70s employ serialism and other modernist techniques, including experiments bordering on graphic notation and use of indeterminacy. He often experimented, even in very extreme sense: “If the result is negative, it will fall away by itse

Ruben Radica

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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 *

Sanja Ilić

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Aleksandar “Sanja” Ilić (; 27 March 1951 – 7 March 2021) was a Serbian and Yugoslav musician and composer. Ilić started composing as a teenager. In 1971 he formed the rock band San, which disbanded in 1975, after the band’s vocalist Predrag Jovičić died in concert from an electric shock. After San split up, Ilić continued his career as a composer, authoring several hit songs for Yugoslav pop and rock artists. He collaborated with composer and keyboardist Sloba Marković on the electronic music album Delta Project and with actor and lyricist Irfan Mensur on the album Plava ptica. In 2000, Ilić formed the ethnic music ensemble Balkanika, with which he recorded five albums and had numerous performances across the world. During his career, Ilić wrote music for theatre, film, television shows and various performers. He died in 2021 in Belgrade. He was the brother of rock musician and composer Dragoljub Ilić and husband of actress Zlata Petković. Life and career Early life and career Ilić was born on 27 March 1951 in Belgrade. Ilić’s father, Miodrag “Beli” Ilić was a well-known composer. Sanja Ilić composed his first song when he was 12. At the age of 16, he composed the song “Baj baj baj

Vasilije Mokranjac

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Vasilije Mokranjac (Belgrade, 11 September 1923 – Belgrade, 27 May 1984) was a Serbian composer, professor of composition at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade and a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. He was one of the most prominent Serbian composers in the second half of the 20th century. Although famed for his symphonies, he also wrote piano music, as well as music for radio, film and theatre. He won the most prestigious awards in former Yugoslavia, including the October Prize, the award of the Yugoslav Radio-Diffusion, as well as the Lifetime Achievement Award. Biography Vasilije Mokranjac was born into one of the most prominent Serbian musical dynasties. His father, the cellist Jovan Mokranjac, was a nephew of the composer Stevan Stojanović Mokranjac; his mother Jelena, of Czech origin, was also a cellist. However, Vasilije Mokranjac chose to study piano: from 1932 to 1942 he was studying privately with Alexei Butakov, and then he enrolled at the Belgrade Music Academy (nowadays Faculty of Music) to study with Emil Hajek; he graduated in 1948. However, while studying piano, he became interested in composing music, so he enrolled to study composition with Stanojl