Page 401 - Weiss, Jernej, ur./ed. 2023. Glasbena društva v dolgem 19. stoletju: med ljubiteljsko in profesionalno kulturo ▪︎ Music societies in the long 19th century: Between amateur and professional culture. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 6
P. 401
the mer it of czech musicians for the r evival of the musical her itage of jacobus ...
Czech model. They were centres of cultural and thus also musical life for
Slovenes, the main purpose of which was to awaken the Slovenian national
sense through culture. The founding of later musical societies, such as the
Drama Society (1867) and above all Glasbena matica Ljubljana (1872), initi-
ated a gradual professionalisation of Slovenian musical life.
Thus, more than 30 years passed before interest in Gallus was revived
in Slovenia. Vojteh Valenta, one of the most important promoters of soci-
ety life in the second half of the 19th century in Slovenia, certainly contrib-
uted to this. He was a member of the founding board of the Drama Soci-
ety as well as a member of the “Founding Board” of Glasbena matica, and
after the founding of Glasbena matica he acted as its first secretary and
was thus one of the main persons responsible for its versatile activities. It
was he who made some further encyclopaedic observations in his paper
Nekoliko črtic o Jakopu Gallusu,7 published in 1888 in the newspaper Lju
bljanski zvon. Valenta summarised some references to him in foreign liter-
ature in the paper and concluded by saying, “that is all for now, but I would
like to try to find out more about this very important composer and fellow
countryman”.8
Later that year, he turned to another Czech musician for information
about the composer: Jan Václav Lego, the central initiator of Czech-Slovene
cultural contacts during that period. Lego was working in the Czech capi-
tal at the time, where Gallus had ended his rich life three centuries earlier
as cantor of St. John’s Church in Breg. So it was Lego who provided Valenta
with some valuable information about Gallus.9 In preparation for the 300th
anniversary of the composer’s death, Gallus’s obituary with all his poems,
among other things, was published for the first time in Slovenia in Cerkveni
glasbenik, the newsletter of the Cecilian Society in Ljubljana,10 with which
Valenta made an important contribution to knowledge about the compos-
er’s life. Research by the then secretary of Glasbena matica then stimulated
further efforts to bring Gallus’s compositions to the concert stage, largely
due to the founding of the Glasbena matica choir in the autumn of 1891 un-
7 Vojteh Valenta, “Nekoliko črtic o Jakopu Gallusu,” Ljubljanski zvon 8, no. 7 (1888):
445–7, http://www.dlib.si/?URN=URN:NBN:SI:DOC-E0CDBWS5.
8 Ibid., 447.
9 Jernej Weiss, Čeští hudebníci ve Slovinsku v 19. a na začátku 20. století (Praha: KLP –
Koniasch Latin Press, 2021), 71–5. Jan Lego, “Pismo Vojtehu Valenti,” July 28, 1888.
Glasbena zbirka NUK, Glasbena matica, Personalia, Lego Jan, Personalia Glasbene
matice, Korespondenca z Glasbeno matico.
10 Vojteh Valenta, “Drobtinice o Jakobu Gallus-u,” Cerkveni glasbenik 14, no. 4 (1891):
27–9, http://www.dlib.si/?URN=URN:NBN:SI:DOC-9TASE1VH.
399
Czech model. They were centres of cultural and thus also musical life for
Slovenes, the main purpose of which was to awaken the Slovenian national
sense through culture. The founding of later musical societies, such as the
Drama Society (1867) and above all Glasbena matica Ljubljana (1872), initi-
ated a gradual professionalisation of Slovenian musical life.
Thus, more than 30 years passed before interest in Gallus was revived
in Slovenia. Vojteh Valenta, one of the most important promoters of soci-
ety life in the second half of the 19th century in Slovenia, certainly contrib-
uted to this. He was a member of the founding board of the Drama Soci-
ety as well as a member of the “Founding Board” of Glasbena matica, and
after the founding of Glasbena matica he acted as its first secretary and
was thus one of the main persons responsible for its versatile activities. It
was he who made some further encyclopaedic observations in his paper
Nekoliko črtic o Jakopu Gallusu,7 published in 1888 in the newspaper Lju
bljanski zvon. Valenta summarised some references to him in foreign liter-
ature in the paper and concluded by saying, “that is all for now, but I would
like to try to find out more about this very important composer and fellow
countryman”.8
Later that year, he turned to another Czech musician for information
about the composer: Jan Václav Lego, the central initiator of Czech-Slovene
cultural contacts during that period. Lego was working in the Czech capi-
tal at the time, where Gallus had ended his rich life three centuries earlier
as cantor of St. John’s Church in Breg. So it was Lego who provided Valenta
with some valuable information about Gallus.9 In preparation for the 300th
anniversary of the composer’s death, Gallus’s obituary with all his poems,
among other things, was published for the first time in Slovenia in Cerkveni
glasbenik, the newsletter of the Cecilian Society in Ljubljana,10 with which
Valenta made an important contribution to knowledge about the compos-
er’s life. Research by the then secretary of Glasbena matica then stimulated
further efforts to bring Gallus’s compositions to the concert stage, largely
due to the founding of the Glasbena matica choir in the autumn of 1891 un-
7 Vojteh Valenta, “Nekoliko črtic o Jakopu Gallusu,” Ljubljanski zvon 8, no. 7 (1888):
445–7, http://www.dlib.si/?URN=URN:NBN:SI:DOC-E0CDBWS5.
8 Ibid., 447.
9 Jernej Weiss, Čeští hudebníci ve Slovinsku v 19. a na začátku 20. století (Praha: KLP –
Koniasch Latin Press, 2021), 71–5. Jan Lego, “Pismo Vojtehu Valenti,” July 28, 1888.
Glasbena zbirka NUK, Glasbena matica, Personalia, Lego Jan, Personalia Glasbene
matice, Korespondenca z Glasbeno matico.
10 Vojteh Valenta, “Drobtinice o Jakobu Gallus-u,” Cerkveni glasbenik 14, no. 4 (1891):
27–9, http://www.dlib.si/?URN=URN:NBN:SI:DOC-9TASE1VH.
399
