Page 20 - Weiss, Jernej, ur./ed. 2024. Glasbena kritika – nekoč in danes ▪︎ Music Criticism – Yesterday and Today. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 7
P. 20
glasbena kritika – nekoč in danes | music criticism – yesterday and today
Stara pravda (“The old rights”) on 12 March 1956 as an opportunity to try
and discipline the field of music criticism by presenting “more appropriate”
socio-political guidelines for critical writing. The music critics who covered
the event in question were deemed incapable of showing sufficient insight
into the social uselessness of merely “aesthetic” writing and, consequently,
unable to offer an adequate political condemnation of “deviant” social phe-
nomena. The article by the independent researcher, established music crit-
ic and conductor Borut Smrekar reflects on the role and position of music
criticism today. Regarding the purpose of criticism, the author believes that
there is a need to define what music criticism should be and what it should
not be if it is to serve its purpose; and, last but not least, to establish where
the boundaries of music criticism lie. These boundaries are not only about
the actual impact that criticism has in a given social setting, but also about
the value of criticism in terms of its relevance, credibility and “objectivi-
ty”. The contributions dedicated to music criticism in Slovenia are round-
ed off by an article by Tjaša Ribizel Popič, an assistant in the Department
of Music Education at the University of Maribor. Having already analysed,
in her doctoral dissertation, the critical contributions of some of the most
important Slovene critics after the Second World War in connection with
the functioning of the majority of the principal musical institutions in Lju-
bljana, Dr Ribizel Popič now turns her attention to reviews of concerts by
the most prominent youth music institution in Slovenia, Glasbena mladina
Slovenije (Jeunesses Musicales Slovenia), specifically the Symphonic Mati-
nees that took place from the early 1970s until the 1990s, and thus becomes
the first author to offer a presentation of the trends that may be observed
in music reviews published in the magazine Glasbena mladina. Despite the
enormously important role of music criticism in Slovenia’s musical past, it
nevertheless seems that, with the exception of individual treatments of mu-
sic critical writing, music criticism has not yet enjoyed significant atten-
tion from Slovene musicologists, perhaps in part because of its hybrid or
interdisciplinary nature. Accordingly, more systematic and comprehensive
studies of the field of Slovene music criticism will be needed in the future.
With a rich selection of articles by foreign authors, complemented by
a number of contributions from Slovenia, the present monograph attempts
above all to shed light on the critical activities of some of the most impor-
tant figures in the field of music criticism. Not only did the latter dictate
performance standards, it influenced the reception of music in a broader
sense and, to a greater or lesser extent, played an active part in shaping mu-
20
Stara pravda (“The old rights”) on 12 March 1956 as an opportunity to try
and discipline the field of music criticism by presenting “more appropriate”
socio-political guidelines for critical writing. The music critics who covered
the event in question were deemed incapable of showing sufficient insight
into the social uselessness of merely “aesthetic” writing and, consequently,
unable to offer an adequate political condemnation of “deviant” social phe-
nomena. The article by the independent researcher, established music crit-
ic and conductor Borut Smrekar reflects on the role and position of music
criticism today. Regarding the purpose of criticism, the author believes that
there is a need to define what music criticism should be and what it should
not be if it is to serve its purpose; and, last but not least, to establish where
the boundaries of music criticism lie. These boundaries are not only about
the actual impact that criticism has in a given social setting, but also about
the value of criticism in terms of its relevance, credibility and “objectivi-
ty”. The contributions dedicated to music criticism in Slovenia are round-
ed off by an article by Tjaša Ribizel Popič, an assistant in the Department
of Music Education at the University of Maribor. Having already analysed,
in her doctoral dissertation, the critical contributions of some of the most
important Slovene critics after the Second World War in connection with
the functioning of the majority of the principal musical institutions in Lju-
bljana, Dr Ribizel Popič now turns her attention to reviews of concerts by
the most prominent youth music institution in Slovenia, Glasbena mladina
Slovenije (Jeunesses Musicales Slovenia), specifically the Symphonic Mati-
nees that took place from the early 1970s until the 1990s, and thus becomes
the first author to offer a presentation of the trends that may be observed
in music reviews published in the magazine Glasbena mladina. Despite the
enormously important role of music criticism in Slovenia’s musical past, it
nevertheless seems that, with the exception of individual treatments of mu-
sic critical writing, music criticism has not yet enjoyed significant atten-
tion from Slovene musicologists, perhaps in part because of its hybrid or
interdisciplinary nature. Accordingly, more systematic and comprehensive
studies of the field of Slovene music criticism will be needed in the future.
With a rich selection of articles by foreign authors, complemented by
a number of contributions from Slovenia, the present monograph attempts
above all to shed light on the critical activities of some of the most impor-
tant figures in the field of music criticism. Not only did the latter dictate
performance standards, it influenced the reception of music in a broader
sense and, to a greater or lesser extent, played an active part in shaping mu-
20
