Page 210 - 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
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glasbena kritika – nekoč in danes | music criticism – yesterday and today
osity and erudition marked him out as an unusual character even as a stu-
dent at the lower gymnasium. The piano and his first steps towards compo-
sition became his passion. His first piano teachers included Anton Ravnik,
Jaroslava Chlumecki and Dana Koblar, while his music theory teachers in-
cluded the composers Stanko Premrl and Anton Lajovic.4 We learn from
Škerjanc’s biographical writings that the teacher who had the greatest influ-
ence on him was Anton Lajovic. A thoughtful student with many interests,
from 1913 onwards he cut his journalistic teeth writing for the progressive
student publication Mi gremo naprej (“Onwards”) at the First State Gym-
nasium in Ljubljana, while his enthusiasm for composition and his musi-
cal abilities were confirmed by the art songs he wrote while still at school.
The years of his adolescence and youth were often painful because of illness
among his closest family members and frequent financial hardship. At the
age of sixteen he lost his grandmother and his father, Max Kramer, who
had hitherto supported the family, and was compelled to go out to work. He
passed the school-leaving examination in 1918 as an external student, one
of a group whose progressive ideas meant that they were not permitted to
study for the matura exam in the usual way.5 On the advice of Anton Lajo-
vic, he accepted a position as a répétiteur of the Ljubljana Opera Ballet when
the opera house reopened after the First World War, although this was not a
role to which he was drawn. In 1919 he enrolled at the University of Ljublja-
na to study law but abandoned this plan after a few semesters. The following
year he enrolled at the Conservatoire in Prague and then, two years later, at
the Academy of Music in Vienna. In Vienna he studied composition formal-
ly with Joseph Marx while also studying piano privately with Anton Trost,
a teacher at the private music school founded by Eduard Horák (active from
1914 until 1939). He completed the first phase of his studies in Vienna in 1924
before pursuing further studies at the Schola Cantorum in Paris. He later
studied with the famous conductor Felix Weingartner in Basel. His last di-
ploma, in conducting, bears the date 1939.6 The newspaper Jutro reports that
L. M. Škerjanc was awarded a doctorate by the Schola Cantorum in Paris on
11 June 1939, having submitted a dissertation on the composer Jurij Mihevc,
with particular emphasis on composition and musical aesthetics.7
4 Jože Sivec, “Škerjanc, Lucijan Marija (1900–1973),” Slovenska biografija (Ljubljana:
Slovenska akademija znanosti in umetnosti, Znanstvenoraziskovalni center SAZU,
2013), https://www.slovenska-biografija.si/oseba/sbi652648/.
5 Kralj, Stoletnica rojstva L. M. Škerjanca, 4.
6 Darja Koter, Slovenska glasba 1918–1991 (Ljubljana: Beletrina, 2012), 99–100.
7 O. A., “Kulturni pregled. Francosko-jugoslovanski glasbeni stiki,” Jutro 20, no. 138
(17 June 1939): 7, http://www.dlib.si/?URN=URN:NBN:SI:doc-C3GCF1MR.
210
osity and erudition marked him out as an unusual character even as a stu-
dent at the lower gymnasium. The piano and his first steps towards compo-
sition became his passion. His first piano teachers included Anton Ravnik,
Jaroslava Chlumecki and Dana Koblar, while his music theory teachers in-
cluded the composers Stanko Premrl and Anton Lajovic.4 We learn from
Škerjanc’s biographical writings that the teacher who had the greatest influ-
ence on him was Anton Lajovic. A thoughtful student with many interests,
from 1913 onwards he cut his journalistic teeth writing for the progressive
student publication Mi gremo naprej (“Onwards”) at the First State Gym-
nasium in Ljubljana, while his enthusiasm for composition and his musi-
cal abilities were confirmed by the art songs he wrote while still at school.
The years of his adolescence and youth were often painful because of illness
among his closest family members and frequent financial hardship. At the
age of sixteen he lost his grandmother and his father, Max Kramer, who
had hitherto supported the family, and was compelled to go out to work. He
passed the school-leaving examination in 1918 as an external student, one
of a group whose progressive ideas meant that they were not permitted to
study for the matura exam in the usual way.5 On the advice of Anton Lajo-
vic, he accepted a position as a répétiteur of the Ljubljana Opera Ballet when
the opera house reopened after the First World War, although this was not a
role to which he was drawn. In 1919 he enrolled at the University of Ljublja-
na to study law but abandoned this plan after a few semesters. The following
year he enrolled at the Conservatoire in Prague and then, two years later, at
the Academy of Music in Vienna. In Vienna he studied composition formal-
ly with Joseph Marx while also studying piano privately with Anton Trost,
a teacher at the private music school founded by Eduard Horák (active from
1914 until 1939). He completed the first phase of his studies in Vienna in 1924
before pursuing further studies at the Schola Cantorum in Paris. He later
studied with the famous conductor Felix Weingartner in Basel. His last di-
ploma, in conducting, bears the date 1939.6 The newspaper Jutro reports that
L. M. Škerjanc was awarded a doctorate by the Schola Cantorum in Paris on
11 June 1939, having submitted a dissertation on the composer Jurij Mihevc,
with particular emphasis on composition and musical aesthetics.7
4 Jože Sivec, “Škerjanc, Lucijan Marija (1900–1973),” Slovenska biografija (Ljubljana:
Slovenska akademija znanosti in umetnosti, Znanstvenoraziskovalni center SAZU,
2013), https://www.slovenska-biografija.si/oseba/sbi652648/.
5 Kralj, Stoletnica rojstva L. M. Škerjanca, 4.
6 Darja Koter, Slovenska glasba 1918–1991 (Ljubljana: Beletrina, 2012), 99–100.
7 O. A., “Kulturni pregled. Francosko-jugoslovanski glasbeni stiki,” Jutro 20, no. 138
(17 June 1939): 7, http://www.dlib.si/?URN=URN:NBN:SI:doc-C3GCF1MR.
210
