Page 217 - 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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lucijan marija škerjanc: critic of the jutro newspaper from 1927 to 1942
this undoubtedly great, yet – for the age we live in and for us in particu-
lar – less important work, when so many composers at home and abroad
have to content themselves with promises of performances and assur-
ances of goodwill.12
Škerjanc’s comment on the anachronistic quality of Beethoven’s music
is certainly surprising, all the more so since he was a man of broad educa-
tion who rarely interwove the modern compositional techniques of his day
into his own works. He is, in fact, a composer whose works are largely in the
romantic-impressionist style. It should be remembered, however, that in
1926 and 1927, in other words exactly in the period in which this review was
written, he did immerse himself for a brief time in the expressionist style
and atonality of Schoenberg’s oeuvre and composed a number of works in
this spirit, although in his own style. Notable among them is his First Vi-
olin Concerto, a single-movement work that is based on atonality without
ever entirely abandoning a tonal centre.13 We should also remember that at
the time of writing the above review he was 27 years old, had completed his
study of composition in Vienna and had so far proved himself as a compos-
er with art songs written in the romantic-impressionist style. He did not
start composing instrumental works until the 1930s, and in them he dis-
tanced himself from contemporary trends in the belief that expressionism
of Schoenberg’s type was “too intellectual and insufficiently primally musi-
cal, elemental.”14 His opinion of Beethoven’s Missa solemnis, performed in
Ljubljana in 1933, was very different:
All of Beethoven’s works up to this point were merely a kind of spring-
board for this masterwork, with which the composer actually concludes
his exploration of hitherto unknown musical landscapes. The Ninth
Symphony, which came after the Mass, is of a more retrospective char-
acter and completes his life’s work.15
From 1925 until the start of the Second World War, with the excep-
tion of a short interruption while he was studying with the conductor Felix
12 M. Škerjanc, “Dodatek h kritiki o Beethovnovi IX. Simfoniji,” Jutro 8, no. 61 (12
March 1927): 3–4, http://www.dlib.si/?URN=URN:NBN:SI:doc-U4G5Z74P.
13 Matjaž Barbo, “Prvi koncert za violino in orkester (1927) L. M. Škerjanca,” in Glas-
ba, poezija – ton, beseda: koncerti, simpozij, spremljevalne prireditve [Slovenski glas-
beni dnevi 2000], ed. Primož Kuret (Ljubljana: Festival, 2001), 37–42.
14 Boris Grabnar, “L. M. Škerjanc o svoji glasbi,” Tedenska tribuna 8, no. 50 (14 Decem-
ber 1960): 6, http://www.dlib.si/?URN=URN:NBN:SI:doc-MLYRYJLE.
15 L. M. Š., “Beethoven, Missa solemnis,” Jutro 14, no. 81 (6 April 1933): 3–4, http://
www.dlib.si/?URN=URN:NBN:SI:doc-AD2XTFZQ.
217
this undoubtedly great, yet – for the age we live in and for us in particu-
lar – less important work, when so many composers at home and abroad
have to content themselves with promises of performances and assur-
ances of goodwill.12
Škerjanc’s comment on the anachronistic quality of Beethoven’s music
is certainly surprising, all the more so since he was a man of broad educa-
tion who rarely interwove the modern compositional techniques of his day
into his own works. He is, in fact, a composer whose works are largely in the
romantic-impressionist style. It should be remembered, however, that in
1926 and 1927, in other words exactly in the period in which this review was
written, he did immerse himself for a brief time in the expressionist style
and atonality of Schoenberg’s oeuvre and composed a number of works in
this spirit, although in his own style. Notable among them is his First Vi-
olin Concerto, a single-movement work that is based on atonality without
ever entirely abandoning a tonal centre.13 We should also remember that at
the time of writing the above review he was 27 years old, had completed his
study of composition in Vienna and had so far proved himself as a compos-
er with art songs written in the romantic-impressionist style. He did not
start composing instrumental works until the 1930s, and in them he dis-
tanced himself from contemporary trends in the belief that expressionism
of Schoenberg’s type was “too intellectual and insufficiently primally musi-
cal, elemental.”14 His opinion of Beethoven’s Missa solemnis, performed in
Ljubljana in 1933, was very different:
All of Beethoven’s works up to this point were merely a kind of spring-
board for this masterwork, with which the composer actually concludes
his exploration of hitherto unknown musical landscapes. The Ninth
Symphony, which came after the Mass, is of a more retrospective char-
acter and completes his life’s work.15
From 1925 until the start of the Second World War, with the excep-
tion of a short interruption while he was studying with the conductor Felix
12 M. Škerjanc, “Dodatek h kritiki o Beethovnovi IX. Simfoniji,” Jutro 8, no. 61 (12
March 1927): 3–4, http://www.dlib.si/?URN=URN:NBN:SI:doc-U4G5Z74P.
13 Matjaž Barbo, “Prvi koncert za violino in orkester (1927) L. M. Škerjanca,” in Glas-
ba, poezija – ton, beseda: koncerti, simpozij, spremljevalne prireditve [Slovenski glas-
beni dnevi 2000], ed. Primož Kuret (Ljubljana: Festival, 2001), 37–42.
14 Boris Grabnar, “L. M. Škerjanc o svoji glasbi,” Tedenska tribuna 8, no. 50 (14 Decem-
ber 1960): 6, http://www.dlib.si/?URN=URN:NBN:SI:doc-MLYRYJLE.
15 L. M. Š., “Beethoven, Missa solemnis,” Jutro 14, no. 81 (6 April 1933): 3–4, http://
www.dlib.si/?URN=URN:NBN:SI:doc-AD2XTFZQ.
217
