Page 20 - Weiss, Jernej, ur./ed. 2026 Skladateljska društva nekoč in danes.../Composers’ Societies Past and Present...

Skladateljska društva nekoč in danes | Composers’ Societies Past and Present
second general assembly by the Society’s secretary, the composer and eth-
nomusicologist Radoslav Hrovatin, reveals the author’s admiration for
those Serbian colleagues who had succeeded in organising six concerts
in their first year of activity, while the Slovene members “remain too en-
trenched in inherited individualism and are unable to break free from un-
productive isolation.” 2
The word “individualism” was a dangerous one at that time. Although
the first Yugoslav constitutional arrangements guaranteed artistic freedom,
at least at the declarative level, Slovenia at that time – as is vividly described
by Aleš Gabrič – was characterised by the agitprop-dictated control of the
3
life of society, including cultural life. It is therefore no surprise that the first
work programme of the newly established organisation of Slovene com-
posers, drafted in 1947, included explicit ideological guidelines alongside
plans regarding music publishing. These guidelines were intended to lure
Slovene composers away from inherited individualism towards the cultur-
al construction of the popular masses, for which a different music created to
match the reality of the new life was required. 4
The Slovene version of “socialist realism” differed from the Soviet mod-
el, and research to date has not confirmed any blatant ideological interfer-
ence in musical life by the authorities. It did, however, bring with it another
dangerous word: elite. Although music, being an abstract art, was consid-
ered less dangerous than literature or theatre, and also less “decadent” than
certain means of expression in the field of the visual arts, it nevertheless
still belonged in the circle of the arts, and therefore by its very existence
earned the negative label elite, which, in contrast to the more desirable ama-
teur cultural activities, was seen as a synonym for dubious and subversive
activities that could threaten the fundamental gains of the revolution.

The beginnings
The first documented traces of the activities of the Society of Composers
of Slovenia show that its priority in its earliest period was the protection
of copyright. A republic copyright institute, headed by the lawyer Martin

2 R(adoslav) H(rovatin), “Občni zbor Društva skladateljev Slovenije,” Naši zbori, glas-
beno-knjižna priloga II, no. 3 (1947): 10; Redakcija [Editorial Board], “Iz NR Sloveni-
je, Društvo skladateljev Slovenije,” Muzičke novine II, no. 12 (1947): 2.
3 Aleš Gabrič, Slovenska agitpropovska kulturna politika: 1945–1952 (= Borec 43, no.
7–9) (Ljubljana: Mladika, 1991).
4 Redakcija, “Iz NR Slovenije,” 2.

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