Page 22 - 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
then distributed among the composers’ societies of the individual repub-
lics, which decided autonomously on the international participation of
their own members within the allocated frameworks.
Interestingly, despite the relative closure of the borders, Slovenia’s
composers’ society was visited by a handful of guests from Western coun-
tries even in its first decade of activity. The first visit mentioned in the DSS
archives is that of the artistic director of the Edinburgh International Festi-
6
val, accompanied by a member of the festival’s committee, in January 1951.
The authorities kept a close eye on international contacts and often sent cir-
culars to professional associations with detailed questions about them, on
the pretext of preparing lists of prestigious artists to invite to receptions
with international guests, and even enquiring about the language skills of
association members. It is to the credit of its successive executive boards
that the Society of Slovene Composers was not among the most conscien-
tious reporters of information of this kind. Even a request from the Union
of Composers of Yugoslavia to submit a list of English-speaking members,
apparently with a view to establishing contacts with American composers,
was refused on the grounds that it was necessary to cultivate official rather
than personal contacts with American composers, and that this would be
much easier if the Union were to provide “stylistically and formally suitable
translations” of texts discussing individual works. 7

The second period
The second period of the Society’s history was marked by the change to the
model of social management that Yugoslavia, having distanced itself from
the Soviet model, introduced between 1953 and 1965 under the slogan “4D”
(democratisation, decentralisation, de-bureaucratisation and de-Stalinisa-
tion). The period is bookended by two changes of headquarters: in April 1954
the Society moved from its premises at the Academy of Music to a new home
in the offices of the Copyright Protection Institute at Gradišče 7/I, while in
April 1965, after years of effort, it finally obtained its own premises at Num-
ber 6, Trg francoske revolucije in Ljubljana, where it still operates today. 8

6 DSS Archive, Registrar I: January 6–December 12, 1951, documents no. 5, dated Jan-
uary 5, 1951; no. 7 dated January 13, 1951; no. 8 and 9 dated January 14, 1951.
7 DSS Archive, Registrar I, January 6–December 12, 1951, document no. 117, dated
April 18, 1951, and document no. 118, dated May 31, 1951.
8 DSS Archive, Registrar IV: April 11, 1954–April 30, 1955, document no. 33, dated
April 23, 1954, and Registrar January 1, 1964–December 4, 1965, document no. 1279,
dated April 15, 1965.

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