Page 26 - 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
this combination of music and art was not resumed following the improve-
ment in the Society’s financial situation in the new millennium.
It may be concluded that the DSS Concert Atelier established itself as a
musical challenge for an educated and curious audience, and that the Soci-
ety’s little hall, which began 1999 under its new name of the Kogoj Hall, of-
fered, with its intimate atmosphere, a suitable venue for close encounters
with the latest musical explorations.
The third period of the Society’s is also characterised by a vigorous ex-
pansion of publishing activities and the transition from self-publishing to
professionalisation. This formally began on 6 January 1971, when publish-
ing was officially registered at the Commercial Court as a separate service
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unit for the first time. Marijan Lipovšek had been forced to retire the pre-
vious year due to illness and was succeeded by Ivo Petrić, who led the So-
ciety’s publishing activities from 1970 until 2002. In developing its publish-
ing activities, the Society modelled itself on smaller publishing houses in
other countries, particularly in Germany, and received early advice about
legal arrangements for sheet music rights from Ivan Hanneberg, who had
successfully run the publishing activities of the Croatian composers’ soci-
ety for a number of years, and from Ružica Stanić, who headed the copy-
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right office at the Union of Composers of Yugoslavia. Following the regu-
lation of relationships with its members, the Society broadened its activities
and, in 1971, published a joint catalogue of sheet music in collaboration with
the Slovenian Philharmonic, RTV Ljubljana and the Slovenian Academy of
Sciences and Arts, all of which owned a considerable quantity of orches-
tral scores.
A year later, the Society signed its first international general representa-
tion agreement for sheet music with the German publisher Musikverlage
Hans Gerig. The areas of representation were divided between the two
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publishers in such a way that the Society of Slovene Composers retained the
right to represent composers in “socialist countries”, while Musikverlage
Hans Gerig acquired the right of representation in the West. The two part-
ners also collaborated on a form of co-production, whereby the German

14 Ivo Petrić, “Report by the Secretary of the DSS Executive Board on the activities and
actions from February 15, 1970, to January 16, 1972,” DSS Archive.
15 Kralj, “Sobivanje družbenega, stanovskega in umetniškega,” 457.
16 The contract was ceremoniously signed on 14 April 1972 at the Societies’ premises
by President Dane Škerl, Secretary Ivo Petrić and Rudolf Lück, the Hans Gerig Pub-
lishing House’s classical music editor. DSS public statement, document no. 313, dat-
ed April 14, 1972, DSS Archive.

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