Page 316 - 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
9
as Pro musica viva. Not content with this, as Secretary of the Society of Slo-
vene Composers (Društvo slovenskih skladateljev) he organised the publica-
tion of large numbers of works from all the composers then working in Slo-
venia. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that he transformed Edicije DSS
(the publishing section of the Composers’ Association) into the wonderful
organisation that it is today. What is so gratifying is that his compositions
took their natural place in these publications. This was also supplemented
by numerous recordings of excellent quality. Petrić’s promotional abilities
were legendary: he communicated extensively with composers, performers
and publishers both at home and abroad, in a way that promoted the inter-
ests of all the composers represented by Edicije DSS and certainly not just
himself. For musicologists he was equally generous, giving of his time and
energies without hesitation. For his later work as artistic director of the Slo-
venian Philharmonic, he carefully arranged for selected Slovene works to
be played alongside the well known classics that the audiences principally
came to hear. In his last years he often visited Scotland, driving by car all
the way from Slovenia reaching the island of Skye and the far-flung islands
of the Western Isles. His Scottish inspired pieces included MacPhadraig’s
Scottish Diaries for piano. On asking him who MacPhadraig was, he smiled
and admitted it was himself. His legacy is wonderful, something in which
Slovenia can take pride. With over 200 compositions he was a prolific com-
poser. His early tonal works owed a little to Prokofiev and Hindemith, his
avant-garde or modernist works showed an adventurous and imaginative
spirit, and the later works composed for his friends or, in reflective mode,
returned in a modified way to his earlier music. For all his working life he
was a model for all the composers who were working in Slovenia. Ivo Petrić
was unique. He wore his genius lightly and modestly, but genius it was.

Bibliography

Literature
Barbo, Matjaž. Pro musica viva. Ljubljana: Znanstveni inštitut Filozofske
fakultete, 2001.
Bavdek, Dušan, ed. Katalog glasbenih del/Music Catalogue. Ljubljana: Edicije
DSS, 2012.
O’Loughlin, Niall. Slovenian Composition since the First World War. Dissertation,
University of Leicester, 1978.

9 Barbo, Pro musica viva, 140–48, 224–7.

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