Page 322 - 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
artistic director Witold Lutosławski. He had been impressed by the En-
semble’s performance at the Zagreb Biennale. Half of the Ensemble’s pro-
gramme consisted of works by contemporary Slovene composers: Slavko
Osterc’s Nonet, Enneafonia by Primož Ramovš, Milan Stibilj’s Impresije and
Ivo Petrić’s own Croquis sonores – a choice of programme that underlines
Petrić’s consistently expressed orientation, which tended towards perfor-
9
mances of as many new Slovene works as possible. It should be mentioned
that all three new works in the programme had been published by Edici-
je DSS a few months before the Warsaw performance. After being founded
in 1951, Edicije DSS initially operated under the aegis of the state publishing
house Državna založba Slovenije. Today it is the country’s most important
independent music publisher and has published more than 2,700 works by
Slovene composers to date.
The large number of performances by the Slavko Osterc Ensemble
abroad is surprising, given that, as Petrić notes, state support was practical-
ly non-existent. In conversation with Tjaša Štular, who wrote comprehen-
sive bachelor’s thesis about musical work of the Slavko Osterc Ensemble, Ivo
Petrić confirmed Lojze Lebič’s earlier statement about meagre state funding:
I could count on the fingers of one hand the number of performanc-
es abroad that were funded by the state: meaning that for almost all
our performances we had to ‘raise’ the money ourselves. Most often this
meant me writing a musical fairy tale for the ensemble that was due to
perform abroad. Our very understanding colleagues at the radio would
then allow us to record it, and would pay us a fee for doing so, which
would then go to cover travel costs. 10
So it was that, between 1965 and 1972, Petrić wrote as many as 15 musical fai-
ry tales for children that were recorded in a studio and broadcast by the Ra-
dio-Television Ljubljana.
It appears that the cultural decision-makers in Slovenia at that time did
not recognise the importance of the Slavko Osterc Ensemble and that funding
depended above all on the inventiveness of the Ensemble’s leader and mem-
bers. Given its own difficult financial situation, not even the DSS could sup-
port the Ensemble’s activities (except indirectly – by organising the occasional

9 A recording of Petrić’s composition appeared on an album of works by the Pro mu-
sica viva composers’ group released in 1966 by the Zagreb-based label Jugoton. The
Slavko Osterc Ensemble is among the performers, making this the first release of a
recording by the Slavko Osterc Ensemble.
10 Štular, Glasbeno delo Ansambla Slavko Osterc, 98.

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