Page 350 - 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
Keywords: Composers Association of Macedonia, productive and
reproductive music culture, publishing activity, Days of Macedonian
music, Struga Music Autumn.

Aleš Gabrič
The Cultural and Political Milieu of the Initial Period of Activity of the Society
of Slovene Composers
The end of the Second World War brought significant changes to the activ-
ities of cultural organisations in Slovenia/Yugoslavia. The assumption of
power by the Communist Party limited the autonomy of cultural societies
and associations, or, in some cases, simply abolished them. On the other
hand, the federalisation of the state and the recognition that it consisted of
multiple nations opened the way to the creation of professional institutions
and societies with a national basis, something that had been hindered be-
fore the war by the thesis of a single Serbian-Croatian-Slovene nation. The
changes that occurred in 1945 were also felt by Slovene music societies, with
some pre-war societies no longer able to operate. Even the Glasbena mati-
ca, which decades earlier had dominated a large part of the musical scene in
Slovenia, saw its continued existence hanging by a thread.
The Society of Slovene Composers was founded as a professional associa-
tion of composers in December 1945. It brought together composers in Slo-
venia and had a national character, although it also had to take ideological
criteria into account, since its functioning was overseen by the state appa-
ratus, which influenced both the selection of its membership and its activi-
ties. The latter were initially rather more modest than those of the pre-war
music societies, since many activities were monopolised by state institu-
tions. A measure imposed against an individual by the state authorities
could also prevent their employment in a state institution or their member-
ship of a professional association, while music publishing was taken over
by state publishing enterprises. It was not until the shifts in cultural pol-
icy that occurred in the early 1950s during the so-called Informbiro peri-
od ushered in by the Tito–Stalin split that greater vibrancy returned to the
cultural scene. The effects were also felt by cultural organisations, includ-
ing the Society of Slovene Composers, with opportunities for more auton-
omous decision-making now beginning to expand, while the advocacy of
professional interests gained in importance.
Keywords: Society of Slovene Composers, founding, Danilo Švara,
cultural policy, Concert Agency for Slovenia

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