Page 183 - Weiss, Jernej, ur. 2018. Nova glasba v “novi” Evropi med obema svetovnima vojnama ?? New Music in the “New” Europe Between the Two World Wars. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 2
P. 183
slavko osterc’s compositional jour ney and his assimilation of new techniques
feeling in the sound that Osterc wanted to write a romantic opera
and produced the appropriate melodic lines, but at the same time
concealed this impression by using harmonies that made the op-
era a much more ‘modern’ work.
8. The kaleidoscopic orchestration is allowed to transform itself
from one section to the next with seamless transitions of the type
which are found later in the Mouvement symphonique of 1936.
9. There are numerous unorthodox instrumental juxtapositions.
10. The scoring of the work makes full use of wind instruments in a
most imaginative and unusual way, both in the contrapuntal webs
that are spun around the vocal lines and in the bold homophonic
instrumental interludes, which reveal harsh added-note harmonies.
The Chalk Circle was never performed in the composer’s lifetime and the
score was very nearly destroyed in a bombing raid. After the composer’s death
in 1941, the manuscript disappeared and for many years the score was consid-
ered lost.16 It re-emerged in the early 1990s in time for performing material to
be prepared at last for a production. The set of orchestral parts is preserved in
the archives of Slovene National Opera in the Ljubljana Opera House,17 while
the score is kept in the National and University Library in Ljubljana. Eventu-
ally it was first performed in 1995, the centenary of the composer’s birth and
some 60 years after his death, in Maribor, not far from the composer’s birth-
place in Veržej.18 Its stature and importance have now been revealed.
New Forms 1930–41
It can now be seen that the groundwork of Osterc’s modernism was fully
established by 1930. We do not find him using fully atonal or 12-note tech-
16 In 1969, it was listed as “lost” by Danilo Pokorn, “Bibliografski pregled kompozicij
Slavka Osterca,” Muzikološki zbornik 6 (1969): 76. Apparently after the composer’s
death the score was passed by the composer’s widow to Demetrij Žebrè and later to
Uroš Lajovic before being used for producing the material for the Maribor produc-
tion of 1995.
17 My thanks to Andrej Rijavec for help in tracing the orchestral parts in the Ljublja-
na Opera House archives in April 1994 and for recovering a copy of the full score for
study purposes.
18 By the Slovene National Opera conducted by Simon Robinson in Maribor Opera
House on 7 April 1995. The composer was born in Veržej in the Ljutomer region of
Slovenia on 17 June, 1895. For more details of the opera see Niall O’Loughlin, “The
Chalk Circle Operas of Osterc and Zemlinsky: a comparative Analysis,” in: Primož
Kuret, ed., Glasba med obema vojnama in Slavko Osterc – Musik zwischen beiden
Weltkriegen und Slavko Osterc (Ljubljana: Festival Ljubljana, 1996), 64–76.
181
feeling in the sound that Osterc wanted to write a romantic opera
and produced the appropriate melodic lines, but at the same time
concealed this impression by using harmonies that made the op-
era a much more ‘modern’ work.
8. The kaleidoscopic orchestration is allowed to transform itself
from one section to the next with seamless transitions of the type
which are found later in the Mouvement symphonique of 1936.
9. There are numerous unorthodox instrumental juxtapositions.
10. The scoring of the work makes full use of wind instruments in a
most imaginative and unusual way, both in the contrapuntal webs
that are spun around the vocal lines and in the bold homophonic
instrumental interludes, which reveal harsh added-note harmonies.
The Chalk Circle was never performed in the composer’s lifetime and the
score was very nearly destroyed in a bombing raid. After the composer’s death
in 1941, the manuscript disappeared and for many years the score was consid-
ered lost.16 It re-emerged in the early 1990s in time for performing material to
be prepared at last for a production. The set of orchestral parts is preserved in
the archives of Slovene National Opera in the Ljubljana Opera House,17 while
the score is kept in the National and University Library in Ljubljana. Eventu-
ally it was first performed in 1995, the centenary of the composer’s birth and
some 60 years after his death, in Maribor, not far from the composer’s birth-
place in Veržej.18 Its stature and importance have now been revealed.
New Forms 1930–41
It can now be seen that the groundwork of Osterc’s modernism was fully
established by 1930. We do not find him using fully atonal or 12-note tech-
16 In 1969, it was listed as “lost” by Danilo Pokorn, “Bibliografski pregled kompozicij
Slavka Osterca,” Muzikološki zbornik 6 (1969): 76. Apparently after the composer’s
death the score was passed by the composer’s widow to Demetrij Žebrè and later to
Uroš Lajovic before being used for producing the material for the Maribor produc-
tion of 1995.
17 My thanks to Andrej Rijavec for help in tracing the orchestral parts in the Ljublja-
na Opera House archives in April 1994 and for recovering a copy of the full score for
study purposes.
18 By the Slovene National Opera conducted by Simon Robinson in Maribor Opera
House on 7 April 1995. The composer was born in Veržej in the Ljutomer region of
Slovenia on 17 June, 1895. For more details of the opera see Niall O’Loughlin, “The
Chalk Circle Operas of Osterc and Zemlinsky: a comparative Analysis,” in: Primož
Kuret, ed., Glasba med obema vojnama in Slavko Osterc – Musik zwischen beiden
Weltkriegen und Slavko Osterc (Ljubljana: Festival Ljubljana, 1996), 64–76.
181
