Page 204 - 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. 204
nova glasba v »novi« evropi med obema svetovnima vojnama
Romania, Italy, Hungary, Turkey, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slo-
venes (later known as Yugoslavia) and of course Czechoslovakia.3
If we disregard a few individuals such as Fran Gerbič, it is not until
shortly before the outbreak of the First World War that we find the first Slo-
vene students enrolled at the State Conservatory in Prague. One of the first
female Slovene concert pianists, Dana Kobler, studied at the conservatory
between 1910 and 1915. Three members of the Ravnik family (Janko, Anton
and Bonita) studied piano there with Josef Jiránek in roughly the same pe-
riod. The names of a number of other Slovene musicians appear on the roll
of the Prague conservatory during and directly after the First World War.4
Notable among them are the violinists Taras Poljanec and Leon Pfeifer –
the latter would later become a professor of violin at the conservatory in
Ljubljana. Slovene students increasingly began to be drawn to the study of
composition alongside other musical disciplines.
The first Slovene composer to study at the State Conservatory was
Slavko Osterc, who in the decade or so following his return from Prague
acted as a “bridge” between the Slovene and Czech capitals for the next
generation of important Slovene composers. On arriving in Prague, he was
admitted to the third (penultimate) year of the intermediate level of the
State Conservatory. He was taught composition by Karel Boleslav Jirák, in-
strumentation by Vítězslav Novák, musical form by Jaroslav Křička, con-
ducting by Otakar Ostrčil, aesthetics by Václav Štěpan, and so on.5 In oth-
er words by some of the leading composers of the Czech Moderna. From
Jirák in particular, Osterc acquired a thorough grounding in composition-
al technique that covered a great diversity of styles. In terms of ideas, there
is no doubt that Alois Hába was the biggest influence during the period of
his studies.
Like almost all composers of the interwar period, Hába resists easy
classification when it comes to discussing his artistic focus or “poetics”.
Nevertheless, he is remembered above all as a pioneer of microtonal mu-
3 Vlastimil Blažek, ed., Sborník na paměť 125 let Konzervatoře hudby v Praze (Prague:
Vyšehrad, 1936).
4 Josef Šebesta, “Slowenische Studenten am Prager Konservatorium in der Zeit der
ersten Tschechoslowakischen Republik 1918–1938,” in Stoletja glasbe na Slovenskem,
ed. Primož Kuret (Ljubljana: Festival Ljubljana, 2006), 168–179.
5 Danilo Pokorn, “Slavko Osterc (Prispevek za biografijo),” in Varia musicologica, ed.
Katarina Bedina (Ljubljana: Oddelek za muzikologijo Filozofske fakultete in Sloven-
sko muzikološko društvo, 1995), 133.
202
Romania, Italy, Hungary, Turkey, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slo-
venes (later known as Yugoslavia) and of course Czechoslovakia.3
If we disregard a few individuals such as Fran Gerbič, it is not until
shortly before the outbreak of the First World War that we find the first Slo-
vene students enrolled at the State Conservatory in Prague. One of the first
female Slovene concert pianists, Dana Kobler, studied at the conservatory
between 1910 and 1915. Three members of the Ravnik family (Janko, Anton
and Bonita) studied piano there with Josef Jiránek in roughly the same pe-
riod. The names of a number of other Slovene musicians appear on the roll
of the Prague conservatory during and directly after the First World War.4
Notable among them are the violinists Taras Poljanec and Leon Pfeifer –
the latter would later become a professor of violin at the conservatory in
Ljubljana. Slovene students increasingly began to be drawn to the study of
composition alongside other musical disciplines.
The first Slovene composer to study at the State Conservatory was
Slavko Osterc, who in the decade or so following his return from Prague
acted as a “bridge” between the Slovene and Czech capitals for the next
generation of important Slovene composers. On arriving in Prague, he was
admitted to the third (penultimate) year of the intermediate level of the
State Conservatory. He was taught composition by Karel Boleslav Jirák, in-
strumentation by Vítězslav Novák, musical form by Jaroslav Křička, con-
ducting by Otakar Ostrčil, aesthetics by Václav Štěpan, and so on.5 In oth-
er words by some of the leading composers of the Czech Moderna. From
Jirák in particular, Osterc acquired a thorough grounding in composition-
al technique that covered a great diversity of styles. In terms of ideas, there
is no doubt that Alois Hába was the biggest influence during the period of
his studies.
Like almost all composers of the interwar period, Hába resists easy
classification when it comes to discussing his artistic focus or “poetics”.
Nevertheless, he is remembered above all as a pioneer of microtonal mu-
3 Vlastimil Blažek, ed., Sborník na paměť 125 let Konzervatoře hudby v Praze (Prague:
Vyšehrad, 1936).
4 Josef Šebesta, “Slowenische Studenten am Prager Konservatorium in der Zeit der
ersten Tschechoslowakischen Republik 1918–1938,” in Stoletja glasbe na Slovenskem,
ed. Primož Kuret (Ljubljana: Festival Ljubljana, 2006), 168–179.
5 Danilo Pokorn, “Slavko Osterc (Prispevek za biografijo),” in Varia musicologica, ed.
Katarina Bedina (Ljubljana: Oddelek za muzikologijo Filozofske fakultete in Sloven-
sko muzikološko društvo, 1995), 133.
202
