Page 211 - 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. 211
alois hába and slovene students of composition ...
Osterc’s later students did, nor did these cause significant stylistic changes
in his work following his return to Ljubljana.25
One composer who more closely approached Hába’s views in some of
his post-Prague works was Osterc’s first graduate, Pavel Šivic. Šivic was said
to have “adopted expression in Prague”,26 where he studied between 1931
and 1933. Certain structural changes in Šivic’s compositional style follow-
ing his studies in Prague would appear to confirm this thesis. Another con-
sequence of his Prague studies would appear to be what, in the Slovene
music of the time, was a more or less isolated example of the use of the do-
decaphonic technique in the form of a series of twelve-note studies entitled
Mala klavirska suita (Little Piano Suite), written in 1937. Even here, howev-
er, we can only really talk about an attempt at twelve-note composition. The
work that most recalls the twelve-note approach, albeit somewhat ironical-
ly, is his Romantična fantazija (Romantic Fantasia) for piano. It seems im-
portant to underline the fact that in 1933, as well as attending Hába’s course,
Šivic also completed his composition studies with Josef Suk27 and his piano
studies with Vilém Kurz.28
Osterc’s “favourite” student Franc Šturm also studied with Josef Suk
and Alois Hába at the conservatory in Prague from 1933 to 1935, following
three years of study with Osterc. He was the only Slovene composer who
continued to apply Hába’s quarter-tone solutions in his own compositions
following his return from Prague. Šturm’s work in fact reveals a new kind
of creative desire, already evident in his 1934 Fantazija za orgle (Fantasia for
organ) and supported by a series of works composed during his two years
in Prague, several of them written using the quarter-tone system. These
early works of Šturm’s are characterised by athematism and an atonality
that is more consistent than Osterc’s. Even in the Fantasia for organ, which
begins with a veritable explosion in the form of eleven different notes (with
repetitions) over a dissonant chord, he uses the characteristic technique of
adding an accidental for each note as it occurs, without natural signs. It is,
then, a kind of attempt at a dissonant honing with a filling of the chromatic
25 Lipovšek is described as being “focused on the objectivity of neoclassicism and, ini-
tially, even a narrower neo-baroque” right up until the start of the Second World
War. Ivan Klemenčič, Slovenski glasbeni ekspresionizem (Ljubljana: Cankarjeva za-
ložba, 1988), 119.
26 Ibid., 145.
27 For the diploma examination, he submitted his Godalni kvartet (String Quartet).
Šebesta, “Slowenische Studenten am Prager Konservatorium”, 171.
28 For the diploma examination, he performed Liszt's Piano Concerto No 2 in A major.
Ibid.
209
Osterc’s later students did, nor did these cause significant stylistic changes
in his work following his return to Ljubljana.25
One composer who more closely approached Hába’s views in some of
his post-Prague works was Osterc’s first graduate, Pavel Šivic. Šivic was said
to have “adopted expression in Prague”,26 where he studied between 1931
and 1933. Certain structural changes in Šivic’s compositional style follow-
ing his studies in Prague would appear to confirm this thesis. Another con-
sequence of his Prague studies would appear to be what, in the Slovene
music of the time, was a more or less isolated example of the use of the do-
decaphonic technique in the form of a series of twelve-note studies entitled
Mala klavirska suita (Little Piano Suite), written in 1937. Even here, howev-
er, we can only really talk about an attempt at twelve-note composition. The
work that most recalls the twelve-note approach, albeit somewhat ironical-
ly, is his Romantična fantazija (Romantic Fantasia) for piano. It seems im-
portant to underline the fact that in 1933, as well as attending Hába’s course,
Šivic also completed his composition studies with Josef Suk27 and his piano
studies with Vilém Kurz.28
Osterc’s “favourite” student Franc Šturm also studied with Josef Suk
and Alois Hába at the conservatory in Prague from 1933 to 1935, following
three years of study with Osterc. He was the only Slovene composer who
continued to apply Hába’s quarter-tone solutions in his own compositions
following his return from Prague. Šturm’s work in fact reveals a new kind
of creative desire, already evident in his 1934 Fantazija za orgle (Fantasia for
organ) and supported by a series of works composed during his two years
in Prague, several of them written using the quarter-tone system. These
early works of Šturm’s are characterised by athematism and an atonality
that is more consistent than Osterc’s. Even in the Fantasia for organ, which
begins with a veritable explosion in the form of eleven different notes (with
repetitions) over a dissonant chord, he uses the characteristic technique of
adding an accidental for each note as it occurs, without natural signs. It is,
then, a kind of attempt at a dissonant honing with a filling of the chromatic
25 Lipovšek is described as being “focused on the objectivity of neoclassicism and, ini-
tially, even a narrower neo-baroque” right up until the start of the Second World
War. Ivan Klemenčič, Slovenski glasbeni ekspresionizem (Ljubljana: Cankarjeva za-
ložba, 1988), 119.
26 Ibid., 145.
27 For the diploma examination, he submitted his Godalni kvartet (String Quartet).
Šebesta, “Slowenische Studenten am Prager Konservatorium”, 171.
28 For the diploma examination, he performed Liszt's Piano Concerto No 2 in A major.
Ibid.
209
