Page 372 - 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. 372
nova glasba v »novi« evropi med obema svetovnima vojnama
Although in the 1920s and 1930s they shared a fairly uniform belief in the
need for new musical perspectives, they realised this in compositional ter-
ms in a variety of ways. Most of these composers adapted Hába‘s constru-
ctivist procedures in a fairly original manner, rather as, in practically the
same period, they did not feel the need for a consistent use of atonality or
twelve-tone technique. Naturally it is also possible to trace in them, alongsi-
de Hába‘s influence, references to many other more or less influential com-
posers amid the diverse wealth of compositional approaches of the twen-
tieth century. In practice, however, their studies in Prague characterised
in many ways a typical split between the ideals of new music on the one
hand and what in most cases was a polystylistic compositional reality on
the other. Despite this, the Slovene avant-garde movement of the 1930s was
also characterised by a new fact that had not been present in such abundan-
ce in the avant-garde of the 1920s: the international dimension. This is in
fact one of the more important reasons why the 1930s saw a certain retre-
at from the non-systematic approach (in terms of compositional theory) of
the “Osterc School” of composition, from which the majority of the afore-
mentioned composers in fact came.
Keywords: Alois Hába, Slovene students, composition, State Conservato-
ry in Prague
Sara Zupančič
Kačji pastir – La Libellula: Musical multilingualism
in Pavle Merkù‘s opera
Pavle Merkù (1927–2014) was born in Triest and was close to several lin-
guistic and cultural sources since he was a child. His first and only comp-
lete opera Kačji pastir or La Libellula (The Dragonfly, in English) could be
considered a synthesis of musical resources and influences of the compo-
ser until then. Different musical languages are used within it to characte-
rize and differentiate human characters from symbolic ones: namely, an
Expressionistic style illustrates existential anguish and emotions of the for-
mer, whereas the latter use a diatonic and objective language derived from
folk singing. Wagnerian influences can also be traced in the use of recur-
ring motifs throughout the opera, while Italian operatic elements are pre-
sent in the so-called Grande aria tripartita per il soprano at the end of Act
I and Slovenian choral chanting from Resia valley, modified and reworked,
is brought up in choral scenes.
370
Although in the 1920s and 1930s they shared a fairly uniform belief in the
need for new musical perspectives, they realised this in compositional ter-
ms in a variety of ways. Most of these composers adapted Hába‘s constru-
ctivist procedures in a fairly original manner, rather as, in practically the
same period, they did not feel the need for a consistent use of atonality or
twelve-tone technique. Naturally it is also possible to trace in them, alongsi-
de Hába‘s influence, references to many other more or less influential com-
posers amid the diverse wealth of compositional approaches of the twen-
tieth century. In practice, however, their studies in Prague characterised
in many ways a typical split between the ideals of new music on the one
hand and what in most cases was a polystylistic compositional reality on
the other. Despite this, the Slovene avant-garde movement of the 1930s was
also characterised by a new fact that had not been present in such abundan-
ce in the avant-garde of the 1920s: the international dimension. This is in
fact one of the more important reasons why the 1930s saw a certain retre-
at from the non-systematic approach (in terms of compositional theory) of
the “Osterc School” of composition, from which the majority of the afore-
mentioned composers in fact came.
Keywords: Alois Hába, Slovene students, composition, State Conservato-
ry in Prague
Sara Zupančič
Kačji pastir – La Libellula: Musical multilingualism
in Pavle Merkù‘s opera
Pavle Merkù (1927–2014) was born in Triest and was close to several lin-
guistic and cultural sources since he was a child. His first and only comp-
lete opera Kačji pastir or La Libellula (The Dragonfly, in English) could be
considered a synthesis of musical resources and influences of the compo-
ser until then. Different musical languages are used within it to characte-
rize and differentiate human characters from symbolic ones: namely, an
Expressionistic style illustrates existential anguish and emotions of the for-
mer, whereas the latter use a diatonic and objective language derived from
folk singing. Wagnerian influences can also be traced in the use of recur-
ring motifs throughout the opera, while Italian operatic elements are pre-
sent in the so-called Grande aria tripartita per il soprano at the end of Act
I and Slovenian choral chanting from Resia valley, modified and reworked,
is brought up in choral scenes.
370
