Page 187 - Weiss, Jernej, ur. 2020. Konservatoriji: profesionalizacija in specializacija glasbenega dela ▪︎ The conservatories: professionalisation and specialisation of musical activity. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 4
P. 187
the establishment of the conservatory of the glasbena matica in ljubljana ...
ond World War, that conditions for music-making in Slovenia had ma-
tured to the extent that Vurnik’s lofty aesthetic demands could begin to
be met and it gradually became possible to train instrumental virtuosi
and composers.
Be that as it may, the establishing of the Conservatory already rep-
resented the first significant contact with contemporary achievements in
other countries at the higher level of music education. Despite the mod-
est conditions in which it operated, the Conservatory achieved significant
and indeed enviable successes in some fields (such as Janko Ravnik’s pi-
ano class, Jan Šlais’s violin class or Julij Betetto’s vocal class). Up until the
Second World War, it was the only arts education institution in Slovenia to
award state-approved diplomas, since plans to establish similar schools for
the theatre and fine arts were not realised until after the war.
Nationalisation meant the first major turning point in the work of
the Conservatory. If at the start of the 1920s the composer and critic Marij
Kogoj, despite his belief in an eventual “victory”, could only hope that na-
tionalisation would soon bring the fresh wind needed to boost Slovene mu-
sical culture,38 a few years later his successor as critic at Dom in svet, Stanko
Vurnik, was already offering a critical assessment of all aspects of the work
of the Conservatory and a number of other musical institutions. Which
meant that the previously burning question of the survival of individual
musical institutions in Slovenia had been satisfactorily resolved at this time
and had become more or less irrelevant.
In the years immediately after the Great War, Ljubljana gained several
long-awaited professional cultural and academic institutions of key nation-
al importance, including a university, a national theatre and a conservatory
of music. Yet it was only the later nationalisation, that enabled Slovene mu-
sical culture to make gradual progress in the direction of the professional-
isation and specialisation of musical activity, since with it conditions were
finally met for the long-term work of some of the most important Slovene
musical institutions.
38 Kogoj concluded his critical review of the work of the National Theatre Opera in Lju-
bljana in Dom in svet with the words:
“The younger generation awaits a solution to the question of nationalisation with per-
fect tranquillity, relying as it does on its capacity for work and the impulsiveness of its
movement, and firmly convinced that its position is destined to be victorious.”
Marij Kogoj, “Opera v prvi polovici sezone 1919/20,” Dom in svet 33, no. 3/4 (1920):
98, http://www.dlib.si/?URN=URN:NBN:SI:DOC-8O0VSB2F.
185
ond World War, that conditions for music-making in Slovenia had ma-
tured to the extent that Vurnik’s lofty aesthetic demands could begin to
be met and it gradually became possible to train instrumental virtuosi
and composers.
Be that as it may, the establishing of the Conservatory already rep-
resented the first significant contact with contemporary achievements in
other countries at the higher level of music education. Despite the mod-
est conditions in which it operated, the Conservatory achieved significant
and indeed enviable successes in some fields (such as Janko Ravnik’s pi-
ano class, Jan Šlais’s violin class or Julij Betetto’s vocal class). Up until the
Second World War, it was the only arts education institution in Slovenia to
award state-approved diplomas, since plans to establish similar schools for
the theatre and fine arts were not realised until after the war.
Nationalisation meant the first major turning point in the work of
the Conservatory. If at the start of the 1920s the composer and critic Marij
Kogoj, despite his belief in an eventual “victory”, could only hope that na-
tionalisation would soon bring the fresh wind needed to boost Slovene mu-
sical culture,38 a few years later his successor as critic at Dom in svet, Stanko
Vurnik, was already offering a critical assessment of all aspects of the work
of the Conservatory and a number of other musical institutions. Which
meant that the previously burning question of the survival of individual
musical institutions in Slovenia had been satisfactorily resolved at this time
and had become more or less irrelevant.
In the years immediately after the Great War, Ljubljana gained several
long-awaited professional cultural and academic institutions of key nation-
al importance, including a university, a national theatre and a conservatory
of music. Yet it was only the later nationalisation, that enabled Slovene mu-
sical culture to make gradual progress in the direction of the professional-
isation and specialisation of musical activity, since with it conditions were
finally met for the long-term work of some of the most important Slovene
musical institutions.
38 Kogoj concluded his critical review of the work of the National Theatre Opera in Lju-
bljana in Dom in svet with the words:
“The younger generation awaits a solution to the question of nationalisation with per-
fect tranquillity, relying as it does on its capacity for work and the impulsiveness of its
movement, and firmly convinced that its position is destined to be victorious.”
Marij Kogoj, “Opera v prvi polovici sezone 1919/20,” Dom in svet 33, no. 3/4 (1920):
98, http://www.dlib.si/?URN=URN:NBN:SI:DOC-8O0VSB2F.
185
