Page 291 - 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
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jan šlais’s contr ibution to ljubljana’s violin school
Koper. After his first violin studies with Arturo Vram, who had brought
Ševčík’s violin method to Trieste, Gulič furthered his studies at the Prague
Conservatory with Jan Mařák, and later with Otakar Ševčík himself. Dur-
ing his long career, he first taught violin at the Slovenian Music Society in
Trieste, where he may have taught the young Karlo Rupel. In 1924, Gulič
founded the private music school L’Autorizzata Scuola di Musica, which
was later renamed Accademia musicale triestina. His best pupil by far was
his own son Franco Gulli (1926–2001), who became a world-famous violin-
ist that also taught Slovenian violinists such as Volodja Balžalorsky and Čr-
tomir Šiškovič. Gulli studied with his father for sixteen years (1931–1947),
and once said that all his further violin pedagogues were good, but he nev-
er again found a teacher like his father.73
Conclusion
Jan Šlais (1893–1975) was one of the last in a long line of Prague violinists
that were active in Slovenia over the course of the twentieth century. He
trained the first generation of schooled Slovenian violinists and in this way
can be seen as the culmination of an influx of violinists from Bohemia that
contributed to the development of violin playing in this region for over one
hundred fifty years. The earliest musicians from Bohemia appeared in Lju-
bljana in the 1720s and the first Bohemian violinists in the 1790s. At the be-
ginning of the nineteenth century, Bohemian musicians responded to com-
petitions in newspapers across Austria-Hungary and won appointments as
music teachers in cultural centers such as Ljubljana, initially at the Public
Music School. They were broadly educated musicians, able to teach theory,
singing, and various instruments, and as such they had not narrowly spe-
cialized in violin virtuosity.
After the establishment of the Prague Conservatory in 1811, the most
important violinists from Bohemia came out of that institute: they were
the Prague violinists that appeared in Ljubljana only in the 1870s. One of
these was Hans Gerstner, who trained the internationally recognized vi-
olinist Leo Funtek. Gerstner was a brilliant and successful violin teacher,
and taught his pupils a very challenging violin repertoire, for example the
Beethoven Violin Concerto. But the conditions were not yet right for him
73 Personal communication with Gulli’s daughter, Giulliana Gulli, on July 19th, 2008
in Trieste; Giuseppe Radole, Le scuole musicali a Trieste e il conservatorio ‘Giuseppe
Tartini’ (Trieste: Edizione Italo Svevo, 1992), 84.
289
Koper. After his first violin studies with Arturo Vram, who had brought
Ševčík’s violin method to Trieste, Gulič furthered his studies at the Prague
Conservatory with Jan Mařák, and later with Otakar Ševčík himself. Dur-
ing his long career, he first taught violin at the Slovenian Music Society in
Trieste, where he may have taught the young Karlo Rupel. In 1924, Gulič
founded the private music school L’Autorizzata Scuola di Musica, which
was later renamed Accademia musicale triestina. His best pupil by far was
his own son Franco Gulli (1926–2001), who became a world-famous violin-
ist that also taught Slovenian violinists such as Volodja Balžalorsky and Čr-
tomir Šiškovič. Gulli studied with his father for sixteen years (1931–1947),
and once said that all his further violin pedagogues were good, but he nev-
er again found a teacher like his father.73
Conclusion
Jan Šlais (1893–1975) was one of the last in a long line of Prague violinists
that were active in Slovenia over the course of the twentieth century. He
trained the first generation of schooled Slovenian violinists and in this way
can be seen as the culmination of an influx of violinists from Bohemia that
contributed to the development of violin playing in this region for over one
hundred fifty years. The earliest musicians from Bohemia appeared in Lju-
bljana in the 1720s and the first Bohemian violinists in the 1790s. At the be-
ginning of the nineteenth century, Bohemian musicians responded to com-
petitions in newspapers across Austria-Hungary and won appointments as
music teachers in cultural centers such as Ljubljana, initially at the Public
Music School. They were broadly educated musicians, able to teach theory,
singing, and various instruments, and as such they had not narrowly spe-
cialized in violin virtuosity.
After the establishment of the Prague Conservatory in 1811, the most
important violinists from Bohemia came out of that institute: they were
the Prague violinists that appeared in Ljubljana only in the 1870s. One of
these was Hans Gerstner, who trained the internationally recognized vi-
olinist Leo Funtek. Gerstner was a brilliant and successful violin teacher,
and taught his pupils a very challenging violin repertoire, for example the
Beethoven Violin Concerto. But the conditions were not yet right for him
73 Personal communication with Gulli’s daughter, Giulliana Gulli, on July 19th, 2008
in Trieste; Giuseppe Radole, Le scuole musicali a Trieste e il conservatorio ‘Giuseppe
Tartini’ (Trieste: Edizione Italo Svevo, 1992), 84.
289
