Slovene Musicians in the Ferdinandeum of Graz

Abstract

The manuscript division of the University Library in Graz contains a »Catalogue«  of students of the city's »Ferdinandeum« (1589­–1684), which contains the names of many pupils of Slovene origin. From the data contained in this document, one may conclude that most of the pupils were educated and given their room and board free of charge if they could play some instrument or were good singers. Such students took part in the activities of the Jesuit Court Church in Graz. Some of these pupils subsequently even took up music professionally. The most noted of these is J. J. Fux. Of the Slovene pupils some are also important in Slovene musical history. Jakob Globočnik became a trumpeter in Styria. Žiga Winkler sang bass in St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna; Lovrenc Pevec was later employed as a musician in Celje; this recorded fact is the first evidence of the existence of musicians in the service of Celje in the second half of the 17th century. A former student of the »Ferdinandeum«, a certain Gašper Gošel, became director of the Academia Philharmonicorum, and played an important part in Ljubljana's musical life. Others who distinguished themselves musically are Janez Fider, Andrej Gladič and Jurij Planina. 36 The musical proficiency of the students was in most cases such that it enabled them to sing in choirs or take part in various instrumental ensembles. All of the data here cited indicates that at this time musical education in Slovenia had a relatively high standard, comparable with that of other artistically more highly developed countries in the West.