The Current State in Slovene Musicology

Abstract

First musicological efforts in the broad meaning of the word appear in Slovenia towards the end of the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th century. However, neither at that time nor between the two wars were they systematic. They unfolded along the lines of musical historiography, ethnology and aesthetics bearing certain, if not extensive, results. Still, before World War II, musical journalism and criticism were quite developed, due mostly to extensive compositional results which were gaining European horizons. After World War II, the conditions for the development of Slovene musicology improved significantly. This discipline found, as a university subject, its lebensraum at first within the Academy of Music and later in the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Ljubljana; the Musicological Annual began to be published, stimulated by other forms and results of research, master's and doctor's theses, habilitation works, as well as by increased possibilities for publishing not only within planned projects but also by growing musicological activites in the national and international musicological sphere. During this period, Slovene musicology has directed its research mostly to the history of Slovene music, old and new. A number of monographs dealing with smaller or larger sections of the Slovene musical past and present were written, as well as books on individual composers, numerous articles, and also a number of works, written by past Slovene composers, have been edited. Apart from the efforts in the field of musical history, especially Slovene, the period in question reflects an interest in musical acoustics and aesthetics. Numerous contributions to national and international, lexical or rather encyclopaedic literature should also be mentioned, as well as participation in other prints and projects, which need extensive musicological praparatory work. More then ever before, we witness the effloressence of musical journalism, in musical as well as literary magazins, and in the form of independent publications. Although dedicating itself mostly to Slovene music, musical journalism has dealt also with periods within the general musical history and individual composers, which are interesting in the European setting. Results obtained since World War II indicate that in the contributions of Slovene musicological efforts full attention has been paid to the specific conditions of development and to comparative study within the broader European context. What has been achieved deserves positive marks, however with the additional remark that a greater concentration of musicologists doing research should be striven for. The latter is possible only within an institutional framework which formally exists (The Musicological Institute of the Slovene Academy of Arts and Sciences, founded 1972) but, because of the lack of technical conditions, has not been in the position to accept concrete tasks. Postwar Slovene musicology has of course various problems to cope with, and these indicate how much work still remains to be done – in the direction of greater efforts in the field of general musical history as well as sociology and aesthetics, two musicological disciplines, which, though important for the development of Slovene musicological thought, have been hitherto hardly present in Slovenia.