Composer Avgust Armin Leban (1847-1879) in the Materials for the Biographic and Musicographic Lexicon of Franjo Kuhač

Abstract

After the death of the composer Avgust Armin Leban in 1879 a selection of his compositions was passed over by his brother Janko to F. Kuhač with the request that he might make an evaluation of them. On the basis of his examination of Leban's Latin Mass, Kyrie and Gloria from an unfinished mass, church songs and the collections "Little Flutes" and "A Wreath of Flowers" Kuhač readily admitted that Leban was a talented and original composer, closely in touch with the folkloristic tradition. Although he did not support his judgement, with arguments, in view of his orientation the appraisal is understandable. However, it should not be overlooked that the Croatian ethnomusicologist often tended to find what he wished to find and not simply what in fact existed.