The Development and Results of Musical Historiography in Slovenia

Abstract

After the first attemps made in musical historiography in the second half of the 19th century, the endeavours in this field acquired with J. Mantuani at the beginning of the present century a professional and scholarly character. Within the framework of the edition Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österreich Mantuani had in the years 1899–1919 edited the collection of motets Opus musicum by J. Gallus and in his introduction elucidated certain, up to that time unknown aspects of the composer's life. He also started systematically to collect the material for the Slovene musical history and in this connection wrote a series of articles. When in 1918 the Yugoslav state was founded and so also the Slovene university, there was as yet no department of musicology or musical history and so during the inter-war period the musical historiography could not be systematically pursued to any greater extent. This was made possible only after 1945 when at the Academy of Music a scientific department was opened, and later on, in 1961, when at the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana the Department of Musicology was established; this Department has been paying great attention to the study of the Slovene musical past and started to issue a Musicological Annual (1965), which lays significant emphasis on musical historiography. Great advances made in this field since the World War II are first and foremost evident from the monographs on the development of the Slovene musical culture. Undoubtedly of fundamental importance here is D. Cvetko's Zgodovina glasbene umetnosti na Slovenskem I, II, III (1958, 1959, 1960) (A History of Musical Art in Slovenia), which remains a truly reliable starting point and with its precious guide-lines a solid basis for all prospective research. The most recent and highest achievement of the endeavours in the sphere of the entire national musical history is represented by Musikgeschichte der Südslawen (1977) by the same author, in which the principal emphasis is laid on a comparative evaluation of the musical achievements of the individual South Slavic nations. This basic literature is complemented by some works of a wider or more general concept, either covering a predominant part of our musical past or through several periods following up particular compositional fields. A great advance in the Slovene musical historiography is further manifested by issuing monuments of music, where again the activity was first launched by D. Cvetko's publication Skladatelji Gallus, Plautzius, Dolar in njihovo delo – Les compositeurs Gallus / Plautzius / Dolar et leur oevre (1963), and later by J. Gallus's Harmoniae morales and Moralia (1966, 1968). In addition to synthetic and other works giving a general survey and to issues of compositions by old Slovene masters there have since 1945 written a number of special articles, treatises and monographs, the number of which has greatly increased particularly in the recent years. These works deal with a great variety of problems in the musical development from the Middle Ages until the present days.