On the Periodization of Baroque Music in Slovenia

Abstract

The period of Baroque music in Slovene provinces has been relatively well highlighted. This historical era is generally regarded as a rich and, in all aspects, creative – though full of contradictions – awakening of music in Slovenia of that time. All forms of musical creation saw the light of day then, so this period can be compared with fundamental historical, social and stylistic changes in the idiom of music elsewhere in Europe. A reconsideration of the periodization of music in Slovene provinces was initiated by the question raised by literary science as to whether it is possible to talk about „a unitary cultural movement“ in Slovenia at that time. This paper is mainly concerned with the hitherto less evident issue of the borderline between the late Renaissance and early Baroque on the one hand, and the borderline between the final stage of Baroque and the following period on the other. According to recent studies on understanding and analysis of Baroque art (W. Braun, W.D. Freitag), it can be asserted that Baroque music in Slovene provinces was not lagging behind that period elsewhere in Europe, it commenced with great ideological changes (Counter-Reformation) and a well-established order of the Jesuits and concluded around 1770, an apparently controversial year.