Slovenian Music in the First Decade after the Second World War – In Search of Socialist Realism

Abstract

After the Second World War, Slovenia became a part of socialist Yugoslavia, which, following the example of the Soviet Union, scrutinised art from an ideological perspective. Previous studies of the influence of the new social system on Slovenian music have not discovered any distinct and direct political interventions in musical life, so it is reasonable to enquire whether such influences can be identified in the works of Slovenian composers from the first decade after the end of the Second World War. It turns out that demands and solutions were rather ambivalent and arbitrary; some composers, particularly those who continued traditional musical expression, did not adapt their aesthetic principles, while a change in style is observed especially in those composers who had endorsed the new music before the war.