Foreword

Abstract

The University of Ljubljana, the oldest university in Slovenia, celebrated its centenary in 2019. It was within the framework of this university that the Department of Musicology began its work at the Faculty of Arts in 1962. In addition to university study of musicology in Slovenia, the Department also provided the necessary conditions for the scientific study of music within a humanities faculty. Although documented reflections on music, which form the core of all musicological work, can be traced far into the past in Slovenia, the first meaningful attempts at a scientific treatment of musicological topics date back to the decades prior to the First World War. Since that time, especially with the establishment of the Department of Musicology at the Faculty of Arts and then the Institute of Musicology at the Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (initiatives since 1972, formally established in 1980), Slovenian musicology has followed the path of a modern humanities discipline. While the interest of Slovenian musicologists was initially mainly focused on historical topics related to the musical past of the Slovenian region, institutionalisation enabled systematic musicological fields to expand and deepen on an equal basis. The expansion of research interests and the development of the profession also brought the need to constantly change and supplement its methodology.