CONNECTED BY A LOVE OF MUSIC: PRESENTATION OF A BOOK ON THE GLASBENA MATICA LJUBLJANA

10. April 2025
5.00 pm
Knights' Hall, Križanke
Free entrance

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The Glasbena Matica music society recently celebrated 150 years of continuous activity and, to mark the occasion, invited authors from various specialist fields to contribute articles shedding light on different areas of the society’s work. Editor Veronika Brvar has grouped them into three thematic sections. Introducing the book is a personal account by former president Vladimir Ravnihar entitled Ad aeternam memoriam. This is then given historical context by Aleš Gabrič, who contributes an article on the Glasbena Matica’s struggle for existence in the years 1945–47. A dramatic development in the society’s fight for survival occurred after Slovenia became independent, with the process of denationalisation of socially owned property. The legal processes and, above all, the efforts to restore the society’s “good name and honour” are described for the first time with documentary accuracy by the Glasbena Matica’s honorary president Anton Vengušt.
The second section, on the Foundations of Slovene Musical Art and Culture, covers three topics. Igor Grdina reflects on constants and turning points in the society’s history; Peter Krečič sheds light on the fascinating creative relationship between the architect Jože Plečnik and the Glasbena Matica; and Marjetka Golež Kaučič recalls the origins of the Institute of Ethnomusicology, founded by society member France Marolt.
The third part of the book looks at the ties of the past with the present and, while it does not reflect all facets of the modern Glasbena Matica, it does highlight the most important ones, namely the concert activities of the society’s choirs, with a particular emphasis on the international successes of the Mixed Choir, and music education in the Slovene language, where the Glasbena Matica broke new ground.
The Glasbena Matica was once the principal institution in the sphere of Slovene music and its activities will undoubtedly continue to be the subject of studies and scholarly analyses in the future. The present volume, alongside Nataša Cigoj Krstulović’s book on the history of the Glasbena Matica up to the end of the Second World War (Zgodovina, spomin, dediščina: Ljubljanska Glasbena matica do konca druge svetovne vojne), is without question a significant contribution to our knowledge of the Glasbena Matica, including in the post-war period, and also gives a brief account of the society’s contemporary activities.
The books will be presented by authors who, through in-depth scholarly analyses, have shed light on hitherto unknown or little-known chapters from the history of what was once the most important music society in Slovenia.

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