Arti musices, Vol. 57 No. 1, 2026.
Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.21857/ygjwrce86y
Letters of Dora Pejačević to Baroness Tilda Vranyczany. New Insights, Data, Understandings
Domagoj Marić
; Vienna, Austria
*
* Corresponding author.
Abstract
A collection of 36 letters, 35 postcards, and seven written calling cards that Dora Pejačević sent to the Zagreb noblewoman Tilda Vranyczany between 1904 and 1921, preserved in the Vranyczany-Dobrinović collection at the Croatian State Archives in Zagreb, is the largest known collection of letters and postcards written by the composer. It provides many new insights into her life and creative process. Pejačević sent the greatest number of items in this correspondence to Vranyczany during 1904, which particularly sheds light on the previously less-known first Zagreb period of her biography. After 1907 and Teodor Pejačević’s resignation from the office of Ban, contact between Vranyczany and Pejačević became less frequent, limited to occasional greetings and updates on current events. The second period of more intensive contact occurred between 1918 and 1921. Thanks to the correspondence Pejačević sent during this time from Vienna, Zagreb, Budapest, and Dresden, this phase of the composer’s life is also much clearer. Four especially valuable and interesting discoveries can be highlighted: Pejačević’s description of her visit to the Bayreuth Festival (Wagner’s Festspiele) in 1904, her account of her piano cycles Phantasiestücke [Fantasies] and Blumenleben [The Life of Flowers], information about the attempted Zagreb performance of the Symphony in F-sharp minor, Op. 41 in 1918, and the first known description of the composer’s nostalgia for her homeland.
Keywords
Dora Pejačević; Tilda Vranyczany; correspondence; Zagreb; Bayreuth
Hrčak ID:
349909
URI
Publication date:
29.7.2026.
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