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The Use of the Istrian Scale in the Works of Contemporary Istrian Composers
Luka Demarin
Sažetak
A considerable number of works have already been written about the Istrian scale, yet there is a noticeable lack of literature focusing on contemporary Croatian, especially Istrian composers who incorporate its musical characteristics into their compositions, particularly those for whom Istrian folklore is inherently familiar. This paper aims to fill that gap in scholarly research by exploring the unique ways in which these often-overlooked composers have integrated elements of Istrian musical folklore into their works. Today, such elements can be found within both tonal and atonal frameworks, in compositions with minimalist concepts, in diverse rhythmic structures, and even blended with other genres.
The paper is based on analyses of excerpts from compositions by Istrian composers, with a focus on melodic and harmonic characteristics related to pitch material inspired by the Istrian scale. Nello Milotti, in pieces appealing to a wider audience, creatively incorporates folkloric elements into his distinctly interesting compositional language; Đeni Dekleva Radaković subtly blends tonality and atonality with the Istrian scale; Massimo Brajković combines Istrian folklore mostly with avant-garde sounds, while Elda Krajcar Percan uses it in her simple, minimalist, and often meditative compositions. Branko Okmaca employs the scale in complex polyphonic structures, and Bruno Krajcar achieves an exceptionally intriguing sound that merges jazz with Istria.
The Istrian scale, it is quite clear, still manages to live on in art music today thanks to the works of these and many other contemporary composers of the 20th and 21st centuries, which was also the original intention of its founder, Ivan Matetić Ronjgov, who, together with Matko Brajša Rašan and Slavko Zlatić, was among the first to use Istrian folklore in art music. Later composers approached this tradition in different ways—whether by following it, reinterpreting it, or consciously distancing themselves from it—yet their approaches mostly represented attempts to shape their own solutions within already established frameworks.
Ključne riječi
Hrčak ID:
347105
URI
Datum izdavanja:
22.12.2025.
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