Arti musices, Vol. 56 No. 2, 2025.
Izvorni znanstveni članak
https://doi.org/10.21857/9xn31cp3ey
Opposing Oblivion. Some Thoughts on Minimal Music in Croatia
Dalibor Davidović
orcid.org/0000-0001-8675-0512
; Muzička akademija Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Sažetak
Starting from the definition of minimal music given by Michael Nyman, the author finds that the contemporary music scene in Croatia is characterized by a dislike for this musical orientation, which is manifested both in the negative connotations that Croatian composers have given to the label itself, and in the rare examples of their compositions that could be classified under this label. Taking into consideration the piano suite Ostinati from 1982 by Stanko Horvat (1930–2006) and the String Trio from 1980 by Frano Parać (1948–), as well as the concert performance of saxophone player and composer Gordan Tudor (1982–) which took place in Zagreb in 2007 under the title Zagreb Counterpoint, the author points to a certain ambivalence towards the techniques and principles of minimal music in the case of the two aforementioned compositions, while interpreting the latter example as an explicit homage to minimal music at a time when it had already become part of the canon of Western art music. Considering the reasons why local composers were distrustful of minimal music, the author points to the specificity of the composition studies at the Academy of Music in Zagreb, which in the post-war period were significantly marked by the pedagogical principles of Stjepan Šulek (1914–1986), according to which classical compositional technique possesses universal validity and is applicable in any musical context, as if it were neutral and independent of aesthetic assumptions. Composers raised on such premises, which emerged as an attempt to consolidate what was perceived as the »deficient« state of compositional teaching in Croatia, treated the techniques of minimal music, if they reached for them at all, as material to be subjected to the supposedly »universal« principles of composition that they learned in Šulek’s composition class. On the other hand, by presenting the promotional activities of musicologist Nikša Gligo (1946–2024) regarding minimal music, especially the two festivals (Festival of Minimal Music; Different New Music Festival) that he organized in 1978 in the Student Center of the University of Zagreb, as well as the program of the international festival Music Biennale Zagreb, of which Gligo was the artistic director in 1977 and 1979, the author points to the limitations of Nyman’s definition, as well as the challenges that Gligo’s activities pose to the historiography of Croatian music of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Ključne riječi
Croatian music of the 20th and 21st centuries; minimal music; curatorial practice; youth culture; Student Center of the University of Zagreb; Music Biennale Zagreb
Hrčak ID:
343763
URI
Datum izdavanja:
23.1.2026.
Posjeta: 557 *