(Ger. Laibach).
Capital of Slovenia. The area of today’s inner city has been continuously inhabited since at least 2000 bce. At the beginning of the Christian era the Roman settlement of Emona was founded; this became a diocesan seat in the 4th century ce. The city is first mentioned in written sources in 1144 and 1146. In the 16th century it became the cultural centre of the Slovenian nation; prior to that it had been the capital of the central Slovenian province of Carniola (Kranjska), which was ruled by the Habsburg house for six centuries. In 1918 Ljubljana became the capital of the Slovenian nation and in 1945 of the Federal Republic of Slovenia, both within Yugoslavia. In 1991 the city became the capital of the independent state of Slovenia. The proximity of the city to the important cultural centres of central Europe and its long stability and freedom from Turkish invasions ensured a rich and varied musical life. The cultural identity of Ljubljana as a central European city has been influenced mostly by the achievements of Italian and German culture. The cultural history of Slovenia can be seen as a long process of formation and consolidation of a national and central European identity.
Art music in the Middle Ages was fostered predominantly by churches and monasteries. A Franciscan monastery was founded by 1242 and music was practised in the church of St Peter from the 10th century. The cathedral was musically active from the late Middle Ages and had a song school from the early 15th century. Later the Jesuit college became a centre for musical instruction. The earliest references to organized bodies performing secular music date from the 16th century; in 1544 the city council appointed musicians to the permanent posts of Stadtpfeifer and Landestrompeter, and Stadtgeiger are recorded from 1571. Throughout the 17th century these musicians regularly took part in the numerous musical performances at the Jesuit theatre which, towards the end of the 16th century, had the important task of luring the citizens away from Protestantism, at that time strongly increasing in Slovenia. After the defeat of Protestantism in Slovenia the theatre continued to add more and more splendour to its performances, but frequent visits by Italian operatic companies contributed to its decline about the middle of the 18th century. Operas had been performed by professional companies since the 1650s; after 1740 the stream of visiting Italian companies was unbroken, and after 1768 German companies began appearing too. In the 18th century operatic performances were given in the palace of Count Auersperg, until the Stanovsko Gledališče (Theatre of the Estates) was opened in 1765. Between 1779 and 1782 Emanuel Schikaneder's company performed a number of Singspiele and operas.
The important Academia Philharmonicorum (founded 1701) was an aristocratic music society which performed oratorios and orchestral music until the middle of the century, and in 1794 the middle-class Philharmonische Gesellschaft was founded. The orchestra of this society from its inception performed many works by contemporary Viennese composers. It elected Haydn (1800) and Beethoven (1819) to honorary membership; in 1816 it opened a public music school, one of the unsuccessful applicants for the post of teacher being the 19-year-old Schubert. The society continued until the early years of the 20th century, remaining identified with the German-speaking section of the population.
The activity of the Slovenian nationalists in the mid-19th century was centred on the Čitalnice (Reading Rooms), cultural societies which devoted much time to music, especially choral. The Ljubljana Reading Rooms reappeared after the March Revolution of 1848 as late as 1861. From 1872 onwards, musical life was the domain of the Glasbena Matica (Musical Centre), This society also founded the short-lived Slovenska Filharmonija (1908–13) under Václav Talich. The division into two streams of parallel effort by the German-speaking minority and Slovenian-speaking majority caused several crises as well as a positive spirit of competition during the period of growing national consciousness in the second half of the 19th century, which substantially enhanced the level and extent of musical life.
Operatic activity was likewise divided between the German Landestheater and the Slovenian Dramatično Društvo (Dramatic Society) from which the Slovenian Opera evolved. The Theatre of the Estates was destroyed by fire in 1887, and in 1892 a new theatre was built. The house was shared by the German and Slovenian ensembles and was known as the Slovensko Deželno Gledališče (Slovenian Regional Theatre). Mahler spent the 1881–2 season as conductor at the German theatre. The Slovenian Opera owed its remarkable progress to Fran Gerbič, who was its musical director between 1886 and 1895. Fritz Reiner conducted the opera in 1910–11, and Václav Talich in 1909–10 and 1911–12. The building now houses the Opera of the Slovenian National Theatre (cap. 700); the normal season extends from September to June.
After World War I the city became one of the foremost musical centres of Yugoslavia. The main task of performing orchestral music fell on the orchestra of the opera. The Ljubljana PO was founded in 1934, but lasted only until 1941. In 1948 the orchestra was reconstituted and named Slovenska Filharmonija, taking the name of the orchestra which had existed earlier in the century. Glasbena Matica continued its manifold activity – it has supported a choir, an orchestra, published music and opened a music school; in 1934 an Institute for Folk Music was started under its auspices. After World War II Ljubljana Radio-Television formed an orchestra and a choir which were considered the best in Yugoslavia, while in the 1980s opinion favoured the Slovenska Filharmonija.
The city's long tradition of music schools continued with the founding of Glasbena Matica's school in 1882 and a conservatory in 1919. In 1926 this was reorganized as a state conservatory and in 1939 became the Academy of Music. Since World War II all important Slovenian music institutions have been concentrated in Ljubljana. In addition to those already mentioned, these include the department of musicology at Ljubljana University (founded 1961), the institute of musicology at the scientific research centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (founded 1980), the music collection of the Slovenian National and University Library (founded 1948), Gallus Hall in the Cankarjev Dom cultural centre, where operas and concerts are performed, the Ljubljana Festival, held each summer, and various music societies, notably the Society of Slovenian Composers. The music history of Ljubljana is to a large extent also the music history of Slovenia as a whole. The need to express Slovenian identity stimulated a breadth and a level of musical culture which is on a par with much bigger cities.
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‘Ljubljana’, Enciklopedija slovenije, ed. M. Javornik, vi (Ljubljana, 1992)
J. Snoj: ‘Srednjeveški glasbeni spomeniki v Ljubljani’ [Monuments of music of the Middle Ages in Ljubljana], Muzikološke razprave, ed. D. Pokorn (Ljubljana, 1993), 43–56
BOJAN BUJIĆ/IVAN KLEMENČIČ