(Slov. Republika Slovenija).
Country in Europe. It is situated between the gulf of Trieste, east Alps, and the River Drava. Although populated by Slavs, it was divided between several Austrian duchies in the Middle Ages and remained within Austria-Hungary until its incorporation in 1918 into the state of Yugoslavia. In 1992 it became an independent republic.
Slovenian traditional vocal music comprises children's play and dance songs, counting games, rhythmic texts (for children and rituals), supplications and exclamations, ritual songs (and songs bound to life-cycle rituals, lullabies, lovers’ songs, death songs and laments), calendrical songs (for various festivals, saints’ days, Midsummer Night, Christmas and Epiphany carols, thrashing songs for 28 December, rhythmic blessings for abundant crops or a fertile year), epic songs, ballads and lyrical love songs.
These songs are predominantly performed by a chorus, most frequently with three voices. The middle voice is the leading one (naprej), especially in boys' singing from Alpine and central Slovenian villages during the second half of the 20th century. Singers in Carinthia, and probably elsewhere in Slovenia, used to prefer singing in five voices (na štrko, denoting four voices above the bass). While in the Stajersko region they used na tretko, denoting three voices above the bass. These forms of singing are the remnants of a medieval style (triplum, quadruplum). The leading voice always sang ahead of the other singers, melodically leading the group. The highest male voice (a remnant of falsetto) was particularly appreciated.
In Prekmurje, for Midsummer Night songs are in the form of a canon and, in some Istrian traditions, a two-part texture is used. In northern Slovenia (Carinthia) ‘pleasant singing’ is considered to be ‘calm’ singing, leaning on rising tones, while in Rezija an older guttural style is preferred. In Prekmurje, in the east, traditionally the songs have anhemitonic pentatonic melodies, while in Rezija, which is considered to have older traditions, the melodic material mostly draws from tetrachords, using a drone/ostinato and sometimes an added upper 5th. Tetratonic and pentatonic melodies have been noted throughout Slovenia. Another characteristic feature of Slovenian singing is the crossing of voices. Performers are aware of the relative importance of the text and music; the more important the content of the text, the plainer the musical style, and vice versa.
The guttural singing style slowly disappeared during the 20th century (practised after World War II only in Rezija, in Bela krajina due to the influence of refugees, and partially in Stajerska and Prekmurje under the influence of the Croatian guttural style). Improvisation also died out, kept up in Rezija until the second half of the 20th century (in both instrumental and vocal music), and in Prekmurje and Porabja (in dulcimer and fiddle playing). The characteristic five-part singing style was forgotten by the second half of the century and rubato rhythm (with shifting accents derived from the text) and changeable tempo were gradually dropped in favour of the stretching and accenting of favoured harmonies (especially in Koroska). The typically Slovenian three- and five-part styles were replaced by four-part singing after World War II, under the influence of western European choral singing.
Bone whistles (similar to prehistoric ones found in the region) are still found. The žvegle are transverse flutes played in Haloze/Štajerska until the 1980s, which derive from medieval instruments (other instruments derived from medieval ones include the drumlice jew's harp, sometimes home-made, and the gadalo, a struck clay pot). Bagpipes of various types can be found, a Western type with one or two drones, a double clarinet with or without a bag (diple) and an untempered instrument without a drone. The last performer on the reed panpipes stopped producing and playing in 1997. Other aerophones include long, wooden alphorns (played up to the 17th century), trumpets made of bark, whistles made from leaves and grass, and various children's instruments made from autumn fruits and blades of grass.
At the end of the 19th century accordions with a distinctive penetrating sound were taken up. At first they had buttons (diatonic accordions) and were later followed by those with keys (piano accordions). Tempered band instruments started to replace older untempered and quieter village instruments.
The oprekelj (dulcimer) can be seen in church frescos of the 14th century. It was played with wooden sticks which were wrapped in felt or leather, creating a typically piercing sound. The last performer on the oprekelj died in Notranjska in 1979. The plucked zither was found in Slovenia from the 17th century onwards. These were intially home-made instruments with from 7 to 12 strings, 2 to 4 of which were melodic, the rest accompanying drones. It was plucked with a wedge (biglo). After World War II it was mostly played in western and Alpine Slovenia and is still found in Prekmurje. This instrument was replaced in villages and towns by manufactured harmonic zithers (of different sizes), mainly from Austria and the former Czechoslovakia, which had numerous accompanying strings. During the 14th century the Turks brought the tamburice to the region and this instrument became especially widespread during the pan-Slavic revival movement.
During the 18th and 19th centuries the most widespread ensemble in Slovenia was the trio consisting of violin, dulcimer and double bass. Into the early 20th century the cimbale (large dulcimer) was still played in an ensemble of violins, violas and clarinets in eastern Slovenia (Prekmurje and Porabje). The sticks of the cimbale were wrapped in cotton wool, producing a velvety sound. The ensembles played rhapsodic melodies and lively dances and were known as ‘bands’ or ‘fiddlers’ groups’.
The duo of citíra (fiddle) and bunkula (little bass or cello with three strings) used to perform in Rezija (now in Italy). The bunkula is tuned a 3rd higher than the western European cello. The fiddle was held against the player's chest, the bunkula between the player's knees (gamba). The fiddle player would play 2nds, 3rds and 4ths against a constantly sounding drone, while keeping time with alternate stamps of the feet. The Slovenian instrumental tradition derives from that of medieval players, the performer must play one or more instruments, sing the local song repertory and also play the fool.
After World War II pop-folk music (performed by ensembles of accordions, clarinets, trumpets, double bass, guitars and a singer) spread widely across the region and was also played by Slovenian immigrants abroad. The musicians usually paraphrase the tunes of the Alpine region and the melodies of the L. Slak and V. Avsenik ensembles. Nearly every village now has its own pop-folk ensemble.
The collecting of traditional songs had already started in Slovenia during the 18th century. Separate volumes of extensive systematic collections of traditional songs were published quite early (8686 transcriptions do not have notations) and edited by K. Štrekelj (Slovenske narodne pesmi, 1895–1923). The collecting of instrumental music and instruments remained rather modest until the second half of the 20th century (the exception being the instrumentarium from Rezija, which was already being studied during the 19th century). The first recordings were made by J. Adlešič in Bela krajina in 1912. The Folklorni Institut was established in 1934, headed by France Marolt, and started collecting instrumental music and traditional dances. It was renamed Glasbeno Narodopisni Institut (musical folklore institute) in 1956 and became part of the Slovenian Academy of Arts and Science in 1972. It has collected about 30,000 recordings of traditional music (including transcriptions approximately 50,000 items).
The institute's collections include, the extensive works of Z. Kumer (vocal and instrumental music and texts of traditional songs), V. Vodušek (mostly vocal music and its structures), J. Strajnar (vocal and instrumental music), M. Ramovš (dance tradition) and works by younger researchers like I. Cvetko (children's musical tradition) and Marko Terseglav (the lyrical tradition of songs). Extensive research on eastern Slovenia has been done by J. Dravec (vocal music), on western Slovenia by the composer P. Merků (the musical tradition of Slovenes in Italy) and in Austrian Carinthia by B. Logar. Traditional instruments and instrumental music have been researched extensively not only by F. Marolt, but by R. Hrovatin, D. Hasl (the žvegle in Haloze), B. Ravnikar, Mira Omerzel-Terlep and Matija Terlep (the instrumental tradition and the collecting of instruments and D. Marušič in Istria (vocal and instrumental music). Numerous recordings of vocal and instrumental music have been preserved in the Musical Archives of Radio Slovenija by Jasna Vidakovič since 1973. The Music Department (called the Folklore Centre of Radio Slovenija since 1996) carries on with frequent recordings and prepares weekly programmes of 30 minutes entitled Slovenska zemlja v pesmi in besedi (‘Slovenia, its music and its words’).
F. Marolt: Slovenske narodoslovne študije [Slovenian ethnological studies] (Ljubljana, 1935–54)
J. Dravec: Glasbena folklora Prekmurja [Musical folklore of Prekmurje] (Ljubljana, 1957)
R. Hrovatin: ‘Bordunske citre v Sloveniji’ [The drone zither in Slovenia], Rad kongresa Saveza udruženja folklorista Jugoslavije VII: Ohrid 1960, 301–7
B. Ravnikar: ‘Akustična študija drumlice’ [An acoustic study of the jew's harp], Muzikološki zbornik, vi (1970), 99–104
Z. Kumer and others: Slovenske ljudski pesmi [Slovenian folksongs] (Ljubljana, 1970–92)
B. Ravnikar: ‘Zur hören Stimmung der Geigen in Resia’, Studia instrumentorum musicae popularis I, 37–9
P. Kuret: Glasbeni instrumenti na srednjeveških freska na Slovenskem [Musical instruments in medieval Slovenian frescos] (Ljubljana, 1973)
Z. Kumer: Pesem slovenske dežele [Slovenian folksongs] (Maribor, 1975)
P. Merků: Ljudsko izročilo Slovencev v Italiji [Folk traditions of the Slovenians in Italy] (Trieste, 1976)
D. Hasl: ‘Haloška žvegla’ [The transverse flute of Haloze], Traditiones, iv (1977), 89–114
M. Ramovš: Plesat me pelji: plesno izročilo na Slovenskem [Let me dance: the dance tradition in Slovenia] (Ljubljana, 1980)
J. Dravec: Glasbena folklora Prlekije [Musical folklore of Prlekija] (Ljubljana, 1981)
Z. Kumer: Ljudska glasbila in godci [Folk instruments and musicians] (Ljubljana, 1983)
M. Košuta and others: Deklica, podaj roko: ljudski plesi, pesmi in noša Slovencev v Italiji [The girl offers her hand: Slovenian folksongs and dress in Italy] (Trieste, 1985)
Z. Kumer: Die Volksinstrumente in Slowenien (Ljubljana, 1986)
Z. Kumer: Slovenske ljudske pesmi Koroske [Slovenian folksongs of Carinthia] (1986–92)
I. Cvetko: Jest sem Vodovnik Juri: o slovenskem ljudskem pevcu [I am Juri Vodovnik: about a Slovenian folksinger] (Ljubljana, 1988)
J. Strajnar: Citira: la musica strumentale in Val di Resia/Inštrumentalna glasba v Reziji [The fiddle: instrumental music in Rezija] (Udine, 1988)
E. Logar: Vaska vas ima svoj glas (Klagenfurt, 1988–94)
J. Strajnar: Lepa Ane govorila: prvi zvočni posnetki v Beli krajini [Beautiful Ane will speak: first sound pictures in Bela krajina] (Ljubljana, 1989)
M. Terseglav: Porabska pesmarica [Porabje songbook] (Budapest, 1989)
M. Omerzel-Terlep: ‘Oprekelj na slovenskem etničnem ozemlju’ [The dulcimer in Slovenian ethnic territory], Traditiones, xix (1990), 177–210
I. Cvetko, ed.: Med godci in glasbili na Slovenskem [Among folk musicians and instruments in Slovenia] (Ljubljana, 1991)
D. Marušič: ‘Predi, predi hči moja’ [Spin, my daughter, spin], Ljudske pesmi severne Istre [Folksongs of northern Istric] (Koper, 1992)
M. Omerzel-Terlep: ‘Ljudske lajne: inštrumentalni prehodniki sodobnuh računalnikov’ [The folk hurdy-gurdy: the instrumental precursor of present-day computers],Glasba v tehničnem svetu/Musik in der technischen Welt, (Ljubljana, 1994), 128–52
D. Marušič: ‘Piskaj, sona, sopi, svet istarskih glazbala’, Universo degli strumenti musicali Istriani (Pula, 1995)
Z. Kumer: Mi smo prišli nocoj k vam: slovenske koledniške pesmi [We came to you tonight: Slovenian Christmas songs] (Ljubljana, 1995)
M. Omerzel-Terlep: ‘Paleolitiske koščene piščali’ [Palaeolithic bone pipes], Slovenski etnolog, lvii (1996), 235–94
Slovenska glasba: Porabje/Slovene Music, Helidon FLP 03-008 (1979)
Slovenska glasba: Koroška/Slovene Music, Helidon FLP 03–9/1–2 (1983)
Slovenska glasba: Pritrkavanje/Slovene Music: Bell Ringing, Helidon FLP-03-013 (1985)
Der bleiche Mond/Bledi mesec, Trikont US-0182 (1991)
Zvočnost slovenskih pokrajin [Sound image of Slovene regions], (1991)
Slovenska glasba: Pritrkavanje/Slovene Music: Bell Ringing, Helidon 6.730013 (1992)
Slovenske ljudske pesmi/Canti populari Sloveni/Slovene Folksongs, C.034, C.035 (1992)
Authentic Traditional Music from the Archives of Radio Slovenija, Radio Slovenija RS001 (1995)
Slovenske ljudske pesmi [Slovenian folksongs], (1996–8)
IVAN KLEMENČIČ (I), MIRA OMERZEL-TERLEP (II)
3. The Baroque and Classical periods.
In the 6th century ce migrating Slavs established the state of Caranthania, which included the territory of present-day Slovenia. The beginnings of Slovenian music can be traced in the state of Caranthania back to the arrival of Christianity in the 8th century, when plainchant was introduced and the Kyrie was sung during religious services. The Conversio Bagoariorum et Carantanorum manuscript of 871 testifies to their widespread use. Singing in the Slovenian vernacular is documented in the Brižinski spomeniki (Freisinger Denkmäler) manuscript, which probably dates from the end of the 10th century and is the oldest extant Slovenian and Slavonic text. Other sources state that the Kyrie was sung in Slovenian on the occasion of the enthronement of the Caranthanian dukes. The period from the 11th to the 15th century is a time when Slovenian sacred music began to come into existence, influenced by some elements of German sacred song. The tradition of art music developed first in churches and subsequently in monasteries. In 753 the Caranthanians built their first cathedral; its existence is well documented in various codices and surviving fragments of choral chants from the 10th and 11th centuries and also in later reports of performances of polyphonic music. Secular music was spread mainly by minstrels and German Minnesinger, who included Ulrich von Liechtenstein in the 13th century and the poet-composer Oswald von Wolkenstein in the 15th century. Both bear witness to the popularity of Slovenian folksong among the nobility. The emphasis during that time was largely on interpreting music. This is also the period when we can first talk about the phenomenon of music migration. Jurij Slatkonja, born in Ljubljana (at the time the centre of Carniola dominion), for example, was a Viennese bishop and Kapellmeister to Maximilian II.
After the line of Caranthanian dukes died out in the 13th century, the Slovenians were ruled by the Habsburgs for the next six centuries. The unfavourable social circumstances in the 16th century were aggravated by peasant uprisings and particularly by Ottoman incursions, which impeded the development of the Slovenian ethnic group for two centuries. However, Catholic music in monasteries and churches was unaffected, while the development of Protestant music paralleled that in the German lands. Its leading exponent, Primus Trubar, and his collaborators published more than 50 books in the second half of the 16th century, among them a translation of the Bible in 1584. The first Slovenian printed book, the Catechismus of 1550, also contained a number of songs and their tunes in mensural notation. The first Slovenian hymnbook, Eni psalmi, appeared in 1567 and was followed by four enlarged editions. However, Protestantism was suppressed by the end of the century. Among Protestant musicians, the German-born Wolfgang Striccius (b c1555–60) was Kantor of the Ljubljana Estates School from 1588 to 1592 and an outstanding composer of German songs. Slovenian composers who worked abroad included Jacobus Handl (Gallus), one of the leading European late-Renaissance composers, Georg Prenner, a native of Ljubljana, and Daniel Lagkhner, a native of Lower Styria (now Maribor).
The early Baroque period was heavily influenced by the Counter-Reformation, whose ideological leader was Tomaž Hren, the Prince-Bishop of Ljubljana, who procured the latest music from Italy. This is confirmed by several volumes of music in the manuscript section of the Slovenian National and University Library, as well as the Inventarium librorum musicalium ecclesiae cathedralis labacensis of 1620, which lists more than 300 items. After Hren's death music in Slovenia was promoted principally by the Ljubljana Jesuits, in the Jesuit theatre and in the church of St James. They staged religious plays with music (from 1598) and operas. Although documentation for the first half of the 17th century is scarce, reliable information exists for the years 1652, 1655 and also for 1660, when on the occasion of Emperor Leopold I's visit to Ljubljana an Italian opera (comedia italiana in musica), was performed. Among émigré Slovenian composers, Gabriel Plavec, nicknamed Carniolus, worked in Mainz, Isaac Posch in Carinthia and Carniola, and J.B. Dolar in Ljubljana and Vienna. The Italian baroque composer Gabriello Puliti worked at various times in Capodistria (now Koper), where the composer Antonio Tarsia was employed as cathedral organist. Giuseppe Tartini was born in Pirano (now Piran) and received violin instruction in Capodistria. The heart of Slovenian musical life in the early 18th century was the aristocratic Academia Philharmonicorum, founded in Ljubljana in 1701 on Italian models as the first European music institution of this kind established outside Latin and Anglo-Saxon territory. The society gave concerts of choral and orchestral music, took part in both ecclesiastical and secular celebrations, and also organized annual regattas on the Ljubljanica river.
With the rise of the middle class in the second half of the 18th century several new societies were formed in Slovenia, among them the revival circle of Baron Žiga Zois, which fostered a growing national consciousness among Slovenians still separated by provincial borders. In music the new spirit was first felt in the field of opera, although the first Slovenian opera, Belin, composed by Jakob Zupan in 1780 or 1782, does not survive. The earliest extant operatic music in Slovenian is the incidental music Figaro by J.B. Novak (1790). In 1794 the Philharmonische Gesellschaft was founded in Ljubljana. The first concert society of its kind in central Europe, it brought together the Slovenian- and German-speaking sections of the middle class and nobility. Its repertory was orientated towards contemporary Viennese composers, and both Haydn and Beethoven were elected to honorary membership. Apart from Zupan, Novak and a number of Slovenian amateur composers, most of the composers active in the late 18th and early 19th centuries were foreigners. The pianist, singer and composer Francesco (Franz) Pollini, born in Ljubljana, was aquainted with Mozart in Vienna and later settled in Milan. Matej Babnik (Babnig) was active in Budapest, and Jurij Mihevec (Miheuz, Michaux) in Vienna, Paris and Mennecy.
The March Revolution of 1848 brought a sharp increase in the activities of Slovenian nationalists and a programme for a united Slovenia, with its own parliament in Ljubljana. The newly formed Slovensko Društvo (Slovenian Society) organized bésede, political and cultural events in which music played a patriotic role. In the 1860s bésede were succeeded by čitalnice (reading rooms), cultural societies which devoted much time to music, often with a nationalistic emphasis; this meant the beginning of a new concert life. The organization of the čitalnice was taken over by the Glasbena Matica (Musical Centre), founded in 1872 in Ljubljana, and other similar organizations on Slovenian ethnic territory. The activities of the Glasbena Matica were initially focussed on a choir which soon achieved international success, and in 1896 performed in Vienna under Dvořák. The German Ständisches Theater in Ljubljana (later the Landestheater, where Mahler conducted in the 1881–2 season) ensured the domination of the German and Italian repertory, at the expense of national opera, until the closing years of the century. The Dramatično Društvo (Dramatic Society) was founded in 1867 and gave rise to the Slovenian Opera, which from 1892 was housed in the new Deželno Gledališče (Regional Theatre) in Ljubljana, initially sharing the theatre with the German ensemble. The Slovenska Filharmonija (Slovenian PO) was founded in 1908 and was conducted until 1912 by Václav Talich. A consciously national idiom was cultivated by composers such as Fran Gerbič, the naturalized Czech Anton Foerster, and Benjamin Ipavec, who worked in Graz. In the years preceding World War I new Slovenian music was promoted by the magazine Novi Akordi (‘New Chords’, 1901–14). Anton Lajovic was the leading composer of the younger generation, which also included Risto Savin, Emil Adamič, Janko Ravnik and Marij Kogoj. Their idioms incorporated elements of late Romanticism, neo-Romanticism, Impressionism and Expressionism.
National hopes were dashed after World War I when Slovenia was incorporated into the state of Yugoslavia. The central role of the Ljubljana Glasbena Matica continued, but several of its activities became independent. In 1919 a conservatory was founded, which became the Academy of Music in 1939. The Slovenian Opera was renamed the Opera of the Slovenian National Theatre in 1918; the company flourished especially between 1925 and 1939, when the composer and conductor Mirko Polič was its musical director. New choirs and chamber ensembles were founded, along with the amateur Orchestral Society and, in 1934, the professional Ljubljana PO. Specialist music magazines included Nova muzika (‘New music’, 1928–9), Zbori (‘Choirs’, 1925–34) and Pevec (‘Singer’, 1921–39), while the most enduring Slovenian music magazine, Cerkveni glasbenik (‘Church musician’), was published from 1878 to 1945. The interwar generation of Slovenian composers was characterized by an eclectic range of styles, from Romanticism to modernism. The 1920s were dominated by the Expressionist composer Marij Kogoj, a pupil of Schoenberg, and the 1930s by Slavko Osterc, whose works embraced avant-garde techniques, neo-classicism and Expressionism. Matija Bravničar and Vilko Ukmar worked along similar lines to Kogoj, while a circle of composers around Osterc included Karel Pahor, Marijan Lipovšek, Pavel Šivic and Danilo Svara. The music of Lucijan Marija Škerjanc reveals the influence of French Impressionism within a fundamentally late Romantic idiom.
After the communist revolution in 1945, the Socialist Republic of Slovenia was established within Yugoslavia. This became an independent republic in 1992. Systematic musicological research in Slovenia began in 1962, when the study of the history of music was shifted from the Academy of Music (which became part of Ljubljana University in 1975) to the department of musicology at Ljubljana University. The department has published the Muzikološki zbornik (‘Musicological annual’) since 1965. An institute of musicology was established at the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts in 1980; since 1983 it has produced the publication Monumenta artis musicae Sloveniae.
The Slovenian Opera developed in the postwar years and achieved an international reputation. A permanent opera company was re-established in Maribor, where a symphony orchestra was founded in the 1990s. In 1948 the Ljubljana PO was reconstituted as the Slovenska Filharmonija. Leading conductors and soloists have worked with the orchestra, including several natives of Slovenia: the tenor Anton Dermota, the mezzo-soprano Marjana Lipovšek, the flautist Irena Grafenauer, the violinist Igor Ozim and the pianist Dubravka Tomšič Srebotnjak, a pupil of Rubinstein. The Slovenian national radio broadcasting station re-established its symphony orchestra in 1955 (the present-day Simfoniki RTV Slovenija), its chamber choir (Komorni Zbor RTV Slovenija) was founded in 1945 and its youth choir (Mladinski Zbor RTV Slovenija) in 1957. The tradition of choral singing is also maintained by the Slovenski Komorni Zbor (Slovenian Chamber Choir). The chamber ensemble Ave (1984) has become a leading European choir, and the Carmina Slovenica an internationally renowned youth choir. Chamber ensembles in Slovenia include the Trio Lorenz, Trio Tartini, Ansambel Slavko Osterc and Slovenicum. Foremost among the publishers of Slovenian music is the Society of Slovenian Composers, with its series Edicije (‘Editions’), focussing mainly on the works of contemporary Slovenian composers. Specialist music magazines have included Naši zbori (‘Our choirs’, 1946), Grlica (‘Turtledove’, 1953–88), the re-established Cerkveni glasbenik (1976–) and Slovenska glasbena revija (‘Slovenian music magazine’, 1951–60).
In the immediate postwar years Slovenian composers tended to retreat from the advanced idiom of the pre-war period, although the influence of socialist realism was limited. In the early 1960s, however, links with the European avant garde were re-established under the influence of Darmstadt, Paris and the new Polish music, as well as of the Slovenian avant-garde composers of the inter-war generation. A new avant-garde generation was established by Primož Ramovš and the young composers of the Ljubljana Pro Musica Viva group: Alojz Srebotnjak, Milan Stibilj, Darijan Božič, Ivo Petrič, Jakob Jež, Igor Štuhec and Lojze Lebič. Their work uses the techniques of dodecaphony and serial organization, and has latterly encompassed aleatory and electronic music. Another facet of the Slovenian avant garde is represented by Vinko Globokar, who is also a noted trombonist, Božidar Kos (working in Australia), Janez Matičič and B. Kantušer, both active in Paris, and Pavle Merků active in Trieste. Other composers whose work is based mainly on 12-note techniques include Matija Bravničar, Vilko Ukmar, S. Koporc, Danilo Švara, Zvonimir Ciglič and Janko Ravnik. After their earlier neo-classical phase Marijan Lipovšek, Uroš Krek and Pavel Šivic later turned to modernism. Dane Škerl, Karel Pahor, D. Žebre, Marjan Kozina and Lucijan Marija Škerjanc cultivated a neo-classical or post-Romantic idiom. The younger generation of Slovenian composers, whose leading representative is Uroš Rojko, inclines towards postmodernism.
See also Ljubljana and Maribor.
MGG2 (I. Klemenčič and Z. Kumer)
J.V. Valvasor: Die Ehre des Hertzogthums Crain (Ljubljana, 1689)
P. von Radics: Frau Musica in Krain (Ljubljana, 1877)
F. Rakuša: Slovensko petje v preteklih dobah [Slovenian singing in the past] (Ljubljana, 1890)
J. Mantuani: ‘Jurij pl. Slatkonja’, Cerkveni glasbenik, xxviii (1905), 67–8, 75–7, 84–5, 91–2
M. Kos: Conversio Bagoariorum et Carantanorum (Ljubljana, 1936)
F. Ramovš and M. Kos: Brižinski spomeniki [The Freising monuments] (Ljubljana, 1936)
D. Cvetko: ‘Mozarts Einfluss auf die slowenische Tonkunst zur Zeit der Klassik’, MJb 1956, 200–06
D. Cvetko: Zgodovina glasbene umetnosti na Slovenskem [History of music in Slovenia] (Ljubljana, 1958–60) [with Fr. summary]
D. Cvetko: Academia philharmonicorum labacensis (Ljubljana, 1962) [with Fr. summary]
D. Cvetko: Histoire de la musique slovčne (Maribor, 1967)
J. Höfler and I. Klemenčič: Glasbeni rokopisi in tiski na Slovenskem do leta 1800: Katalog [Music manuscripts and printed music in Slovenia before 1800: catalogue] (Ljubljana, 1967)
A. Rijavec: Glasbeno delo na Slovenskem v obdobju Protestantizma [Music in Slovenia in the Protestant era] (Ljubljana, 1967) [with Eng. summary]
D. Cvetko: ‘Gustav Mahlers Saison 1881–82 in Laibach (Slovenien)’, Musik des Ostens, iv (1968), 74–83
D. Cvetko: Musikgeschichte der Südslawen (Kassel, 1975)
A. Rijavec: Twentieth Century Slovene Composers/Slowenische Komponisten des 20. Jahrhunderts (Cologne, 1975)
J. Höfler: Glasbena umetnost pozne renesanse in baroka na Slovenskem [Music of the late Renaissance and the Baroque in Slovenia] (Ljubljana, 1978)
A. Rijavec: Slovenska glasbena dela [Slovenian musical works] (Ljubljana, 1979)
J. Sivec: Dvesto let slovenske opere/Two Hundred Years of the Slovene Opera (Ljubljana, 1981)
J. Sivec: ‘Razvoj in dosežki glasbenega zgodovinoposja na Slovenskem’ [The development and achievements of musical historiography in Slovenia], MZ, xvii (1981), 145–83 [with Eng. summary]
Monumenta artis musicae Sloveniae (Ljubljana, 1983–)
I. Klemenčič: ‘Zgodovinska avantgarda v Slovenski glasbi’ [The historical avant garde in Slovenian music], MZ, xxii (1986), 21–8 [with Eng. summary]
R. Flotzinger: ‘Der Sonderfall Wiener Klassik: zur Beurteilung ihrer Rezeption in Slowenien’, Evropski glasbeni klasicizem in njegov odmev na Slovenskem/Der europäische Musikklassizismus und sein Widerhall in Slowenien: Ljubljana 1988, 13–23
I. Klemenčič: Slovenski glasbeni ekspresionizem: od začetkov do druge svetovne vojne [Slovenian musical Expressionism: from its beginnings to World War II] (Ljubljana, 1988) [with Eng. summary]
D. Cvetko: Iacobus Hándl Gallus vocatus Carniolanus (Ljubljana, 1991) [in Eng.]
M. Kokole: ‘The Baroque Musical Heritage of Slovenia’, The Consort, ii (1995), 91–102
I. Klemenčič: ‘Musik im Zeitalter des Barock: ihre Stilentwicklung in Slowenien’, Musicologica austriaca, xvi (1997), 65–84
P. Kuret: Mahler in Ljubljana (1881–1882) (Ljubljana, 1997) [in Slovenian, with Ger. summary]
J. Snoj: Medieval Music Codices: a Selection of Representative Samples from Slovene Libraries (Ljubljana, 1997)
Slovenia is situated between various cultural regions: the Alps in the north, Central Europe to the east, the Mediterranean in the west, while the south of Slovenia is culturally connected to the Balkans. The Slavs settled the territory that is now Slovenia in the 6th century ce bringing characteristic song themes (particularly epic and mythological songs) and instruments. The remnants of ancient and medieval traditions have been preserved in bordering regions (like Prekmurje and Haloze in the east, Soško and Rezija in the west, Bela krajina in the south and Notranjska in central Slovenia). Regional musical identities differ strongly among themselves. Bela krajina and Istria have Musics which show the influence of Middle Eastern traditions which came with early settlers and refugees.
Equally tempered musics had not been heard until World War II. With the arrival of the radio in cities and villages, semitone equalization started and tempered instruments entered most bands. Traditional vocal music of the 20th century has no instrumental accompaniment; this only occurs in old songs accompanied by zithers, dulcimers, Rezian zithers and bunkulas (three-string bass). A distinctive accompaniment to church holidays and ceremonial occasions is the solemn chiming of church bells (pritrkavanje).