Professional Documents
Culture Documents
This second volume of Guitar Compositions from Yugoslavia, from a set of six volumes dedicated to the music for classical guitar in the in former Yugoslavia, includes the musical works of the most active and representative guitarist/composers from Croatia during the 19th and 20th centuries. All of the included pieces, except one, were never before presented outside of the former Yugoslavia, and half of this selection was never even officially published in Croatia nor in any other former Yugoslav republic. The intention was to bring to the public information and selected works by our great classical guitar pioneers, thanks to whose admirable passion for the instrument, as well as incredible tenacity, the guitar was elevated to a significant level, becoming our most popular instrument. The fact that Ivan Padovec was Croatias only professional guitarist and composer in the 19th century, and that all others were mostly self-taught guitarists (many having quite different professions for making a living), the value of the works presented here is even more special. We also have to remember that after a golden age for the guitar in our country, the late sixties of the 19th century, when almost every house in our country had a guitar, and almost everybody claimed to be able to play it, better or worse, according to Franjo Kuha, the Croatian musicologist, we had decades of guitar decadence. Thanks to the influence of music from other countries, and to the great optimism of our amateur guitarists, especialy those working in the first decades of 20th century, a rapid development of the guitar in our country was successfully under way. And then, in the early 1960s, we could proudly announce an original domestic school of classical guitar, with a newly created tradition present in almost every former Yugoslav republic. Selecting pieces for this album, we chose works by those composers who were guitarists, both players and/or teachers. Most of them created their own guitar editions (in those days the number of printed copies and their technical quality were very limited), and invented their own guitar methods. We should remember that from the beginning of the 20th century up to the late 60s, it was very hard to find or get any professional guitar literature in this country. Anyone who managed to acquire albums of guitar methods like those of Carcassi or Carulli were lucky. No wonder that our pioneers of guitar pedagogy had to make their own didactic materials. Unfortunately, much of this is lost or forgotten today. This publication gives me an opportunity to present a small part of probably the most important works for guitar done in Croatia, and commemorate some of the greatest guitar enthusiasts we have had. Most of the world has likely never before heard of any these men, and knowing the great love, strength and perseverence exerted by all of them, it makes me very happy to know that with our edition we have managed to give, if not much, then a little in return.
Uro Dojinovi
during the second half of the 19th century. According to the written date under the title, most of the pieces in it were collected in 1888, by a priest named Filipec living in the area around the city of Samobor, near Zagreb. Most of the compositions are very easy didactic works in which we can hear the influence of Padovec and Croatian folk music of the period. Nonetheless we include these three short pieces to show the type of music being played at the time by nonprofessional guitarists.
Milan Stahuljak (Bjelovar 1878 Zagreb 1962) was a composer and conductor, teaching ancient Greek and Latin at the high school level. His musical work especially emphasized the tambour. He cooperated with Kuha, and left among his more than 300 compositions, mostly for tambours, several works for guitar. His Memory Page in this album was signed in 1946, and has never before been published. Josip Stojanovi and Nikola Vukainovi were both
authors of original guitar-method books, very famous in the early 1930s. Both published their editions with the music company of Franjo Schneider (Konanica 1903 Zagreb 1966), who had a great reputation as a fine instrument maker (especially different kinds of tambours and guitars). Schneider arrived in Zagreb in 1928 and started his large music enterprise, making and repairing instruments as well as pub1ishing music literature. Both above-mentioned guitar methods, which had several later editions, were probably first published around 1935. Each author was a very popular player, and most of the pieces included in their schools (see next page) are their own short compositions based on traditional folk themes. They were active before and after World War I in Zagreb.
The brothers Slavko Fumi (19121945) and Rudolf Fumi (1915 1951) were both born in Zagreb, where they began their guitar careers before World War II. Thanks to another guitar-builder, their friend Ernest Krsknyi, we have today two of their albums with their selected pieces published in Zagreb in 1956. They were very active, both as composers and as solo and duo guitarists, who even recorded for radio in those early days of broadcasting. Unfortunately, Slavko died prematurely as a war victim and Rudolf didnt live much longer. Some of their pieces, like Slavkos Nocturne, continued to be some of the most popular domestic works among our guitarists in the post-war period, while one of his preludes was performed by the great Austrian guitarist Luise Walker.
Cover of Compositions for Solo Guitar vol. II by the Fumi brothers, Zagreb, 1956
(right) Title page of the Jeli brothers Modern Guitar School, Split, Croatia, 1956
Vjenceslav Samboliek (1904-1970) was also introduced to the guitar as a very young boy, and later managed to acquire a better instrument thanks to a job he had at an instrument factory, where he received a guitar instead of a salary for work he did there. After the upheavalof World War II, in1949, Samboliek enrolled in the music school in Virovitica, where he would be teaching the classical guitar for about a decade. He was also active as a guitar lecturer in various Croatian cities around Virovitica such as Daruvar and Podravska Slatina. Although he was a professional house painter, as an amateur musician Samboliek composed over 120 different pieces, mostly for one and two guitars, but also for tambour orchestras which he also conducted, and music for one operetta. He wrote down many traditional Slavonic folk melodies, and. some of them he published in his music editions. Viktor Himelrajh, born in the city of epun in l922, is another guitar-lover who started to practice on this instrument when he was young. Later, working as a professional artist (professor of art in various schools in Osijek), Himelrajh continued to study the instrument, paying special attention to guitar history, pedagogy, and even a flamenco playing style. He self-published different albums and collections of guitar works, which included dozens of his own pieces. Edo uga, born in Zagreb in 1916, turned very early to professional
guitar teaching first in primary schools, also teaching solfeggio and conducting various youth choirs and orchestras. After 1962 his attention was focused on classical guitar pedagogy and his first guitar editions were published in Zagreb in l965. He also established a career as a successful guitar professor.