Marjan Kozina (4 June 1907 – 19 June 1966) was a Slovene composer. He is considered one of the most important Slovene composers of the 20th century. His best known works include a

symphony A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning com ...

, composed in stages through the late 1940s; the opera ''

Equinox A solar equinox is a moment in time when the Sun crosses the Earth's equator, which is to say, appears directly above the equator, rather than north or south of the equator. On the day of the equinox, the Sun appears to rise "due east" and se ...

'', completed in 1943; two

ballets Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

from the early 1950s, and the music for the film ''

On Our Own Land ''On Our Own Land'' ( sl, Na svoji zemlji) is a 1948 film directed by France Štiglic. It was the first Slovene sound feature film. It was released on 21 November 1948 in Union Cinema () in Ljubljana, received great public acclaim, and was enter ...

'' (Na svoji zemlji), which he later arranged into a suite for orchestra.

Life

Kozina was born to a musical family in

Novo Mesto Novo Mesto (; sl, Novo mesto; also known by other alternative names) is a city on a bend of the Krka River in the City Municipality of Novo Mesto in southeastern Slovenia, close to the border with Croatia. The town is traditionally considered t ...

, then part of

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

. In Ljubljana, Kozina began studying philosophy and mathematics and in the same time also

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

and

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

, but later completely turned to the study of music. He graduated from

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography *Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include v ...

in Vienna in 1930, and completed the studies of

conducting Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance, such as an orchestral or choral concert. It has been defined as "the art of directing the simultaneous performance of several players or singers by the use of gesture." The primary duti ...

and composition also in Prague. After his return from Prague he worked for a short time (1932–34) at Ljubljana and Maribor Opera, and then worked at Maribor Music Society ( sl, Glasbena matica Maribor). From 1940 until 1943 and from 1945 until 1947, he worked as a music teacher at the

Academy of Music in Belgrade The University of Arts in Belgrade ( sr-cyr, Универзитет уметности у Београду, Univerzitet umetnosti u Beogradu) is a public university in Serbia. It was founded in 1957 as the Academy of Arts to unite four academies. ...

. In World War II, his house was bombed in an air raid and his wife imprisoned by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

. In September 1943, after the

capitulation of Italy The Armistice of Cassibile was an armistice signed on 3 September 1943 and made public on 8 September between the Kingdom of Italy and the Allies during World War II. It was signed by Major General Walter Bedell Smith for the Allies and Brigad ...

, he joined the

Slovene Partisans The Slovene Partisans, formally the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Slovenia, (NOV in POS) were part of Europe's most effective anti-Nazi resistance movement Jeffreys-Jones, R. (2013): ''In Spies We Trust: The Story of Western ...

. After the liberation, in 1948, he became the first manager of the Slovene Philharmonic Orchestra, and held the post until 1951, when he became a professor at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana. In 1953, he was elected a regular member of the Slovene Academy of Sciences and Arts. He lived and created in Novo Mesto and Trška Gora. He died in Novo Mesto after a heavy illness.

Work

From 1940 until 1943, Kozina completed the score and the

libretto A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...

of his only opera ''

'' (), based on the eponymous play by the Croatian–Serbian playwright

Ivo Vojnović Ivo Vojnović (9 October 1857 – 30 August 1929) was a writer from Dubrovnik. Biography Vojnović was born in Dubrovnik as the first son of Count Konstantin Vojnović (1832–1903) and Maria de Serragli (1836–1922) on 9 October 1857 in Du ...

. Before his leaving to the Partisans, he buried it in the garden of his parents in order to prevent its loss during the war. It was first performed in May 1946 at the

Ljubljana Opera House The Ljubljana Opera House ( sl, Opera, or ) is an opera house in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. The seat of the national opera and ballet company, the Ljubljana Slovene National Theatre Opera and Ballet, it serves as the national opera buildin ...

, and in 1948 he was bestowed the

Prešeren Award The Prešeren Award ( sl, Prešernova nagrada), also called the Grand Prešeren Award ( sl, Velika Prešernova nagrada), is the highest decoration in the field of artistic and in the past also scientific creation in Slovenia. It is awarded each yea ...

for it. The major Kozina's contribution to the Slovene

symphonic music An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, ...

was a symphony comprising four

movements Movement may refer to: Common uses * Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece * Motion, commonly referred to as movement Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * "Movement" (short story), a short story by Nancy Fu ...

, which are actually individual symphonic poems and were composed separately. They are titled ''White Carniola'' (; 1946), ''Mount Ilova'' (, 1947), ''To the Fallen'' (, 1948), and ''Towards the Sea'' (, 1949). Although the symphony was rarely performed in entirety, the first movement was one of the most often conducted Slovene symphonic composition of the post-war times. Musicians performed it in all sorts of musical ensembles including accordion and brass ensembles. Its optimism represented the will to live of the entire nation. Besides it, Kozina composed the

''The Tales About Gorjanci'' (; 1952–1961) and ''Diptihon'' (1952), and the music for the films ''

'' (1948), ''

Kekec Kekec is a fictional children's literature character created by Slovenian author Josip Vandot in 1918. He was first introduced in the serial "Kekec on the Hard Path" () in ''Zvonček'' magazine (volume 19, issue 1/2). He is a young shepherd boy ...

'' (1951), Valley of Peace (1956), and others. Kozina also devoted himself to writing and translating. He wrote about music,

aesthetics Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed thr ...

, the role of art and the artist in contemporary society, he translated a series of

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

s, wrote

itineraries A travel itinerary is a schedule of events relating to planned travel, generally including destinations to be visited at specified times and means of transportation to move between those destinations. For example, both the plan of a business trip ...

review A review is an evaluation of a publication, product, service, or company or a critical take on current affairs in literature, politics or culture. In addition to a critical evaluation, the review's author may assign the work a content rating, ...

polemic Polemic () is contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is called ''polemics'', which are seen in arguments on controversial topics ...

s, and popular expert essays.

Recognition

In 1948, Kozina was bestowed the

for his opera Equinox, and in 1956, Trdina Award (the municipal award by Novo Mesto) as well as the

Golden Arena for Best Film Music List of winners The following is a list of winners of the Golden Arena for Best Film Music at the Pula Film Festival Pula Film Festival ( hr, Pulski filmski festival) is an annual Croatian film festival, established in 1954. It is held in a Rom ...

for the music of the ''Valley of Peace'' film. The highest Slovene prize awarded to composers has been named Kozina Award. Since 1970, a street in Novo Mesto has been named Marjan Kozina Street (). In 2007, a production studio from Novo Mesto shot a documentary about Kozina, and a symposium on the composer was held in Novo Mesto. The musical school in Novo Mesto is named after Kozina. In 1971, a bronze bust of the composer, created by Zdenko Kalin, was unveiled in Novo Mesto. On 13 January 2008, the centenary of the Slovene Philharmonics, the great hall of the Philharmonics building in Ljubljana was named after Kozina.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kozina, Marjan 1907 births 1966 deaths Slovenian classical composers Slovenian male musicians Male classical composers Slovenian film score composers Male film score composers Slovenian writers Golden Arena winners People from Novo Mesto 20th-century classical composers Prešeren Award laureates Members of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts Slovene resistance members