Stanko Premrl (28 September 1880 – 14 March 1965) was a Slovene

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

priest, composer, and music teacher. He is best known as the composer of the music for the Slovene national anthem, "

Zdravljica "Zdravljica" (; ) is a '' carmen figuratum'' poem by the 19th-century Romantic Slovene poet France Prešeren, inspired by the ideals of ''Liberté, égalité, fraternité''. It was written in 1844 and published with some changes in 1848. Four ...

". Premrl was born in the village of Šent Vid (now Podnanos) in the upper Vipava Valley, in what was then the

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(now in

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

). He graduated from the music conservatory in

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. From 1909 to 1939, he served as music director at the Ljubljana Cathedral. Between 1908 and 1939, he was head of the organ school in

Ljubljana {{Infobox settlement , name = Ljubljana , official_name = , settlement_type = Capital city , image_skyline = {{multiple image , border = infobox , perrow = 1/2/2/1 , total_widt ...

. He was a significant influence on the development of Slovenian church music. He was one of the most prolific Slovenian composers of the 20th century, publishing over 2,000 songs. On 24 September 1905 he composed the music for France Prešeren's patriotic poem ''

''. Premrl's composition soon prevailed as the most popular music for the song; by the 1940s, it had become one of the most popular Slovene patriotic songs. In 1989, it was officially adopted as the regional anthem of the

Socialist Republic of Slovenia The Socialist Republic of Slovenia (, sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Socijalistička Republika Slovenija, Социјалистичка Република Словенија), commonly referred to as Socialist Slovenia or simply Slovenia, was one ...

, then a part of

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

. In 1991, it became the national anthem of independent Slovenia.National Anthems
/ref> Stanko Premrl was the uncle of the Slovenian Partisan resistance fighter Janko Premrl, a.k.a. Vojko.

References

1880 births 1965 deaths Slovenian composers Slovenian male composers Slovenian organists 20th-century Slovenian Roman Catholic priests National anthem writers People from the Municipality of Vipava 20th-century organists Male organists 20th-century male composers Yugoslav Roman Catholic priests Slovenian male musicians {{Slovenia-composer-stub