Lucijan Marija Škerjanc
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Lucijan Marija Škerjanc (December 17, 1900 in Graz- February 27, 1973 in Ljubljana) was a Slovene composer, pedagogue, conductor, musician, and writer who was accomplished on and wrote for a number of musical instruments such as the piano, violin and clarinet.
He is considered an important figure in 20th century composition in Slovenia and is a Prešeren laureate and a recipient of the first award given in 1947 for his Koncert za violino in orkester (Concerto for Violin and Orchestra), which he went on to win on numerous occasions [1] . His style reflected late romanticism with qualities of expressionism and impressionism in his pieces, often with a hyberbolic artistic temperament, juxtoposing the dark against melodic phrases in his music.
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[edit] Biography
Educated in Ljubljana, Prague, Vienna, Paris and Basel, Škerjanc was liberal in his attitude to music and multifaceted in his works. He spent many years teaching composition at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana, teaching composers such as Nada Ludvig-Pečar whilst serving as a chancellor for a period and was a pianist, conductor, music writer and director of the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra based in the country's capital. Whilst musically diverse, his opus centred on composition, varying from piano miniatures and solos for beginners, and solo and chamber works to full blown concertos and symphonies[2] . Apart from sonatas, he notably composed a cycle of seven nocturnes, which many consider his greatest piano oriented work, and seven orchestral pieces Gazele (Ghazels) [3]. He not only composed for the piano but also the violin, the clarinet and the bassoon (known as a fagot in Slovenia) in 1952. During his life he also wrote for international composers and composed the film scores for a number of films under Yugoslavia.
In 1949 he was elected a member of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Škerjanc was also a music critic and writer about music and is the author of three monographs on Slovene composers, five pedagogical handbooks and a book Od Bacha do Šostakoviča literally meaning From Bach to Shostakovich.
He received the Prešeren Award many times, the last being in 1971 and was also a recipient of the Austrian Herder Award and the French Palmes académiques.
In 2001 he was commemorated by appearing on a postage stamp of Slovenia which featured at portrait of him by Božidar Jakac positioned on the manuscript of his symphonic poem Marenka.[4]
[edit] Notable symphonies
- 4 Overtures (Lirična (1925), Slavnostna (1933), Dramatična (1942) and Svečana (1926))
- Symphonies (1933, 1940, 1941, 1943 (Simfonija št. 4 je za godalni orkester) in 1943).
- Simfonična žalna glasba (1942)
- Violinski koncert (1944)
- Koncertni allegro za violončelo in orkester (1947)
- Concertino za klarinet in orkester (1949)
- Gazele, za orkester; na predlogo F. Prešerna (1950)
- Klavirski koncert (1950)
- Fantazija za klavir in orkester (?)
- Koncert za fagot in orkester (1952)
- Koncert za harfo in orkester (1955)
- Mala suita (1956)
- Problemi (1958)
- Koncertna rapsodija za violino in orkester, tudi 4 ditirambične skladbe (1959)
- Koncert za klarinet in orkester (1960)
- Koncert za rog in orkester (1962)
