24 Two Part Inventions in all major and minor key

Croatian composer, ethnomusicologist and organologist Božidar Širola (1889 – 1956) studied mathematics and physics at the University of Zagreb, and later taught these subjects in secondary schools for nearly 30 years; he also studied composition with Ivan Zajc, and in 1916 was included in the so-called historical concert of six young Croatian composers in Zagreb. In 1921 he took the doctorate in musicology at the University of Vienna with a dissertation (supervised by Robert Lach) on Istrian folksong. A man of great energy, Širola was a prolific composer as well as a lecturer and critic. „Although he never wrote this down anywhere, from many things it is possible to conclude that the 24 Two Part Inventions (1939) were the fruit of, on the one hand, an intention to add to the school literature a work that functioned equally well from the theoretical aspect – for these are indeed refined exercises in counterpoint – and, on the other, to enrich this literature with suitable and acceptable reading that in certain age groups could be extremely useful, but could also be interesting on the concert platform. Although in a technical sense it is not particularly demanding, the work is a challenge above all for the musical scholarship and imagination of the performer, the ability to build the charm of the themes logically into the context of the polyphonic movement without either one losing in importance.“ (Erika Krpan)