Fifth string quartet, “Song of Insouciance”

Antun Dobronić (1878 – 1955) was a Croatian composer and pupil of Vítězslav Novák. He studied at the Prague Conservatory from 1910 to 1912. From 1922 to 1940, he served as professor at the Zagreb Academy of Music. His works show a strong streak of Croatian nationalism, which also is manifest in his writings on music. He sought to integrate high culture music techniques with traditional Croatian folk elements. Dobronić was a prolific composer. He composed eight symphonies and six ballets. He also composed operas, chamber music, and works for choirs. Dobronić’s Fifth String Quartet was written in 1947; like all the other string quartets, it was given a programmatic subtitle: Song of Insouciance. He composed it in the same year as the Fourth String Quartet, Song of Youthful Days. The work belongs to Dobronić’s mature creative phase and is the last string quartet he wrote. In the same year he started working on the project Croatian Rhapsodies for chamber orchestra, composing a total of five of them between 1947 and 1950. As he liked to point out, he composed works for smaller ensembles as a breathing space between larger forms. The composition was performed on August 6, 2008 at the Antun Dobronić Evenings in Jelsa, Hvar Island, by the Porin String Quartet of Zagreb.