First String Quartet, Op 15, “Song of Kindred Spirits”

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 First String Quartet was written in 1917 in Zadar, and has the programmatic subtitle Song of kindred spirits. It is the only one to which the composer gave an opus number – 15 – and it is the only single movement quartet. It seems to have been written at a breath; it is well known that the stimulus and inspiration was his love for the young Jerka Marković, then his fiancée, later his wife.