Josip Štolcer Slavenski, Composer of the Transition

Josip Štolcer Slavenski, Composer of the Transition is one in the short line of musical monograph editions on Croatian composers. The book is printed in two volumes, first of which contains the discussion on Štolcer Slavenski, a detailed and lucid analysis of his works, and a “draft of the composer’s biography,” while the other volume contains a detailed list of works, incipit and a number of score examples for compositions discussed in Volume I. This work is equally characterized by “scientific responsibility, wisdom, and substance of language and style” (from the foreword) and contains microscopic analyses of the technical processes of composing and music material from which the most important of Štolcer’s works has been made, while in the substantial notes the author gives plenty of interesting information about the analyzed compositions, quotes from the press of the time, or interesting remarks. The great value of this edition is evident in the (successful) attempt to valorize Štolcer Slavenski’s work in the context of the overall trends in Europe’s and the world's world music of the time, in the comparative analyses and systemization of the characteristics of the composer’s language in the afterword of the book.