MUSIC IN SLOVENIA BEFORE THE CENTURIES OF THE ŠKOFJA LOKA PASSION PLAY: 16TH AND 17TH CENTURY MUSIC IN THE DUCHY OF CARNIOLA

Abstract

In the 16th and at the beginning of the 17th century, church and secular, vocal as well as instrumental music was present in Slovenia and in the Duchy of Carniola. We can see this on the basis of material provided during the first decade of the 17th century, i.e. immediately before the first procession of the Škofja Loka Passion play (1721). Among the composers we can mention Tomaž Hren and the Ljubljana Jesuits, although we do not know of any composer at the beginning of the 17th century who may have been anchored as a creator at home. Yet we can find them among emigrants: Gabriel Plavec Carniolus (Plautz, Plautzius) in Mainz/Germany (1641), Daniel Lagkhner from Maribor/Slovenia (in Loosdorf/Austria; 1607) and Isaac Posch (in Carinthia). He died in 1621 or 1622 and he was known above all for the variation suite. Plavec and Lagkhner made the transition from the Late Renaissance to the Early Baroque, while Posch explicitly by the monody, i.e. in the early Baroque. The music and the musicians mentioned above were important in this period of more than one hundred years, even if not always and everywhere alike. The music grew from humble beginnings and, within the Slovenian territory, did not diverge from all which was modern west of the Slovenian ethnic borders.