The master's degree performance titled Slovene Littoral Composers of Liturgical Music During the Italian Occupation includes the works of three composers, who had become the symbol of religious and national loyalty by their artistic activity during the time of fascist oppression.
The concert was performed by the Podzemelj parish mixed choir. The performance consisted of the works by composers Vinko Vodopivec, Emil Komel and Lojze Bratuž. In addition to these composers, the poets who authored the lyrics in Slovenian played an important role in conserving and promoting the language during the time when Italian authorities in the fascist regime systematically repressed the Slovenian national community, discontinued cultural institutions, forbade the use of Slovenian in education and public sphere, Italianized surnames etc. However, the use of the language persisted in families, rural areas and churches, including catechesis in Slovenian (the so called Sedej Schools).
This paper first introduces the singers in the Podzemelj Parish Mixed Choir and the music from the performance, followed by the biographies of the composers and the poets and an analysis of the performed music. In the composers' biographies their personalities, as well as their work and the broader social context was described. The authors of the lyrics are separately described as important contributors and creators and are therefore given an important role in the paper. The lyrics were meticulously analyzed, especially the content, structure and message. Composition and harmonies were analyzed in the music itself, using paradigmatic semantic analysis. A separate chapter is dedicated to the analysis of the music in terms of the performance and the teaching method, where structure, agogic accents and dynamic markings, melodic, rhythmic and harmonic characteristics are also presented. The places where instructions on composition and performance are present were highlighted in the chapter on the teaching method.
The detailed analysis was very helpful in the preparation for the performance, since it enabled us to learn of various factors and specifics that improved the performance of the choir. This was challenging for the choir, which consists mostly of amateur singers. The successful performance was only possible because of the singers' motivation and a lot of practice.
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