On the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth, in September 2015, a memorial plaque (at the initiative of the Cultural Society Kruh Križe, Parish Križe, and Association of Cultural Organisations Tržič) was attached to the north wall of the Sexton’s House in Križe. The inscription on the plaque made by Vinko Ribnikar, an Academy-trained sculptor based in Tržič, reads:
“Organist and composer Ignacij Hladnik, 1865 Križe–1932 Novo mesto.”
The notes and the first verse of his composition St Mary, through Life are inscribed on the side of the plaque.
Ignacij Hladnik
Composer and organist Ignacij Hladnik (1865–1932) devoted his artistic energies primarily to creating and performing religious music. Hladnik served as chapter organist in Novo mesto most of his life. In composing, he drew heavily from the polyphonic style characteristic of the Caecilian movement, although never renouncing his own unique idiom, which found expression in patriotic feelings and which he grounded in Slovenian folk-music tradition.
Hladnik was born in Križe near Tržič, and received his first music lessons at the age of eight. He later attended the organ school in Ljubljana. He was organist in Šentjakob ob Savi for a year and a half, then eight years in Stara Loka, and chapter organist and choral director in Novo mesto from 1889. In Novo mesto, he also managed the Glasbena matica Music Society, and taught music at the Novo mesto Grammar School from 1903. He was choral director of the Lower Carniolan Choral Society for twenty years, and conducted the local Franciscan choir. While publishing some of his prolific music output (73 works) independently, most of it was printed in Cerkveni glasbenik, Glasbena zora and Novi akordi (Church Musician, Music Dawn and New Chords).
He wrote nine Latin masses, most notably Missa solemnis for mixed choir, orchestra and organ. Slovenia’s first printed instrumental score, this mass was one of his most artistically accomplished church compositions, and reflected the flair of a composer possessing great breadth of invention. Hladnik’s other notable works include two Slovenian masses, several Requiems, Te Deums, a collection of Offertories, Antiphons and two Hymns for the Corpus Christi Procession.
He also composed cantatas and wrote some organ compositions that display his consummate musicianship and contrapuntal compositional insight. His most notable organ pieces are Fantazija, Božične predigre in poigre (Fantasy, Christmas Preludes and Postludes) and five fugal festival preludes as well as Pet slavnostnih iger za orgle, op. 61 (Five Festival Pieces for Organ, op. 61), which were included in the catalogue of the Regensburg Caecilian Society.
His noteworthy secular compositions include three vocal duets with piano accompaniment, two compositions for mixed choir Bleškemu jezeru (To Lake Bled) and Triglav, as well as ten works for male choirs, reflecting the national character and the composer’s desire to combine national songs with church music.
Especially popular are his Marijine pesmi, op. 51 (Marian Songs, op. 51) and the songs Presveto srce slavo, Usmiljeni Jezus (The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Merciful Jesus), as well as Marija, skoz’ življenje (St Mary through Life), which is firmly lodged in Slovenian national consciousness as a folk-song phenomenon that invariably accompanies every pilgrimage and festival.
Maia Juvanc
