Matjaz Barbo – författare

The book discusses the life of the Czech composer Frantisek Josef Benedikt Dusik (1765-after 1817). Dusik was born into a musical family in Cáslav (Bohemia, today Czech Republik). After stuying in Prague he went to northern Italy. In the last decade of the eighteenth century he stayed in Ljubljana where he married and became one of the most important musical figures. He appeared as a musician in several famous Italian musical theatres of that time, from La Scala in Milan to San Benedetto in Venice. In Ljubljana he regularly appeared in musical theatre, was employed as an organist and regens chori in the cathedral and played a leading role in the Philharmonic Society. He wrote operas, church compositions, instrumental pieces, and foremost, symphonies, which represent the first Slovene works of that genre. The biography introduces readers to an almost forgotten musician, whose fortune led him to be a bandmaster of various Austrian infantry regiments, and at almost the same time a composer who praised Napoleon.

How can we define the referential systems by which music is determined and through which music gets its own sense and meaning? What is the relation between these systems? Such questions are of particular weight in relation to current music practices, characterized by a great many of analytical procedures and hermeneutical views. The questions raised open a series of different thematic fields presented in this book. The authors allocate the place of music to the field of aesthetic autonomy or describe its specific sign system(s). Special attention is focused on the systems of musicological contextualization and the meaning/understanding of music in different historical and/or functional contexts, from traditional liturgical chant up to recent compositions. Various contributions in the collection are dedicated to the relation between music and film, while others deal with the special sociological conditions that constitute some specific musical praxis, such as folk or rock music.

Wenn wir Musik hören, werden wir auch immer mit einem Paradoxon konfrontiert: Musik wirkt auf uns einerseits wie eine unmittelbare Sprache der Klänge, tiefgründig und emotional, andererseits gibt es musikalische Ausdrucksformen, die uns zunächst verschlossen bleiben und einer eingehenderen Auseinandersetzung bedürfen. Es geht also immer genauso um irrationale Ungreifbarkeit, sinnliche Freude und klangliche Glückseligkeit, wie um vernunftmäßige Fassbarkeit und rationale Bestimmbarkeit von Musik.Matjaž Barbo widmet sich dem Kreislauf dieser rezeptorischen Gegensätze und kommt einem faszinierenden Widerspruch auf die Spur, ohen sich die Illusion zu machen, ihn auflösen zu können.