Odsevi in obličja glasbene govorice Janka Ravnika

The book Echoes and images of Janko Ravnik’s musical language illuminates the musical opus of Slovenian composer Janko Ravnik, who left a significant mark on the Slovenian musical creativity in the first decades of the 20th century. The central focus of the monograph is a musical-analytical study of Ravnik’s opus in the field of three genres (piano works, songs, and choirs) of his compositional output. It offers a systematic presentation and analyses of compositions in which the characteristics of Ravnik’s musical language manifested through time. The analyses include all possible alterations, compositional and stylistic changes, dilemmas, starting points, and solutions. The analytical examination of each of the three musical genres, paired with the consideration of the chronology of their creation, can offer us an insight into the composer’s creative process of an individual composition. Furthermore, the analysis also synthesizes the analytical outcomes of individual compositions into the characteristics of his musical language and observes and highlights its differences and particularities. Understanding of Ravnik’s creative conceptions and his creative path is supported by small insights from his biography. The latter is based on the lexical literature and on composer’s own thoughts and reflections, to the extent and the manner he wished to share them.