“He lived and worked between the German and Slovenian cultures”

Josip Ipavec (1873-1921)

Abstract

The author lists all relevant biographical and bibliographical facts that raised the last member of the dynasty of four medical doctors and Slovenian-Celje Ipavci composers (Alojz, Benjamin, Gustav in Josip) to the European level of music artistry. Josip Ipavec (1873-1921), the centenary of whose death is commemorated in 2021 with the National Year of Ipavec, underwent the most thorough formal music training, even though none of the four received any professional training in composition. Josip was also the only one whose vocal pieces (Lieder and choirs) was mostly composed for lyrics in German, including those by such prominent (European) poets as H. Heine, J. W. v. Goethe, E. Geibel, L. Uhland, N. Lenau, E. Schönaich-Carolath, and J. Rodenberg. Undoubtedly, the crown jewel of Ipavec’s music oeuvre remains the ballet-pantomime Možiček [Little man] (1900-1901), the first Slovenian ballet piece; less successful if not unsuccessful was his opera/operetta Princesa Vrtoglavka [The giddy princess] (1905-1910).