“Fiercely Popular, but Unyielding on Issues of Principle”

Fran Venturini, versatile musician and teacher of the Basovizza victims

Abstract

Fran Venturini, as a Slovenian teacher, felt in his life the weight of the struggle for the nation's survival. He developed a rich musical activity as a teacher in Slovenian schools in Trieste, as a composer of Slovenian art and folk songs, as a choirmaster of numerous choirs, and as an organiser of cultural activities in Trieste and Ljubljana. He was responsible for the renewal of musical and cultural life, for choral literature, and organised and participated in choir conducting courses, in the activities of enlightenment societies and the Musical Matrix in Trieste, and later, during the wars, in Ljubljana. During his exile, he devoted his time to composing and singing choral songs. He was a kind, modest, broad-minded teacher who lived through the fascist regime, the fears and the poverty, which he accepted uprightly and steadfastly. He did not bow to the horrors of war and the regime, but countered them with music. To this end, he wrote compositions dedicated to all those who fell during the wars, and was concerned for the mother tongue and national consciousness of the Slovenes in Trieste.