Marij Kogoj, composer
Marij Kogoj (Trieste 1892 - Ljubljana 1956), a composer of European rank, is a central representative of Slovenian expressionism in music as wel as art in general. His universally oriented art could well be defined within the framework of the Central European intellectual idioms, it extends from Kogoj’s roots in the Slovenian tradition and his studies under Franz Schreker and his model Arnold Schönberg in Vienna during World War I. As a composer of the transitional period between romanticism and modernism he formed an authentic art without any stylistic or aesthetic norms anbd immediate models. His art therefore comes from within himselfs and his own feeling of the world. Afret only two short decades of creative endeavours, interrupted in 1932 by the outbreak of his menmtal illness,his legacy comprises an important opus of solo songs, choruses, piano compositions and, along with some contributions to symphonic and chamber music, his central work, the opera Black masks (Crne maska; first performed in Ljubljana in 1929).
From the CD "Piano Music by Marij Kogoj" - RTV Slovenia, Records & Tapes
Text by Ivan Klemencic, translated by Metoda Kokole
Colour picture: Sasa Santel - Marij Kogoj, oil painting
