Page 9 - Glasbenopedagoški zbornik Akademije za glasbo v Ljubljani / The Journal of Music Education of the Academy of Music in Ljubljana, leto 9, zvezek 18 / Year 9, Issue 18, 2013
P. 9
ja Koter, BOJAN ADAMIÈ: THE CORRELATION BETWEEN HIS CREATIVE AND ...
were left to their own devices; professional musicians and particularly the professors at the
Academy of Music were prejudiced, and indeed, wholly opposed to jazz.16 Jazz enjoyed
its biggest following among students, especially among those who were members of the
democratically oriented Sokol movement. However, it was not accepted among students
influenced by Catholic ideology and among young communists; they assumed that jazz
promoted a more (or excessively) spontaneous and unorthodox youth lifestyle. In their
opinion jazz was the herald of the decline of western civilisation. However, in Slovenia at
least, there was never a serious counter-jazz movement and jazz remained on the level of
urban subculture despite its popularity. The beginning of World War II changed the
common perception of jazz, as its social role was looked upon more favourably as a result
of its close connection with the allies. The Italian and German authorities, however,
rejected it for its American origin.17
The Bojan Adamiè Orchestra was still operating after the beginning of the war and
donating its entire income to the Slovenian Liberation Front (OF) movement, which
Adamiè had signed up to early. In 1943 he joined the partisans in the Dolenjska region,
acquiring the partisan name Gregor; he played in a small cultural group there along with
his friends until he was severely wounded during a German attack in his role as a machine
gunner. At the beginning of 1944, after recovering from his injuries, he was assigned to
the headquarters of the National Liberation Army (NOV) to organize a military band. As
they were starting from scratch, they decided to announce an appeal for musicians; a few
some partisans, some disabled and wounded soldiers, and amateur musicians with
instruments responded. Many of them were lacking a proper musical education, yet under
Adamiè’s leadership they made considerable progress and were soon able to perform
compositions suitable for the times, such as marches and compositions with a
revolutionary theme. He transferred his enthusiasm for jazz into battle songs by arranging
marches into evergreens and by employing popular themes, such as jazz, and American
popular music ensembles. Initially, these arrangements met with the severe disapproval of
the “political bosses”, but when two of the headquarters’ high commanders, commissar
Boris Kidriè and commander Franc Rozman – Stane, grew fond of his music, his actions
were “approved”. At first the members of the military brass band were also quite reluctant
to meet his demands for entirely different rhythms and melodies in playing and singing.
Adamiè developed his own style by veering away from traditional Slovenian brass band
music and approaching the trends of West European and American dance music. He
described the direction he took in the following way: “At the very beginning I introduced
my own style by composing all partisan marches as evergreens with the refrain in the
middle. That was a complete novelty, but I made my musicians believe it was logical and
normal. The band played on and on and then only the drum and two woodwinds kept on.
Everybody was singing, rhythmically, in syncope […].”18
In the summer of 1944 a renowned miners’ brass band from Hrastnik under the
bandmaster Jo e Brun joined the partisans, bringing along both their instruments and
score archive. Bruno’s skilled musicians played marches and sections from the operas of
16 Bojan Adamiè legacy contains a variety of autobiographic articles or written memoirs about his work in
the field of jazz. For the most part, they are undated.
17 Gregor Tomc, Druga Slovenija. Zgodovina mladinskih gibanj na Slovenskem v 20. stoletju, Ljubljana:
Zalo ba Krt, 1989, p. 53.
18 Bojan Adamiè, accessible at http://www.bojan-adamic.si/biografija/#uvodinbio, May 14th, 2012.
9
were left to their own devices; professional musicians and particularly the professors at the
Academy of Music were prejudiced, and indeed, wholly opposed to jazz.16 Jazz enjoyed
its biggest following among students, especially among those who were members of the
democratically oriented Sokol movement. However, it was not accepted among students
influenced by Catholic ideology and among young communists; they assumed that jazz
promoted a more (or excessively) spontaneous and unorthodox youth lifestyle. In their
opinion jazz was the herald of the decline of western civilisation. However, in Slovenia at
least, there was never a serious counter-jazz movement and jazz remained on the level of
urban subculture despite its popularity. The beginning of World War II changed the
common perception of jazz, as its social role was looked upon more favourably as a result
of its close connection with the allies. The Italian and German authorities, however,
rejected it for its American origin.17
The Bojan Adamiè Orchestra was still operating after the beginning of the war and
donating its entire income to the Slovenian Liberation Front (OF) movement, which
Adamiè had signed up to early. In 1943 he joined the partisans in the Dolenjska region,
acquiring the partisan name Gregor; he played in a small cultural group there along with
his friends until he was severely wounded during a German attack in his role as a machine
gunner. At the beginning of 1944, after recovering from his injuries, he was assigned to
the headquarters of the National Liberation Army (NOV) to organize a military band. As
they were starting from scratch, they decided to announce an appeal for musicians; a few
some partisans, some disabled and wounded soldiers, and amateur musicians with
instruments responded. Many of them were lacking a proper musical education, yet under
Adamiè’s leadership they made considerable progress and were soon able to perform
compositions suitable for the times, such as marches and compositions with a
revolutionary theme. He transferred his enthusiasm for jazz into battle songs by arranging
marches into evergreens and by employing popular themes, such as jazz, and American
popular music ensembles. Initially, these arrangements met with the severe disapproval of
the “political bosses”, but when two of the headquarters’ high commanders, commissar
Boris Kidriè and commander Franc Rozman – Stane, grew fond of his music, his actions
were “approved”. At first the members of the military brass band were also quite reluctant
to meet his demands for entirely different rhythms and melodies in playing and singing.
Adamiè developed his own style by veering away from traditional Slovenian brass band
music and approaching the trends of West European and American dance music. He
described the direction he took in the following way: “At the very beginning I introduced
my own style by composing all partisan marches as evergreens with the refrain in the
middle. That was a complete novelty, but I made my musicians believe it was logical and
normal. The band played on and on and then only the drum and two woodwinds kept on.
Everybody was singing, rhythmically, in syncope […].”18
In the summer of 1944 a renowned miners’ brass band from Hrastnik under the
bandmaster Jo e Brun joined the partisans, bringing along both their instruments and
score archive. Bruno’s skilled musicians played marches and sections from the operas of
16 Bojan Adamiè legacy contains a variety of autobiographic articles or written memoirs about his work in
the field of jazz. For the most part, they are undated.
17 Gregor Tomc, Druga Slovenija. Zgodovina mladinskih gibanj na Slovenskem v 20. stoletju, Ljubljana:
Zalo ba Krt, 1989, p. 53.
18 Bojan Adamiè, accessible at http://www.bojan-adamic.si/biografija/#uvodinbio, May 14th, 2012.
9
