Blaž Arnič was a Slovenia

Slovenia

Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...

n symphonic composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

.

Born in Luče

Luce

- Places :* Luče, a town in Slovenia* Luce, California, former town in Butte County* Luce Bay, a large Bay in Wigtownshire in southern Scotland* Luce County, Michigan, a county in the U.S...

, Lower Styria

Duchy of Styria

The history of Styria concerns the region roughly corresponding to the modern Austrian state of Styria and the Slovene region of Styria from its settlement by Germans and Slavs in the Dark Ages until the present...

, Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...

, Arnič grew up on an isolated farmstead near Mount Raduha

Raduha

Raduha is a dispersed settlement on the southern slopes of a peak with the same name in the Luče Municipality in Slovenia. Traditionally the area belonged to the region of Styria and is now included in the Savinjska statistical region.-External links:**...

 in the Kamnik Alps

Kamnik Alps

The Kamnik–Savinja Alps are a mountain range, part of the Southern Limestone Alps in north Slovenia and at the border with Austria. Its western part, the Kamnik Alps, is in the basin of the Kamniška Bistrica and is named after the town Kamnik. Its eastern part is in the basin of Savinja and is...

. He taught himself how to play the accordion, and at the age of nineteen moved to Ljubljana

Ljubljana

Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...

 to study music.

Arnič studied composing at the Ljubljana Conservatory, and later (1930-1932) at the New Vienna Conservatory

Neues Wiener Konservatorium

The Neues Wiener Konservatorium was a music school established in Vienna by Theobald Kretschmann in 1909. In 1929 it had the largest number of enrolled students during its lifetime....

,
under the tutelage of Professor Rudolf Nilius, with advanced composition in Warsaw

Warsaw

Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...

, Kraków

Kraków

Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...

 and Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 (1938-1939). He taught music at Bol

Bol, Croatia

Bol is a town on the south of the island of Brač in theSplit-Dalmatia County of Croatia, population 1,661 .Bol is renowned for its most popular beach, the Zlatni rat . It is a promontory composed mostly of pebble rock that visibly shifts with the tidal movement, a unique sight...

 on the island of Brač

Brac

Brač is an island in the Adriatic Sea within Croatia, with an area of 396 km², making it the largest island in Dalmatia, and the third largest in the Adriatic. Its tallest peak, Vidova Gora, or Mount St. Vid, stands at 778 m, making it the highest island point in the Adriatic...

, Croatia

Croatia

Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

 (1934-1935) and in Ljubljana in Yugoslavia

Kingdom of Yugoslavia

The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a state stretching from the Western Balkans to Central Europe which existed during the often-tumultuous interwar era of 1918–1941...

 (1940-1943).

In 1943 Arnič was arrested for his political views, and in 1944 he was sent to the Dachau concentration camp. After World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, he was appointed full professor of composing at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana where he taught until his death in a car crash.

Arnič wrote choral pieces, lied

Lied

is a German word literally meaning "song", usually used to describe romantic songs setting German poems of reasonably high literary aspirations, especially during the nineteenth century, beginning with Carl Loewe, Heinrich Marschner, and Franz Schubert and culminating with Hugo Wolf...

ers, piano and chamber pieces and even film music, but he is particularly well known for his nine symphonies. The Society of Slovene Composers considers him one of the great Slovenian symphonic masters of the 20th century, "whose musical language is deeply connected to the spirit of the native soil." His music has been compared to that of Bruckner

Anton Bruckner

Anton Bruckner was an Austrian composer known for his symphonies, masses, and motets. The first are considered emblematic of the final stage of Austro-German Romanticism because of their rich harmonic language, complex polyphony, and considerable length...

 and classified as "neo-romantic realism". Arnič developed from a neo-romantic base, but avoided the dissonance

Consonance and dissonance

In music, a consonance is a harmony, chord, or interval considered stable, as opposed to a dissonance , which is considered to be unstable...

 of the Expressionists.

The first film that Arnič wrote music for was Partizanske bolnice v Sloveniji in 1948, a documentary about a partisan

Partisans (Yugoslavia)

The Yugoslav Partisans, or simply the Partisans were a Communist-led World War II anti-fascist resistance movement in Yugoslavia...

 infirmary. In 1955, Milan Kumar of Triglav Film

Triglav Film

Triglav Film is a Slovenian film studio based in Ljubljana. Established in 1947, it is the second studio founded in post-World War II Yugoslavia. It is named after Triglav, the highest mountain in Slovenia, which is also the name of a pagan deity....

 made a 452 minute film entitled Ples čarovnic starring ballerina Stanislava Brezovar

Stanislava Brezovar

Stanislava Brezovar , married name Kleiber, was a Slovenian ballerina. She was also known as Stanka Brezovar....

 and featuring his symphonic poem by the same name.

In 2001, Slovenia

Slovenia

Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...

 issued a postage stamp

Postage stamp

A postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...

in his honor.

Principal works

• Piano Trio (1929)
• Overture to a Comic Opera for symphony orchestra (1932)
• Symphony No. 3 – DUMA for orchestra, bass and mixed choir (1933)
• Symphony No. 6 – SAMORASTNIK for symphony orchestra (1950)
• Ples čarovnic (The Dance of the Witches), symphonic poem (1936)
• Pesem planin (Song of the Highlands), symphonic poem (1940)
• Gozdovi pojejo (The Forests Sing), symphonic poem (1945)
• Divja jaga (Wild Chase), symphonic poem (1958–1965)
• Pastoral Symphonic Poem for violoncello and orchestra (1960)
• Concerto for viola and orchestra, Op.75 (1967)
• Concerto for violin and orchestra No. 3 (1969)