CROATIAN MUSIC - KRSTO ODAK

KRSTO ODAK (1888 – 1965) The composer Krsto Odak (Siverić near Drniš, March 20, 1888 – Zagreb, November 4, 1965) came by origin from a modest working class family. The first part of his life, up to the year 1919, he spent in the modest ambience of his native region where he served as Franciscan monk. The exception was the period of the years 1912 and 1913 that he spent in Munich after being invested with sacerdotal functions. Odak spent these two years studying music with father Paul Hartmann. In 1919 he abandoned the priesthood and finally decided to dedicate himself to music. Consequently he went to Prague where he was going to study for the following three years at the Master School of the Conservatory in the class of Viteszlav Novák. After completing his studies in 1922, Odak left for Zagreb where he started his teaching career at the Music Academy immediately upon his arrival and continued doing so all up to the year 1962. He developed an intensive pedagogical activity, opening for the young generations “vistas of the yet unknown sound sensations” as quoted later by the composer Milo Cipra. Though Odak started his intensive composition work rather late, at the age of thirty, he left to the Croatian musical creation of the 20th century a huge and important legacy that is, on the one hand, based on the positive relation to the nationally-directed ideology, on the other hand we find the relatively small but important part of his opus entirely liberated from the influence of folklore elements. It is exactly in this part of the opus that one must look for traces of the author’s radical expression that pervades the wider space of his creative imagination. This specific duality of the artistic personality is most probably connected with the influences he brought back from Prague into the Zagreb milieu, at that time “in a powerful atmosphere of the achievement of the newly-established national musical direction” (L. Županović). Some traces of Odak’s artistic duality received recognition at the international level, too. One of the anthological compositions of the overall Croatian choral literature of the 20th century, his Madrigal opus 11 for the five-part men’s choir performed in Geneva in 1929, by the choir “Besjeda” from Brno, achieved great success at the festival of the International Association for contemporary music. Being explicitly polyphonic, Odak was the master of a suggestive melodic line. The linear facture is emphasized both in the symphonic music as well as in chamber pieces and solo songs. In his entire creative work several thematic circles can be pointed out. There is the frequent religious theme, he also liked to use themes from Hrvatsko Zagorje and Međimurje and there are also themes linked to the Adriatic. This is the reason why his opus contains a range of works, particularly choral works that are a stylization of a kind of the folklore musical pattern. His most important compositions are the following: the operas Dancing Dorica (1933), Mother Marguerite op. 62, an opera for the radio (1952/53), four symphonies (1940, 1950, 1960, 1965), Passacaglia op.35 for strings (1938), five string quartets (1923, 1926, 1935, 1956, 1962), Sonata op. 1 for violin and piano (1922), Rhapsody op. 10 for violin and piano (1927), Old- Slavonic Mass op.12 for mixed choir and orchestra (1929), Psalm 130 op. 6a and Psalm 123 op. 6b for baritone and orchestra (1934), Radosna noć u gradu [Joyful Night in Town], for men’s choir (1922), Madrigal op. 11 for five-part men’s choir (1928), Svrši stopi moje [Strengthen my steps] op. 19 for bas and alto solo and mixed choir accompanied by organ (1939). Among the thirty or so preserved solo songs those especially outstanding are the songs Oči sam večkrat [Many times have my eyes] to the verses of F. Prešeren for baritone (mezzosoprano) and piano (1922) and the Three songs about the sea op. 60 (1952). He had also written handbooks on Modulation (1954) and the Knowledge of instruments (1956).