Croatia [antikvár]

OUR BEAUTIFUL... A few thoughts about our beloved and beautiful countryy a country rich and poor, a country progressing but still economically underdeveloped, a country in which we were born, in which we live and in which we will be buried, and despite the abundance of its contradictions, we love above all... The inspiring poem HORVATSKA DOMOVINA (Croatian Homeland) by Antiin Mihanovic Petropoljski - an authentic Zagrebian (born in Zagreb, June, 1796 and died in Novi Dvori near Klanjec, November 14, 1861), a secretary to the Ban (Zagreb), military judge (Venice, Padova), gubernatorial secretary (Rijeka), consul (Beograd, Solun, Smirna, Constantinople, Bucharest), but above all, a writer and poet - is a special lyrical testimony of the sincere patriotism of the Illyrian-South national romantism. Evidence of this awakened and actively inflamed Croatian national feeling was seen over 140 years ago. Eifty-'six of Mihanovic's verses skillfully arranged into 14 stanza or strophe, originated in the reniform landscape of the Cesargrad hills in Kostelsko M'ountains, in the area of Japica and the Klanjecko-Tuheljsko hilly terrain with a lofty view of the encompassing beauty. Mihanovic's octosyllabic verses, born along the gurgling Sutla River current, were created in the region of suggestive beauty and attractiveness. They originated there, where the Sutla is squeezed by the limestone crags in the vegetatively lush gorge or ravine of Zelenjak, on the bordér between two complementary microregions. Mihanovic's magnificant poem was born and created on the rim of the varied descriptive, sketched and celebrated Croatian Zagorje and its inseparable thousand years' neighbor - the wine-growing district of Slovenia's Bizeljsko. It originated in the birth area and homeland of a Zagorjan son, born of a Croatian father, and Slovenian mother, who is already a living legend, Josip Broz Tito. This poem erupted and was given birth on the natural junction of today's national bordér between two fráternál Yugoslav federal states, the Socialist Republics of Croatia and Slovenia. Thus, the rugged symbol of the tall monument in this gorge characterizes today, the cuítural and historical significance and national meaning of Sutla's Zelenjak. However much Mihanovic's poem HORVATSKA DOMOVINA pleased Dr. Lyudevit Gay, Editor and publisher of Danicza Horvatska, Slavonska y Dalmatinska, in Tech aj I. No. 10, in which this poem was published, Dana 14. Szusheza 1835 (i4th Day of March, 1835), a lot of water continued to flow in the Sutla before it was recognized, whereas his verse of: .. Flow, Sava swiftly, flow, and oh, Danube do not diminish your power; wherever you roar, teli the world that his home the Croat loves..." experienced its own hymnal reverberation. First the Austrian bordér cadet and musical dilettante, Josip Kunjanin (born December 8, 1821 in Vinkovci, died February 2, 1878 in Novi Sad), "excogitated" in a patriotic exaltation, put HORVATSKA DOMOVINA to music, and sang among the company of Illyrian patriots in 1846 in Glina. The musician, Franjo Kuhac not long after readily confirmed that Runjanin's melody was really a free revision of a popular duet from Donizettie's opera "Lucia di Lammermoor", composed from a tune of somé Italian song. The first harmonization of HORVATSKA DOMOVINA for a choir was worked out by Runjanin's colleague, the army orchestra conductor, Josip Wendl, who likewise, in accordance with military uniform and social style, musically harmonized Runjanin's tune for the military spiritual orchestra. In 1861, the music teacher of the Croatian Music Institute in Zagreb, Vatroslav Lichtenegger worked out and harmonized this song for the musical chorus, and his work was then published the following year in Sbirka razlicitih cetveropjevah muzkoga sbora (II. 9 Zagreb, 1862). HORVATSKA DOMOVINA gradually became known as LIJEPA NASA DOMOVINA (Our Beautiful Country) and was sung more and more in other areas of Croatia, especially at formai events, continually gaining importance as the national anthem. And so it became in 1891, during the large exhibition held by the "HrvatskoSlavonsko gospodarsko drustvo" (Croatio-Slavonian Agricultural Society) in Zagreb. At this time, along with other opportunities, there was a public competition for selecting the official Croatian anthem. In a close selection, two of Zajc's compositions, Boze zivi, blagoslovi (Long live God, and Bless us) and Hrvatska himna (Croatian Hymn), and Runjanin's Lijepa nasa (Our Beautiful) were entered. Stimulated by the enormous enthusiasm for Runjanin's song shown by all who were present at the performance, the jury selected it as the Croatian anthem. There are still several variations of this melody, since in time, the melodic contour has undergone slight modifications. The harmonization was completed by I. Zajc, F. S. Vilhar, N. Faller, Fr. Dugan, A. Dobronic, and J. Gotovac.,!' Such, therefore, was the stride and entrée of the Croatian national anthem, LIJEPA NASA DOMOVINA. Despite its patriotic romantic intonation, yet profound subject matter and historical significance, the fact is justified * Andreis, Cvetko, Buric-Klajn, Historijski razvoj muzicke kulture u Jugoslaviji (Historical Development of Musical Culture in Yugoslavia), p. 141, Zagreb, 1562.