Marjan Šijanec

Marjan Šijanec (Maribor, April 2, 1950) belongs to those few Slovene composers that are most easily recognizable in electro-acoustic and electronic music. He has developed a special algorithmic technique based on integral serialism of magic squares. Although he is considered to having been one of the originators of computer music in former Yugoslavia, and remaining a pronounced creator of the »information era«, his compositional output comprises traditional musical works as well. At the Academy of Music in Ljubljana he studied composition with Uroš Krek, taking a degree in 1978, whereas in the mid-eighties he perfected his compositional technique in the Electronic Studio of Radio Belgrade with Paul Pignon and Vladan Radovanović as well as at the Institute of Nuclear Physics in Vinča (computer programming).
His prolonged stay in Serbia has undoubtedly set a seal on his life and music. Just a glance at his biography proves that those years were most creative for him in a number of fields, that the milieu was favourably disposed to research and work with the new medium, and that it was artistically inspiring. Hence, he was manysidedly active. For many long years he was a permanent collabolator of the Electronic Studio and the dramatic editorship of Radio Belgrade, head of the music theory section with the Society of Music Pedagogues of Serbia, artistic director and performer of the Belgrade Other New Music ensemble, mentor and conductor of the Musica viva chamber ensemble, conductor of the Vojislav Vučković female choir, and mentor of the Philip baroque trio. Also in Maribor he was the iniciator and co-founder of the – for the time being dormant – Society for culturally creative contemporary art of music under the title New Music, and for some time taught electro-acoustic misuc in the Department of Music Education of the Maribor Pedagogical Faculty (2000-2005). He has recieved a number of awards for his creative in pedagogic work.
M. Šijanec divides his compositional output into traditional, electro-acoustic, and algorithmic music, being at the same time author of a greather number of computerized arrangements of operatic arias, songs and choral compositions, as well as of incidental music, radio drama and multimedia projects. Among the first group of compositions there are, as folllows: Wind quintet (1972), String quartet (1973), Concerto for horn and symphony orchestra (1975), Miraggio – symphony for large orchestra (1978), Studia XII for piano (1982), Chamber music for strings (1983, rev. 1996), An Image for mixed choir and percussion (1983), and It's Raining for eight performers (1996, rev. 1998). It should be mentioned, that in 2004 he reconstructed and arranged Purcell's opera Dido and Aeneas for the Maribor Opera orchestra. Apart from those included on this CD, the following electro-acoustic and algorithmic works, performed at notable festivals at home and abroad, should be mentioned: Nocturne in E flat for electronic piano (1982), The Dance of Glass Bellerinas for 7 x 7 crystal glasses and analogue synthesizer (1984), Ostinato III for an ensemble of flutes, three metal objects, three contact microphones, fire siren, electronic organ and tape (1987), Random Toccata for digital piano samples (1987), Flautiada for flute and computer (1987), Water Dance (1987) and Water Music (1993) for digital piano samples, an extensive cycle of twelve compositions Music of Cosmic Models, Butterflies and Deep Blue for chamber archestra (2010), Chelebration of Wind for syphonic orchestra etc...
Šijanec's music has a markedly personal touch. It is exuberantly intensive, dynamically extrovert, very telling and full of hapening. It wants to communicate with the listener, sometimes as an exposed, impulsive as well as striking focal point, sometimes as an emotionally passionate, pathetic – either contemplative or lyrical – journey. Based on frequent extra-musical symbolism, i.e. on the composer's connectedness with the mystical and esoteric, his music is humanistically fully charged.