PAHOR Karol

PAHOR Karol was born on July 6, 1896 in Vrdela near Trieste (Italy). He began his musical education on the violin with Arturj Vram and had theoretical studies with Anton Ilesberg, then professor at the Conservatorio Tartini in Trieste. Pahor completed his degree in violin at the Conservatorio "G. B. Martini" in Bologna, Italy in 1923. The following year he became violinist in the orchestra for the Opera of Ljubljana (Slovenia). In 1945 he was appointed professor of composition at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana. He died on November 25, 1974.

Pahor's principal works are: Istrijanka, 15 dance miniatures in the spirit of Istrian folk music, for symphonic wind band (1950); Three Istrian Preludes for piano and orchestra (1959); Symphony in Diatonic Style for orchestra (1968); two string quartets from 1935 and 1938; and Slovenska suita (Slovene Suite) for piano (1943-4) of which there also exists an orchestral version. Of his choral music, his arrangement of the Slovenian folksong Pa se slis' (You Can Hear) and his Oče nas Hlapca Jerneja (Lord's Prayer of the Servant Jernej) (1939) for six-voice mixed choir are the most frequently performed. For high voices he wrote Six Suites from Bela Krajina for children's choir and wind instruments (1957-8) among other works. 

Karol Pahor wrote about his childhood memories: "During long winter evenings, when the Triestine "bora" wind was blowing a gale around the house, we, the five children, sat around the old-fashioned Istrian hearth, together with our father, our mother and the two labourers, who helped father in his gardening business. Father and mother, both excellent singers, sang ancient songs of the Primorje region and the children sang along. The labourers, who were from Southern Istria, presented old Istrian tunes. All these melodies were indelibly imprinted into my memory..."

It is highly probable that one of those melodies - Pa se slis' - impressed Pahor as a child. According to choral conductor Janez Bole, Pahor's contemporary, the arrangement was written about 1956. Prof. Bole also recalls that during his lifetime, Pahor heard a number of performances of his arrangement (for mixed choir) transcribed for solely treble or male voices, and it is believed that he approved of those versions, although they were performed from the mixed choir arrangement. Therefore, Astrum Music Publications is printing those arrangements for treble and male voices in the appropriate clefs. The arrangement can give rise to numerous modes of performance: for example, we can hear the World Youth Choir '99 with conductor Gary Graden strikingly improvise for 6 minutes using Pahor's arrangement as a foundation on the CD World Youth Choir '99 (Carus-Verlag; CV 83.199).