Ruben Radica (19 May 1931 – 28 July 2021) was a Croatian composer.

Biography

He was born in

Split Split(s) or The Split may refer to: Places * Split, Croatia, the largest coastal city in Croatia * Split Island, Canada, an island in the Hudson Bay * Split Island, Falkland Islands * Split Island, Fiji, better known as Hạfliua Arts, enter ...

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

, and acquired a music grounding from his grandfather, the composer Josip Hatze. At the Zagreb Academy he graduated from the conducting class of Slavko Zlatić (1957) and from the composition class of Milko Kelemen (1958). In addition he attended classes in

Siena Siena ( , ; traditionally spelled Sienna in English; ) is a city in Tuscany, in central Italy, and the capital of the province of Siena. It is the twelfth most populated city in the region by number of inhabitants, with a population of 52,991 ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

and

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it the ...

, given by

Vito Frazzi Vito Frazzi (1 August 1888 – 7 July 1975) was an Italian neo-romantic composer. He was born in San Secondo Parmense, and studied at the Parma Conservatory, where he learnt composition from Guido Alberto Fano. From 1912 to 1958 he taught pian ...

René Leibowitz René Leibowitz (; ; 17 February 1913 – 29 August 1972) was a Polish and French composer, conductor, music theorist and teacher. He was historically significant in promoting the music of the Second Viennese School in Paris after the Second Wo ...

Olivier Messiaen Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (, ; ; 10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithology, ornithologist. One of the major composers of the 20th-century classical music, 20th century, he was also an ou ...

György Ligeti György Sándor Ligeti (; ; 28 May 1923 – 12 June 2006) was a Hungarian-Austrian composer of contemporary classical music. He has been described as "one of the most important avant-garde music, avant-garde composers in the latter half of the ...

Pierre Boulez Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 19255 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war contemporary classical music. Born in Montb ...

and

Henri Pousseur Henri Léon Marie-Thérèse Pousseur (; 23 June 1929 – 6 March 2009) was a Belgian classical composer, teacher, and music theorist. Biography Pousseur was born in Malmedy and studied at the Academies of Music in Liège and in Brussels from 19 ...

Career

Radica taught at the

Sarajevo Music Academy The Sarajevo Music Academy or Music Academy , University of Sarajevo ( or MAS) is a Faculty of Music of University of Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina. History Sarajevo Music Academy was founded by the Decision of the National Assembly of ...

from 1959 to 1963, and then joined the faculty of the

Zagreb Academy of music The Academy of Music ( or MUZA) is a Croatian music school based in Zagreb. It is one of the three art academies affiliated with the University of Zagreb, along with the Academy of Dramatic Art and the Academy of Fine Arts. It is the oldest an ...

, lecturing in musical theory. As a composer, Radica's early style was essentially neo-classical; in the ''

Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language '' Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and th ...

'',

Nikša Gligo Nikša Gligo (6 April 1946 – 10 February 2024) was a Croatian musicologist and academic. Biography Nikša Gligo was born in Split, PR Croatia, FPR Yugoslavia on 6 April 1946. His scientific interests included 20th-century music, music termin ...

instances the compositions in ''Četiri dramatska epigrama'' (Four Dramatic Epigrams, 1959), and the ''Concerto abbreviato'' (1960). After this, Radica came under the influence of Leibowitz, a strict follower of

Arnold Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian and American composer, music theorist, teacher and writer. He was among the first Modernism (music), modernists who transformed the practice of harmony in 20th-centu ...

's dodecaphonic theories. Gligo gives ''Lirske varijacije'' (Lyrical Variations, 1961) as an early example of this aspect of Radica's style. Radica also experimented with

Aleatory Aleatoricism (or aleatorism) is a term for musical compositions and other forms of art resulting from "actions made by chance". The term was first used "in the context of electro-acoustics and information theory" to describe "a course of sound ...

techniques. In his ''K a'' (Towards A), for two instrumental groups and

synthesiser A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

(1977) he aimed to reinstate melody. Gligo comments that some of Radica's later works, with a focus on the relation between speech patterns and "motivic musical ideas", have a style reminiscent of Janáček and early

Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of ...

. Radica's works included several ballet/dance scores, large-scale orchestral pieces, chamber and choral music and songs, and an opera, ''Prazor'' (The Dawn, 1991).

References

External links

* 1931 births 2021 deaths Musicians from Split, Croatia Croatian classical composers Croatian opera composers Croatian male classical composers Male opera composers Members of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts Burials at Lovrinac Cemetery {{Croatia-composer-stub