ISCM World New Music Magazine, 2011, nr. 21

aim to subject the flaws of musical institutions and various trendy novelties in the so-called avant-garde to severe criticism (Gligo-Foretić 1974). In his music, predominantly based on his own texts, Foretić assumes a very criticial attitude to deviations in the activities related to contemporary music, whereas in terms of composition and technique he, in fact, aspires to a completely non-homogeneous mixture of styles subject to self-ironization through the parabolic allusions to various and disparate models (Gligo: 1979; Gligo 2001b).

The generation consisting of Marko Ruždjak (1946-2012), Davorin Kempf (1947) and Frano Parać (1948) particularly feels that they may compose in the manner they would find the most convenient (compare Kagel 1966: 310; Gligo 1987: 77-78), which is a right reflected in differently oriented opuses.

Among these composers, Ruždjak has certainly produced the most consistent opus which revolves around his previously mentioned composition Klasični vrt [Classical Garden] (1976) and comprises a series of superbly differentiated chamber works, making up the major part of his opus. As far as Kempf ’s opus is concerned, he seems to preserve Šulek's perception of musicality as a wide gesture reminiscent of new romanticism by using sounds frequently combined with electronic technology to great effect. As regards Parać's work, he has increasingly inclined towards the ideal of pure (vocal) melodiousness, especially after Collegium vocale (1979), which is then gradually transposed into his instrumental opuses, thus turning him into the most distinctive composer of a comeback to the new Croatian music (compare Gligo 1986). *** Horvat’s students Ivo Josipović (1957), Berislav Šipuš (1958) and Mladen Tarbuk (1962) have decided on their aesthetic positions without any particular consideration of the contemporary guidelines in Croatian music which draw on the Biennale experiences and their prominence, especially in the nineteen seventies. A survey on the aesthetic tendencies in the youngest generation of Croatian composers (consisting of Sanda Majurec-Zanata, b. 1971, Frano Đurović, b. 1971, Vjekoslav Nježić, b. 1973, Krešimir Seletković, b. 1974, Ivana Kiš, b. 1979, and Ivan Josip Skender, b. 1981), conducted by Valentina Badanjak, reveals that the preoccupations of these composers do not differ whatsoever from those expressed by their peers anywhere in the world. ‘Today, the major problem seems to be the unrestricted freedom of choice. Flouting convention is also out of the question since there is none. We are floating in a vacuum and it is enormously difficult to find any rules because one can start moving from any point and go in whichever direction they want. The composer should engage in his work having in mind their motive, medium, instruments, as well as the parameters involved – they are responsible for the entire process. Guided by their own astute subjectivity within such a quantity of unanswered questions, they may stumble upon harmony, a constellation ISCM : WORLDNEWMUSIC MAGAZINE 47