written by Duru (Neues Gymnasium Wilhelmshaven, class 10)

Dora and Našice:

During our meeting in Našice / Croatia we met Dora Pejačević in many ways. The local music society is called after her, a street, a café, a flower shop; and there are many more places where she still is present. But who IS Dora? 

Dora Pejačević, born 10th of September 1885 in Hungary (Budapest), was, first of all, a female composer. Composing was what she wanted to do most. She signed her compositions only with the first letter of her Christian name: D.Pejačević to hide the fact that she was a woman. In her lifetime, 1885-1923, women had not many rights. They were accepted as pianists or singers, but not as composers. Therefore she tried to hide her identity in order to present her work. Under her "cover" she composed orchestral pieces, chamber music, music for piano and violin or voice. At our first day in Našice, the music society "Dora Pejačević" with the youth orchestra "Children from the Stars", welcomed us with a concert in which they presented, for example, a canzonetta for violin.   

When it came to the printing of her works, Dora was supported by friends like the Austrian writer Karl Kraus and especially Rainer Maria Rilke, a contemporary poet and good friend. Dora, in turn, turned some of his poems to music. We learned about this friendship in a workshop which also included playing Dora and Rilke on stage:

But how did Dora find her way to music? What about her family and childhood?

Dora (Theodora) came from a noble family. She was born in Našice where she grew up in a castle. Našice is part of Slavonia, a region in Eastern Croatia, near Serbia and Bosnia.  When Dora grew up, this region was belonged to the Hungarian part of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. 

Dora's mother, Elisabeta-Lilla Vay de Vaja, was a Hungarian baroness and a pianist and singer. Dora's father, Ban Teodor Pejačević, was a Croatian count. Ban means as much as "viceroy" or "chief of the government". Because of her parents' origin and because of the position of her residence, Dora sometimes was in Croatia, sometimes in Hungary. Her family owned several castles - two of them in Našice. Our accomodation during the meeting in Našice was, in fact, directly between those two castles. Restoration work was done in both of them; therefore we couldn't visit them.

But we enjoyed the palace garden that was lovely and huge with much green. 

But back to Dora! As we have learned, her mother but also the entire family was found of music. Therefore Dora got music lessons from various teachers and at various places like Budapest, Zagreb, Munich and Dresden. So Dora's place of residence changed a lot. 1903 the family moved to Zagreb, but returned in 1907. As Dora came from a noble and wealthy family she could also move to Dresden to continue her studies there. 1911 she was in Munich for a while, but returned to Našice following the outbreak of World War I. She took nursing care of injured people. During this time she never ceased composing. After the war she also lived in Budapest, Prag and Vienna, before she returned to Munich in 1921, when she had married her husband. There she died 5th March 1923, only 37 years old. 

In a workshop we learned much about Dora, did research about her life and invented and played some scenes about her life on stage. What we could see was that Dora, although she as a woman faced many obstacles, was very strong and determined and traveled to many places in Europe to live up to her aim: the music.