Electronic Library of Scientific Literature - © Academic Electronic Press
No. 1 / 2002
The creative development of the composer, theoretician and teacher Ivan Hrušovský flowed both from his individually cultivated artistic and human character and from a favourable family environment, associated with inclination to philosophy, aesthetics, literature especially poetry. At the same time, it was shaped by sensitive reaction to external stimuli and conditions. A wider intellectual base, respect for tradition, a feeling for connections and a permanent effort to achieve new and deeper penetration into the essence of art enabled Hrušovský to overcome various forms of one-sidedness, brakes and limits and find a fruitful route to syntheses, both in publicist and compositional activity. This route characterizing his internal maturing and also influenced by the overall development of domestic musical culture, went through various stages. Finally Hrušovský’s ability was able to overcome various contradictions and pressures mediated by the time, and to mature into an individual overview or partial syntheses.
The first stage was the initial activity of the young Hrušovský, a university graduate in musicology, with an interest in musical history research, but ever more oriented towards the problems of contemporary Slovak music. His further study in the composition class of A. Moyzes also contributed to this. The first works of a young composer, written after his graduation, are more or less signs of respect for the creative work and views of his teacher. They show a romanticizing sense for contrasts, fullness of sound, firmness of shaped contours, thought within the limits of widened tonality. Instrumental compositions prevail. The first breaking of conventions is documented in the development of the cantata Hiroshima (1961), in the publicist activity of the book "Slovak Music in Profiles and Analyses" (Slovenská hudba v profiloch a rozboroch, 1964), and in educational practice in the educational text "Introduction to the Study of the Theory of Harmony" (Úvod do štúdia teórie harmónie, 1960).
The second stage, much more dynamic and decisive for Hrušovský’s maturing, was connected with the positively received rise of the Slovak musical avant-garde of young composers and theoreticians, interested in opening Slovak music to the possibilities of contact and acceptance of current impulses from Western European new music. Hrušovský did not remain immune to this system of impulses. On one side, as a publicist and theoretician he competed with the work of J. Cikker, since the creative work of this author and composer became a symbol for him of the individual route of the composer to a new creative horizon without the repudiation of tradition. He also brought a new technique into his system of composition – serialism and aleatorics. The Combinazioni sonoriche for chamber ensemble (1963) and the Piano sonata (1965) are works in which these techniques are clearly present. They also show the composer’s disposition to reject one-sidedness and the consequent method of composing. Combination of the interval selection of musical structuring on a modal basis with fullness of sound of acordic structures, close to French sensitivity, in the contrast of the metric and rhythmic process had its results in a series of compositions – the cantata Dream about Man (Sen o človeku, 1964), Passacaglia for orchestra (1966), Three Madrigal Impressions (1967) and culminated in the work Musica Nocturna for a string orchestra (1970). This work achieves a convincing synthesis of structurally firmly disciplined links between elements and their possible relaxation in the interest of unity of form, sound, movement and new expressiveness, influenced by the Polish school of composition of the time.
The study brings biography and also deals with compositions of one of the representatives of Slovak music culture – Dušan Martinček, born in 1936. Martinček’s compositions grew from the traditions of European and domestic music, reflecting the achievements of the European musical avant-garde of the 20th century, as well as the inspiration of Slovak and other European traditions of folk music. By the continuity of his approach, Martinček contributed to an original compositional expression characterized by the combination of basic principles of composition intertwining the whole European tradition with the latest forms of harmonic, polyphonic, metro-rhythmic and sonoric organization of musical material. However, for Martinček, as for other significant recent composers, the method of composition serves mainly to express their own ideas and intentions, reflecting the internal world of the composer in the form of a musical work, which makes a strong emotional appeal to the listener. Martinček’s works from his mature period (approximately since the 1980s) are successfully presented and accepted not only at home, but also in many countries of Europe, Asia and in the USA. Some of his compositions have also won international prizes.
The study is devoted to the works of a composer of the middle generation Iris Szeghy, born 1956, during the 1990s. This period brought some new elements, which are placed in the context of her compositions from the preceding period. The introduction briefly presents the characteristic features of the music language of the composer in the nineties, which derive from her own consideration of her work. The study concludes with a brief interview with the composer, concerning some features of the works analysed here. The centre of gravity of the text is an analysis of two compositions by Iris Szeghy: Musica folclorica (1999) Psalm (1999), which we regard as representative for the given period. Both compositions fully reflect the creative efforts of the composer, cited in the introduction of the text. They involve efforts to achieve balance between macro-forms and micro-forms, sound and timbre characteristics of structure and especially efforts to create a synthesis between the stimuli of tradition and avant-garde new music in a non-violent, convincing and personal combination. The composer’s works from the nineties aim at a Post Modern "between" position "on the edge", which most suits her and provides enough creative stimuli.
The essay focuses on a social aspect of history of music in Slovakia in the period between 17th and beginning of 20th century. It concentrates on a character of relationship between a composer as a creator of music values expressed by his opus and influence of his social environment considering three levels: 1. Status of a composer in social, economical, national and confessional factors; 2. Music genres and their social conditioning; 3. Historical dimension of music education. The starting point of the essay is the fact, that neglecting the general knowledge of history of the former Habsburg monarchy it is not possible to understand the Slovak history of music, which is a result of intricate relations in multinational and multicultural society. Author analyzes in detail the influence of music patronage of nobility, the Church and towns as employers of musicians and composers, as well as aspect of preference or elimination of music genres, their dependance on social function, compositional activity of female composers, forms of patronage and existence of private and institutional music education.
Understanding musico-historical facts forming the relation composer–society in Slovakia and explaining them in relation to historicaly changing structural interconnections should contribute to better comprehension of the Slovak music tradition with all its specifics.
The essay suggests some ways of thinking about imaginarity of the internal as well as external world, where the boundaries between the reality and irreality are not always clear. This is documented by the development of technical means and their possibilities.
Ladislav Mokrý was a Slovak musicologist, music manager, cultural diplomat and teacher. The profile of this important personality of Slovak music life contains his biography and deals with his activity as a musicologist and music manager. The conclusion gives a selective list of his bibliography and the works of other authors about him.
Ladislav Mokrý completed his study of musicology and history at Comenius University in Bratislava in 1955. He worked in the Department of Musicology until 1959, then as a music editor at the Slovak Publishing House of Fine Literature until 1961. He completed his period as a Ph. D. student at the Institute of Musicology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, and worked as a researcher there until 1968. From 1968 to 1991 he was director of the Slovak Philharmony. He also worked for the International Music Council (UNESCO) in this period. He taught at the Department of Musicology of Comenius University and the Department of Theory of Music at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava.
As a musicologist Ladislav Mokrý significantly influenced further development of various specializations with his expert works on musical historiography, musical Slavonic studies, musical sociology and musical paleography. He was the author of chapters devoted to Slavonic and Slovak music in excellent monographs on the history of music in Slovakia, and of one of the important textbooks on musical paleography. His studies usually focused on new musical sources from history of Slavonic countries. He also wrote entries for Slovak and Czech music dictionaries and encyclopedias. His list of published works also included publicist writings. As an author of numerous reviews, he traced contemporary music life in Slovakia and cooperated with leading special periodicals in former Czechoslovakia (Slovenská hudba, Hudební rozhledy, Hudobný život and others) and the cultural sections of the newspapers.
The awarding of the UNESCO prize for music to the Slovak composer Ján Cikker in 1979 was also associated with the activity of Ladislav Mokrý in the International Music Council. At first he worked as a member of the executive committee of the council, from 1971 to 1975 as its general secretary and from 1976 to 1982 as its vice-president. L. Mokrý’s diplomatic mission influenced the organization of competitions for young musicians under the patronage of UNESCO: the International Rostrum of Young Performers, held under the auspices of the Bratislava Music Festival. L. Mokrý acted as the deputy chairman of the committee of this most important Slovak music festival, chairman of the programme commission until 1984, and later as a chairman of the festival committee up to 1993. He was responsible for getting this festival accepted as a member of the European Association of Music Festivals. In 1999–2000 he cooperated with The NewEurope Festival and participated in the widely conceived Bach Year – Slovakia 2000.
Electronic Library of Scientific Literature - © Academic Electronic Press