Both artistic and human legacy of Slovak composer Ján Cikker (1911 – 1989) represents in itself an interesting testimony not only to the original creative personality, but also to the era in which it was formed. As soon as during his studies at the Prague Conservatory he was disclosing the inventional relation between the impulses of domestic traditional provenance and elements derived from the expressive domains of Late Romanticism, colourfulness of Impressionism and harsh sound. His life fortunes (his participation in the World War II and the Uprising, unjust ideological critique) affected the intensity of his sensibility, of his inner experience and steered his compositional attentiveness to programme music. His productivity of the middle of 1940s is characteristic, when the foundations of the future developed mastery of the composer crystallized and namely his ability to pronounce on current social problems (protest against war) as well as on the subjective emotionality of man through his music. From the elements of evolutional symphonism Cikker’s concept of music as dramatic art unwinds, the core of which is formed by particular ideas creating typical contrasts in his compositional structure. The distinct expression of this concept was found by the composer in opera creation. His 9 finished and staged operas witness the author’s continuous accent on ethical aspects of the characters’ actions, the belief in good characteristics of man, sympathy with the poor and suffering, celebration of love and self-sacrifice. From this perspective Cikker the librettist adapts his chosen literary sources, and from his third opera on he reaches for the writings of European literature. His supreme opus in which the composer’s quest for psychologically motivated musico- -dramatic form culminated is the opera The Resurrection (1961) on the subject by L. N. Tolstoy. In his opera output Cikker presents himself as an instrumentally thinking author. The endeavour in music dramaticism resulted in his symphonic pieces written in the breaks between the work on operas. By the exceptionality of his compositional solution and concentration on humanistic messages marked by traces of universalism Cikker overcame the contrasts between the generations in the Slovak music of the second half of the 20^th century and thus he is credited with a new appearance of the national style which succeeded to resonate alsoabroad.

A developed music life in Bratislava (then Pressburg) with its rich cultural traditions, intense domestic music-making, favourable student ambience as well as distinct artistic and pedagogical personalities facilitated the origin of a professional career of a significant Bratislava native, composer, conductor, pianist and teacher of piano playing Ernest Dohnányi. Despite the fact that he later stayed to live out of his native city, he maintained his personal and artistic contacts with it. The domestic press wrote with acknowledgement about his compositional and performing characteristics. His highly artistic and inspirational performance was considerably influenced by concert ideals and performances of the greatest piano virtuosos who gave concerts in Bratislava. The dramaturgy of his concerts consisted exclusively of outstanding works by J. S. Bach, J. Haydn, W. A. Mozart, L. van Beethoven, F. Schubert, R. Schumann, F. Chopin, F. Liszt, J. Brahms, E. H. Grieg as well as of his own piano and chamber works. Dohnanyi as a composer, solo and chamber pianist enhanced the period music standards of the city and simultaneously he formed aesthetic attitudes of the Bratislava audience to the artistic values.

The measuring and virtual preservation of the architectural acoustics of cultural monuments is nowadays globally becoming an increasingly interesting issue. It is helped by the fact that the technical means necessary for acoustic research are incessantly improving and due to the dynamic development the simulations of architectural acoustics are more effective and valuable. The basis for the norms of generally accepted acoustic parameters was laid by American researcher Leo Beranek, who together with his colleagues (Takayukiho Hidaka and Toshiyukiho Okano) published a huge number of consequential studies relating to the mentioned question. Beranek’s extensive research has become a starting point for many other studies and it constantly resonates as the most important one in the realm of audio-musical characteristics of the architectural spaces.

Our study focuses on the research of two acoustically interesting spaces – late Roman chapel of the Nitra castle and the theatre in Hlohovec in empire style. The purpose of the research was to measure the basic acoustic parameters of historic architectural spaces, what was realized on the basis of the standard STN EN ISO 3382 Measurement of room acoustic parameters. Part 1: Performance spaces. From the measured parameters the following ones are significant for the acoustic and musical attributes: reverberation time (T30, T20), time of the centre of gravity of the squared impulse response (Ts), early decay time (EDT), index of early/late energy ratios (C80) and inter aural cross correlation (IACC). The stated parameters are statistically developed and transparently displayed in the form of graphs and tables. A description of the method different for each of the rooms is commonplace. Apart from the measurement of acoustic parameters the essential part of the research is formed by the creation of acoustic models of the mentioned rooms. Due to the use of the technology of convolution processing of acoustic space the models may be preserved in databases in the form of immaterial cultural heritage and used for instance in post-production in recording and dubbing studios.

A composer Norbert Bodnar (born 1956) together with Jozef Podprocky and Juraj Vajo ranks among the artistic personalities who substantially determine music and cultural life in the second largest Slovak city – Košice. Having graduated from the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava Norbert Bodnar settled down in Košice forever. His compositional output encompasses almost all music genres and forms, including scenic works and symphonic music. In his work the influences of neoclassicism and neo-romanticism are apparent, exhibiting themselves in the formal structure, in coupling variegated elements following each other successively on a small space, e.g. jazz or pop music elements are alternating with aleatorics. In harmonic structure of his works Bodnar uses dense chords, preferring suspended chords to tertian chords and uses clustres with pleasure. He uses several devices for the closing part of his pieces: either they are closed by a pure major or minor chord, or added-tone chords in which the major or minor chords are added by major or minor seconds, or they are closed by a central tone in its clearest appearance. His piano output may be divided into three domains, pieces for:

two pianos: Variations sur un theme de Ludwig van Beethoven op. 49, Nr. 2 pour 2 pianos (1995),

piano four hands: Eine kleine Walzmusik (2003),

solo piano: Preludes I. – X (1988), Duplice per pianoforte (2010).

Piano works by Norbert Bodnar reveal the characteristic features of his compositional style, in which music humour and grotesquery play an important role. Extreme demandingness distinguishes his pieces from the technical and expressive point of view.

Choir singing, choral movement and creation form an inseparable component of the music culture and complex aesthetic-cultural practice in Slovakia. On the basis of a rich tradition of the folk song the choral movement especially after 1945 resulted in a rise of numerous amateur choirs, represented in particular by mixed and female choirs. The development of the children’s choral movement in Czechoslovakia was related to the development and nationalization of the education system after 1948 and to the foundation of the Young Pioneer Organization, resulting in the origination of young pioneer choirs identical with school singing choirs. Music for children’s choirs occupies only a marginal position in the output of the majority of Slovak composers, the pieces usually lack opus numbers, very often they do not appear on the lists of music of the composers. This fact usually reflects the relation and approach of the composer himself to this branch of choral music. However, exceptions are composers such as Milan Novák, Ivan Hrušovský, Alfréd Zemanovský or Zdenko Mikula. Despite the fact that this kind of music is not a top priority of Slovak composers, we may find in the Slovak music literature a satisfactory amount of works for children’s choir in various genres.

The choral literature for children’s choirs by Slovak composers presents challenges at all levels. The choirleaders have at their disposal a sufficient material for the beginners as well as for choirs of a higher and the highest artistic level. An aspect of consequential value in choral music (especially for children’s choirs) is the accompaniment fulfilling the role of an intonation support. The piano accompaniment is positively prevailing, the reason dwells in its easy technical accessibility unlike that of various chamber ensembles. The performing level of the piece is usually regulated directly by the commission, when the composer is informed of the pros and cons of the particular choir.

The contribution presents the pieces by Alexander Moyzes, Andrej Očenáš, Zdenko Mikula, Juraj Hatrík, Iris Szeghy and Vladimír Godár from the 1960s to 1980s, which brought about the greatest boom of the Slovak choral creation, including the creation for children’s choirs. It was namely the children’s choral music which got into recession after 1990, because the school choirs have disappeared, the pupils have got many other hobbies, the opportunities for passing one’s leisure time were enlarged and particularly their value orientation has been changed. As the nationwide Slovak competition The Youth is Singing presents, the non-school choirs still persist, but their choirmasters have to steer the repertory to dance music or musical and the more demanding works, like Szeghy’s Game, occur less and less.

[The contribution is available only in Slovak language in the printed version of the revue.]

[The contribution is available only in Slovak language in the printed version of the revue.]

[The contribution is available only in Slovak language in the printed version of the revue.]