We can notice great flourishing of town schools on the territory of Slovakia in the 16^th century, namely in prosperous royal and mining towns. School regulations preserved from the period demonstrate, that our intellectuals endeavoured to approach the humanistic ideals of the era, that’s why they accepted models namely from German evangelical schools. Music had its firm place in the educational programmes of these schools, because it was attributed an important task of ethical education of youth. Our knowledge of the lessons of musical education was precised by several recently discovered musical compendia by the authors Venceslaus Philomathes, Martin Agricola, Sebald Heyden, Melchior Vulpius etc. (coming mostly from foreign printing houses), as well as by domestic writer Leonard Stöckel. They served to mastering the theoretical knowledge of music necessary for singing monophonic as well as polyphonic pieces at school, at church or at secular occasions. The utilization of these musical compendia in pedagogical practice on the Slovak territory in the 16^th century guaranteed an adequate performance of musical pieces, for example in the mining towns (Banská Bystrica, Kremnica) and at Spiš (Levoča, Kežmarok). The compositions performed in this period were either preserved till now as original sources, i. e. as manuscripts or printed musical literature, or we get knowledge of them from the inventory lists of musical literature.

The present article is published as a supplement to the yet known information about a cooperation of a significant composer of the classical style in Slovakia František Xaver Tost with Bratislava Ursulines. In the Musical Collection of the Ursuline Monastery in Bratislava a piece Litaniae lauretanae G Major by an unknown composer was found. The piece together with other anonymous compositions of the collection was a subject of an identificational analysis. As the examination of the piece revealed, some of the parts were written down by the hand of František Xaver Tost, who intensively cooperated with the monastery. A composer of the work remains unknown yet, however, the material discloses Tost not only as a copist of the piece; he also adapted it to actual performing possibilities of the Ursuline community. The aim of this adaptation was to include a larger number of singers and players – probably the pupils of the Ursuline school – to the musical production performed at the time of liturgical festivals. As a result of this simple adaptation employing usual technical devices and possibilities given by the piece and due to a restoration of the material damaged by age the piece sounded in the church of Bratislava Ursulines for a long time.

In a musical-historical literature a term Missa franciscana usually designates compositions for a smaller ensemble (most often only a choir in unison or in two parts, usually two solo voices, organ, possibly 2 trumpets and 2 violins) setting the text of mass Ordinary. In a Franciscan Christmas mass folk music instruments were often used, namely a tuba pastoritia. Similarly to other music, franciscans wrote down the mass mostly only as an organ particella, with occasional comments concerning the instrumentation.

The Franciscan Christmas mass in Slovakia did not differ significantly – except its simple scoring (monophonic choir with organ accompaniment) – from other Christmas production of the 17^th century: also Franciscans cultivated mostly so-called missa parodia based on popular Christmas spiritual songs (Diei solemnia, Resonet in laudibus, Dum Virgo vagientem, Infinitae bonitatis). Franciscan Christmas mass flourished most markedly in the middle of the 18^th century. In contrast with anonymous creation from the previous period we know compositions of three important Franciscan composers: P. Paulín Bajan (1721–1792), P. Juraj Zrunek (1736–1789) and P. Pantaleon Roškovský (1734–1789). While Bajan and Zrunek set to music Latin-Slovak (so called macaronic) texts, Roškovský set only Latin words of Ordinary.

Three Christmas masses (Missa Neonati Jesuli I–III, 1751) by Bajan are the most ancient mass works of pastoral genre in Slovakia. Bajan’s most original contribution is the conjunction of Latin text with Slovak interpolations, while not only text but also melodic line reveals its folk character. In his musical elaboration Bajan does not avoid to put to use material of a character of a “topos”, a repetition of certain melodic-harmonic formulas known also from his pastorali. Simple devices result in a number of original particularized solutions, e.g. an alternation of choir in unison with soli for two voices (no comments in his manuscripts concern the usage of other instruments but organ).

Bajan’s concept was followed by his younger Brother Zrunek. However, in his two Latin-Slovak Christmas masses from a collection Harmonia pastoralis (prior to 1766 he wrote down Latin-Hungarian versions in a collection Laboritium quadripartitum, 1767) he elaborated it significantly: Slovak text interpolations are substantially influenced by folk nativity play, namely in Gloria from the first one, the more popular mass. Although Zrunek also derived particular musical material from Bajan’s masses (the extent of his “borrowings” perhaps exceeds the practice usual in the period), his elaboration is more original: the fusion of the “artificial” (Kunstmusik) and the “folk” (Volksmusik) is so close in Zrunek, that they cannot be separated without destruction of the meaningful whole. Besides organ Zrunek uses abundantly other musical instruments – natural horns in F, tuba pastoritia, flute (or a shepherd’s pipe).

Two Christmas masses from the collection Lyturgia franciscana (cca 1763–1765) by P. P. Roškovský equal in their originality to Zrunek’s ones despite the fact, that they use only Latin text. While the first mass is profoundly based on original modal folk melodies and imitations of instrumental embellishment of folk bands, in the second one the elements of Late Baroque music join with traditional quotations of spiritual tunes in an interesting way.

An invention of an audio recording played a key role in the history of recognition of traditional music of Europe as well as out of Europe – in it an origin of ethnomusicology as an independent scientifical discipline roots. An audio recording has influenced methods and procedures of field research, enabled an improvement of transcriptional work and created preconditions for a study of such a complex phenomenon as a performance is. In comparison with a note recording created directly in field an audio recording was considered a guarantee for objectiveness till it began to be considered a mediational medium, which has to be subjected to a source critique – similarly to note recording.

While European ethnomusicology initially focused mainly on a relation of audio recording and note recording, American ethnomusicology from the beginning payed attention to a relation between music and its cultural and social contexts. On the basis of these two orientations a question of a relation between music and performance was discussed: from their dichotomy (music as a “text”, performance as its “reconstruction”) through synthesis of music and performance (music exists only in a moment of performance) to demarcation of subtle relations between a set of standards in a consciousness of a performer (“langue”, invariant) on the one hand and their particular realization in the moment of a performance (“parole”, variant) on the other hand.

One way of a study of these relations more exhaustively is offered by a genre viewpoint. Apart from signs of musical structure and text a category of song genre integrates all important aspects of a song’s existence (its function, a singing occasion, a singing situation, a carrier, performer and recipient). They all mirror also in a performance style in a specific way. Song genres are connected with a stable performing practice, which is highly sensitive to changes and shifts in a context of a performance. An audio recording also represents such a shift in comparison with authentic performing situation. A rate of this shift depends on a character of a recording – the purpose for which it was realized, its aim and the ambience in which it originated, what a selection of performers and a demonstration of their repertory it counted with. The best outcome for a source critique is a respect to collecting and documentary conception, on the background of which an audio recording originated.

Using the examples from history of audio recording of traditional Slovak music we would like to point to a fact, that along with the use of technology of audio documentation the European ethnomusicology from the beginning devoted also to intricate questions of a relation between music and performance. This relation is specifically reflected in a category of a performing style.

The first phonographic recordings of the traditional Slovak music realized by an ethnographer Karol A. Medvecký in 1901 are inaccessible today or even destroyed. We can get an image of them from a transcribed song material in an ethnographical monography Detva (1905) and from secondary sources (correspondence). Among the most valuable audio recordings of the first half of the 20th century audio funds belong, resulting from a collecting activity of Béla Bartók (phonographic recordings from 1906–1917, transcribed in a collection Slovenské ľudové piesne), Leoš Janáček (phonographic recordings made in a cooperation with F. Kyselková and H. Bím in 1909–1912) and Karol Plicka (active as a professional collector in Slovakia in 1924–1939; from the point of view of audio documentation his active participation in a project realized in the former Czechoslovakia in a cooperation with linguists by the French gramophone recording company Pathé in 1929 is the most valuable).

A comparison of collecting conceptions of Bartók, Janáček and Plicka demonstrated, that they worked with a similar notion of a folk song: they were primarily interested in a country, peasant or peasant-shepherd culture with its autochthonous song genres, song types and specific performing styles. For them the most valuable were the earlier, archaic strata, which retreated most quickly from an active repertory as well as from consciousness of their carriers and performers. They differed in their working methods and techniques used in the field and in the following elaboration and evaluation of material. Though they identically realized irreplaceable significance of audio fixation, their relation to recording technique and to its usage differed in the essentials: in an importance, ascribed to audio recording in a hierarchy of their working devices. Also their attitude to performing style differed – either it stood in a centre of their interests as a specific music-folkloric category, or it was accepted as an integral part of a musical structure, or it served as the means of study of other musical or extramusical phenomena – musical style strata, song genres, regional styles as well as functions of singing, performing situations etc.

The significance of historical audio recordings for our presence resides in the fact, that they offer us a valuable comparative material to older developmental phases of folk song and music. The source critique is a means of their deeper recognition: the regard to period and context in which these audio recordings originated remains the basic presupposition for their adequate appreciation and eventually integration into the frame of contemporary knowledge and our auditory experience.

The article deals with a Baroque Evangelical hymnbook, a “Slovacicum” from the 18^th century, which was preserved within the territory of present-day Slovakia in two editions (one a copy without place and year of publication, the other printed in the office of František Augustín Patzko in Bratislava and dated 1783). The hymnbook itself was part of an exhibition, Treasures of the Musical Past, organized by the Slovak National Museum – Music Museum in 1996.

The author or compiler of the hymnbook, entitled Ethan hlasitě prozpěvující anebo písničky nábožné (Ethan Singing Aloud or Religious Songs), was Ján Glosius Pondelský (1670–1729), a Evangelical priest and Baroque poet and writer of religious texts in Slovak (religious tracts, prayers in verses and spiritual songs, including translations from German spiritual poetry).

A comparison and description of the source is preceded by a text analyzing the hymnbook in the context of the development of Slovak literature and expansion of book culture at the end of the 17^th century and in the first half of the 18^th century. A spiritual song is a cultivated Baroque genre expressing a period theology and affiliation to creed and nation. The hymnbook in question (the copy deposited in the Division of Historical Funds of the Central Library of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava, signed V. teol. prív. 3542) was printed using movable type and contains 164 songs in total, 87 out of them monophonic. Melodies are written down by means of thorough bass notation. Approximately half of the recorded songs quote tunes from a German hymnbook from the second half of the 17^th century and the beginning of the 18^th century, namely the Freylinghausen Hymnbook, representing a pietist theological movement in Germany. Since intermingling of repertory occurred in the whole Middle-European tradition, we presume other German and Czech influences in the case of tunes not documented elsewhere. Neither can Polish influence be excluded, as Ján Glosius studied in Toruń; a Polish town enjoying a long tradition of evangelical hymnbook editions.

The first part of the hymnbook is divided according to the main seasons of the church’s year, the other part containing hymns designed for personal devotion. During the period when the hymnbook was compiled the liberties of Protestants were restricted, until the Act of Toleration was passed in 1791, and songs were interpreted in the context of private services at home, therefore in a smaller place and with a smaller group of people than in a church. Besides the hymnbook analysed, other preserved hymnological sources also present new and interesting research themes.

Slovak singing circles originating on the territory of Slovakia in the 1860s and 1870s significantly contributed to growing interest in musical activities connected with creation of songs and choral pieces. An introduction of instrumental (also piano) compositions at public performances was a specific element of the circles’ activity. Among the most distinguished ones a singing circle Tatran in Liptovský Mikuláš (1873), Slovak Singing Circle in Martin (1872) and a singing circle in Tisovec belonged. Slovak Singing Circle in Pest was also very active.

The performances of singing circles originally formed only a part of other non-professional performances (mostly theatrical ones). Later the singing circles organized also separated and full-length concerts, their programme having been constituted by choral arrangements of folk and patriotic songs, by pieces determined for so-called cultivated entertainment, later by more pretentious compositions from original Slovak and Czech choral literature. During the 1880s and 1890s the concert programme was enriched with piano pieces, too. The choice of a repertory of piano performances was considerably influenced by the skills of performers as well as by popularity of particular forms and genres. Thus concert fantasias, dances, overtures and excerpts from operas and operettas arranged for 4–6 hands as well as piano transcriptions of orchestral works may be found among the piano pieces. The performers were usually amateur pianists from the families of Slovak intelligentsia. Piano playing was a part of their wider musical and cultural interests. Viliam Hrušovský and namely Gustáv Koričánsky and Vladimír Meličko, who had acquired a higher musical education were more active as concert pianists. Amateur female pianists, who took part in majority of public performances, also came from the families of Slovak intellectuals and nationally aware burgess families.

Performances of professional performers exerted a significant influence on heightening the level of public performances of singing circles. They were not personalities of a European importance, but their appearances pertained to important social events, reported by period regional press. Thanks to these performances the public had a chance to get to know valuable works of piano literature and to form its views on musical interpretation. Especially Czech artists frequently appeared and contributed to a development of contacts with Czech musical culture and helped to strengthen a feeling of Slavic mutuality at the same time. This fact resulted in an inclusion of piano pieces by Bedřich Smetana, Antonín Dvořák and Josef Suk into the repertory of amateur pianists-members of the singing circles.

The national orientation of the singing circles revealed itself in an introduction of piano compositions by Slovak composers; the works by Miloslav Francisci, Michal B. Laciak and Milan Lichard having been played the most frequently. Appearances of the Slovak pianist Vladimír Gustáv Šaško who next to pieces by Chopin, Liszt and Moszkowski performed his own compositions, too, met with a good response of the public.

The cultivation of piano playing in the milieu of singing circles is part of a general fondness for the instrument, which achieved a dominating position in the 19th century. It is also a demonstration of vitality of the Slovak national society, whose musical and artistic activities helped to spread music culture and were narrowly connected with an endeavour after a formation of autonomous Slovak music.

Today music of earlier evolutional periods enjoys an enormous interest in the world from the side of listeners as well as experts. Considering the historical periods labeled by a term early music we differentiate two trends from the point of view of a performer:

1. A historically informed approach to performance of early music;
2. A modern approach from the viewpoint of a performer educated on routine romantic performing tradition of the 19^th century.

Johann Sebastian Bach belongs to distinctive Baroque composers, deserving an individual approach to their compositional output. Despite the fact that vocally-instrumental production for viola da gamba of the great Thomaskantor is not very rich, a performer can find full exercise of his instrumental qualities in it.

A recitative “Mein Jesus schweigt zu falschen Lügen stille” and an aria “Geduld, Geduld!” from St. Matthew Passion BWV 244 offer a space for demonstration of a player’s working methods while studying the piece. Both musical numbers are placed into an epically important scene, in which Jesus is interrogated by the Great Council, where he is supposed to react to false accusations. Both numbers are characteristic by German High Baroque musical poetics with which Johann Sebastian Bach identified himself as a lonely and essentially not very comprehended though unique personality respected in a number of fields. By an analytical view on both musical numbers, representing in themselves an inseparable significative pair, we pay attention to a domain of symbolics of numbers, to a relation of word and music, to an influence of a theory of affect on their total musical structure. A tonal structure of both musical numbers and harmonic structure narrowly following acoustical principles expressed by numerical ratios of intervals are also important elements rooting in the theory of affect. An instrumentation of a recitative, typical mostly by a usage of two oboes is closely connected with it, too. An occurrence of rhethorical figures is no less striking element, coming out from an affect of grief, peculiar not only for the recitative, but followingly also for the aria. The aria “Geduld, Geduld!” is a kind of a solo aria, characteristic by its architectonical model A B A’. The fact that viola da gamba was prescribed by the composer himself as one of parts of basso continuo is also a moment of importance. Thus he stressed not only its symbolic significance in the relation to events and text of the aria, but also the affectual role of viola da gamba as an instrument of grief and grandeur.

An inclusion of viola da gamba in the orchestra of both musical numbers was based on a symbolical character of the instrument, which

1. a) represents the grandeur of a status of secular as well as religious personalities of musical events, in this case of Jesus Christ
2. b) symbolizes sorrowful events and moods.

By their instrumental texture recitative and aria are differently pretentious. The chordal writing of the recitative demands a special flexibility of the player’s left hand’s work and function, while the aria roots in melodical conception of the instrument. The instrumental range of the recitative – A₁ to e¹ – demands a 7-stringed instrument, while the aria moves in a tenor-bass register between D and e¹.

An interpretative approach to works of musical history is possible only on the basis of elaborated study of period compositional devices, resulting from a knowledge of period performing practice. It is only after a perfect managing of all these performing attributes, that we may consent with a statement of Emil Platen, who considers the aria Geduld, Geduld! and the aria No. 49 Aus Liebe will mein Heiland sterben “the exceptional example of an organization of musical material of arias in the frame of entire St. Matthew Passion” (Platen, 1999, p. 98).

(The writer of the article is an active viola da gamba player. Besides Slovakia he performed in Germany, Bohemia, Poland, Hungaria and Ukraine).

The contribution focuses on four thematic fields: a/ a history of a publication of the output of the founding personality of the Slovak music Ján Levoslav Bella (1843–1936); b/ a tradition of the Bella research; c/ an edition Ján Levoslav Bella – Complete Works (1997–2003) and d/ a question of Bella’s masses. It disproves controversial claims of Vladimír Godár (Slovak Music 2001, p. 487–507; 2003, p. 559–567) concerning the activities of the editional board of the Bella Complete Works, an alleged falsification of the Bella’s image by the Slovak musical historiography and an alleged ignorance of Bella’s sacral Catholic and Protestant output by the Slovak musical historiographers. Bella’s compositions were published in Slovakia unsystematically since the 1920’s, but the whole state of publication was not satisfying. An idea of the critical publication of the Bella’s complete works was postulated publicly for the first time by the Foundation of J. L. Bella in 1993. A scientifical-practical critical edition Ján Levoslav Bella – Complete Works began to be realized by the (National) Music Centre, Bratislava, with the (main) editor Vladimír Godár. During 1997–2003 seven issues were published from the series Instrumental and Chamber Works. The musical component of the complete critical edition properly respects the composer’s original notation and presents in itself an edited work of a high quality.

The contribution serves as an opposition to musicological component of the complete works edition and it supplements the manuscript as well as printed sources, which are stated in the Commentary as not preserved.

[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.]

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