The author of the study points to the significance of Juraj Beneš’s theory of harmony based on a hypothesis of existence of some kind of an “Interval System”, in which the important position is occuppied by intervals of a perfect fifth, minor second and a tritone. She explains Beneš’s concept of history of harmonic thinking development as a gradual exposure and disclosure of potential possibilities of the System and as a course from “suboctave” via “octave” to “supraoctave” music mind. After that she presents her own ideas related to the essence of harmony and she offers some new arguments based on mathematical, acoustic and systematic dispositions of a series of overtones and their evaluation in the works of outstanding theorists and composers of the past in favour of the validity of Beneš’s theses on hierarchy of intervals. Closing her contribution the author points to the significance of Beneš’s elaboration of the ideas of significant Slovak music theorist Miroslav Filip, published in his work Vývinové zákonitosti klasickej harmónie (Evolutional Principles of Classical Harmony, 1965).

The contribution focuses on the issue of the application of sonata form in piano works from the beginning of the 19th century. The evolution of music mind offers immense and infinite number of possibilities to composers of how to grasp, use, modify or fully transform sonata form, which has appeared to be an outdated form unable to absorb up-to-date content and new subjects. Imagination and fantasy led Fryderyk Chopin, the protagonist of the study, to unique and original results. While in his piano sonatas Chopin preserves a classical sonata form, the form of his ballads and Fantasia in F Minor, Op. 49, represents a genuinely revolutional achievement in itself. In these works he created a certain model of sonata in one movement and this subsequently influenced the creation of other composers; even Aleksandr Skryabin drew his inspiration from it. The submitted study offers some detailed form analyses of those Chopin’s pieces in which some traces of sonata form can be spotted.

The survey deals with a formation and achievements of one of the most prominent Slovak chamber ensembles –  Moyzes Quartet – since its origins in 1975 till today. It offers an image depicting the situation in the sphere of  chamber music performing in Slovakia in the 20th century. The author presents some of the quartet’s predecessors, whose activities directly influenced the life of the ensemble. Apart from the chronological survey of  the activities of the ensemble the core of the study is formed by a comparative analysis of two recordings of the  quartet: Ján Levoslav Bella’s String Quartet E Minor “Hungarian” (Naxos, Marco Polo, 8.223839, 1994 and  Tonostudio, JR-0267, 2010) and Antonín Dvořák’s String Quartet No. 12 F major Op. 96 “American” (Naxos,  8.550251, 1988 and Tonostudio, JR-2067, 2010).