A wide scope of creative activities of Zoltán Hrabussay (1904–1976) represents in itself a significant contribution to the realm of music in the 20^th-century Slovakia. As a schooled lawyer he worked in public administration in Prague and Bratislava until he lost his job due to political reasons in 1950s. Besides he was a pianist, professionally educated piano performer, artist and chamber partner. His name is connected also with the radio broadcasting in Slovakia. In Bratislava programme Radiojournal he premiered and recorded many pieces from the world and domestic music literature. By his music-critical and publicistic activity he enriched the pluralist spectre of Slovak critique and journalism, namely in the decade preceding the Second World War. From the 1950s he worked as an archivist and dealt mainly with the research and presentation of the rich correspondence of J. N. Batka with renowned artists of the European music scene. He was a promoter of Hummel’s and Liszt’s works. Hrabussay was an author of shorter monographs, conference contributions, popular-educative articles and brief apt reviews.

Slovak music of the first half of the 20^th century existed in a very specific and quickly changing social-political atmosphere. This reality played a big part in what stimuli affected musical composition. Besides the wish to create Slovak national music which would adhere to the local aesthetics and cultivate the Slovak national characteristics, we find that many composers chose to search for their means and inspirations outside their homeland borders. The study focuses on the reception of French impressionistic compositions on the territory of Slovakia and on Slovak compositions that were affected by it. In it we address specific moments when we find compositions of French impressionists in the Slovak cultural and musical life, or compositions inspired by impressionism. The work is divided into three chapters according to the period during which specific composers wrote music. We address the period from the beginning of the 20^th century until 1918, the interwar period (1918–1939) and the 1940s. Besides stating historical facts about the time and composers, in each chapter we pay attention to analyses of specific compositions. The outcome of this study is the finding that French impressionism played a big part in the formation of the Slovak compositional style. We do not find authors we could consider to be impressionists, but we do find inspirations from impressionism episodically in the works of Slovak composers.

Quite a wide range of scholars have dealt with the issue of time in music. We know that music is capable of changing our temporal perception. Therefore, in many, especially non-European traditions, music is used to change the state of mind during rituals and religious practices. However, our listening experience happens not only in time, but also in space. In our lives, time and space are bound like flesh and soul. During the last century, enormous changes in the soundscape of our planet have taken place. It seems that the sonic environment created by ourselves lures us into the habit of “non-listening”. In my paper, I focus on spatio-temporal compositional strategies: physical (outer) and especially structural (inner).

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