The notion “acculturation” emerged in cultural anthropology, sociology and culturology, expressing the way of accepting and elaboration of impulses and values merging from one culture/s to other culture/s. It may be applied with success also in a study of development of cultures and art, as it allows to comprehend a dynamic character and stratification of acculturational processes. While Slovak music of the 20th century was forming its professional character it revealed an ambition to confirm its adherance to European geographic and cultural ambience. Hence it developed on the basis of two culturally-genetic ambitions – selfidentification and acculturation, which left traces on particular levels of its development – sometimes in contradiction and at another time complementary. A complex character of the central notion attracts the attention either to the geographic space of the Slovak music – which determined the character and tendency of acculturational movements and at the same time was influenced by outer conditions as well as inner dispositions of the Slovak music –, or to developmental changes of the relation of acculturative and selfidentificational endeavour. Besides social and historical determinants the relation was formed also by cultural and psychological factors, important for a formulation of a creative initiative of individuals, groups, generations, and of their ability to raise more conscious attitudes resulting in openness of Slovak music to outer impulses and in doing away with the feelings of its delay.

A look at the Slovak music scene from the viewpoint of art philosophy provokes questions concerning its character. In the past as well as at present there were/are assimilative endeavours seen on the Slovak music scene motivated usually by an effort to keep up with the European and worldwide development. This aesthetic orientation was connected with an attempt in currentness, modernity and avant-garde. It seems today as if an interest in avant-garde receded. Is the avant-garde overcome? To answer this question we have to look into the field joined with a change of a relation of modern art to modernism. From Renaissance to Romanticism tones or intervals forming the tonal system were the medium for music. Inside the system particular elements were treated selectively. New music equalized the use of all 12 tones, not excluding the smallest intervals and tones (quarter-tones, eighth-tones etc.). Similarly also rhythmic systems were cancelled in New Music. It was freeing itself from the tradition. Such works demanded a new aesthetic attitude from the side of listeners, and a commentary of a composer. This tendency was intensified by avant-garde art, which the “work – medium – reflection” trio reduces even more radically. Besides the autonomy of a work the avantgarde brings also autonomy of reflection. Nevertheless, historical-philosophical model of this progress reached the limits of its productivity at the early 1970s. For postmodern art aesthetic pluralism is a typical sign: an artefact becomes an intersection of several simultaneous styles. It is a result of the fact, that in postmodern art old styles are liberated from their original function. One part of contemporary art develops its own differentiation (reflexive moderna), the other one is not able to manage its own binary complexity (naive moderna). Some trends document the existence of “antimoderna”. At the same time we can see an absence of critique and self-flagellation, resulting in a danger, that the new can be only simulated in art. Therefore it is a serious question, whether such art possesses its own value and whether it is modern art. The problem of freshness in contemporary art is built in its aesthetic contents, which should be strictly named. With this a level of art critique is connected, which is not firmly established in the society.

Revolution in 1989 in Czechoslovakia brought about new freedom of speech. In the Czech and Slovak music life it revealed itself most significantly in a new-born interest in stylistic performing of Early Music and in manufacture of historical music instruments. Although there existed some ensembles devoting to period performing of Early Music even in the pre-revolutional Czechoslovakia, they lingered on the edge of interest and in unsatisfactory conditions. Nevertheless, separateness of domestic scene from the world trends typical for the previous regime endures to a certain extent, namely by the researchers, who consider Czech music a national treasure, hence untouchable. In Bohemia as well as in Slovakia initiators of the progress in the realm of Early Music performing are namely individuals and civil associations, from which the Czech Society of Early Music (originated in 1982) is the most significant.

The attitude to Early Music performing has been changing substantially only from the 1990s in Bohemia. Foreign institutions (from England, Austria, French or Italia) initiated organization of regular courses of performing on as well as of manufacture of period instruments. New-originated associations and ensembles (Collegium Marianum in Prague, Solamente naturali next to Musica aeterna in Slovakia) stimulated not only formation of several specialized festivals, but also closer contacts with the whole sphere concentrated on historical music realm (from teaching institutes, publishing houses, to organizers and manufacturers). Although the tendency to hold on to national traditions predominates at many secondary and university music institutes in the Czech Republic, recent years reveal a considerable change of direction towards world performing tendencies.

Sources of medieval liturgical music in Slovakia from the 14th and 15th centuries document a multicultural basis of scriptors and notators, trained in or coming from many church, cultural or educational European centres. Besides dominant influence of Esztergom (an ecclesiastical centre of the country) influencing the liturgical contents of codices (namely the manuscripts of the Bratislava Capitol) and fragments from the whole territory of Slovakia, the close relations and activities of Czech, Austrian as well as Polish scriptors’ workshops may be pursued in the preserved notated materials. The predominating notational system used in medieval liturgical codices and fragments preserved on the territory of Slovakia is the Messine-gothic one.

For the music culture on the territory of Slovakia in the 16th and 17th centuries a continual dealing with European level of cultivation of church and secular music was characteristic. Prevailing number of primary music-historical sources coming from these centuries was preserved mostly in our towns. We register several thousands of music compositions in both manuscript and printed versions coming from then important European music centres. Among them there are works by Frank-Flemish, German, Italian and French musicians there, music from the wider Central-European region as well as domestic creation. At present they are deposited in both state and church institutes.

Another important source of information on music repertory from the monitored period are secondary sources, mostly 17 preserved period inventories of sheet music.

The most significant demonstration of acceptation of imported models may be found in the realm of music education and in performing practice of church music. Foreign music prints, preserved as a part of Bardejov and Levoča Music Collections are of most unique value. They were brought to Slovakia by students and educated persons (teachers, preachers), however, sometimes also the towns invested money into the purchase of sheet music. Usage of foreign music prints in our surroundings is documented most adequately by their numerous period copies.

Our preserved music monuments (manuscripts and prints) represent a significant cultural and historical heritage, attractive also in a wider Central-European space. At present they serve as a precious – often unique – starting point for a realization of modern source editions documenting the creation of domestic (e.g. Ján Šimbracký/Schimbrack, Zacharias Zarewutius, Samuel Markfelner), as well as foreign musicians (Heinrich Schütz, Samuel Scheidt, Andreas Hammerschmidt, Jacob Regnart, Marcin Mielczewski).

Anton Zimmermann (1741–1781) belongs to “newly discovered” composers of European music Classicism. This claim is justified by his tremendous talent, originality of his musical expression and everlasting artistic value of his creation, which became the part of repertory all over the Europe even in his times, namely in Central-European, German- (or also German-) speaking countries. The compositional work of Anton Zimmermann is remarkable not only by its extent; it contributed (particularly his orchestral, chamber and melodramatic works) to the process of formation of universal music language of the Classical style. The personality and work of Anton Zimmermann exemplify and prove active and equal values exchange in music in the time of Classicism between the territory of Slovakia (Bratislava/Pressburg in particular) and other (mostly Central) Europe. Zimmermann research possesses an international character and since the 1990s it acquired signs of a systematic research.

The aim of my contribution is to present historical kettledrums in Spiš and Šariš museums and archives: to analyze their construction, the way of tuning, audio characteristics and occasions for their use in domestic ambience.

The most preserved are the kettledrums tuned by means of screws from the Levoča Evangelical Church of Augsburg confession. They consist of two copper bowls in a shape of hemispheres of the same height, but different diameters, with preserved skins and sounding boards. At the bottom of the kettles the letters DG are engraved, presumably the initials of the Levoča producer, copper smith David Genersich (jun., 1st half of the 18th century).

The next couple of historical kettledrums comes from the Roman Catholic church in Spišská Stará Ves (today in Slovak National Museum – Spiš Museum, Levoča). In the front both kettledrums have a peculiar decoration, a huge wrought coat of arms, engraved into the sheet copper, displaying a diadem and an inscription MARIA. The artistic embellishment of the sheet indicates the time of origin, 1740s to 1760s, and a probable owner, the piarist order.

In Markušovce (Slovak National Museum – Spiš Museum, Spišská Nová Ves) a pair of octava screw kettledrums was preserved, with peculiar embellishment, a painted sign of Jesuit order (Christ’s monogram IHS in a green elliptic field, in the upper part supplemented by a cross and at the bottom by three wedges over a heart. The elliptic field is bordered by a yellow aureola. In the corners of the painting there are the letters, left upper corner: P:A:, right upper: R:, left bottom: SO:, right bottom: ST:). Spiš origin and local usage is documented by archive documents, namely inventory list of music instruments from Spišská Kapitula (1795, elaborated by Joseph Schmidl), with a record of “Tympana …Duo Majora, Duo Minora”.

Another instrument from Markušovce is a unique specimen, a kettledrum with one octava range, improved by a handle mechanism securing the strokes of the sticks. The shape of the kettledrum and the structure of the instrument are similar to Jesuit kettledrums, an iron three-pod is more massive, with embellishment on the ending of the legs. The only known idea concerning a technical improvement of the kettledrums by a mechanical beat of sticks comes from Leonardo da Vinci (Codex Atlanticus).

In Bardejov there are 5 screw kettledrums (Slovak National Museum – Šariš Museum). Two of them possess a unique inscription; one of them is an engraved dedication with year 1757 and the second one an inscription Ci (vi)t(a)tis Barthpensis. The affiliation of the instruments to the city and their domestic production is out of question. The copper smithery had a sound tradition in Bardejov already in the 17th century. In 1712 there worked 5 copper smiths there. In 1757, the year of the production of the kettledrums, Andrej Miskolczy was the mayor of the city.

In a multiethnical history of Habsburg Hungary a lot of archive data was preserved concerning the instruments. Descriptions of coronations, inventory lists of the church’s property (Svätý Jur, Prievidza, Podolínec, Bratislava), in municipal accounting books (Levoča 1613 Die Heer Drummel dem Kopferschmidt), in important documents (Matricula Goltziana 1613: Te Deum laudamus: in majori Palatio decantatum, Organedo cum fidicinibus, tubis, et tympanis, unum : scholastici set Pastoribus cum Nobilitate alterum, per vices canentibus versiculum), in Slovak language in accounting books from Orava (1618). The kettledrums helped to increase a glamour and glory of spiritual music (baroque style “con trombe e timpani”), in Classicism a pair of kettledrums tuned in perfect fourth was a commonplace in period orchestra, even some concerts were written for them. For example, in Spišská Kapitula the masses of Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, motets by J. K. Vaňhal, litanies by Anton Zimmermann and many other works were played, as well as pieces by domestic composers (J. I. Danik, J. Lininger, P. Neumüller, J. Janig, K. Kirchner), also featuring kettledrums.

There are sometimes doubts expressed concerning the performance of the 6-year old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Bratislava, caused namely by insufficient knowledge of period documents. The comparative study of a correspondence of Leopold Mozart from the turn of 1762/1763 enables us not only to confirm this visit, but also to reconstruct the reasons and circumstances of its realization. The travel to Bratislava closed the three-month tour of the Mozart family in the fall 1762 in Austrian cities; the longest visit took place in Vienna. Leopold was addressed by Hungarian noble families in the time, when the Viennese got scared of the little Wolfgang’s disease. Leopold the father met their demand for a concert in Bratislava, then the Hungarian capital, despite the fact he had to prolong his vacations. We do not know with certainty in which of Bratislava noble palaces the concert/s took place; however, it is disputable, whether it was in the house at Ventúrska Street, which is decorated by a memorial plaque today. Wolfgang’s sister Nannerl was in Bratislava, too, and could have performed here. The written documents confirm not only the fact, that due to severe winter the stay of the Mozarts in Bratislava was prolonged and their return to Vienna was a little bit dramatic. They had to use a worse alternative track; a new-bought private carriage was of a great help.

18th century groped when speaking about the question of composers’ origin. No wonder Hugo Riemann, a modern discoverer of the Mannheim school, considered all its members to be Germans, despite the fact they came from Czech countries (Václav Stamic, Franz Xaver Richter).

Franz Xaver Richter was born on December 1, 1709 and died on September 13, 1789. We know quite a lot about him, especially about his travel around Germany and his stay in French Strasbourg. However, for shorter or longer time he stayed also in Uherské Hradiště, maybe in Holešov, supposedly his birthplace, and in Stuttgart, Ludwigsburg, Fuld, Ettal, Kempten, Mannheim.

His nationality is often a subject of discussions and polemics. Was he a Czech from Moravia, or a Slovak coming from the East Slovakia, was he a Hungarian or German? Most often Holešov is considered his probable birthplace, however, the registry or other documents that would confirm the fact with certainty are missing. We know, that F. X. Richter studied at the Jesuit grammar school in Uherské Hradiště in 1722–1725 as a ward of a local music seminary of St. Franciscus Borgias (Jiří Sehnal, Hudební věda No. 3, 1991). Neither the presumption was confirmed, that Richter was born in Chrasť over Hornád (East Slovakia), although all the documents and archive materials of the District Archive in Levoča were examined, including registry documents concerning the village Chrasť nad Hornádom. The data from the Book of deceased (archive of the Catholic parochial office in St. Pierre le Vieux, sign. côte D 136, p. 23) implying, that F. X. Richter comes from “Kratz” (“ex Kratz oriundus”), is not concerning his birthplace, but the place of his studies in Uherské Hradiště (“Kratz” = “Hradiště”).

The Richter’s dwell in Mannheim belongs to his most fruitful periods, when he cultivated both his compositional and teaching activities. Also his textbook on composition Harmonische Belehrungen comes from his Mannheim period (1765?); presently located in Bruxelles (Bibliotheque Royale, sign. M.S.II. 6.292: original manuscript). By this textbook Richter, considered a conservative composer, reveals himself as a predecessor of Mozart-Beethovenian synthesis, in which counterpoint played a significant role. Hence Richter is not conservative “Baroque” composer, as H. Riemann believed him to be, but a deeply contemplating Master believing in resurrection of strict compositional work.

The contribution focuses on activities of Ján Levoslav Bella while living in Sibiu, considering two aspects of his stay. It evaluates his asset to the city music life during 40 years, and it examines reflection of Bella’s work by Sibiu cultural society after his move to Slovakia. The study is based on archive documents, till now unknown, preserved in Romanian memory institutes.

Bella’s activity in the field of music and culture in Sibiu was extremely extensive and it was related to all spheres of music life of the city. As a city cantor and organist in evangelical parish church, music director of the oldest and most influential municipal music association Hermannstädter Musikverein, conductor of opera orchestra, choirmaster of the male choir Hermania and a teacher of music and choral singing at girls’ courses of Musikverein, at evangelical lyceum, girls’ “realschule” and evangelical seminary, Bella had an opportunity to mould the music taste of the population of all generations, social levels and of several music levels (cultivation of evangelical church music, chamber and orchestral music and choral singing). No other musician before Bella and after him has had such a concentrated control over music in his hands. Besides single-minded and artistically pretentious dramaturgy of association’s concerts his endeavour for general stabilization of the orchestra belongs to his greatest merits. Due to Bella’s extreme engagement the orchestra gradually evolved from a city band for parade walks to a symphonic orchestra.

During Bella’s presence in Sibiu the reflections of his work were usually positive, though inappropriate to his tremendous working involvement and results. However, still more contradictory appears a relatively cold attitude to his work after he left Sibiu. The relation of Sibiu cultural society to Bella is more clarified in unknown correspondence of Ranko Burmaz, the graduated lawyer of Serbian origin, who was active in Sibiu after the World War I as a music reporter and critic of the daily Siebenbürgisch-Deutsches Tageblatt. His preserved correspondence, letters by Ján Levoslav Bella and Gustáv Koričanský including, reveals that the Bella’s return to Slovakia was judged in Sibiu as an abandonment of cultural allegiance to “Germanism”, what was perceived extremely sensitively by the German population after the break-up of the monarchy and formation of new states. Therefore the commemorative concerts – tributes to Bella – in Sibiu in the inter-war period were organized namely by two foreigners – a tireless promoter of Bella’s work Ranko Burmaz and Franz Xaver Dressler, “Leipziger” compatriot and Bella’s follower as an organ-player in the evangelical parish church.

Studying the history of the Municipal Theatre in Prešporok (Pressburg, today Bratislava) it is necessary to consider not only multiethnical character of the city, but also an influence of a close metropolis of the Austrian-Hungarian monarchy – Vienna. The history of the permanent theatrical scene in the city begins in 1776, when count Juraj Csáky has had the first stone theater built. It was situated on the place of the present Historical Building of the Slovak National Theatre. On the basis of a decree of the Municipal Committee of the Prešporok city from 1884 a new building has been built, finished in 1886, for reasons of capacity and security. In September 1886 the first performance was realized in the new theatre building, first with Hungarian programme, in a couple of days also a German season began. This model of both Hungarian and German seasons was preserved till 1920, when a Slovak National Theatre Association originated.

As the source of information on theatrical events served not only theatrical yearbooks published by the German Theatrical Society, but also news published in Pressburger Zeitung and Westungarischer Grenzbote.

The repertory of the theatre consisted of operas, operettas, dramas, comedies, farces and
singspiels. The guest singers came usually from Vienna or Budapest. The number of engaged soloists of the theatre (actors and singers) ranged around 30, the choir had 30 members, too. The smallest group was a group of dancers (3-4 members). With the exception of great church feasts, the theatre worked almost daily. Music of the performances was played by an orchestra led by a conductor (cappellmeister).

The first tenant of the new-built theatre in Prešporok was German director Max Kmentt, the first Hungarian director was Jakab Mosonyi.

Considering the music history even since the late 1880s such important operas were featured like Il Trovatore, Lucia di Lammermoor, Rigoletto, La Juive, Der Freischütz and many others. The plays by W. Shakespeare or F. Schiller represented drama.

In 1899 Hungarian theater director Iván Relle devised a new model for existence of German and Hungarian performances: he proposed to engage both ensembles together led by one theatre director. However, due to growing tension between sympathizers of Hungarian or German performances, acquiring a political character, the Municipal Committee decided in 1901 to return to the original model of German and Hungarian seasons with two theatre directors (German and Hungarian ones).

An important chapter of the theatre history was written by guest performances of an opera company of the National Theatre in Brno (1902 and 1905) with operas by B. Smetana and A. Dvořák, as well as by composers P. Mascagni, R. Leoncavallo, P. I. Tchaikovsky, G. Puccini and others.

After the WWI a significant change occurred in the theatre, connected with the origin of the Slovak National Theatre Association (1920). Although the artistic level of opera performances rose, the theatre lost its international character, as the maintenance of cultural and language variety did not belong to priorities of a new theatre establishment.

Antonín Rejcha (1770–1836) ranks among the most significant Czech artists, who left their homeland as young and reached an excellent status abroad. He worked in Bonn, Hamburg, Vienna, and most of all in Paris, where – being a French citizen – he held important positions in top music institutions. He excelled not only as a music composer, but also as a music theorist and thinker in his time. Many of his pioneer ideas were applied in his creation, and many were used by his students and followers in their work: César Franck, Hector Berlioz, Franz Liszt, Ch. Goudon, Adolphe Ch. Adam etc. His schoolbooks (Traité de mélodie, 1814 Paris, Sur la musique comme l’art purement sentimental, Paris, textbook on harmony Cours de Composition musicale ou Traité complet et Raisonné d’Harmonie Pratique, Paris 1818, Traité de haute composition musicale, 1824–1826, Paris, Art du compositeur dramatique, 1833 Paris) were known also outside France. Also Bedřich Smetana as a pupil of Josef Proksch followed his Cours de Composition musicale. Regarding his contemplations on music A. Rejcha belongs to the most original personalities of experimenting early Romanticism from the turn of 18th and 19th centuries.

The article presents the compositional work of one of the members of the older generation of Slovak composers – Mikuláš Moyzes (1872–1944). Mikuláš Moyzes is mainly known as the composer of choral works and Malá vrchovská symfónia. His compositional work for chamber ensembles consists of 4 string quartets in D Major (1916–1926), A Minor (1929), F Sharp Minor (1931–1932), G Major (1943) and two works for wind instruments – Wind Sextet in A Flat Major (1934) and Wind Quintet in F Major (1935). These compositions could be considered as preparational works before composing a bigger symphonic work
Malá vrchovská symfónia. The Moyzes’s compositional creation for ensembles was marked by several influences: music history, polyphonic compositional devices, folk music elements and meditative elements.

The author of the contribution (who – as the cellist of the Prešov String Quartet in the years of 1993–1997 – has acquianted audience with the quartets A Minor, F Sharp Minor and G Major), is discussing particularly Joseph Haydn’s influence on Mikuláš Moyzes’s compositional work for chamber string ensembles. The influence of Joseph Haydn could be seen in three dimensions: direct influence, indirect influence and spiritual affinity. Direct influence can be seen mainly in a usage of a motif from the Haydn’s Menuet Symphony in D Major Hob.I:104 which Mikuláš Moyzes introduced into his last work – 4th
String Quartet in G Major. Indirect influence can be seen in a lighter character of most of his chamber works as well as in a chamber texture influenced by Joseph Haydn’s works. The spiritual affinity could be seen mainly symbolically – last work by Mikuláš Moyzes is 4th String Quartet in G Major similar to Joseph Haydn’s unfinished String Quartet in B Flat Major Hob.III:83. In his last composition, Mikuláš Moyzes succeeded to introduce Haydn’s compositional style and by this way to pay tribute to him.

Chamber work by Mikuláš Moyzes represents in itself an important contribution to the development of the Slovak music, however, it is unjustly unknown to the public in general.

Radúz and Mahulena belongs to the most popular Suk’s compositions. It originated as an incidental music to Zeyer’s fairy tale drama of the same title. As one of few works of Julius Zeyer’s output it was inspired by a Slovak model. Even Josef Suk realized the significance of this work for his own later compositional development, as he related, that it was precisely music to Radúz and Mahulena, what caused a turn in his creation. Undoubtedly Josef Suk consulted the music with Antonín Dvořák, who considered it to be unique. Definitly it was also Julius Zeyer himself, who influenced the final appearance of the music. All this resulted in a piece, highly estimated by Vítězslav Novák and comparable to melodramas of Zdeněk Fibich. Many musicologists and critics even measure it higher. After all, both Zdeněk Fibich and Josef Suk subsequently influenced life of dramatic works to which they had composed music. Lifespan of Radúz and Mahulena confirms, that a Zeyer’s decision to derive a theme from a Slovak fairy tale and Suk’s decision to lean on folk song in his incidental music was right. They did not consider the origin of the story as important. On the one hand Slovakia, the homeland of the fairy tale, lost its exotic air for them, on the other hand it blended with generally accepted folklorism and archaism. Artistic approach to music did not shift Suk to folklorism of the 20th century represented in Czech music by Vítězslav Novák or Leoš Janáček, but it drew him nearer to actual connection of symphony and vocal genres in Modern Style, so-called Orchestergesang.

The aim of the study is to point to a transformation of evaluation of Janáček’s opera The Makropulos Case on the basis of a set of German and English written reviews, deposited in the Music Department of the Moravian Museum in Brno, beginning with the first premiere abroad till now. At the same time the study refers to points of contact as well as distinctiveness of receptive traditions of the work in Germany and in Anglo-Saxon countries.

From a huge number of reviews reflecting the opera during the 20th century we can find out, that these traditions were markedly different. If the German response to Janáček’s work (the opera The Makropulos Case including) was significantly reserved, the English reviews disclose an apparent positive attitude towards the composer and his work. While the German reception on the turn of the millenium is still occupied by the question of preservation of the opera on the stage, at the same time in Great Britain and namely in the U.S.A. the opera (particularly due to its idea and due to Janáček’s specific elaboration of the piece) was accepted as an interesting and attractive music-dramatic work of the 20th century. Reflecting the number of stage productions of the opera The Makropulos Case on the Slovak and Czech opera stages during the recent decades and the responses to its stage productions in England and the U.S.A. we may conclude, that the Janáček’s opera The Makropulos Case is accepted most positively in English speaking countries.

Although Christmas wishes, songs and games in Slovakia attracted an attention of scholars from several aspects, the research examining the repertory according to age, and age stratification of its bearers is still missing. The key position of children going round and carol-singing at houses during the Christmas holiday related to archaic agrarian background and magical and ritual function of these ceremonies: the child in himself represented the values, which were wished to the houselords – health, happiness, delight, strength, vitality. It was also joined with utilitary aim – to get a reward for the carol. The ritual function of children while carol-singing, their narrative possibilities and mentality of children’s world resulted in the fact, that the repertory of Christmas carols sang by them was substantially different from the repertory of other age categories. On the basis of archive and published material from the territory of Slovakia and from the ambience of Slovak minorities abroad we present a survey of Christmas repertory of pre-school and school children and compare it with Christmas repertory of other age groups. The comparison revealed differences not only in age, but also in gender. They are related to the structure of repertory, its stylistic signs and inter-generational relations.

In the repertory of small pre-school children the secular wishes predominate almost exclusively; the occurrence of Christian carols is negligible. The repertory of older children is differentiated in gender: while the girls’ singing is represented only by a small number of records, namely by secular carols and song legends, boys appear as markedly dominating category of the carriers of the custom of carol singing. Their repertory is the amplest and typologically most variegated: it consists mostly of secular wishes and pastoral carols joined with their participation in Bethlehem plays; however, the most striking representation of spiritual Christmas songs is missing.

On the basis of a comparison with the repertory of other age categories the Christmas singing of children may be divided into three typological levels: 1. distinctively children’s repertory performed exclusively by children; 2. repertory of children common with other age categories (youth and adults); 3. repertory of other age categories adopted by children. The first level from the stylistic point of view meets with performing and memorizing abilities of the child’s performer and corresponds to his/her mentality (examples Nos. 1–6). This level may be differentiated into a repertory of the smallest children and of the school children. The second level points to the problems joined with the unambiguous stratification of Christmas repertory according to age of its bearers, namely in the case of school children. It confirms the existence of a common repertory nucleus, consisting of mostly universal and poly-functional Christmas carols. This commmon nucleus is connected with a common participation of adults, youth and school children in the Christmas carol-singing custom (examples Nos. 7–14). The third level brings new knowledge concerning the adaptational processes of the repertory, coming from older age categories to the children’s singing (examples 15–17).

Using the example of children’s Christmas carols we were able to present several basic signs of the children’s folklore in general. The basic typology, surveying specific, universal and adapted forms in the children’s singing, may have a relation to other components of the children’s musicality, even with enjambments to other music genres.

The personality of Zoltán Kodály, his work and asset to music culture still remains a subject for musicological research. One of interesting problems is his relation to Slovakia, which concerns not only his collecting activities among Hungarian minority on the territory of the South Slovakia, but also his collecting of Slovak folk music. Zoltán Kodály was another Hungarian composer (next to Béla Bartók) who was interested in Slovak folk music. His approach differed from the Bartók’s one, as he chose a comparative method, when comparing Hungarian traditional music with the music of neighbouring nations. However, he did not reflected Slovak folk music theoretically with the only exception: he wrote a text on midsummer songs from the Under-Zobor-Region, which was published in the journal of Ethnografia in 1913. The Kodály’s collection of Slovak traditional music has approximately from 160 to 170 entries. It is a private property of the Kodály’s widow and it is deposited in the Zoltán Kodály’s Museum and Archive in Budapest. Two Hungarian ethnomusicologists Olga Szalay and Lujza Tarai have studied the collection. According to the latest research of Olga Szalay (2004) the collection consists of 146 vocal and 16 instrumental pieces, usually from the Under-Zobor-Region. Zoltán Kodály recorded them in the period 1900–1916. From the viewpoint of the genre the Kodály’s Slovak collection is manifold.

The first autonomous scholarly music lexicographic work of a greater volume originated in Bohemia only between the two world wars; it was the Pazdírkov hudební slovník náučný (Pazdírek’s Music Educational Dictionary). The dictionary was published in the Brno publishing house of Oldřich Pazdírek in years 1929–1940. The editors were Gracian Černušák and later Vladimír Helfert, the pupils of Otakar Hostinský, who contributed also as authors of majority of entries. Unfortunately, due to the WWII the work remained unfinished. The dictionary offers a selection of subject and biographical entries accentuating Czech and Slavonic music. Pazdírek’s music dictionary is chiefly focusing on socalled classical music and its historical explanation. The subject section of the dictionary reflects also the problems of Slovak music indirectly, namely in the Moravian-Slovak music and folk songs. The entry Slovakia was written by Dobroslav Orel, the entry Slovak Philharmonic by Antonín Hořejš. In the name section there are entries Ján Levoslav Bella, Alexander and Mikuláš Moyzes, Viliam Figuš-Bystrý, Frico Kafenda and others in the dictionary. Nevertheless, the main period of Czecho-Slovak cooperation in the field of music lexicography developed after the end of the WWII, although in isolation from the West Europe. Due to ideological reasons the idea of finishing Pazdírek’s dictionary was rejected, and the Union of Czechoslovak Composers encouraged the work on Czechoslovak Music Dictionary of Personalities and Institutes. It was published in 2 volumes in 1963 and 1965. It had 9282 entries concerning the Czech music culture and 1622 entries related to Slovakia. Next to this dictionary another common project of Czech and Slovak music lexicography was Encyclopaedia of Jazz and Modern Pop-Music, name section, Czechoslovak scene, which was published in 1990.

In the time of preparation of the projects CARPENTARIUS, GOSSEC and BERNIER the key role was played by realizations of smaller common international forms of collaboration with French, Italian and American experts and institutes from 1999 to 2003. They concentrated on a question of a regeneration and realization of selected kinds of music of the 14th to 17th centuries. At the end of 2003 a long-lasting project of cooperation originated, named after the significant French composer of the 17th century M. A. Charpentier: CARPENTARIUS. This research project focuses almost exclusively on the process of renovation of music monuments. At present the project is of a character of bilateral collaboration and it is oriented on problems of particular music monuments of Central-European and French provenance in the 15th to 18th centuries. The main asset of this collaboration is a permanent opportunity for Slovak participants to participate on the project together with foreign specialists not only from France, but from Italy, Switzerland, Austria and the U.S.A. The project participants elaborated methodically and conceptionally three fields of scientific-research orientation and pertaining artistic practice: 1) medieval music records and their renewed transfer to present artistic practice (12th–15th centuries), 2) technique of 5- and 4-part Baroque French polyphonic piece in a reconstructing process, 3. realization of an edition of reconstruction and re-polyphonization of particular monuments from our territory.

Gradations and contrasts work as one of basic structural principles for building the tectonic whole as the style of Classicistic thematism and building of dynamic form comprehends it. A typical example of their accomplished usage is offered by the 4th movement in the Mozart’s Symphony “Jupiter”. Manifold and variegated work with motifs and their elaboration in most varied relations results in gradations and retardations along with continual increase of tectonic oscillation to complicated culmination in a coda of this movement of the Mozart’s symphony. The abundance of devices with the way of their elaboration is not in contradiction with economical use of motivic material. It is not by coincidence, that Mozart’s Symphony in C Major “Jupiter”, KV 551, culminates precisely in its 4th movement (Allegro molto), which encouraged the title of the piece as well as fame of the entire composition.

[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.]