Originality and individual features of the creative compositional legacy of the Slovak composer Tadeáš Salva (1937–1995) can be characterized as a complex held together by the power of a peculiar and insistent expressiveness. With the aim to comprehend its structure we created a circle model in which the crucial symbol “E”, representing Expressiveness, is situated into the centre. It is fed by six external sources – the life of the composer split into 9 phases, respect for the Slovak folklore, religion, accent on the human voice, Polish compositional school and the external world. The centre of expressiveness satiated in this way was then used by Salva in the process of choice of – again six – compositional-technical devices in his works: focus on sound, usage of words, twelve-tone space of musical structures, aleatoric method of chronometrical regulation, metamorphoses and overlappings of kinds and genres, ballade-like character. The specificity of each of external sources and internal application spheres is exemplified by Salva’s particular compositions.

The subject of the presented text is a view of the life and music of the Slovak composer Ilja Zeljenka, whose most important works originated in the second half of the 20th century. The contribution focuses exclusively on his piano music.

Through piano Zeljenka searched for possibilities of his compositional approach to the instrumental creation and presented his way of dealing with aesthetic and theoretical aspects of the period. It enables us to assess the range of influence of this original exponent on Slovak music.

The study also presents an outline of essential milestones of the life and work of the author in the wider context of the period which affected his life story and creative development. The contribution is concluded by analyses of four piano compositions by Ilja Zeljenka.

The study provides a survey of compositions for guitar written by Slovak-born composers who live and work abroad. In this paper we deal with the works by Pavol Šimai, Iris Szeghy, Viera Janárčeková, Marián Budoš, Jozef Kolkovič, Oľga Kroupová and Jana Kmiťová, who do not use guitar only in compositions for chamber ensembles: their catalogues of works comprise also compositions for solo guitar with orchestra accompaniment. These works, thanks to their duration, technical refinement and significance, occupy an important place in the Slovak guitar literature.

The topic of this research revolves around music education at an elementary level art school and specifically focuses on the world of one music instructor. The aim of this research was to shed light on the causes and the background of extraordinary musical instruction results achieved by an elementary level art school violin instructor within the context of her life story. Students of the participant (music teacher with more than fifty years of instruction experience) regularly, and in high numbers, achieve top places at national and international music-performing competitions and become successful conservatory students. Therefore, we decided to ask this excellent music teacher to participate in our research in order to gain insight into her instructional as well as her personal world. We opted for qualitative research methodology of a biographic design, specifically using the method of life story. Data obtained from a narrative interview were subsequently transcribed. Data analysis (open coding → axial coding → selective coding) produced individual categories framed by three substantial story lines, consequently revealing key causes of the teacher’s music instruction results. The first categorial line, Life theme – music (containing six categories) chronologically captures the participant’s story, starting from her initial decision, “If art school, then violin” and traces the intervention of personal factors in overcoming obstacles (including a necessary career change – musical art instructor instead of already achieved and enthusiastically followed career of an orchestra player). The second categorial line, Context of music education (five categories) focuses on the participant’s systematic professional development – evolution toward sophisticated instruction. The third categorial line, Social interactions (three categories) maps the overlap between participant’s intrapersonal and interpersonal worlds (success versus cost). The participant’s extraordinary musical education successes were not a result of favorable external circumstances but a result of her internal motivation and strength, where – as revealed by narrative analysis – the synergy between natural musical talent and steadfastness represented the main motivating energies and was complemented by the intervention of personal traits – dedication and pragmatism. In our view, this research represents a contribution not only as motivation but also in terms of further knowledge about the background conditions that foster successes and instructional achievements of an art school music teacher, also offering an understanding of a teacher as a human being.

[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.]