In the late 18th century Banská Štiavnica was an industrial, commercial and scientific centre. As a royal mining city and the third largest city in Hungary it had all conditions for the existence of highly developed music life. An outline of the overall image of this music life was given by Darina Múdra, Emanuel Muntág and Marianna Bárdiová devoted to some particular aspects of it in the past. Nevertheless, the breadth of the music life in Banská Štiavnica can hardly be comprehensively described. Some difficulties result from the character of the sources themselves. The period press was comparatively scarce in reporting other facts than comments on official visits; and diaries or letters of private character which would have been created in Banská Štiavnica almost do not exist.Our picture about the music life in the past is a mosaic, which should be permanently supplemented and enriched.
This contribution presents the results of the research of various archival sources from the recent four years. It is only the time range what they have in common, thematically they encompass various fields and genres of the music life of the mining city. They are divided into several groups: a) the City Govermement and music life, b) the church and sacred music, c) music education of the protestant church, d) composers, e) music culture of the middle class, f) private music school and g) surroundings communities of Banská Štiavnica. In addition transcriptions of an original contract and further documents are given.

Several outstanding foreign as well as domestic artistic personalities were helpful in the promotion and recognition of Schumann’s piano work on the territory of Slovakia in the 19^th and at the beginning of the 20^th century. The basis of the Schumann tradition was laid by his wife Clara when she performed the pieces of her husband at several performances in Bratislava in 1856 shortly before his death. In the dissemination of Schumann’s piano works in this city an important role was played by the concerts of Hans von Bülow, Eugène d’Albert, Moriz Rosenthal, Emil von Sauer, Leopold Godowsky, Alfred Grünfeld, Ernst von Dohnányi, Béla Bartók, Wilhelm Kempf and Elly Ney. By their artistic activities the mentioned performers determined the development of pianism in Europe, they formed the tastes of the audience in repertory. Therefore it is important that through their performance the Bratislava audience was offered an opportunity to acquaint itself more closely also with the work of this composer. Besides concert stages Schumann’s piano works sounded also in the background of Bratislava music societies or singing associations, where it was performed publicly by domestic pianists M. Loisingerová, Líza Révfyová and Mária Stegerová. Also Bratislava native pianist and piano teacher Carl Förster incorporated it into the repertory of his concerts. In the realm of repertory a close connectivity of the concert life with the teaching of piano play was revealed in the inclusion of R. Schumann’s piano pieces into the teaching process of piano playing since the beginning of the 20^th century. The preserved syllabi and concert programmes of two most significant music institutions – Municipal Music School (1906) and especially Music and Dramatic Academy for Slovakia in Bratislava (1919) – comprise a great portion of Schumann’s piano music, performed also by the teachers of the school.

A similar situation was in Košice, the second most important music and cultural centre on the territory of Slovakia in the monitored period. Music life in the city was positively influenced by the performances of outstanding pianists (Rudolf Wilmers, Sofia Menterová, Rudolf Götzy, Emil von Sauer, Ernst von Dohnányi), who mediated the knowledge of the works by R. Schumann to the audience. Košice music life possessed a peculiar character, as a great number of domestic amateur and professional pianists participated in the concert events of the city, who sporadically introduced also Schumann’s pieces into their repertory. It is remarkable, that demanding concertante works (Piano Concerto A Minor, 1886, or Andante and Variations B Flat Major for two pianos op. 46, 1880) were performed also by pupils of the Municipal Music School of the city.

The popularization of Schumann’s piano pieces and their use in piano play teaching in other Slovak cities in the 19^th and at the beginning of the 20^th century is evidenced by the preserved music literature found in the music collections of various institutions and private individuals. The mentioned knowledge may be regarded also as one of the proofs that the situation in the perception of Schumann’s piano music on our territory in the observed period was comparable to the development in other European countries.

The contribution deals with the personality of Carl Filtsch, a young and exceptionally gifted piano virtuoso and composer coming from Transylvania, who was considered the most talented pupil of Fryderyk Chopin by the music world of his time. The aim of the article is to present Filtsch on the background of his life and work in the context of West-European music of the first half of the 19^th century. We synthesize the results of the present state of the research, point out Filtsch’s compositional output accentuating the urgency of its revival and utilization in concert repertory of contemporary pianists.

In monographs evaluating Chopin’s personality and music as well as in analytical views on his work a strangeness of his chromatic elements in the harmonic structure is specially underlined. Due to the fact that in the Romantic harmony the tendencies prepared by Vienna Classicism creators were further developed, it is appropriate to use the concept of Slovak theoretician Miroslav Filip (1932–1973) submitted in his book Evolutional Laws in the Classical Harmony (1965) for the recognition of many “secrets” of Chopin’s harmony. For an explanation of harmonic movement in polycentric radius Filip introduced a new term “transmutation” designating the relation of leading four-note-chords, functional seventh chords towards the associative tonal centres. He discerned two kinds of transmutation – “alpha transmutation” when two chords identical in shape and function open the relation, and “beta transmutation” when two chords are different in their shape and function. Filip’s dynamical system of transmutative relations working in the radiuses of particular tonal centres enables us to explain almost all phenomena in the harmonic structure of Fryderyk Chopin’s music.

Experimental and electroacoustic music have brought about many questions into the realm of contemporary music regarding the methods, conception, technique and especially values. Presently we need to formulate a definition of the genre of experimental music – in coherence with social, political and traditional artistic values. Experimental composition is not only a manifestation of genuine artistic ability joined with highly developed technological means. At the same time it presents either a development or destruction of traditional principles and compositional knowledge. The question arises not only how to preserve the historical knowledge, but also how to protect the music experiment as the most progressive element for the future – and to minimize the danger of destruction in both ways. One of the ways is to use the musical idea as an efficient structure carrying important heritage and message to the receiver.

Music, poetry and fine arts together form one of inspirational sources for artists – composers, poets, fine artists. In music teaching practice this fact can be unconventionally and very creatively applied in the aesthetical cultivation of an individual, which is documented by particular works of percipients who are the authors of work of arts at the same time.

(A Brief Contemplation over Schoenberg’s Work A Survivor from Warsaw, Op. 46)

Arnold Schoenberg’s piece A Survivor from Warsaw, Op. 46 belongs to the most consequential compositions reflecting the horrors of the World War II. It was the uprising in the Warsaw Jewish ghetto in 1944 and its cruel suppression that served him as the inspirational source. The piece for a narrator, male choir and symphonic orchestra is musically based on dodecaphony. In its structure modified elements of three movements are discernible, closed by coda, while it is subordinated to the drama of the story supporting the unity of words and music. The significant role is played by the closing Jewish prayer Shema Yisroel. Its usage ranks the whole work among distinguished ecclesiastical compositions of the music history almost with theological implicit meaning. Despite the fact that the premiere of the piece on November 4, 1948 in Albuquerque played by the local symphonic orchestra led by Kurt Frederick was accepted with huge success and the composition became a classic piece of the 20^th century music, it has not found its place in the repertory of Slovak symphonic orchestras yet.

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