Home FOR AUTHORS Slovenská hudba 2023 Slovenská hudba, Vol. 49, No 2, p.99-108, 2023

Journal info

Select Journal







Webshop Cart

Your Cart is currently empty.
Info: Your browser does not accept cookies. To put products into your cart and purchase them you need to enable cookies.

Slovenská hudba, Vol. 49, No 2, p.99-108, 2023

Title: Úvaha podnietená úvahami. O Zeljenkovom Osvienčime
Author: Lucia DANIHEL
Abstract: One of Zeljenka’s most famous compositions – Oświęcim (1959 – 1960) – is a testimony to the horrors of the inferno of modern human history. Despite its anti-fascist theme, which was ideologically acceptable to the communist regime at the time, the cantata setting Mikuláš Kováč’s poetic text to music was banned under the pretext of “formalism and obeisance to the West”. Only a stereo recording was made in the Prague radio in 1964, and the first performance of the composition did not take place until five years after its origination. The period between the creation of the work and its first performance still favoured optimistically tuned compositions in the spirit of the cultural policy of the time, not excluding cantata creations, and the evaluation of new works by critics corresponded to this. In 1964, during the ongoing ban on performing Zeljenka’s cantata, Roman Berger published his evaluative analysis of the composition under the title Úvaha podnietená Oswienczymom [A Reflection inspired by Oświęcim] on the pages of the Slovak Music review. Zeljenka knew in advance that the contribution would be published; it was a sort of agreement between the two artists, intending both to stimulate an open discussion about the banned work, which “cannot be harmed any more”, and to open up the topic of writing music criticism. Furthermore, Berger’s reasoning sparked another wave of composers’ responses. Zeljenka’s work Oświęcim deserves our attention not only with respect to the composer’s compositional legacy fifteen years after the end of World War II but also for the fate of the work in the totalitarian regime in which Zeljenka lived.
Keywords: Ilja Zeljenka; Mikuláš Kováč; cantata Oświęcim; Roman Berger; criticism; analysis; instrumental forces
Published online: 30-Jun-2023
Year: 2023, Volume: 49, Issue: 2 Page From: 99, Page To: 108
doi:10.4149/SH_2023_2_1


download file


© AEPress s.r.o
Copyright notice: For any permission to reproduce, archive or otherwise use the documents in the ELiS, please contact AEP.