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Jazz Inspirations in the 20th Century Classical Slovak Music – the Music of Alexander Moyzes and His Successors

The generation of Slovak composers known as Slovak Musical Modernism, who emerged in the late 1920s and during the 1930s, adopted a concept of creative synthesis of the national sources (especially inspirations from folk music) with the influences of European impressionist and expressionist music. One of the Slovak Musical Modernism composers was Alexander Moyzes (1906-1984). The jazz elements that appeared in his early compositions were an exceptional impulse and response to the avant-garde musical milieu of the 1920s’ Prague, where Moyzes studied. However, such compositions met with sharp objections from the music critics in Bratislava. This not only turned Moyzes away from using jazz elements for the rest of his compositional career, but was also followed by their long-term absence in Slovak music for stylistic and political reasons. Although a short revival occurred when some of Slovak Music’s avant-garde emerged in the 1960s (Jozef Malovec and Tadeáš Salva, for example), jazz did not become a legitimately accepted source of new creative projects until the next generation of postmodern composers in the last quarter of the 20th century. Its shaping personalities, such as Peter Martinček, Norbert Bodnár and Peter Breiner, erased the traditional and conventional boundaries between the musical genres in contemporary Slovak music.

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Postmodern Mutations of Jazz Idioms in Slovak Alternative Music

The article deals with the transformations of various jazz style elements in the projects of Slovak musical alternative in the post-modern times, and their appropriations by the form of trans-genre re-contextualisation and fusion, or a persiflage and a parody. Their qualities and specificities will be demonstrated on the records and performances of Slovak alternative rock groups in the last two decades of the 20th century (Ali Ibn Rachid, Teória Odrazu, Jesus Underground band, and 100 Múch), and of contemporary composers or “comprovisers” (Andrej Šeban and Július Fujak). Style-genre mutations of jazz or jazzrock idioms in the works and the projects of Slovak alternative music will be reflected on using the method of aesthetic interpretation of their signification in the musical and cultural context.

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Jazz-rock and Fusion Music in Slovakia

The syntheses of jazz and rock music in Slovakia have had their own specific development. This paper illustrates the historical development of Slovakian jazzrock and fusion music and its parallels and differences compared with such styles in the Czech Republic, world music and music of American provenance. The author aims to answer questions about the definitions of jazzrock and fusion music related to their stages of development within the history of non-classical music in Slovakia. By musical analysis of selected and transcribed compositions, the author points out the significant style-forming elements in jazzrock and fusion music.

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