The musical language in XXIth century Slovak sacred compositions Cover Image

Język muzyczny w słowackich kompozycjach sakralnych XXI wieku
The musical language in XXIth century Slovak sacred compositions

Author(s): Rastislav Adamko
Subject(s): Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Music
Published by: Uniwersytet Jana Długosza w Częstochowie
Keywords: 20th century Slovak sacred compositions; sacred music; contemporary music

Summary/Abstract: We are witnessing a process of gradual displacement of classical music from the liturgy in fa-vour of light music. It has not yet been possible to halt this phenomenon. Shouldn’t we see the reason for this also in the fact that we did not yet find an appropriate musical language for con-temporary liturgical music, rooted in the classical tradition? The article describes one of the new proposals, which are the pieces of music created thanks to the initiative of the academic staff working in the Department of Music of the Faculty of Education at the Catholic University in Ružomberok. They are intended rather for trained church musicians than for a liturgical assembly.The analysis of these works showed that the contemporary sacred music in Slovakia stems from centuries of tradition. The composers are eager to reach for old musical forms, compositional techniques, sound patterns and modal scales. These archaising elements are aimed at introducing into the context of contemporary musical language, modern techniques of working with sound material, open forms etc. A common feature of all these musical pieces is the return to cantilena – a cantilena closely connected to the text. Such requirements were imposed upon liturgical music by all the documents of the Catholic Church. In this sense, the Slovak composers understood the existing demands concerning music in the contemporary church. They created a diverse and cer-tainly understandable musical language, which – I hope, will find its audience, interpreters and listeners.

  • Issue Year: 2015
  • Issue No: 10
  • Page Range: 119-134
  • Page Count: 16
  • Language: Polish