MOYZES, ALEXANDER  

Alexander Moyzes, one of the most significant figures in modern Slovak music, was born into a musical family in 1906 in Northern Slovakia.After earlier technical studies, in 1925 he entered the Prague Conservatory, where he studied organ, conducting and composition. He graduated in 1929 and went on to study in the master class of Vítezslav Novák, from which he graduated in the following year with his Overture for Orchestra, Opus 10. It was Novák who directed his attention to Slovak music, the source of his inspiration.

In 1929 Moyzes was appointed to the teaching staff of the Music Academy in Bratislava, the Slovak capital. He was became professor of composition at the Bratislava Conservatory in 1941 and spent a number of years as principal music advisor to Radio Bratislava, until compelled to resign in 1948. On its foundation he was appointed professor of composition at the Bratislava Music Academy, where he taught no less than three generations of Slovak composers. He headed the Academy as Rector from 1965 until 1971, and over the years undertook many important functions in the musical life of his country.

With Eugen Suchon and Jan Cikker, Alexander Moyzes must be considered one of the three leading composers of his generation in Slovakia. He succeeded in creating a style of composition that was thoroughly Slovak in inspiration, yet nevertheless took account of contemporary trends in European music, a synthesis that he was to consolidate in his later years.