Music

Music has a deep meaning for Vojvodina Slovaks. It has been their most precious companinon for almoust tree decades now. Whenever there were hard times or moments full of joy, music was the key to express their current emotions and in some cases even their prestige. It is built on a hard fundament which is made of Slovak music traditions and it is also influenced by the music traditions of the new surroundings. Nowadays, the music of the Vojvodina Slovaks is a distincive historical and etnological fenomenon, to which this presentation is dedicated.

The folk music of Vojvodina Slovaks contain thousands everyday life stories. It has been an inspiration to many successful and meaningful Slovak authors like Viliam Figuš Bystrí who was in the begining of the 20^th century teaching in Slovak village called Padina, Mikuláš Šnajder Trnavský who was in the same time working in town called Zreňanin.

The ethnomusicologists from Slovakia and Slovak musicians from Vojvodina showed a big interest toward Slovak folk music which has resulted with four collections and also there were published many more music thematic collections. One of those collections is a work of Juraj Ferík who was a composer, teacher and a very important person when it comes to Slovak music in Vojvodina. The Muzeum of Vojvodina holds over thousand traditional folk songs from all the villages in Vojvodina where are Slovaks inhabited. A lot of music materials were assembled thanks to the state media of the Slovak minority in Serbia. In which rewrite desk worked many today famous names in the world of slovak music here in Vojvodina. One of them was Juraj Ferík jr. also Tibor Andrašovan, Božena Miklovicová, Pavel Čáni, Gustáv Babjak and many others.

Apart from the Slovak folk music, but also as much popular were the songs from the Tranoscius. Many choirs were found and today there are still many which interpret not only church songs but also compositions which are made by vojvodina composers or even those who are popular world wide.

In Vojvodina there are about ten choirs like Musica Viva, Zvony, Dievčenský spevácky zbor etc.

Ján Nosáľ from Slovak village called Selenča is a name which is known by his opera called Zipa Cupák.

The music theory also has its special place in the field of Slovak music in Vojvodina. In the year of 1949 there was a publication named Slovenská ľudová pieseň so stanoviska hudobného (Slovak folk songs from the musical point of view) which was written by a reputable theoretic Jozef Kresánek. This publication was a motivation for Martin Kmeť a composer who dedicated his time to more profound research of the Slovak folk music. Since the year of 2005 there have been organized symposiums devoted to musicology.

The music production of Slovaks living in Vojvodina is still in constant process and in its renewal. Many music festivals are being led exactly because of the endless talents which are leading Vojvodina Slovaks to a progress. Beside all mentioned, Slovaks here in Vojvodina try very hard to spread and to sustain their cultural heritage throughout all minority media.

This community has many interprets who have made their way to success far beyond our state border. Daily there are many talents who work hard to present our minority as respectable as they can. The most famous names from our Slovak entity who achieved success are Janko Brtka, Margaréta Benková, Ivana Jaššová, Marína Kaňová, Ivana Nováková, Janko Siroma.

This web page is made to present our music heritage as much as to present music life of Slovaks from Vojvodina. If you would like to become our co-worker and fill our content with any further information, we will be pleased to collaborate.

                                                                                                                                                                                                     Milina Sklabinská