Mikuláš Moyzes

"In style Moyzes took his bearings from the music of romanticism, and he was also notably influenced by the work of J. S. Bach. Before World War 1 he was most of the most prestigious composers of Catholic sacred music in Hungary; he was actively involved in the Cecilian movement and wrote textbooks and articles on music theory. Apart from sacred music, he also composed choral works and songs to Hungarian and German texts, while at the same time exploring the possibilities for creating a specifically Slovak musical style (Mazurek; Polonaise). After his return to Slovakia Moyzes intensified his interest in Slovak folk music. In particular, he studied and arranged the authentic folk songs of the peasantry (in contrast to other contemporary Slovak composers, who gave preference to songs that were popular in the urban milieu). Moyzes became more intensely involved in composing during the period following the foundation of Czechoslovakia. He creatively absorbed new stimuli, in particular those communicated by his son Alexander, who was studying composition in Prague. Alongside arrangements of folk songs and their montages, he utilised folklore inspirations in his own work also (often in the form of citations or melodies created according to a folk song model) and he distinctively developed the poetics of Slovak folk ballads (Ctibor, the melodramas). The influence of A. Dvořák is evident in his works from that period (String Quartet No. 4; Small Mountain Peak Symphony)."

(ZVARA, Vladimír: Mikuláš Moyzes. In: A Hundred Slovak Composers. Eds. Marián Jurík, Peter Zagar. Bratislava : National Music Centre Slovakia, 1998, pp. 205 – 206.)