Miroslav Filip

Assoc. Prof. PhDr. Miroslav Filip, CSc. was a Slovak musicologist and university lecturer. He studied music education at the Faculty of Education of Comenius University in Bratislava, where he remained after graduation to work as an assistant. Later, he became a lecturer at the newly established Department of Musicology at the Faculty of Arts, Comenius University in Bratislava, where he stayed until his untimely death in 1973. He was a specialist in the theory of tonal harmony and a pioneer in the field of music acoustics. He advocated for the creative application of natural sciences—such as mathematics, logic, information theory, and cybernetics—in musicology.

He completed his degree at the Faculty of Education with a diploma thesis titled Vývin harmónie a harmonického myslenia (The Development of Harmony and Harmonic Thinking), supervised by Prof. Eugen Suchoň. He also collaborated with Suchoň on the university textbooks Stručná náuka o hudbe (A Brief Introduction to Music, 1955) and Náuka o harmónii (The Study of Harmony, 1959).

During his life, he published his ideas in several scholarly studies and a unique monograph titled Vývinové zákonitosti klasickej harmónie (Developmental Laws of Classical Harmony, 1965). Among his methodologically and interdisciplinarily oriented texts are Zákonitosti vývoja harmónie vo svetle základných myšlienok teórie informácie (The Laws of Harmonic Development in Light of Core Concepts of Information Theory, 1964) and Multidimenzionálna analýza v muzikológii (Multidimensional Analysis in Musicology, 1973). In the field of musical acoustics, he published works such as Ladenie a tónová sústava z hľadiska hudobnej akustiky (Tuning and Tone Systems from the Perspective of Music Acoustics, 1965) and Frekvenčné merania a tónová sústava (Frequency Measurements and Tone Systems, 1970). In the area of applied music acoustics, he authored Spôsoby objektívneho grafického záznamu melódie (Methods of Objective Graphic Recording of Melody, 1965).

Together with Hungarian ornithologist Péter Szőke, Miroslav Filip analyzed recordings of bird songs, resulting in the study Hudobný mikrokozmos drozda čierneho (The Musical Microcosm of the Common Blackbird, 1969), “thus contributing to the development of the undeniably fascinating interdisciplinary field of bioacoustics—ornithomusicology.” (In: Hudobný život, 2002, Ľubomír Chalupka)

Miroslav Filip was also the author of several patented technical inventions. He designed a melograph for the needs of ethnomusicology, worked on establishing the first music-acoustic laboratory in Slovakia within the Music Department of the Historical Institute of the Slovak National Museum, and collaborated with the Computing Centre of Comenius University in Bratislava. He also constructed a device for monitoring critical conditions of patients in the cardiology department.

Thanks to his specialization—which was relatively marginal in Slovakia at the time, though it attracted much more interest abroad—Miroslav Filip achieved international recognition. “Several of his contributions were published in German and English editions of the faculty journal Musica, as well as in international journals, and attracted the attention especially of foreign acousticians. Filip maintained correspondence with leading experts worldwide, and from 1969, he was a member of the prestigious scientific body International Acoustical Society.” (In: Hudobný život, 1992/14, Ľubomír Chalupka)

In addition to his teaching and research work, he was also an accomplished cellist and a member of the so-called KAF Trio (Ladislav Kupkovič, Ján Albrecht, Miroslav Filip). He studied cello during his university years at the Higher Pedagogical School under Prof. Večerný.

“Filip convincingly identified the gaps that post-war Slovak musicology failed to address during its period of rapid growth [...] and in the fields he specialized in, he often became the sole person filling those roles. With his inner drive, uncompromising and ethical pursuit of scientific truth, and rejection of the banal, redundant, and outdated, he carved out new paths with great precision.” (In: Hudobný život, 2002, Ľubomír Chalupka)