Pavol Polák

PhDr. Pavol Polák, CSc. was a Slovak musicologist, music publicist, and editor. He belonged to the “strong first post-war generation of Slovak music historians [...]. Also included in this group were Rychard Rybarič, Jana Mária Terrayová, Ladislav Mokrý, and others” (In: Hudobný život, 2019, no. 6). In his research, he focused on questions of methodology as well as the nature and meaning of music history. Pavol Polák spent his entire professional career at the Department of Music History of the Institute of Art History of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (today the Institute of Musicology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences).

He was one of the founders of the Slovenského katalógu hudobnohistorických prameňov  (Slovak Catalogue of Music-Historical Sources) within the Music Department of the Historical Institute of the Slovak National Museum (now the Music Museum of the Slovak National Museum), together with Ľubica Ballová and Darina Múdra.

One of Pavol Polák’s most significant publications is the monograph Hudobnoestetické náhľady v 18. storočí (Musical-Aesthetic Perspectives in the 18th Century, 1974), which remains “required reading” for musicology students to this day. Among his scientific studies, the work Zur Erforschung der Lebensdaten von Anton Zimmermann (1978) stands out as one of the key works about Anton Zimmermann.

In the 1960s, Pavol Polák engaged in music-critical activities for the magazines Kultúrny život, Hudební rozhledy, and Slovenská hudba. In the 1990s, he initiated the establishment of the Mozart Society in Bratislava, served as guarantor of the Mozart Week in Bratislava (1998–2006), and organized international conferences in Bratislava (1992, 1994), which resulted in the proceedings Musik Mitteleuropas in der 2. Hälfte des 18. Jahrhunderts (1993) and Mitteleuropäische Kontexte der Barockmusik (1997). He also contributed to the founding of the Slovak branch of the Society for Early Music.