Ivan Hrušovský

Prof. PhDr. Ivan Hrušovský, CSc. was a Slovak music composer, musicologist, and university professor. Among composers of Slovak origin, he ranks among the most prolific authors in the field of choral music – including vocal-instrumental works as well as a cappella compositions.

He studied composition at the Conservatory in Bratislava under Alexander Moyzes, while simultaneously pursuing studies in musicology, philosophy, and aesthetics at the Faculty of Arts of Comenius University in Bratislava. He later continued his composition studies at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, again under Alexander Moyzes.

For a time, he worked as an external researcher at the Institute of Musicology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, but teaching ultimately became his primary professional focus. He spent his entire career as a professor at the Faculty of Music and Dance of the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, where he also served as head of the Department of Composition and Conducting. Toward the end of his life, he also taught at Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica.

Hrušovský addressed various music-theoretical topics, including the development of harmonic thinking, the works of Antonín Dvořák and Ján Cikker, and authored a monograph on Slovak music as well as a study on new expressive means in music. Selected publications include: Slovenská hudba v profiloch a rozboroch (Bratislava 1964, Slovak Music in Profiles and Analyses) Situácia slovenskej hudobnej kultúry v rokoch 1939 – 1948 (In: Slovenská hudba, 1968/4, The Situation of Slovak Musical Culture in the Years 1939–1948) Princíp riadenej aleatoriky z kompozičného a teoretického hľadiska (manuscript, 1982, The Principle of Controlled Aleatoricism from a Compositional and Theoretical Perspective) Úvod do štúdia teórie harmónie (Bratislava 1960, 1972, 1984, Introduction to the Study of Harmony Theory) Reflexie o duchovnej hudbe 20. storočia (In: Slovenská hudba, 1995/1, Reflections on 20th Century Sacred Music) Genéza hudobného myslenia Jána Cikkera (manuscript, The Genesis of Ján Cikker’s Musical Thinking).

"In his theoretical work, Hrušovský focused primarily on the music of the 20th century, especially the development of modern Slovak music. As a composer, he was initially strongly influenced by A. Moyzes, working within an expanded tonality using modal elements, favoring rich orchestration and epic breadth (Pastorálna suita, Tatranská poéma – Pastoral Suite, Tatra Poem). However, he soon began exploring sonorism, emancipating sound from its subordination to harmonic structure – particularly in his innovative choral compositions. During the 1960s, he also absorbed impulses from serial techniques (most purely applied in Combinazioni sonoriche) and controlled aleatoricism (Sonáta pre klavír – Sonata for Piano), using them – similarly to W. Lutosławski – to develop new sonic and expressive possibilities (Sen o človeku, Tri madrigalové impresie – Dream of a Man, Three Madrigal Impressions). The musical language of his mature period continued to make use of modal and polymodal devices (Musica nocturna – Night Music), and idioms of Slovak folk music. While not in opposition to Moyzes and his generation, Hrušovský moved beyond their connections to late Romanticism and Impressionism in both technical and aesthetic terms. His works from the 1970s to the 1990s are characterized by a synthesis of diverse – often historically distant – compositional techniques (including elements of classical sonata form, Baroque suite, or madrigal), aiming to bridge past and present in music history, deepen expressive concentration, and offer a suggestive yet unpretentious philosophical message (Canti, symphonies, sacred compositions)."  

(ZVARA, Vladimír: Ivan Hrušovský. In: 100 slovenských skladateľov. Ed. Marián Jurík, Peter Zagar. Bratislava: Národné hudobné centrum, 1998, pp. 125 – 126.)

For his contributions to teaching and composition, he received several awards.