Ladislav Burlas

Prof. PhDr. Ladislav Burlas, DrSc. was a Slovak musicologist, publicist, educator, and composer.

He was one of the most prominent music theorists in Slovakia and made significant contributions to the advancement of scholarly knowledge across multiple disciplines of musicology, including music theory, ethnomusicology, music historiography, music pedagogy, and music aesthetics. He authored more than 150 musicological works, including scientific monographs, studies, academic texts, articles, and essays. Thematically, his focus ranged from early and modern Slovak music history, questions of the origins of Slovak national music, and the compositional styles of Slovak musical modernists (such as Alexander Moyzes, Eugen Suchoň, and Ján Cikker), to topics in music theory and systematic musicological disciplines.

Ladislav Burlas taught music history and theory at the Faculty of Arts of Comenius University in Bratislava, at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, as well as at various pedagogical faculties and universities across Slovakia. He embodied the Humboldtian model of education within the Slovak context. He engaged his students in creative dialogue and, like the home of Ján Albrecht, his house was a vibrant social hub open to cultural and intellectual gatherings.

He was professionally instrumental in organizing the Smolenice Seminars for Contemporary Music (three editions from 1968 to 1970), and at the third seminar, he contributed not only with lectures but also with the composition Planctus for string orchestra (1968). “The piece was created as an artistic protest against the occupation of Czechoslovakia during the very days it took place. Today, Planctus is regarded as a cult piece of its era. It is also the composer’s best-known and most frequently performed work. Shortly after its premiere, the composer received two awards for it (1969): the Prize of the Union of Slovak Composers and the Prize of the Slovak Music Fund.” (Hudobný život, Slávka Kopčáková, March 1, 2024)

His music for children is also highly valued, and he placed great emphasis on it throughout his creative life.

“Burlas entered the Slovak music scene in 1957 as a theorist and publicist, articulating the spontaneous orientation of his generation of composers—polemic towards the aesthetic direction of A. Moyzes’s generation—towards contemporary European modernism. In addition to music theory and history, he also studied and wrote about the latest compositional trends, especially in the 1960s, publishing primarily in the journal Slovenská hudba. While influenced by the domestic tradition of chromatically and modally extended tonality, enriched with sublimated elements of Slovak folk music (Symfonický triptych, Spievajúce srdce), his work reveals a strong tendency toward linear voice leading and an interest in exploring new sonoristic possibilities (Metamorfózy krás). Inspired by Béla Bartók and techniques of the New Music movement, he developed his own methods of organizing pitch material in his mature works—combining modal structures with clusters (Planctus) and elements of twelve-tone technique (Hudba pre husle a orchester). His compositions increasingly reflected a meditative quality, particularly evident in his works for string instruments (Koncertná sonáta, 3. sláčikové kvarteto), and over time, a growing fondness for nostalgic retrospection emerged (Poetická hudba, Stretnúť človeka).”

(ZVARA, Vladimír: Ladislav Burlas. In: 100 slovenských skladateľov. Eds. Marián Jurík, Peter Zagar. Bratislava: National Music Centre, 1998, p. 59.)