• 1949 – 1950

    studies at the Town Institute of Music in Olomouc (piano, organ and the theory of music)

  • 1950 – 1952

    preparatory school and one semester of composition at Janáčkova Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno (Vilém Petrželka)

  • 1952 – 1955

    Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava (composition – Alexander Moyzes and Ján Cikker)

  • since 1955

    he has worked as a teacher of the theory of music and composition at the Conservatory in Bratislava, externally and at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava

"In his early work Pospíšil was influenced by late romanticism, impressionism and the music of L. Janáček. He followed Janáček’s lead particularly in working with elements of Moravian folk song, use of ostinato, development of short, fragmentary motifs  (Sonata op. 14) and utilisation of fragmentariness in the musical architecture (Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra). During the 1960s he absorbed impulses from dodecaphonic and serial music, which he applied firstly in combination with the romantic cantilena and inspirations from Janáček (Symphony No. 2), later in a technically and stylistically consequential form and in combination with a strikingly polylinear texture (Glosses; Contradictions), or with emphasis on the spatial sonic effects (Symphony No. 3). During the 1970s and 80s Pospíšil partially abandoned the techniques of New Music and developed a distinctive form of Neo-romanticism (Symphonic Frescos; Landscape of Childhood). He continued to take inspirations from Janáček, especially in his chamber work, where the dominant features are intimate expression and concentration of style (String Quartet Nos. 2 and 3)."


(ZVARA, Vladimír: Juraj Pospíšil. In: A Hundred Slovak Composers. Eds. Marián Jurík, Peter Zagar. Bratislava : National Music Centre Slovakia, 1998, p. 230.)

x