Juraj Potúček

Mgr. Juraj Potúček was a Slovak music bibliographer, documentalist, librarian, editor, and archivist. He was a pioneer in the field of Slovak music bibliography.

"This ant-like, patient, and meticulous work brought to light many unknown facts and names from Slovakia’s musical past and served as a foundation for further musicological research. [...] He devoted himself intensely to the study of sources and libraries in many towns in Slovakia and the Czech Republic." (Hudobný život, Martina Hanzelová, 1993, no. 12)

Until 1954, he worked as a clerk in various positions. After joining the Slovak Academy of Sciences, he worked there for many years as a librarian, and alongside this job, he studied library science at the Faculty of Arts of Comenius University in Bratislava. He was later forced to leave the Academy due to a conflict with the administration at the time.

Juraj Potúček was the author of the works Súpis slovenských hudobnín a literatúry o hudobníkoch (Catalogue of Slovak Sheet Music and Literature on Musicians, 1952) and Súpis slovenských hudobnoteoretických prác (Catalogue of Slovak Music-Theoretical Works, 1955). These are considered fundamental bibliographic summaries in Slovak musicology.

He also published bibliographies of Slovak musicologists, musicians, composers, and conductors (Zdenka Bokesová, Ján Valašťan, Ján Levoslav Bella, Jozef Kresánek, Konštantín Hudec, and others). He contributed to the Slovník československých hudobných umelcov a inštitúcií (Dictionary of Czechoslovak Musical Artists and Institutions) — writing around 400 entries — and participated in the edition Dokumenty k dejinám slovenskej hudby (Documents on the History of Slovak Music).

Notable as well were his activities in compiling a Slovak biblical concordance (Biblická konkordancia – Biblical Concordance to the Slovak Translation of the Holy Scriptures by Prof. Jozef Roháček), translations for church periodicals, and his own religiously oriented poetry. He also contributed to the Kultúrno-historický kalendár (Cultural-Historical Calendar) published by OBZOR, to the RILM database, and to the Musiktechnologische Jahresbibliographie Europas.