Hanuš Domanský

“Domanský belongs to the group of composers emerging in the Slovak music scene in the '70s, which were characterized by a diversion from the avant-garde resources of so-called New Music and interest in the work of classics of European music of the first half of the 20th century (Janáček, Martinů, Honegger, Stravinsky). From his teacher at the Academy of Music and Drama in Bratislava he gained respect for precise technical work, sound inventiveness and concise forms, which were independently developed in a number of instrumental compositions (Dianoia; Fragment Sonatas for piano). He did not extend these ideas to rationally designed compositional techniques, instead he respected traditional tectonic principles. His mature individual style inventively illuminated older models by a new rendition which avoided eclecticism and built on the spontaneity of musical ideas. His sound-color imagination crystallized mainly in piano pieces (Bagatelles, Dityramby), on the immediacy of detached music-making, and the brightness and freshness of the musical flow. He also affected symphonic music (Symphony, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra), where he translated the ideas of L. Janáček's work, strengthened the expressive diction of his music, anddeepened contrasts with no signs of external effects. His musicality and immediacy of invention allows confrontation of diatonic clear contours of melodies with sonic confluent passages, solid rhythmic pulses with metricly relaxed movement, conciseness of selected shaped elements within concentrated evolutionary work, and draws inspiration from early music with folk intonation. In a later developmental phase of Domansky's work – from the overture Chvála zeme / Praise of the Earth – he applied the innovation of a tectonic plan on the method of an additive assignment of simple models, remaining close to the concept of repetitive music. Sound hedonism, an emphasis on dynamics and changes in density of his compositions are enriched with elements of charming and gracious dance.”

(CHALUPKA, Ľubomír: Hanuš Domanský. In: 100 slovenských skladateľov. Ed. Marián Jurík, Peter Zagar. Bratislava : Národné hudobné centrum, 1998, p. 80.)