Miloslav Ištvan
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Miloslav Ištvan (2 September 1928 in Olomouc – 26 January 1990, in Brno) was a Czech composer whose work was inspired by the works of Béla Bartók and by the orientation of the modal style of folk songs. He studied Romanian and African folklore. He also attempted a synthesis of classical and pop music genres.
In 1947 he graduated at the gymnasium in Brno-Žabovřesky, and later he pursued his studies at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno.[1] He studied composition as a pupil of Jaroslav Kvapil.[1]
At the turn of the fifties and the sixties he became active at JAMU as a teacher of composition (becoming a senior assistant in 1957, and a reader in 1976), and embarked on a creative journey starting with the symphonic fresco entitled Ballad on the South, which, in spite of the after-effects of Bartok and Shostakovich, bears individual features of his own: a robust dramatic expression and non-sentimental, socially committed feeling. In a stage of realization of basic ways out, Istvan was influenced by information on the development of the 2nd Viennese School and its development, after 1945, as the aesthetic of post-Webernian serialism.
The composer adopted the twelve-tone technique. His creation, however, was overwhelmed by modal series connected with the typical intervals characteristic of the Moravian folk song. It was only in 1967 that he grasped a text that in the orchestral Exorcism of the Time he left in its natural spoken form, and only a year later, in the chamber Old Testament cantata I, Jacob, he put Hebrew extracts of the Bible to music, but the text important for its meaning was left with the reciter. In these works, where philosophical meditation about the sense of human existence is filled with the tension of dramatic clashes, Istvan reached his own way of cutting assembly, which in the future would remain a decisive technical mark of his musical communication and a basis for his poly-stylish solutions for composition.
Selected works
Piano:
- Miniatures (1952)
- Sonata (1954)
- Sonata No. 2 (1959)
- 5 Impromptus (1956)
Chamber:
- Rondo for Viola and Piano (1950)
- Sonata for Clarinet and Piano (1954)
- Suite for French Horn and Piano (1955)
- Trio for Cello and Piano (1950)
- Trio for Violin, Piano and Cello (1958)
- Partita for Wind Instruments (1957)
- String Quartet (1951)
Orchestral:
- Symphony (1952)
- Czechoslovak Suite (1951)
- Concert-Symphony for Piano and Orchestra (1958)
- Balada o jihu (Ballad About South) (1960)
Notes
- Československý hudební slovník I. (1963), p. 551-552
References
- Černušák, Gracián; Štědroň, Bohumír; Nováček, Zdenko, eds. (1963). Československý hudební slovník I. A-L (in Czech). Prague: Státní hudební vydavatelství.
- https://www.musicbase.cz/composers/340-istvan-miloslav/