New publication of the Music Centre Slovakia: Music – Dance – Song; Birth and first years of Slovak modern pop-music

A new publication Music –  Dance – Song  by long-time fellow workers Pavol Zelenay and Ladislav Šoltýs has come into the world in Music Centre Slovakia in 2008. It is a first systematic work about Slovak pop-music, mapping its origin and development within the span of years 1930-70. The title is a thematic follow-up to other books published in Music Centre Slovakia: The Book of Slovak Jazz (1999), Blues in Slovakia (2003 and 2005) and Folk in Slovakia (2006).

We are very glad that we’ve won Pavol Zelenay, music composer, editor, organizer of Slovak music life, historian in a field of Slovak pop-music and a holder of a Crystal Wing Prize 2007, for a co-operation in this project. Zelenay was also initiator and co-founder of the international pop-music festival Bratislava Lyre, which he co-operated over 25 years with. Professional musician until 1967, since 1952 Pavol Zelenay has been composing dance songs, incidental and film music, chansons etc. In 1974 he won a Golden Bratislava Lyre Prize with his song A Land Remember (Zem pamätá, Karol Ducho? singing) and later in 1976 again with his song A Few Notes (Pár nôt, Jana Kociánová singing). In 1967 Pavol Zelenay started working as a head of the Redaction of Entertaining Music (later Pop-Music) of Czech-Slovak Radio in Bratislava. As an author he prepared a cycle of 130 programmes about history of Slovak pop-music. From number of his publications let us name individually How to Play to Dance (1964) and To the History of Slovak Dance Music (1964, in a co-operation with Ladislav Šoltýs). In 2007 Zelenay finished and published the last part of his 10-volumed Anthology of Slovak pop-music, where he compiled the first three decades of its development in a very original way. Unique project had originated for unbelievable 16 years and contains a set of ten CDs with 238 songs from 1934-1963.

The latest publishing feat in the field of Slovak pop-music is already mentioned title Music – Dance – Song, about which Pavol Zelenay in his interview for Slovak daily SME said: “My life is actually almost identical with an existence of Slovak pop-music. This is the result. I felt it as my commitment – if I wouldn’t do it, anybody else wouldn’t do it! It is not a conceit but fact, because no other freak would embark on it, indeed.”