Suchon, Eugen

Born Sept. 25, 1908, in Pezinok, near Bratislava. Slovak composer. People’s Artist of the Czechoslovak SSR (1959).

Suchoň studied with F. Kafenda in Bratislava and with V. Novák in Prague. He began teaching at the Bratislava Conservatory in 1933, and he taught in the department of pedagogy at Bratislava University from 1948 to 1954. From 1954 to 1960 he taught at the Higher Pedagogical School in Bratislava.

Suchoň’s early works, such as the Bailadle Suite for piano, are in the classical tradition. The influences of expressionism and neo-classicism can be seen in the works composed in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Suchoň made use of national folk music in the cantata Žalmeme podkarpatskej (Psalm of the Sub-Carpathian Country, 1938), the choral work O horách (Mountains, 1942), and the Rural Symphonette (1957). He composed the first national musical drama, Krútňjava (The Whirlpool, 1949). Other works include the opera Svatopluk (1959), Fantasy and Burlesque for violin and orchestra (1948), the symphonic suite Metamorphoses (1953), choral cycles, music for children, the theater, and films, and arrangements of folk songs.

Suchoň has been awarded the State Prize of the Czechoslovak SSR three times (1951,1954, and 1959).