Abstract:
This study elucidates Alexander Albrecht’s life and works composed in various phases of his life. It points out the composer’s compositional principles, style, and the typical features that distinguish his works. It zooms in on the personality of Alexander Albrecht, who played a crucial role in the formation of the musical life of Bratislava in the early twentieth century. His oeuvre forms a vital link in the chain of the development of modern Slovak music as he was active in its early phase. Besides his teaching, conducting, organizing, and publishing activities, he dedicated his life to composition, being inspired by German Neoromanticism represented by Johannes Brahms and Max Reger. His compositions are characterized by balance, discipline, and proportionality, with a unique contribution to the modernization of the musical language through his own spontaneity and rhythmicity. He moved within the range of extended tonality, approaching even atonality. The author analyzes his Humoresque for Two Pianos of 1949.