Eugen Suchoň

The house was always filled with music and, as a small child, he would listen from under the piano when his father rehearsed at home with other musicians.

In 1920, at the age of twelve, he started taking piano lessons at the Bratislava School of Music with the distinguished musician Frico Kafenda.

His two-year studies at the Prague Conservatoire under Vítězslav Novák set the seal on the thorough training he had received from Kafenda.

In particular the popular male choral cycle O horách ("Of mountains") was a seminal work which established a Slovak national style.

From 1948 to 1960 Suchoň was professor and head of the Department of Music Education at the Teacher Training College in Bratislava.

It is a large-scale work with noble aspirations, displaying Slavic motifs and culminating in the victory of good over evil.