Musicologica Olomucensia

This contribution observes the mutual influences and intermingling od the spheres of serious classical music with jazz with a particular emphasis on the area of music od the so-called "third stream". The first wave of mutual interaction took place between the first and second world wars. A further, markedly qualitatively different intermingling took place after the second world war in the form of the third stream. It was a result of the development of postwar jazz styles and kinds and programmatically searched for a path for the possible further evolution of music by blending the two spheres together, in particular jazz styles with those of the compositional techniques of New Music of the second half of the 20th century. The third stream is considered today to be one of the closed and independent chapters of music history. Among others, also several Czech composers were involved in its formation during the sixties and seventies, including Pavel Blatný, Alexej Fried and Karel Velebný. Their composition of "third stream music" as seen in both a European as well as a world-wide context is reflected upon in this study.