Introducing a New Product
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Transcript Introducing a New Product
Leoš Janáček
Stubborn, vulnerable, irascible, compassionate
Moravian
Worked in isolation; his work owes little to his
composers from the past or his contemporaries
Travelled very little (Leipzig, Vienna, short
journeys to Russia and a ten day trip to London)
Lived and worked in Moravia
Leoš Janáček
Worked out his problems of composition
without influence of contemporary trends
Prague viewed him with arrogance, mild
disinterest. He was respected merely as a
folklorist
1916, at the age of 62, premiere of his
opera Jenůfa written in 1904, kitschified by
Karel Kovařovic
Leoš Janáček
Platonic relationship with a much younger
woman – Kamila Stoesslová
This creative impulse created a torrent of
music: operas Káťa Kabanová, The
Cunning Little Vixen, The Makropulos Case,
The House from the Dead, then Sinfonietta,
and the Glagolithic Mass
Leoš Janáček
The two operas Jenůfa and Káťa Kabanová
performed abroad
In Britain, Sir Charles Mackerras, pupil of
conductor Václav Talich in Czechoslovakia,
brought Káťa Kabanová to Sadler´s Wells in
1951.
Leoš Janáček
Indicate the financial advantages for the
customer
Compare quality and price with those of the
competition
Czechs and their Historical
Experience
● important mediaeval kingdom under Charles IV (14th
century)
● Czech invented protestantism in early 15th century (Jan
Hus)
● The Hussite Revolution (wars in the first half of the 15th
century, then a compromise)
● A century of religious tolerance (16th century)
Czechs and their Historical
Experience
● Defeat at the White Mountain (1620) – protestant nation
absorbed by Catholic Habsburg, Austrian Empire – until
1918!
● The Czech National Revival – cultural emancipation – 19th
century
(movement towards democracy: 1866 – 1914)
● The independent Czechoslovak Republic – 1918 – 1938
Czechs and their Historical
Experience
•
● Nazi occupation: 1939 – 1945
•
● democratic interregnum 1945 – 1948
•
● the communist era: 1948 – 1989:
•
● postcommunism
•
● 2004: entry into the European Union
Leoš Janáček – early life
•
Born in the North Moravian town of Hukvaldy
in 1854 (570 inhabitants), one of 14 children
•
His grandfather and father, both called Jiří,
were teachers. Poverty, cramped conditions
•
At the age of 11 sent to school to Brno,
provincial capital of Moravia to become a
chorister in the Augustinian monastery
Leoš Janáček - Brno
•
The monastery dominated by choirmaster
Pavel Křížkovský, who had been taught by
Janáček´s father as an illegitimate son
•
Křížkovský studied folk music with Moravian
collector František Sušil
•
Day at monastery began at 5 am. Also classes
in philosophy, logic and the classics
Leoš Janáček - Brno
•
At the age of 15, in 1869, he enrolled for the
three-year teacher-training course at Brno
Imperial and Royal Teacher Training Institute
•
Then, two years of obligatory unpaid teaching
practice
•
1872, Janáček became deputy choirmaster at
the Augustinian monastery. Talented organist
Leoš Janáček – Brno
•
1873 – he became conductor of the Svatopluk
Choral Society
•
Fiercely independent, refused payment
•
Early compositions for the male chorus
Janáček – Prague
•
1874 – he was granted a year´s leave to study
at the Organ School in Prague
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Hard work, freezing room, poverty
•
Became acquainted with Smetana´s music
and befriended Dvořák
•
Zdeněk Nejedlý (1878-1962) ill will against
Janáček and Dvořák – promoted Smetana
Leoš Janáček
•
On return to Brno, he became provisional
teacher at the Institute, conducted the Beseda
and Svatopluk choirs, composed melodramas
•
1879 went to Leipzig to study, found the
quality of teaching bad
•
Went also to Vienna, but his sonata was
rejected from a competition as “too academic”,
furious he returned to Brno
Leoš Janáček
•
On 13th July 1881 he married 15-year-old
Zdenka Schulzová, daughter of German head
of the Institute; although he was a Czech
nationalist. He was 27.
•
The marriage wasn´t successful. He was quite
often brutal to his wife.
Leoš Janáček
•
1882 he created an Organ School in Brno
•
Very fast moving mind – students found it
difficult sometimes to follow him.
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1912 – Complete book of Harmony – often
bewildering complexity
•
From 1884 – founded and edited Musical
Letters
Leoš Janáček
•
1887 – 1888 an early opera Šárka. After
criticism from Dvořák, he re-wrote it, but didn´t
have copyright permission for the libretto by
Julius Zeyer
•
1886 – friendship with collector of Moravian
music František Bartoš
•
Janáček assisted him in collection and
analysis
Leoš Janáček
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Analysis of folk music, intonation of people´s
speech
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Moravian music “non-European” - not like
western instrumental music. Rhapsodic, free
melodic flow. Archaic keys
•
1889 Janáček wrote an introduction for
Bartoš´s Folk Songs of Moravia; published
other folk material
Leoš Janáček
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Wrote folk opera Beginning of a Romance;
discarded romanticism of Šárka
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Organised Moravian folk art exhibition in
Prague
•
(1895)
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Collected speech melodies (nápěvky)
•
His activities confirmed his reputation as a
folklorist – NOT as a composer
Janáček – The Emergence of a
New Style
•
Departure from folk idiom in his compositions
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Death of his 21 year old daughter Olga –
typhoid contracted in St Petersburg during a
visit
•
Cantata Amarus, the priest who dies when he
doesn´t fill the oil in the altar lamp – amongst
the beauty of the natural world
Janáček - Jenůfa
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It took Janáček nine years to compose it.
Completed it on 18th March 1903, a few weeks
aftre the death of his daughter.
•
Theme: love, jealousy
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Influence of Karolina Světlá´s The Village
Novel (1869) young man Antoš between
mother, Catholicism, wife and protestant
young lover
Jenůfa
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Janáček set a prose text. By Gabriela
Preissová
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Jenůfa becomes pregnant with Števa, a baby
is born, her mother murders it, Jenůfa
reconciles herself with her original lover Laca
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Pagan imagery of forces of nature, influence
of church
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Premiered in Brno on 21 January 1904, a
huge success, but Prague critics ignored it
Boycott in Prague
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Karel Kovařovic, Chief Conductor of the
National Theatre opera in Prague, refused to
stage Jenůfa - “not good enough”. (Janáček
had offended him with a negative review of his
work.)
Janáček
•
Minor opera Fate – very good music, but a
weak narrative
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Male choirs of political poems by Petr Bezruč
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Triumph of Jenůfa in Prague in 1916, Dr.
František Veselý and his wife badgered
Kovačovic; he agreed to “improve” Jenůfa
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Kovařovic enriched Janáček´s sound –
against his will. Premiere 26th May 1916,
astounding success, Janáček nearly 62.
Janáček
Success of Jenůfa was a tonic to Janáček´s
creative spirit
Fifth opera The Excursions of Mr. Brouček, based
on two satirical novels by Svatopluk Čech;
problems: nine librettists. Problems, received
with embarrassment when premiered in April
1920.
Janáček
From 1919, he was composing his opera Káťa
Kabanová, based on the play by Ostrovsky The
Storm
- Janáček powerfully motivated by passion
- 63 year old composer fell in love with Kamila
Stoesslová (25)
- For 11 years, he wrote her daily letters
- Even visited her in Písek, South Bohemia
Janáček
- Platonic relationship
- Káťa Kabanová – story of a woman unloved and
unloving in marriage, who succumbs to her
passion for another man
- Janáček: love for all things Russian; travel to St
Petersburg, Moscow; Slavophile
Janáček
Further operas:
The Cunning Little Vixen
Macropulos Case
From the House of the Dead
Janáček
Wrote operas about women: wishful thinking
about Káťa´s infidelity during her husband´s
absence