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about|the Czech composer|people with the same surname|Janácek (surname)Use dmy dates|date=August 2011Infobox musical artist| name = Leoš Janácek| image = Janacek.jpg| caption = Composer Leoš Janácek| image_size = 250px| background = non_performing_personnel| birth_name = Leo Eugen Janácek| alias =| birth_date = Birth date|1854|7|3|mf=y|birth_place = Hukvaldy , Moravia , Austrian Empire , today Czech Republic | death_date = Death date|1928|8|12|mf=y|death_place = Ostrava , Czechoslovakia (aged 74)| origin = Czech| instrument = Pianist, organist| genre = Classical music|classical , modern classical | occupation = Composer| years_active = 1872–1928 Leoš Janácek (IPA-cs|'l?o? 'jana?t??k|-|Cs-Leos Janacek.ogg, baptised Leo Eugen Janácek , 3 July 1854 – 12 August 1928) was a Czech people|Czech composer, Music theory|musical theorist , Folkloristics|folklorist , publicist and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian traditional music|Moravia n and all Slavic peoples|Slavic folk music to create an original, modern musical style.Sehnal and Vysloužil (2001), p. 175 cs icon Until 1895 he devoted himself mainly to folkloristic research and his early musical output was influenced by contemporaries such as Antonín Dvorák . His later, mature works incorporate his earlier studies of national folk music in a modern, highly original synthesis, first evident in the opera Jenufa , which was premiered in 1904 in Brno .Sehnal and Vysloužil (2001), p. 183 cs icon The success of Jenufa (often called the "Moravian national opera") at Prague in 1916 gave Janácek access to the world's great opera stages.Sehnal and Vysloužil (2001), p. 184 cs iconSehnal and Vysloužil (2001), p. 185 cs icon Janácek's later works are his most celebrated. They include the symphonic poem Sinfonietta (Janácek)|Sinfonietta , the oratorio Glagolitic Mass , the rhapsody Taras Bulba (rhapsody)|Taras Bulba , string quartets, other chamber works and operas. He is considered to rank with Antonín Dvorák and Bedrich Smetana , as one of the most important Czech composers.Ceskoslovenský hudební slovník osob a institucí I. (1963), p. 559 cs icon
Biography
Early life
Leoš Janácek, son of schoolmaster Jirí (1815–1866), and Amalie, (née Grulichová) Janácková (1819–1884), was born in Hukvaldy , Moravia (then part of the Austrian Empire ).Drlíková (2004), p. 7 He was a gifted child in a family of limited means, and showed an early musical talent in choral singing. His father wanted him to follow the family tradition, and become a teacher, but deferred to Janácek's obvious musical abilities. In 1865 young Janácek enrolled as a ward of the foundation of the Abbey of St. Thomas in Brno , where he took part in choral singing under Pavel Krížkovský and occasionally played the Organ (music)|organ . One of his classmates, František Neumann, later described Janácek as an ''"excellent pianist, who played Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven symphonies perfectly in a piano duet with a classmate, under Krížkovský's supervision" .Štedron (1946), p. 24 cs icon Krížkovský found him a problematic and wayward student but recommended his entry to the Prague Organ School.Štedron (1946), p. 29 cs icon Janácek later remembered Krížkovský as a great conductor and teacher.
Janácek originally intended to study piano and organ but eventually devoted himself to composition. He wrote his first vocal compositions while choirmaster of the ''Svatopluk Artisan's Association'' (1873–76).Drlíková (2004), p. 13 In 1874 he enrolled at the Prague organ school, under František Zdenek Skuherský|František Skuherský and František Blažek.Cernušák (1963), p. 557 cs icon His student days in Prague were impoverished; with no piano in his room, he had to make do with a keyboard drawn on his tabletop.Štedron (1946), p. 32 cs icon His criticism of Skuherský's performance of the Gregorian mass was published in the March 1875 edition of the journal Cecilie and led to his expulsion from the school – but Skuherský relented, and on 24 July 1875 Janácek graduated with the best results in his class.Štedron (1946), p. 31 cs icon On his return to Brno he earned a living as a music teacher, and conducted various amateur choir s. From 1876 he taught music at Brno's Teachers Institute. Among his pupils there was Zdenka Schulzová, daughter of Emilian Schulz, the Institute director. She was later to be Janácek's wife. In 1876 he also became a piano student of Amálie Wickenhauserová-Nerudová, with whom he co-organized chamber concertos and performed in concerts over the next two years. In February, 1876, he was voted choirmaster of the Beseda brnenská Philharmonic Society. Apart from an interruption from 1879 to 1881, he remained its choirmaster and conductor until 1888.Drlíková (2004), p. 19 cs icon
From October 1879 to February 1880 he studied piano, organ, and composition at the Felix Mendelssohn College of Music and Theatre|Leipzig Conservatory . While there, he composed Thema con variazioni for piano in B flat, subtitled ''Zdenka's Variations''.Drlíková (2004), p. 27Drlíková (2004), p. 29 Dissatisfied with his teachers (among them Oskar Paul and Leo Grill ), and denied a studentship with Camille Saint-Saëns in Paris, Janácek moved on to the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna|Vienna Conservatory where from April to June 1880 he studied composition with Franz Krenn .Firkušný (2005), p. 45 cs icon He concealed his opposition to Krenn's neo-romanticism, but he quit Josef Dachs 's classes and further piano study when he was criticised for his piano style and technique.Štedron, (1946), p. 55 cs icon He submitted a violin sonata (now lost) to a Vienna Conservatory competition, but the judges rejected it as "too academic" .Štedron (1946), p. 57 cs icon Janácek left the conservatory in June, 1880, disappointed despite Franz Krenn's very complimentary personal report.Firkušný (2005), p. 48 cs icon He returned to Brno Drlíková (2004), p. 31 where on 13 July 1881, he married his young pupil Zdenka Schulzová.Drlíková (2004), p. 33
In 1881, Janácek founded and was appointed director of the organ school, and held this post until 1919, when the school became the Brno Conservatory .Drlíková (2004), p. 33 In the mid 1880s Janácek began composing more systematically. Among other works, he created the Four male-voice choruses (1886), dedicated to Antonín Dvorák, and his first opera, Šárka (1887–8).Vysloužil, p. 224 cs icon During this period he began to collect and study folk music, songs and dances. In the early months of 1887 he sharply criticized the comic opera The Bridegrooms , by Czech composer Karel Kovarovic , in a Hudební listy journal review: ''"Which melody stuck in your mind? Which motif? Is this dramatic opera? No, I would write on the poster: "Comedy performed together with music", since the music and the libretto aren't connected to each other"''.Štedron (1946), p. 111-112 cs icon Janácek's review apparently led to mutual dislike and later professional difficulties when Kovarovic, as director of the National Theatre (Prague)|National Theatre in Prague , refused to stage Janácek's opera Jenufa .Štedron (1946), p. 112 cs iconDrlíková (2004), p. 41
From the early 1890s, Janácek led the mainstream of folklorist activity in Moravia and Silesia , using a repertoire of folksongs and dances in orchestral and piano arrangements. Most of his achievements in this field were published in 1899–1901 though his interest in folklore would be lifelong.Janáckovy záznamy hudebního a tanecního folkloru, p. 380 His compositional work was still influenced by the declamatory, dramatic style of Bedrich Smetana|Smetana and Antonín Dvorák|Dvorák . He expressed very negative opinions on German neo-classicism and especially on Richard Wagner|Wagner in the Hudební listy journal, which he founded in 1884.Firkušný (2005), p. 62 The death of his second child, Vladimír, in 1890 was followed by an attempted opera, Beginning of the Romance (1891) and the cantata Amarus (1897).
Later years and masterworks
In the first decade of the 20th century Janácek composed choral church music including Otcenáš (Our Father, 1901), Constitutes (1903) and Ave Maria (1904). In 1901 the first part of his piano cycle On an Overgrown Path was published, and gradually became one of his most frequently performed works.Zahrádka, Jirí (2006), p. XI In 1902 Janácek visited Russia twice. On the first occasion he took his daughter Olga to St.Petersburg , where she stayed to study Russian. Only three months later, he returned to St. Petersburg with his wife because Olga was very ill. They took her back to Brno, but her health was worsening. Janácek expressed his painful feelings for his daughter in a new work, his opera Jenufa , in which the suffering of his daughter became Jenufa's.cite web |url= http://www.leosjanacek.com/biography.htm |title=Janácek: a brief biography |accessdate=15 September 2008 |last=Plumley |first=Gavin |publisher= When Olga died in February 1903, Janácek dedicated Jenufa to her memory. The opera was performed in Brno in 1904, with reasonable success, but Janácek felt this was no more than a provincial achievement. He aspired to recognition by the more influential Prague opera, but Jenufa was refused there (twelve years passed before its first performance in Prague).cite book |title=Káta Kabanová |last=Tyrrell |first=John |authorlink=John Tyrrell |year=1982 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=0-521-29853-9 |page=2 |url= http://books.google.com/? id=dpJScle5-RgC& printsec=frontcover& dq=Janacek Dejected and emotionally exhausted, Janácek went to Luhacovice spa to recover. There he met Kamila Urválková, whose love story supplied the theme for his next opera, Osud (Destiny). In 1905 Janácek attended a demonstration in support of a Czech university in Brno, where the violent death of František Pavlík (a young joiner) at the hands of the police inspired his 1. X. 1905 piano sonata.Drlíková (2004), p. 67 The incident led him to further promote the anti-German and anti-Austrian ethos of the Russian Circle , which he had co-founded in 1897Cernušák (1963), p. 558 cs icon and which would be officially banned by the Austrian police in 1915.Drlíková (2004), p. 81 In 1906 he approached the Czech poet Petr Bezruc , with whom he later collaborated, composing several choral works based on Bezruc's poetry. These included Kantor Halfar (1906), Marycka Magdónova (1908), and Sedmdesát tisíc (1909). Janácek's life in the first decade of the 20th century was complicated by personal and professional difficulties. He still yearned for artistic recognition from Prague.Vysloužil,p. 225 cs icon He destroyed some of his works – others remained unfinished. Nevertheless, he continued composing, and would create several remarkable choral, chamber, orchestral and operatic works, the most notable being the 1914 Cantata Vecné evangelium (The Eternal Gospel), Pohádka (Fairy tale) for cello and piano (1910), the 1912 piano cycle V mlhách (In the Mist) and his first symphonic poem Šumarovo díte (A Fiddler's Child). His fifth opera, Výlet pana Broucka do mesíce , composed from 1908 to 1917, has been characterized as the most "purely Czech in subject and treatment" of all Janácek's operas.cite journal | url= http://oq.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/6/3/86 | last=Shawe-Taylor | first=Desmond | title=The Operas of Leoš Janácek | journal=Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association | volume=session | pages=49–64 | series=85th | date=1958-1959 | accessdate=18 October 2007subscription required
In 1916 he started what would be a long professional and personal relationship with theatre critic, dramatist and translator Max Brod .Drlíková (2004), p. 83C Susskind, Janácek and Brod . Yale University Press, 1985, ISBN 0-300-03420-2 In the same year Jenufa , revised by Kovarovic, was finally accepted by the National Theatre; its performance in Prague (1916) was a great success, and brought Janácek his first acclaim. He was 62. Following the Prague premičre, he began a relationship with singer Gabriela Horváthová, which led to his wife Zdenka's attempted suicide and their "informal" divorce.Thema con variazioni, p. 8 cs icon A year later (1917) he met Kamila Stösslová , a young married woman 38 years his junior, who was to inspire him for the remaining years of his life. He conducted an obsessive and (on his side at least) passionate correspondence with her, of nearly 730 letters.Drlíková (2004), p. 99 From 1917 to 1919, deeply inspired by Stösslová, he composed The Diary of One Who Disappeared . As he completed its final revision, he began his next 'Kamila' work, the opera Káta Kabanová . In 1920 Janácek retired from his post as director of the Brno Conservatory, but continued to teach until 1925.Drlíková (2004), p. 91 In 1921 he attended a lecture by the Indian philosopher-poet Rabindranath Tagore , and used a Tagore poem as the basis for the chorus The Wandering Madman (1922). At the same time he encountered the Microtonal music|microtonal works of Alois Hába . In the early 1920s Janácek completed his opera The Cunning Little Vixen , which had been inspired by a serialized novella in the newspaper Lidové noviny .
Listen| filename = Janacek - violin sonata 3rd movement.ogg | title = Violin sonata, III. movement | description = Composed in 1914, performed with success in England in the 1920s. | pos = left In Janácek's 70th year (1924) his biography was published by Max Brod, and he was interviewed by Olin Downes for The New York Times . In 1925 he retired from teaching, but continued composing and was awarded the first honorary doctorate to be given by Masaryk University in Brno. In the spring of 1926 he created his Sinfonietta, a monumental orchestral work, which rapidly gained wide critical acclaim. In the same year he went to England at the invitation of Rosa Newmarch . A number of his works were performed in London, including his first string quartet, the wind sextet Youth , and his violin sonata.Drlíková (2004), p. 109 Shortly after, and still in 1926, he started to compose a setting to an Old Church Slavonic text. The result was the large-scale orchestral Glagolitic Mass . Janácek was an agnostic, and critical of the organised Church, but religious themes appear frequently in his work. The Glagolitic Mass was partly inspired by the suggestion by a clerical friend, and partly by Janácek's wish to celebrate the anniversary of Czechoslovak independence. In 1927 – the year of the Sinfonietta's first performances in New York, Berlin and Brno – he began to compose his final operatic work, From the House of the Dead , the third Act of which was found on his desk after his death. In January 1928 he began his second string quartet, the "Intimate Letters" , his "manifesto on love". Meanwhile, the Sinfonietta was performed in London, Vienna and Dresden. In his later years, the still-active Janácek became an international celebrity. He became a member of the Akademie der Künste|Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin in 1927, along with Arnold Schoenberg and Paul Hindemith .Drlíková (2004), p. 113Vysloužil,p. 227 cs icon His operas and other works were finally performed at the world stages, though From the House of the Dead was first performed posthumously. In August 1928 he took an excursion to Štramberk with Kamila Stösslová and her son Otto, but caught a chill, which developed into pneumonia. He died on 12 August 1928 in Ostrava , at the sanatorium of Dr. L. Klein. He was given a large public funeral, to music from the last scene of his Cunning Little Vixen , and was buried in the Field of Honour at the Central Cemetery, Brno.Drlíková (2004), p. 119
Personality
Janácek worked tirelessly throughout his life. He led the organ school , was a Professor at the teachers institute and gymnasium in Brno, collected his "speech tunes" and was composing. From an early age he presented himself as an individualist and his firmly formulated opinions often led to conflict. He unhesitatingly criticized his teachers, who considered him a defiant and anti-authoritarian student. His own students found him strict and uncompromising. Vilém Tauský , one of his pupils, described his encounters with Janácek as somewhat distressing for someone unused to his personality, and noted that Janácek's characteristically staccato speech rhythms were reproduced in some of his operatic characters.Tyrrell; Mackerras (2003), p. 16 In 1881, Janácek gave up his leading role with the Beseda brnenská , as a response to criticism, but a rapid decline in "Beseda" s performance quality led to his recall in 1882.Firkušný (2005), p. 57 cs icon
His married life, settled and calm in its early years, became increasingly tense and difficult following the death of his daughter, Olga, in 1903. Years of effort in obscurity took their toll, and almost ended his ambitions as a composer.: "I was beaten down" , he wrote later; "my own students gave me advices, how to compose, how to speak through orchestra" .Pribánová (2007), p. 8 cs icon Success in 1916 – when Karel Kovarovic finally decided to perform Jenufa in Prague – brought its own problems. Janácek grudgingly resigned himself to the changes forced upon his work. Its success brought him into Prague's music scene and the attentions of soprano Gabriela Horvátová, who guided him through Prague society. Janácek was enchanted by her. On his return to Brno, he appears not to have concealed his new passion from Zdenka, who responded by attempting suicide. Janácek was furious with Zdenka and tried to instigate a divorce, but lost interest in Horvátová. Zdenka, anxious to avoid the public scandal of formal divorce, persuaded him to settle for an "informal" divorce. From then on, until Janácek's death, they would live separate lives in the same household.
In 1917 he began his lifelong, inspirational and unrequited passion for Kamila Stösslová , who neither sought nor rejected his devotion.Pribánová (2007), p. 9 cs icon Janácek pleaded for first-name terms in their correspondence. In 1927 she finally agreed and signed herself "Tvá Kamila" (Your Kamila) in a letter, which Zdenka found. This revelation provoked a furious quarrel between Zdenka and Janácek, though their living arrangements did not change – Janácek seems to have persuaded her to stay. In 1928, the year of his death, Janácek confessed his intention to publicise his feelings for Stösslová. Max Brod had to dissuade him.Pribánová (2007), p. 10 cs icon Janácek's contemporaries and collaborators described him as mistrustful and reserved, but capable of obsessive passion for those he loved. His overwhelming passion for Stösslová was sincere but verged upon self-destruction. Their letters remain an important source for Janácek's artistic intentions and inspiration. His letters to his long-suffering wife are, by contrast, mundanely descriptive. Zdenka seems to have destroyed all hers to Janácek. Only a few postcards survive.
Style
In 1874 Janácek became friends with Antonín Dvorák , and began composing in a relatively traditional romantic music|romantic style. After his opera Šárka (Janácek)|Šárka (1887–1888), his style absorbed elements of Moravia n and Slovakia|Slovak folk music .
His musical assimilation of the rhythm, pitch contour and inflections of normal Czech speech helped create the very distinctive vocal melody|melodies of his opera Jenufa (1904), whose 1916 success in Prague was to be the turning point in his career. In Jenufa , Janácek developed and applied the concept of "speech tunes" to build a unique musical and dramatic style quite independent of "Wagnerian" dramatic method. He studied the circumstances in which "speech tunes" changed, the psychology and temperament of speakers and the coherence within speech, all of which helped render the dramatically truthful roles of his mature operas, and became one of the most significant markers of his style.Firkušný (2005), p. 91-92 Janácek took these stylistic principles much farther in his vocal writing than Modest Mussorgsky , and thus anticipates the later work of Béla Bartók .Samson 1977 The stylistic basis for his later works originates in the period of 1904–1918, but Janácek composed the majority of his output – and his best known works – in the last decade of his life.
Much of Janácek's work displays great originality and individuality. It employs a vastly expanded view of tonality , uses unorthodox chord spacings and structures, and often, Musical mode|modality : "there is no music without key (music)|key . Atonality abolishes definite key, and thus tonal modulation (music)|modulation ....Folksong knows of no atonality."Hollander 1963 Janácek features accompaniment figures and patterns, with (according to Jim Samson) "the on-going movement of his music...similarly achieved by unorthodox means; often a discourse of short, 'unfinished' phrase (music)|phrases comprising constant repetitions of short motif (music)|motifs which gather momentum in a cumulative manner." Janácek named these motifs "scasovka" in his theoretical works. "Scasovka" has no strict English equivalent, but John Tyrrell , a leading specialist on Janácek's music, describes it as "a little flash of time, almost a kind of musical capsule, which Janácek often used in slow music as tiny swift motifs with remarkably characteristic rhythms that are supposed to pepper the musical flow." Tyrrell; Mackerras (2003), p. 13 Janácek's use of these repeated motifs demonstrates a remote similarity to minimalist composers (Sir Charles Mackerras called Janácek "the first minimalist composer" ).Cite web |url= http://www.leosjanacek.com/glagolitic.htm |title=Mša glagolskaja |accessdate=8 January 2009 |publisher=Leoš Janácek (Gavin Plumley's site)
Legacy
Janácek belongs to a wave of 20th century composers who sought greater realism and greater connection with everyday life, combined with a more all-encompassing use of musical resources. His operas in particular demonstrate the use of "speech"-derived melodic lines, folk and traditional material, and complex modal musical argument . Janácek's works are still regularly performed around the world, and are generally considered popular with audiences. He would also inspire later composers in his homeland, as well as music theorists, among them Jaroslav Volek , to place modal development alongside harmony of importance in music.
The operas of his mature period, Jenufa (1904), Káta Kabanová (1921), The Cunning Little Vixen (1924), The Makropulos Affair (opera)|The Makropulos Affair (1926) and From the House of the Dead (after a The House of the Dead (novel)|novel by Dostoyevsky and premiered posthumously in 1930) are considered his finest works.Kundera (2004), p. 43 The Australian conductor Sir Charles Mackerras became very closely associated with Janácek's operas.
Janácek's chamber music, while not especially voluminous, includes works which are generally considered to be "in the standard repertory" as 20th century classics, particularly his two string quartet s: String Quartet No. 1 (Janácek)|Quartet No. 1, "The Kreutzer Sonata" inspired by The Kreutzer Sonata|the Tolstoy novel , and the String Quartet No. 2 (Janácek)|Quartet No. 2, "Intimate Letters" . Milan Kundera called these compositions the peak of Janácek's output.Kundera (1996), p. 180
At the Frankfurt am Main Festival of Modern Music in 1927 Ilona Štepánová-Kurzová performed the world premiere of Janácek's lyrical Concertino (Janácek)|Concertino for piano, two violins, viola, clarinet, French horn and bassoon; the Czech premiere took place in Brno on 16 February 1926. A comparable chamber work for an even more unusual set of instruments, the Capriccio (Janácek)|Capriccio for piano left hand, flute, two trumpets, three trombones and tenor tuba, was written for pianist Otakar Hollmann , who lost the use of his right hand during World War I. After its premiere in Prague on 2 March 1928, it gained considerable acclaim in the musical world.
Other well known pieces by Janácek include the Sinfonietta (Janácek)|Sinfonietta , the Glagolitic Mass (the text written in Old Church Slavonic ), and the rhapsody Taras Bulba (rhapsody)|Taras Bulba . These pieces and the above mentioned five late operas were all written in the last decade of Janácek's life.
Janácek established a school of composition in Brno. Among his notable pupils were Jan Kunc , Václav Kaprál , Vilém Petrželka , Jaroslav Kvapil (composer)|Jaroslav Kvapil , Osvald Chlubna , Bretislav Bakala , and Pavel Haas . Most of his students neither imitated nor developed Janácek's style, which left him no direct stylistic descendants. According to Milan Kundera, Janácek developed a personal, modern style in relative isolation from contemporary modernist movements but was in close contact with developments in modern European music. His path towards the innovative "modernism" of his later years was long and solitary, and he achieved true individuation as a composer around his 50th year.Kundera (2004), p. 70 cs icon
Sir Charles Mackerras , the Australian conductor who helped promote Janácek's works on the world's opera stages, described his style as "... completely new and original, different from anything else ... and impossible to pin down to any one style" .Tyrrell; Mackerras (2003), p. 7-8 According to Mackerras, Janácek's use of whole-tone scale differs from that of Claude Debussy|Debussy , his folk music inspiration is absolutely dissimilar from Dvorák's and Smetana's, and his characteristically complex rhythms differ from the techniques of the young Igor Stravinsky|Stravinsky .Tyrrell; Mackerras (2003), p. 8
The French conductor and composer Pierre Boulez , who interpreted Janácek's operas and orchestral works, called his music surprisingly modern and fresh: "Its repetitive pulse varies through changes in rhythm, tone and direction." He described his opera From the House of the Dead as "primitive, in the best sense, but also extremely strong, like the paintings of Léger, where the rudimentary character allows a very vigorous kind of expression". Cite web |url= http://www.musicweb-international.com/sandh/2007/Jan-Jun07/janacek3105.htm |title=Janácek, From the House of the Dead |accessdate=8 January 2009
Janácek's life has featured in several films. In 1974 Eva Marie Kanková made a short documentary Fotograf a muzika (The Photographer and the Music) about the Czech photographer Josef Sudek and his relationship to Janácek's work.Cite web |url= http://www.nostalghia.cz/dvd/txt/sudek_kf.php |title=Recenze DVD: Josef Sudek |accessdate=8 January 2009 |publisher=Nostalghia.cz In 1983 the Brothers Quay produced a stop motion animated film, Leoš Janácek: Intimate Excursions , about Janácek's life and work, and in 1986 the Czech director Jaromil Jireš made Lev s bílou hrívou (Lion with the White Mane), which showed the amorous inspiration behind Janácek's works.Cite web |url= http://www.csfd.cz/film/4837-lev-s-bilou-hrivou/ |title=Lev s bílou hrívou |accessdate=8 January 2009 |publisher=Ceská a slovenská filmová databáze cs icon In Search of Janácek is a Czech documentary directed in 2004 by Petr Kanka, made to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Janácek's birth. An animated cartoon version of The Cunning Little Vixen was made in 2003 by the BBC , with music performed by the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and conducted by Kent Nagano .Cite web |url= http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2003/july03/Janacek_vixen_Cartoon.htm |title=Leoš Janácek: The Cunning Little Vixen |accessdate=8 January 2009 |publisher=music web-international.com A rearrangement of the opening of the Sinfonietta was used by the progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer for its song Knife-Edge on their debut album.
The Janácek Philharmonic Orchestra was established in 1954.cite web|title=Janácek Philharmonic Orchestra, Ostrava|url= http://www.jfo.cz/index_eg.htm|publisher=official website|accessdate=18 March 2012|archiveurl= http://web.archive.org/web/20110718174229/ http://www.jfo.cz/index_eg.htm|archivedate=18 July 2011 Today the 116-piece ensemble is associated with mostly contemporary music but also regularly performs works from the classical repertoire. The orchestra is resident at the House of Culture Vítkovice (Dum kultury Vítkovice) in Ostrava , Czech Republic. The orchestra tours extensively and has performed in Europe, the U.S., Australia, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan . Its current music director is Theodore Kuchar .cite web|title=Ostrava Centre for New Music|url= http://www.newmusicostrava.cz/|accessdate=3 July 2011
Criticism
Czech musicology at the beginning of the 20th century was strongly influenced by Romanticism, in particular by the styles of Wagner and Smetana. Performance practises were conservative, and actively resistant to stylistic innovation. During his lifetime, Janácek reluctantly conceded to Karel Kovarovic's instrumental rearrangement of Jenufa , most noticeably in the finale, in which Kovarovic added a more 'festive' sound of trumpets and French horns, and doubled some instruments to support Janácek's "poor" instrumentation.Ort (2005) p. 60 cs icon The score of Jenufa was later restored by Charles Mackerras , and is now performed according to Janácek's original intentions.
Another important Czech musicologist, Zdenek Nejedlý , a great admirer of Smetana and later a communist Minister of Culture, condemned Janácek as an author who could accumulate a lot of material, but was unable to do anything with it. He called Janácek's style "unanimated", and his operatic duets "only speech melodies", without polyphonic strength.Ort (2005), p. 63 cs icon Nejedlý considered Janácek rather an amateurish composer, whose music did not conform to the style of Smetana. According to Charles Mackerras, he tried to professionally destroy Janácek.Tyrrell; Mackerras (2003), p. 9 Josef Bartoš, the Czech aesthetician and music critic, called Janácek a "musical eccentric" who clung tenaciously to an imperfect, improvising style, but Bartoš appreciated some elements of Janácek's works and judged him more positively than Nejedlý.Fenomén Janácek vcera a dnes (2004), p. 219-220
Janácek's friend and collaborator Václav Talich , former chief-conductor of the Czech Philharmonic , sometimes adjusted Janácek's scores, mainly for their instrumentation and dynamics; some critics sharply attacked him for doing so.cite album-notes |title=Taras Bulba, Ripening |albumlink= |bandname=Leoš Janácek; Josef Suk |year=2005 |notestitle=Janácek Carves with a Knife; Suk Draws with the Most Delicate Pen |url= |coauthors= |page=8 |format=CD |publisher=Supraphon |publisherid=SU-3823-2 |location=Prague |mbid= Talich re-orchestrated Taras Bulba and the Suite from Cunning Little Vixen justifying the latter with the claim that "it was not possible to perform it in the Prague National Theatre unless it was entirely re-orchestrated" . Talich's rearrangement rather emasculated the specific sounds and contrasts of Janácek's original, but was the standard version for many years.Tyrrell; Mackerras (2003), p. 11 Charles Mackerras started to research Janácek's music in 1960s, and gradually restored the composer's distinctive scoring. The critical edition of Janácek's scores is published by the Czech Editio Janácek .Cite web |url= http://www.editiojanacek.com/en/ |title=Editio Janácek |accessdate=8 January 2009 |publisher=Editio Janácek
Inspiration
Janácek's style and thematic inspiration make use of several fundamental sources.
Folklore
Janácek was deeply influenced by folklore, and by Moravian folk music in particular, but not by the pervasive, idealized 19th century romantic folklore variant. He took a realistic, descriptive and analytic approach to the material.cite album-notes |title=Moravian Folk Poetry in Songs (Pecková, Kušnjer, Lapšanský) |albumlink= |bandname=Leoš Janácek |year=1994 |notestitle= |url= |first=Miloš |last=Štedron |coauthors=(transl. Ivan Vomácka) |page=8 |format=CD |publisher= Supraphon |publisherid=112214-2233 |location=Prague |mbid= cs iconen icon Janácek partly composed the original piano accompaniments to more than 150 folk songs, respectful of their original function and context,cite book |title=Moravská lidová poezie v písních (foreword) |last=Janácek |first=Leoš |year=1994 |publisher=Bärenreiter Editio Supraphon |location=Prague |isbn= |url= H 4570 cs iconde icon and partly used folk inspiration in his own works, especially in his mature compositions. His work in this area was not stylistically imitative; instead, he developed a new and original musical aesthetic based on a deep study of the fundamentals of folk music. Through his systematic notation of folk songs as he heard them, Janácek developed an exceptional sensitivity to the melodies and rhythms of speech, from which he compiled a collection of distinctive segments he called "speech tunes" . He used these "essences" of spoken language in his vocal and instrumental works. The roots of his style, marked by the lilts of human speech, emerge from the world of folk music.
Russia
Janácek's deep and lifelong affection for Russia and Russian culture represents another important element of his musical inspiration.cite album-notes |title=Katya Kabanova ( Prague National Theatre , Jaroslav Krombholc) |albumlink= |bandname=Leoš Janácek |notestitle= |url= |coauthors= |page=6 |format=CD |publisher=Supraphon |publisherid=108016-2612 |location=Prague |mbid= In 1888 he attended the Prague performance of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky|Tchaikovsky 's music, and met the older composer. Janácek profoundly admired Tchaikovsky, and particularly appreciated his highly developed musical thought in connection with the use of Russian folk motifs.Štedron (1946), p. 132 cs icon Janácek's Russian inspiration is especially apparent in his later chamber, symphonic and operatic output. He closely followed developments in Russian music from his early years, and in 1896, following his first visit of Russia, he founded a Russian Circle in Brno. Janácek read Russian authors in their original language. Their literature offered him an enormous and reliable source of inspiration, though this did not blind him to the problems of Russian society. He was twenty-two years old when he wrote his first composition based on a Russian theme: a melodrama, "Death" , set to Mikhail Lermontov|Lermontov's poem. In his later works, he often used literary models with sharply contoured plots. In 1910 Zhukovsky's Tale of Tsar Berendei inspired him to write the Fairy Tale for Cello and Piano . He composed the rhapsody Taras Bulba (1918) to Nikolai Gogol|Gogol's short story, and five years later, in 1923, completed his first string quartet, inspired by Leo Tolstoy|Tolstoy´s The Kreutzer Sonata|Kreutzer Sonata . Two of his later operas were based on Russian themes: Káta Kabanová , composed in 1921 to Alexander Ostrovsky 's play, The Storm : and his last work, From the House of the Dead , which transformed Fyodor Dostoyevsky|Dostoyevsky's vision of the world into an exciting collective drama.cite album-notes |title=Katya Kabanova ( Prague National Theatre , Jaroslav Krombholc) |albumlink= |bandname=Leoš Janácek |notestitle= |url= |coauthors= |page=7 |format=CD |publisher=Supraphon |publisherid=108016-2612 |location=Prague |mbid=
Janácek always deeply admired Antonín Dvorák, to whom he dedicated some of his works. He rearranged part of Dvorák's Moravian Duets for mixed choir with original piano accompaniment. In the early years of the 20th century, Janácek became increasingly interested in the music of other European composers. His opera Destiny was a response to another significant and famous work in contemporary Bohemia – Louise (opera)|Louise , by the French composer Gustave Charpentier .Tyrrell (1991–2), p. 108 cs icon The influence of Giacomo Puccini is apparent particularly in Janácek's later works, for example in his opera Káta Kabanová . Although he carefully observed developments in European music, his operas remained firmly connected with Czech and Slavic themes.Tyrrell (1991–2), p. 156
Music theorist
Musicology
Janácek created his music theory works, essays and articles over a period of fifty years, from 1877 to 1927. He wrote and edited the Hudební listy journal, and contributed to many specialist music journals, such as Cecílie , Hlídka and Dalibor . He also completed several extensive studies, as Úplná nauka o harmonii (The Complete Harmony Theory), O skladbe souzvukuv a jejich spojuv (On the Construction of Chords and Their Connections) and Základy hudebního scasování (Basics of Music "scasování" ).Teoretické dílo, p. 677 In his essays and books, Janácek examined various musical topics, forms, melody and harmony theories, dyad and triad chords, counterpoint (or "opora" , meaning "support") and devoted himself to the study of the mental composition.Teoretické dílo, p. 677-678 His theoretical works stress the Czech term "scasování", Janácek's specific word for rhythm, which has relation to time ("cas" in Czech), and the handling of time in music composition.Teoretické dílo, p. 676 He distinguished several types of rhythm ( scasovka ): "znící" (sounding) – meaning any rhythm, "cítací" (counting) – meaning smaller units measuring the course of rhythm; and "scelovací" (summing) – a long value comprising the length of a rhythmical unit.Teoretické dílo, p. 676-677 Janácek used the combination of their mutual action widely in his own works.
Other writing
Leoš Janácek's literary legacy represents an important illustration of his life, public work and art between 1875 and 1928. He contributed not only to music journals, but wrote essays, reports, reviews, feuilletons, articles and books. His work in this area comprises around 380 individual items.Literární dílo, p. Iiii His writing changed over time, and appeared in many genres. Nevertheless, the critical and theoretical sphere remained his main area of interest.
Folk music research
Janácek came from a region characterized by its deeply rooted folk culture , which he explored as a young student under Pavel Krížkovský.Janáckovy záznamy hudebního a tanecního folkloru, p. 381 His meeting with the folklorist and dialectologist František Bartoš (folklorist)|František Bartoš (1837–1906) was decisive in his own development as a folklorist and composer, and led to their collaborative and systematic collections of folk songs. Janácek became an important collector in his own right, especially of Lach dialects|Lachian , Moravian Slovakia n, Moravian Wallachia n and Slovakia n songs. From 1879, his collections included transcribed speech intonations.Janáckovy záznamy hudebního a tanecního folkloru, p. 382 He was one of the organizers of the Czech-Slavic Folklore Exhibition , an important event in Czech culture at the end of 19th century. From 1905 he was President of the newly instituted Working Committee for Czech National Folksong in Moravia and Silesia , a branch of the Austrian institute Das Volkslied in Österreich (Folksong in Austria), which was established in 1902 by the Viennese publishing house Universal Edition . Janácek was a pioneer and propagator of ethnography|ethnographic photography in Moravia and Silesia.Janáckovy záznamy hudebního a tanecního folkloru, p. 383 In October 1909 he acquired an Thomas Edison|Edison phonograph and became one of the first to use phonographic recording as a folklore research tool. Several of these recording sessions have been preserved, and were reissued in 1998.cite web |url= http://gnosis.cz/GBrno/detail.php? nid=GM010& ntyp=1 |title=Nejstarší nahrávky moravského a slovenského zpevu 1909–1912 |archiveurl= http://web.archive.org/web/20070826100402/ http://www.gnosis.cz/GBrno/detail.php? nid=GM010& ntyp=1 |archivedate=26 August 2007 |accessdate=18 March 2012 |publisher=Gnosis Brno cs icon
Selected works
For the complete list see List of compositions by Leoš Janácek .
Operas
Leoš Janácek counts among the first opera composers who used prose for his libretti, not verse.Kundera (2004), p. 54 He even wrote his own libretti to his last three operas. His libretti were translated into German by Max Brod .
Šárka (Janácek)|Šárka , libretto by Julius Zeyer (1887)
Pocátek Románu , "The Beginning of a Romance", libretto by Jaroslav Tichý after Gabriela Preissová (1894)
Jenufa|Její pastorkyna , "Her Stepdaughter", known in the English-speaking world as Jenufa , libretto by the composer after Gabriela Preissová (1904)
Destiny (Janácek)|Osud , "Destiny", libretto by Fedora Bartošová (1904)
The Excursions of Mr. Broucek on the Moon and in the 15th Century|Výlety páne Brouckovy , "The Excursions of Mr. Broucek", libretto by Viktor Dyk and František Sarafínský Procházka (1920)
Káta Kabanová , "Katya Kabanova", libretto by Vincenc Cervinka, after Alexander Ostrovsky 's The Storm (1921)
The Cunning Little Vixen|Príhody lišky Bystroušky , "The Cunning Little Vixen", libretto by the composer (1924)
The Makropulos Affair (opera)|Vec Makropulos , "The Makropoulos Affair", libretto by the composer, after Karel Capek (1926)
From the House of the Dead|Z mrtvého domu , "From the House of the Dead", libretto by the composer, after Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1927)
Orchestral
The early orchestral works are influenced by Romantic style, and especially by orchestral works of Dvorák. In his later works, created after 1900, Janácek found his own, original expression.
Suite for Strings
Lachian Dances
Moravian Dances
Suite for Orchestra (1891)
Jealousy (lang-cs|Žárlivost), overture for Orchestra (1894)
''The Fiddler's Child (1912–14)
Taras Bulba (rhapsody)|Taras Bulba (1918)
Dunaj (Danube) Symphony (1923–25)
Sinfonietta (Janácek)|Sinfonietta (1926)
The Wandering of a Little Soul (violin concerto), (1926–27)
Vocal and choral
Janácek's choral works, known particularly in the Czech Republic, are considered extremely complicated. He wrote several choruses to the words of Czech poet Petr Bezruc .
Lord, have mercy (1896)
Amarus (1897)
Otce náš (''The Lord's Prayer . 1901. 5-movement work for tenor solo, chorus, harp, and organ.)
His string quartets became a standard repertoire of 20th century classical music, other notable chamber works are often written with unusual instrumentation.
Pohádka (Janácek)| Pohádka (Fairy Tale), for cello and piano (1910)
Janácek composed his major piano works in a relatively short period of twelve years, from 1901 to 1912. His early Thema con variazioni (subtitled ''Zdenka's variations ) is a student work composed to the styles of famous composers.
1. X. 1905 (Piano Sonata) (1905)
On an Overgrown Path , Books 1 and 2 (1901–1911)
In the Mists (1912)
Selected writings
Theoretical works
O dokonalé predstave dvojzvuku (On the Perfect Image of Dyad Chord) (1885–1886)
Bedrich Smetana o formách hudebních (Bedrich Smetana: On Music Forms) (1886)
O predstave tóniny (On an Idea of Key) (1886–1887)
O vedeckosti nauk o harmonii (On Scientism of Harmony Theories) (1887)
O trojzvuku (On a Triad) (1887–1888)
Slovícko o kontrapunktu (A Word on Counterpoint) (1888)
Nový proud v teorii hudební (New Stream in Music Theory) (1894)
O skladbe souzvukuv a jejich spojuv (On the Construction of Chords and Their Progressions) (1896)
Moderní harmonická hudba (Modern Harmonic Music) (1907)
Muj názor o scasování (rytmu) (My Opinion of "scasování" (Rhythm)) (1907)
Z praktické cásti o scasování (rytmu) (On "scasování" From practice) (1908)
Váha reálních motivu (The Weight of Real Motifs) (1910)
O prubehu duševní práce skladatelské (On the Course of Mental Compositional Work) (1916)
Úplná nauka o harmonii (Harmony Theory) (1920)
Media
listen| filename = Janacek - nase pisen.ogg | title = Naše písen; ( Our Song ) | description = | format = Ogg | filename2 = Janacek.ogg | title2 = Postludium for Organ | description2 = | format2 = ogg -
Janácek in Literature
Janácek is the central character in David Herter 's First Republic trilogy, comprising the novels On the Overgrown Path , The Luminous Depths and One Who Disappeared .
Notes
Reflist|2
References
refbegin|2
cite book |title=Janácek: Years of a Life. A two-volume biography of the composer |last=Tyrrell |first=John |authorlink=John Tyrrell (musicologist) |year=2006/7 |publisher=Faber and Faber |location=London|isbn= 0-571-17538-4 (Volume 1), 0571236677 (Volume 2) |url=
cite book |title=Music in Transition: A Study of Tonal Expansion and Atonality, 1900–1920 |last=Samson |first=Jim |year=1977 |publisher=W.W. Norton & Company |location=New York |isbn=0-393-02193-9 |pages=67 |url=
cite book |title=Leoš Janácek, Život a dílo v datech a obrazech / Chronology of his life and work |last=Drlíková |first=Eva |year= 2004|publisher=Opus Musicum |location=Brno |isbn=80-903211-1-9 |url= cs iconen icon
cite book |title=Janácek |last=Hollander |first=Hans |year=1963 |location=London |isbn= |pages=119 |url=
cite book |title=The Operas of Leoš Janácek |last=Chisholm |first=Erik |year=1971 |isbn=0-08-012854-8 |url=
cite book |title=Janáckovy záznamy hudebního a tanecního fokloru I |last=Procházková |first=Jarmila |year=2006 |publisher=Etnologický ústav AV CR, Doplnek |location=Prague, Brno |isbn=80-85010-83-6 |url= cs icon (notes based on English summary)
cite book |title=Hudební slovník pro každého II |last=Vysloužil |first=Jirí |year=2001 |publisher=Lípa |location=Vizovice |isbn=80-86093-23-9 |url= cs icon
cite book |title=Teoretické dílo, Series I/Volume 2–1 |last=Janácek |first=Leoš |coauthors=ed. Leoš Faltus, Eva Drlíková, Svatava Pribánová, Jirí Zahrádka |year=2007 |publisher=Editio Janácek |location=Brno |isbn=978-80-904052-0-2 |url= cs icon (notes based on English summary)
cite book |title=Literární dílo, Series I/Volume 1–1 |last=Janácek |first=Leoš |coauthors=ed. Eva Drlíková, Theodora Straková |year=2003 |publisher=Editio Janácek |location=Brno |isbn=978-80-238-7250-7 |url= cs icon (notes based on English summary)
cite book |title=Thema con variazioni. Leoš Janácek, korespondence s manželkou Zdenkou a dcerou Olgou |last=(ed.) Pribánová |first=Svatava |year=2007 |publisher=Editio Bärenreiter |location=Prague |isbn=978-80-86385-36-5 |url= cs icon
cite book |title=Dejiny hudby na Morave. Vlastiveda moravská|last=Sehnal |first=Jirí |coauthors=Vysloužil, Jirí |year=2001 |publisher=Muzejní a vlastivedná spolecnost |location=Brno |isbn=80-7275-021-6 |url= cs icon
cite book |title=Ceskoslovenský hudební slovník I. (A-L) |last=Cernušák |first=Gracián (ed.) |coauthors=Štedron, Bohumír; Novácek, Zdenko (ed.) |year=1963 |publisher=Státní hudební vydavatelství |location=Prague |isbn= |url= cs icon
cite book |title=Janácek ve vzpomínkách a dopisech |last=Štedron |first=Bohumír |year=1946 |publisher=Topicova edice |location=Prague |isbn= |url= cs icon
cite book |title=Pozdní divoch. Láska a život Leoše Janácka v operách a dopisech |last=Ort |first=Jirí |year=2005 |publisher=Mladá fronta |location=Prague |isbn=80-204-1256-5 |url= cs icon
cite book |title=Janáckuv život |last=Firkušný |first=Leoš |year=2005 |location=Prague |isbn= |url= cs icon
cite book |title=Po zarostlém chodnícku (On an Overgrown Path). Urtext |last=Janácek |first=Leoš |coauthors=Zahrádka, Jirí (preface); Peters-Gráfová, Sarah (transl.) |year=2006 |publisher=Editio Bärenreiter |location=Prague |isbn= |url= BA 9502. ISMN M-2601-0365-8
cite book |title=Fenomén Janácek vcera a dnes. Sborník z mezinárodní hudebnevedné konference|last=Collective of editors |year=2004 |publisher=Brno Conservatory |location=Brno |isbn=80-87005-00-7 |url= cs icon
cite book |title=Ceská opera |last=Tyrrell |first=John |year=1991-2 |publisher=Opus Musicum |location=Brno |isbn=80-900314-1-2 |url= cs icon
cite book |title=Testaments Betrayed |last=Kundera |first=Milan |year=1996 |publisher=Faber and Faber |location=London |isbn=0-571-17337-3 |url=
cite album-notes |title=The Cunning Little Vixen, Sinfonietta, Schluck und Jau, Jealousy... |albumlink= |bandname=Leoš Janácek (Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Charles Mackerras) |year=2003 |notestitle=My Life With Janácek's Music (Sir Charles Mackerras in conversation with the Janácek specialist John Tyrrell)|url= |first=John |last=Tyrrell |coauthors=Mackerras, Charles |page=13 |format=CD |publisher=Supraphon |publisherid=SU 3739-2 |location=Prague |mbid=
Zemanová, Mirka. Uncollected Essays on Music. London: Marion Boyars, 1992 | Janácek's essays on music, translated into English.
cite book |title=Janácek's works. A catalogue of the music and writings of Leoš Janácek |last=Simeone |first=Nigel |coauthors=Tyrrell, John; Nemcová, Alena |year=1997 |publisher=Clarendon |location=Oxford |isbn= 978-0-19-816446-3|url= http://books.google.com/? id=XsgpuebI1vYC& dq=leos+janacek& printsec=frontcover
cite book |title=Intimate Letters: Leoš Janácek to Kamila Stösslová |last=Tyrrell |first=John |year=2005 |publisher=Faber and Faber |location=London |isbn=978-0-571-22510-1 |url=
cite book |title=My life with Janácek – The Memoirs of Zdenka Janácková |last=Tyrrell |first=John (ed.) |year=1998 |location=London |isbn= |url=
cite book |title=Janácek's operas – A documentary account |last=Tyrrell |first=John |year=1992 |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton |isbn=0-691-09148-X |url=
cite book |title=Janácek and His World |last=Beckerman |first=Michael (ed.) |year=2003 |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=New York |isbn=0-691-11676-8 |url=
cite book |title=Janacek as Theorist |last=Beckerman |first=Michael |publisher=Pendragon Press |location= Stuyvesant, New York |isbn=0-945193-03-3 |page=1994 |url=
cite book |title=Leoš Janácek: a biography |last=Vogel |first=Jaroslav |year=1997 |publisher=Academia |location=Prague |isbn=80-200-0622-2 |url=
Štedron, Miloš (1998). Leoš Janácek a hudba 20. století . Brno: Nadace Universitas Masarykiana. ISBN 80-210-1917-4.
External links
Wikiquote|Leoš JanácekCommons category
IMSLP|id=Janácek, Leoš
http://www.leosjanacek.com A detailed site on Leoš Janácek created by Gavin Plumley
http://www.bsmny.org/features/janacek Piano music of Leoš Janácek: An Exploration for Students of All Ages, an online feature from http://www.bsmny.org Bloomingdale School of Music (January 2008)
