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Leoš Janáček
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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● Nazi occupation: 1939 – 1945
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● democratic interregnum 1945 – 1948
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● the communist era: 1948 – 1989:
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● postcommunism
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● 2004: entry into the European Union
Leoš Janáček – early life
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Born in the North Moravian town of Hukvaldy
in 1854 (570 inhabitants), one of 14 children
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His grandfather and father, both called Jiří,
were teachers. Poverty, cramped conditions
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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
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The monastery dominated by choirmaster
Pavel Křížkovský, who had been taught by
Janáček´s father as an illegitimate son
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Křížkovský studied folk music with Moravian
collector František Sušil
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Day at monastery began at 5 am. Also classes
in philosophy, logic and the classics
Leoš Janáček - Brno
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At the age of 15, in 1869, he enrolled for the
three-year teacher-training course at Brno
Imperial and Royal Teacher Training Institute
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Then, two years of obligatory unpaid teaching
practice
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1872, Janáček became deputy choirmaster at
the Augustinian monastery. Talented organist
Leoš Janáček – Brno
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1873 – he became conductor of the Svatopluk
Choral Society
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Fiercely independent, refused payment
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Early compositions for the male chorus
Janáček – Prague
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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
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Became acquainted with Smetana´s music
and befriended Dvořák
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Zdeněk Nejedlý (1878-1962) ill will against
Janáček and Dvořák – promoted Smetana
Leoš Janáček
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On return to Brno, he became provisional
teacher at the Institute, conducted the Beseda
and Svatopluk choirs, composed melodramas
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1879 went to Leipzig to study, found the
quality of teaching bad
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Went also to Vienna, but his sonata was
rejected from a competition as “too academic”,
furious he returned to Brno
Leoš Janáček
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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.
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The marriage wasn´t successful. He was quite
often brutal to his wife.
Leoš Janáček
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1882 he created an Organ School in Brno
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Very fast moving mind – students found it
difficult sometimes to follow him.
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1912 – Complete book of Harmony – often
bewildering complexity
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From 1884 – founded and edited Musical
Letters
Leoš Janáček
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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
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1886 – friendship with collector of Moravian
music František Bartoš
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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
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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
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(1895)
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Collected speech melodies (nápěvky)
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His activities confirmed his reputation as a
folklorist – NOT as a composer
Janáček – The Emergence of a
New Style
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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
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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.
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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
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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