Antonin Dvorak (Confusingly pronounced more like da-vor-jak) is probably the most well known Czech composer and lived from 1841 to 1904, a period during which the Czech people lived in the Kingdom of Bohemia as a state of the Austrian Empire. During this time when Czech identity was somewhat suppressed, Dvorak became the leading Czech figure in a movement of nationalist Romantic composers. He incorporated traditional Bohemian folk music into his works, such as his Slavonic Dances. He also spent a considerable amount of time in the United States, resulting in his American Quartet and what is probably his most famous work, his Symphony no. 9 "From the New World," both of which also adopted some American folk music characteristics.
Berdrich Smetana was another leading figure in Czech Romantic music who lived from 1824 to 1884, so a few years before Dvorak. He also incorporated many traditional parts of Czech folk music into his works, which include many polkas, a traditional Bohemian style of music, for example. He became famous for several operas, including The Bartered Bride, a comic opera that incorporated lots of Czech music and the plot of which takes place in a typical Czech country village. Another opera he wrote was Libuse, which celebrated the story of a Prague hero and was meant to commemorate the planned coronation of Francis Joseph as king of Bohemia. In 1874, he went completely deaf, but impressively continued to compose music, including in 1879 a suite of symphonic poems called Ma Vlast, or My Country, consisting of movements inspired by important Czech places such as The Moldau (a river) and Vysehrad (a fortress in Prague). One more interesting work is his autobiographical string quartet From My Life, which interestingly depicts his tinnitus and deafness by having one violin sustain a high note throughout one movement.
Lastly, Leos Janacek was a later Czech composer who lived from 1854 to 1928 and was influenced by the previous two composers greatly. He also incorporated folk music into his works, specifically Moravian music, which he analyzed using modes. Unlike Smetana and Dvorak, his incorporation of folk melodies was less idealized in order to fit a typical Romantic style and more faithfully kept some aspects of the folk music, such as complex rhythms. He wrote several important realist operas like Jenufa.
From this brief discussion of these composers, it's evident that music plays an important role in Czech national identity with the importance both of traditional folk music as well as the cultural figures of distinctly Czech classical composers who incorporated this music into their works. These composers, particularly Dvorak, remain important Czech cultural icons as shown in their being mentioned while Sabina thinks of Czech identity in the novel.
Some Links:
Dvorak's New World Symphony, so probably the most famous piece of Czech music. This is the intense start of the 4th movement, which sounds similar the Jaws theme at the beginning.
This is one of Dvorak's Slavonic dances and you can really hear the sort of Polka sounding folk melodies.
This is Die Moldau from Smetana's Ma Vlast, another very well known work which is supposed to depict the course of the Vlatva river.
Here's the 4th movement of the From my Life quartet, around the 4 minute mark you can hear the high E representing Smetana's tinnitus.
Lastly, here's a Janacek piano piece with his characteristically interesting and intricate rhythms.
Not expecting people to spend an hour listening to the classical music, but I thought it would be good to say a little about Czech music as it relates to national identity especially as it is referenced in the book, so I hope you check out a few of the pieces. (Warning: will probably do more classical music posts throughout the year)
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