The Czechoslovak Review/Volume 3/Bohemian Musical Art

by Ladislav Urban

Bohemian Musical Art

By LADISLAV URBAN.

Love for music is one of the chief characteristics of the Czechoslovak people. This fact is illustrated by the saying: “Where there is a Czech, there you hear music.” Their neighbors have observed this; and they observed not only the Bohemian’s love for music, but also his cultivated taste and developed skill in musical art. In his novel “The Pilgrimage to Beethoven”, Richard Wagner relates a story of a young musical enthusiast who travelled from Paris to Vienna to meet Beethoven. In the woods on the Bohemian border he met a group of wandering Czech musicians who played for him Beethoven’s Septet with such profound understanding that he pronounced their performance the best he had ever heard. The same thing might be said with equal truthfulness of the Slovaks, for the Slovak love of music is really a passion.

Scotus Viator in his “Racial Problems of Hungary” tells of an old Slovak peasant woman who complained to a friend that her son was a useless, disappointing fellow. “What’s the matter,” inquired the friend, “does he drink or is he lazy?” “Oh, no,” said the old woman, “but nothing will make him sing. It’s a great misfortune.”

It is not necessary that a man be educated in music; if his mind is emotional enough and his mouth and throat able to produce a sound, then his desire for self expression will find its outlet in the most natural form—in song. The Czechoslovaks have a considerable treasure of folksongs. Some of them are of very early origin. One old folk-song or rather a choral deserves mention in this place. It is the well-known Hussite war-song “Ye Who are God’s Warriors,” often compared with the Marseillaise. It is a spirited song, a monument of the Bohemian Reformation, composed under the inspiration of the heroic death of the great Bohemian reformer, John Hus. It is built of two motives, the first, assaulting, rhythmical, characteristically warlike, is contrasted with the other, melodic, full of faith in the final victory of truth. This choral was used by Smetana as the main theme in two symphonic poems:—Tábor and Blaník.

The secular songs of Bohemia are of a lively, rhythmical, dance-like character; often they are real dances.

One of the most popular folk-dances in Bohemia is the Polka. “The Polka was invented about the year 1830, by a country lass in Bohemia, who was in service with a citizen in a small town. The school master of that little town, happening to witness the performance by the girl of the dance which she had contrived merely for her own amusement, wrote down the tune as she sang it while dancing. The new dance soon found admirers, and in the year 1835 it made its way into Prague, the Bohemian metropolis, where it received the name Polka, probably on account of the half step occurring in the dance; for the Bohemian word Pulka designates “the half”. Four years later, in 1839, this tune which had now become a great favorite in Prague, was carried to Vienna. The Polka had now become rapidly known throughout Austria. In 1840 it was danced for the first time at the Odeon, a theatre in Paris, by Raab, a dancing master from Prague. It found such favor that it was introduced with astonishing rapidity into the most elegant and fashionable dancing salons and private balls of Paris. From France it spread over all Europe, and even through North America. Celebrated composers wrote new tunes to it.” (C. Engel: The Literature of National Music.)

Besides the Polka there is another Czech folk-dance of a like character, the “Furiant”, which Dvořák introduced in new form in his First Symphony instead of the usual Scherzo. The most brilliant examples of the Polka and Furiant are in Smetana’s opera “The Bartered Bride.”

In the first half of the last century the nations of Europe were particularly interested in their folk art. An appeal was made to scientists, writers, and musicians encouraging them to collect and preserve folk-art; it resulted in great success. Countless collections of folk-art treasures together with essays and studies on this subject exhibited the beauty, simplicity and spontaneity of the art of the common people. No wonder that the value of this branch of musical art was overestimated and led to an error; folk-art was confused with nationality in art. The music in Bohemia, where the harvest of folk-song material was especially rich, was also led astray. The principle was inculcated that “national music” be based upon folk-music; imitation of folk-poetry and folk-melodies was approved as real national art. It is astonishing how long this principle violating the natural law of progress endured. All the compositions and names of authors of this feverish would-be-national period belong to history. They live no more, being but poor imitations. There is no room in this brief article for mention of their names or works. Into the artificial edifice without solid foundations erected by this group of artists struck a thunderbolt of genius in the person of Smetana who tore down their flimsy structure and exposed their false theories.

Bedřich Smetana (1824–1884) was the founder of a style which is now called “Czech National Music.” But why Czech music or Slovak music or Czechoslovak music? Does there exist any nationality in music?

Every nation with its mother tongue, its peculiar customs, its distinct mode of life, differs more or less in form of culture from all other nations. The differences of geo graphical position, racial inclinations and inborn temper, influence all departments of life—ven Art, and the man of art is a son of his nation; his work expresses his inner life; in it are mirrored his struggles, in it are clearly defined his philosophical views of life. The wonderful gifted soul of an artist has its deep roots in the life of his people, his work springs from the soil of his nation.

And as a man cannot escape from his own people and his own time, so he cannot escape from all people and all time. The greater the artist, the more he expresses the life of all mankind, the more he be comes the pride of his nation; the world looks upon his work as the representative art of his nation and discovers something in it that we call national.

It is astonishing how Smetana is comparable in some of the facts of his life to the great master Beethoven. He lost his hearing at the time of his most intensive period of creation, but his genius over came his cruel affliction, and because the triumph was spiritual, gave us works of great happiness and joy.

As a child of five Smetana was already composing and playing the violin. As a poor student he returned one evening from a concert of chamber music and wrote down a string quartet he had heard, because he could not buy a copy of it. When he was deaf and persecuted by the malignity of his enemies, when fate knocked on his door with iron hand robbing him of his wife and child, his genius created works before which we stand in dumb admiration.

Smetana’s inventive power was never exhausted; he was often compared with Mozart because of his melodies which are always fresh and very impressive. Speaking of the “Bartered Bride” the author of the “Opera” (Volume IX, of the Art of Music) says: “National melodies and national rhythms furnish the chief stock of the work. Thus the overture is a masterly setting of folk-song material in fugal style”. On the contrary there is no trace of Czech folk-melodies in the whole opera.

Smetana never accomodated his artistic principles to the taste of the public; he was too serious an artist to make a work catching at once the popular fancy. Almost every work^[1] except the Bartered Bride, had to fight against the wall of misunderstanding and was victorious only after many years of dispute because of its originality and vitality. A real genius, Smetana was much ahead of his time.

A cycle of six symphonic poems called “My Fatherland” from the master’s last period are without equal in the Czech literature of music. The subjects are drawn partly from Bohemian history (Vyšehrad, Šárka, Tábor, Blaník) and partly from Nature (Vltava—the principal river of Bohemia—and “From Bohemian Woods and Meadows”).

As a composer for piano Smetana left a considerable number of pieces, mainly “Polkas” which he idealized in a very poetic form. His best known piano piece is the Concert Etude “By the Seashore”. Two cycles, of which the first bears the title “Réves”, and the other “Bohemian Dances,” especially deserve the attention of pianists. Smetana was often a guest of Liszt who esteemed him a great artist. After Liszt had been informed of Smetana’s death, tears sprang to his eyes and he said: “We lost a genius.”

Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904) the best known Czech composer, was the son of a village butcher. From an early age his only passion was music. In spite of many life troubles and sufferings, he did not cease to study and work; to his praise it has to be said that his high position in music is chiefly due to his unparalleled diligence. The number of Dvořák’s works is huge, covering almost all forms of music. His fame began with the “Slavic Dances”, a cycle of 16 numbers brilliantly instrumented. From his five symphonies the last “From the New World” was composed while Dvořák was teacher of composition at the National Conservatory of Music in New York (1892). To this American period belongs the string quartet, op. 96, and the beautiful cycle of “The Biblical Songs”, op. 99, Dvořák’s last vocal opus.

He who wishes to have a clear idea of Dvořák’s genius ought to hear and study the wonderful symphonic poems from the last period of creation on the themes of Bohemian legends and fairy tales. In his operas, of which the best is “Rusalka”, Dvořák exhibits a wonderful gift of invention and instrumentation. Nevertheless those works are handicapped by a lack of dramatic consciousness and cannot be compared with Smetana’s dramatic works.

Zdenko Fibich (1850–1900) is the creator of the modern melodrama (recitations with music.) It was the Czech composer George Benda (1772–1795) who after Rousseau’s experiments brought this curious form to life. His technique was different from that of the modern writers of this form; the music was never performed simultaneously with the recitation, being merely an inter lude between the short sections of the poem (Ariadne on the Naxos and Medea). A hundred years later Fibich revised this form of music greatly changing and enriching its technique.

His trilogy “Hippodamia,” performed in three evenings is the first example in history, where the modern orchestra supports uninterruptedly recitations of the actors. Fibich prepared himself for this trilogy by writing a great number of concert melodramas of which “The Waterman” became a favorite in Bohemia. These are very fine studies of a new form so often condemned by critics. Fibich proved to be also a very fine master of dramatic form, and it is a pity that his works have not been discovered by the world.^[2]

Modern Czech music is represented by the works of V. Novák, pupil of Dvořák. He is the greatest talent of the present Czech music, without a rival. It is only necessary to hear his ocean fantasy for orchestra, soli and chorus “The Storm”, op. 42, to get an idea of his elementary power of creation. Besides this work his “Pan”, Op. 43, poem in tones for piano solo, is one of the most remarkable works of the modern piano composition.

Beside Novák modern Czech musical literature is represented by Joseph Suk, (1874), second violinist in the famous Bohemian String Quartet, an artist of delicate inspiration and originality. His string quartets and symphonic works reveal a strong individuality and the soul of a real poet.

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1. Dalibor (1868) of which Smetana was very proud, relates a Bohemian folk legend about a Knight Dalibor, who was held prisoner at the castle in Prague. He begged his jailor for a violin to lighten the heavy hours of his captivity. It is said that he played with such a wondrous skill that the people came from far and wide to stand outside the prison walls and listen to the charming music. Libuše (1881) is the climax of the master’s creation.
2. The best of his operas are: “The Bride of Messina”, “Sárka”, “The Tempest” (Shakespeare) and “The Fall or Arcune”.