Page 32 - Weiss, Jernej, ur. 2018. Nova glasba v “novi” Evropi med obema svetovnima vojnama ?? New Music in the “New” Europe Between the Two World Wars. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 2
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nova glasba v »novi« evropi med obema svetovnima vojnama
against the Habsburgs (Janáček hoped at this point that the Russians would
“liberate” their Slavonic brethren from the Habsburg yoke). Gogol’s novel-
la, the inspiration for Janáček’s work, is a chapter in the history of how the
Ukraine was gained for Russia from the Poles and Lithuanians. The chief
character is the Ukrainian Cossack Taras Bulba, seen at the beginning tak-
ing his two young sons off to the fighting grounds to achieve their man-
hood. All three are killed.
As the Russians’ war fortunes faded and the unlikelihood of getting
a performance of a large-scale symphonic work seemed to have dawned
on Janáček, he put the work aside until 1918. By then his own fortunes had
changed with the huge success of his opera Její pastorkyňa [Jenůfa] in Prague
as had the balance of forces in the war with the entry of the Americans.
The third movement of Janáček’s work is entitled “Proroctví a smrt
Tarase Bulby” [The prophecy and death of Taras Bulba]. The “prophecy” is
Gogol’s Russian chauvinist dream of the ultimate triumph of Russia and its
Orthodox faith put into the mouth of Taras Bulba as he dies at the stake:
“A tsar shall arise from Russian soil, and there shall not be a power in the
world which shall not submit to him”. In one of Janáček’s commentaries
on the work he wrote (adapting Gogol’s own conclusion) that “such fires
or tortures that could destroy the strength of the Russian people cannot be
found on earth”. By 1918, with the installation of a Bolshevik Government
(which Janáček disapproved of), Janáček’s Russophilia had somewhat abat-
ed. He deleted the word “Slavonic” from its original title (“Slav. rhapsodie”
[Slavonic Rhapsody]) and transferred the triumphalism of the final move-
ment to a more Czech-patriotic use with his later, though unofficial, dedi-
cation of the work to the Czechoslovak Armed Forces.
Janáček’s music in the third movement includes an eight-bar maestoso
section (bars 44–51) with a pp melody marked dolcissimo on the violins an-
swered by cor anglais and harp. As the work nears its end the overwhelm-
ingly grandiose atmosphere is enhanced by two more brief maestoso pas-
sages (bars 123–8; bars 191–6). By the last of these the large orchestra has
been swelled by addition of an organ.
Janáček’s Ballad of Blaník, dedicated to the Czechoslovak President
“the liberator T. G Masaryk”, is a messianic work commemorating the same
mountain that featured in Smetana’s Má vlast. Maestoso markings appear
early in the work. At bars 54–5 there is a two-bar motif played on horns and
two harps (the harps reminiscent not only of those in Taras Bulba but also
in Smetana’s balladic maestoso harps in Vyšehrad). It is interrupted by a
30
against the Habsburgs (Janáček hoped at this point that the Russians would
“liberate” their Slavonic brethren from the Habsburg yoke). Gogol’s novel-
la, the inspiration for Janáček’s work, is a chapter in the history of how the
Ukraine was gained for Russia from the Poles and Lithuanians. The chief
character is the Ukrainian Cossack Taras Bulba, seen at the beginning tak-
ing his two young sons off to the fighting grounds to achieve their man-
hood. All three are killed.
As the Russians’ war fortunes faded and the unlikelihood of getting
a performance of a large-scale symphonic work seemed to have dawned
on Janáček, he put the work aside until 1918. By then his own fortunes had
changed with the huge success of his opera Její pastorkyňa [Jenůfa] in Prague
as had the balance of forces in the war with the entry of the Americans.
The third movement of Janáček’s work is entitled “Proroctví a smrt
Tarase Bulby” [The prophecy and death of Taras Bulba]. The “prophecy” is
Gogol’s Russian chauvinist dream of the ultimate triumph of Russia and its
Orthodox faith put into the mouth of Taras Bulba as he dies at the stake:
“A tsar shall arise from Russian soil, and there shall not be a power in the
world which shall not submit to him”. In one of Janáček’s commentaries
on the work he wrote (adapting Gogol’s own conclusion) that “such fires
or tortures that could destroy the strength of the Russian people cannot be
found on earth”. By 1918, with the installation of a Bolshevik Government
(which Janáček disapproved of), Janáček’s Russophilia had somewhat abat-
ed. He deleted the word “Slavonic” from its original title (“Slav. rhapsodie”
[Slavonic Rhapsody]) and transferred the triumphalism of the final move-
ment to a more Czech-patriotic use with his later, though unofficial, dedi-
cation of the work to the Czechoslovak Armed Forces.
Janáček’s music in the third movement includes an eight-bar maestoso
section (bars 44–51) with a pp melody marked dolcissimo on the violins an-
swered by cor anglais and harp. As the work nears its end the overwhelm-
ingly grandiose atmosphere is enhanced by two more brief maestoso pas-
sages (bars 123–8; bars 191–6). By the last of these the large orchestra has
been swelled by addition of an organ.
Janáček’s Ballad of Blaník, dedicated to the Czechoslovak President
“the liberator T. G Masaryk”, is a messianic work commemorating the same
mountain that featured in Smetana’s Má vlast. Maestoso markings appear
early in the work. At bars 54–5 there is a two-bar motif played on horns and
two harps (the harps reminiscent not only of those in Taras Bulba but also
in Smetana’s balladic maestoso harps in Vyšehrad). It is interrupted by a
30
