Page 33 - 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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janáček’s maestoso
three-bar passage marked Vivo, and then resumes in the same texture with
another short maestoso section. Although brief, the motif is important in
the piece, to be brought back towards the end (bars 273–81), in a Meno sec-
tion (though Janáček’s autograph is marked maestoso at this point) which
puts together the two previous maestoso sections without the Vivo inter-
ruption. Again the motif is played on two harps (though not horns, and
with a fuller orchestral background). What is remarkable is that the mo-
tif is in fact the same as that found in Taras Bulba at bars 195–8, i.e. bars di-
rectly continuing from the third of the maestoso sections mentioned above.
Although the purpose of the two symphonic works could not be more dif-
ferent, one a glorification of war, the other a plea of peace, both share simi-
lar maestoso apotheoses.
Structural maestosos in Janáček, I: endings
Though not particularly sympathetic towards Smetana, Janáček knew all
the Smetana pieces described above and from the examples given it would
appear that he took on board Smetana’s distinctive uses of the term maes-
toso. He was, however, much more in tune with Smetana’s younger contem-
porary, Antonín Dvořák. Dvořák’s Seventh Symphony in D minor (1885),
which Janáček conducted in Brno in 1886, has a first movement marked
Allegro maestoso, the final movement concludes with a Molto maestoso.
There is also a ten-bar “Eleventh-hour maestoso” in the final movement
of Dvořák’s Cello Concerto marked Andante maestoso before accelerating
into a concluding Allegro vivo. Some of the pieces by Dvořák that Janáček
knew particularly well were the four late symphonic poems based on poems
by Karel Jaromír Erben: Vodník [The Water Goblin], Polednice [The Noon-
day Witch], Zlatý kolovrat [The Golden Spinning Wheel] and Holoubek
[The Wild Dove]. Janáček published long analyses of them (JW XV/152,
XV/153, XV/154, XV/156) and even gave the first performance of the last one,
The Wild Dove. Based on Bohemian folk-legend, the Erben symphonic po-
ems have a patriotic cast to them and Dvořák used maestoso markings in
all but one. There is, for instance, a Grandioso e maestoso section associated
with the King in the Golden Spinning Wheel.
The really interesting one in this connection is The Noonday Witch,
which has no association with kings or heroes. Apart from a one-bar strin-
gendo, the final twenty bars are marked maestoso and constitute the dra-
matic end to the piece: a mother looking after a fractious child threatens it
with the Noonday Witch. The father returns to find the mother in a faint
31
three-bar passage marked Vivo, and then resumes in the same texture with
another short maestoso section. Although brief, the motif is important in
the piece, to be brought back towards the end (bars 273–81), in a Meno sec-
tion (though Janáček’s autograph is marked maestoso at this point) which
puts together the two previous maestoso sections without the Vivo inter-
ruption. Again the motif is played on two harps (though not horns, and
with a fuller orchestral background). What is remarkable is that the mo-
tif is in fact the same as that found in Taras Bulba at bars 195–8, i.e. bars di-
rectly continuing from the third of the maestoso sections mentioned above.
Although the purpose of the two symphonic works could not be more dif-
ferent, one a glorification of war, the other a plea of peace, both share simi-
lar maestoso apotheoses.
Structural maestosos in Janáček, I: endings
Though not particularly sympathetic towards Smetana, Janáček knew all
the Smetana pieces described above and from the examples given it would
appear that he took on board Smetana’s distinctive uses of the term maes-
toso. He was, however, much more in tune with Smetana’s younger contem-
porary, Antonín Dvořák. Dvořák’s Seventh Symphony in D minor (1885),
which Janáček conducted in Brno in 1886, has a first movement marked
Allegro maestoso, the final movement concludes with a Molto maestoso.
There is also a ten-bar “Eleventh-hour maestoso” in the final movement
of Dvořák’s Cello Concerto marked Andante maestoso before accelerating
into a concluding Allegro vivo. Some of the pieces by Dvořák that Janáček
knew particularly well were the four late symphonic poems based on poems
by Karel Jaromír Erben: Vodník [The Water Goblin], Polednice [The Noon-
day Witch], Zlatý kolovrat [The Golden Spinning Wheel] and Holoubek
[The Wild Dove]. Janáček published long analyses of them (JW XV/152,
XV/153, XV/154, XV/156) and even gave the first performance of the last one,
The Wild Dove. Based on Bohemian folk-legend, the Erben symphonic po-
ems have a patriotic cast to them and Dvořák used maestoso markings in
all but one. There is, for instance, a Grandioso e maestoso section associated
with the King in the Golden Spinning Wheel.
The really interesting one in this connection is The Noonday Witch,
which has no association with kings or heroes. Apart from a one-bar strin-
gendo, the final twenty bars are marked maestoso and constitute the dra-
matic end to the piece: a mother looking after a fractious child threatens it
with the Noonday Witch. The father returns to find the mother in a faint
31
