Page 37 - 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
however cannot be said for the exuberant, apotheotic, maestoso ending of
the Sinfonietta, a thrilling medley of trilling woodwind and strings over the
brass fanfares of the first movement. Like the Káťa Act 2 example, it does
not end maestoso: seven bars of Adagio are devoted to a prolonged cadence.
Apart from the few words in Makropulos Act 2 and the Hussite chorale
of Brouček’s Excursion to the Fifteenth Century, Act 1 all of Janáček’s maes-
toso act–endings in his operas are purely orchestral.
Structural maestosos in Janáček, II:
Eleventh-hour maestosos
Like Smetana and Dvořák before him Janáček also made use of “elev-
enth-hour maestoso”. These present a rather more varied use and occur not
only in operas, but in choral-orchestral and even chamber works:
String Quartet no. 1 (1923), IV: maestoso before the final Più mosso;
The Makropulos Affair (1925): maestoso interlude before Marty’s
farewell in Act 3 (effectively the end of the opera);
Mša glagolskaja [Glagolitic Mass] (1926): maestoso episodes befo-
re the end of movements III and IV
Capriccio for piano left hand and wind ensemble (1926), IV: piano
cadenza marked maestoso towards end of the movement
Although the grand associations of maestoso means that the term is
seldom found in chamber works, Janáček made a few exceptions. The six-
bar maestoso in the last movement of his First String Quartet (at bar 121)
resembles the classic “eleventh-hour maestoso” in that it gives way to a Più
mosso that brings the work to a close, heightened towards the end with a Più
mosso (feroce). However the Maestoso Tempo I is less an interruption of the
preceding Adagio than itself an intensification of it.
Janáček’s Capriccio for piano left hand, flute/piccolo, two trumpets,
two tenor tubas and three trombones has what is virtually a piano caden-
za before the end of the work. At bar 134, thirty bars before the cadenza,
there is a section, at first confined to the brass, marked maestoso-vivo (a
most unusual combination). The brass bars highlight a theme, previously
merely subsidiary, on which the rest of this section is based. Tempos are fast
or moderate until a sudden Adagio at bar 163, two bars before the caden-
za. Together the Adagio and the grander, two-bar beginning of the caden-
za (marked maestoso) constitute a brief holding back of the tempo before
35
however cannot be said for the exuberant, apotheotic, maestoso ending of
the Sinfonietta, a thrilling medley of trilling woodwind and strings over the
brass fanfares of the first movement. Like the Káťa Act 2 example, it does
not end maestoso: seven bars of Adagio are devoted to a prolonged cadence.
Apart from the few words in Makropulos Act 2 and the Hussite chorale
of Brouček’s Excursion to the Fifteenth Century, Act 1 all of Janáček’s maes-
toso act–endings in his operas are purely orchestral.
Structural maestosos in Janáček, II:
Eleventh-hour maestosos
Like Smetana and Dvořák before him Janáček also made use of “elev-
enth-hour maestoso”. These present a rather more varied use and occur not
only in operas, but in choral-orchestral and even chamber works:
String Quartet no. 1 (1923), IV: maestoso before the final Più mosso;
The Makropulos Affair (1925): maestoso interlude before Marty’s
farewell in Act 3 (effectively the end of the opera);
Mša glagolskaja [Glagolitic Mass] (1926): maestoso episodes befo-
re the end of movements III and IV
Capriccio for piano left hand and wind ensemble (1926), IV: piano
cadenza marked maestoso towards end of the movement
Although the grand associations of maestoso means that the term is
seldom found in chamber works, Janáček made a few exceptions. The six-
bar maestoso in the last movement of his First String Quartet (at bar 121)
resembles the classic “eleventh-hour maestoso” in that it gives way to a Più
mosso that brings the work to a close, heightened towards the end with a Più
mosso (feroce). However the Maestoso Tempo I is less an interruption of the
preceding Adagio than itself an intensification of it.
Janáček’s Capriccio for piano left hand, flute/piccolo, two trumpets,
two tenor tubas and three trombones has what is virtually a piano caden-
za before the end of the work. At bar 134, thirty bars before the cadenza,
there is a section, at first confined to the brass, marked maestoso-vivo (a
most unusual combination). The brass bars highlight a theme, previously
merely subsidiary, on which the rest of this section is based. Tempos are fast
or moderate until a sudden Adagio at bar 163, two bars before the caden-
za. Together the Adagio and the grander, two-bar beginning of the caden-
za (marked maestoso) constitute a brief holding back of the tempo before
35
