Page 40 - 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
gives his own portentous explanation: “Bouře je za trest na nás abychom
moc boží potiťovali” [Storms are our punishment so that we feel the might
of the Lord] (7 bars after fig. 5). His words are given out “přesvědčivě” [per-
suasively] in a maestoso passage of four bars against the theme (heard lat-
er in the act) of the voices that call Káťa to her death. The storm depicted in
this scene unnerves Káťa to make her public declaration of adultery and, in
the next scene, to seek her death.
In the final scene of the opera, Káťa wanders alone, contemplating
her fate and wanting death. She longs to see Boris and then, in what up to
now has been a mainly soft soliloquy, she calls out, forte, “Vy větry bujné!
D oneste mu žálostný můj stesk!” [Abundant winds, carry my sad longing
to him!]. The four-bar passage (4 bars before fig. 27), is marked maestoso,
and Káťa’s memorable tune is emphasized by the orchestra playing it in
unison with her. Not long after, her wish is granted: Boris appears for a brief
farewell scene before she throws herself into the Volga.
Finally, in The Makropulos Affair, in the middle of Marty’s long story
about her strange life she comes to describe how the Emperor Ferdinand,
who has demanded her father make up an elixir of life for him, now in-
sists that it be tried first on the young Elina Makropulos. Emilia’s last word
“zkusil” [tried] overlaps into an orchestral maestoso of five bars (bars 711–
15), at first a purely orchestral reaction, and then while the orchestra paus-
es on a single chord (as in the Šárka example above), she sings: “Pak jsem
byla týden či jak dlouho bez sebe a uzdravila” [Then I was unconscious for a
week or so, and got better], after which she resumes her narrative, the tem-
po now marked Moderato. The maestoso here underlines the fact that it was
the young Elina Makropulos (now Emilia Marty) who, rather than the Em-
peror, was given the magic formula which has prolonged her life by three
hundred years, the underlying basis for the plot of the opera.
Marking important moments
All the maestoso underlining of important words described above are short
passages. But Janáček also used longer sections of maestoso to draw atten-
tion to important moment in a work. In Fate there is a long, purely orches-
tral passage (Scene 2, bars 143–200) marked maestoso. It comes early in Act
1 and therefore has none of the functions of the structural maestosos de-
scribed above. However the length is striking and this long orchestral pas-
sage helps to highlight an important moment in the opera when Míla has
caught sight of her former lover Živný, from whom she has involuntarily
38
gives his own portentous explanation: “Bouře je za trest na nás abychom
moc boží potiťovali” [Storms are our punishment so that we feel the might
of the Lord] (7 bars after fig. 5). His words are given out “přesvědčivě” [per-
suasively] in a maestoso passage of four bars against the theme (heard lat-
er in the act) of the voices that call Káťa to her death. The storm depicted in
this scene unnerves Káťa to make her public declaration of adultery and, in
the next scene, to seek her death.
In the final scene of the opera, Káťa wanders alone, contemplating
her fate and wanting death. She longs to see Boris and then, in what up to
now has been a mainly soft soliloquy, she calls out, forte, “Vy větry bujné!
D oneste mu žálostný můj stesk!” [Abundant winds, carry my sad longing
to him!]. The four-bar passage (4 bars before fig. 27), is marked maestoso,
and Káťa’s memorable tune is emphasized by the orchestra playing it in
unison with her. Not long after, her wish is granted: Boris appears for a brief
farewell scene before she throws herself into the Volga.
Finally, in The Makropulos Affair, in the middle of Marty’s long story
about her strange life she comes to describe how the Emperor Ferdinand,
who has demanded her father make up an elixir of life for him, now in-
sists that it be tried first on the young Elina Makropulos. Emilia’s last word
“zkusil” [tried] overlaps into an orchestral maestoso of five bars (bars 711–
15), at first a purely orchestral reaction, and then while the orchestra paus-
es on a single chord (as in the Šárka example above), she sings: “Pak jsem
byla týden či jak dlouho bez sebe a uzdravila” [Then I was unconscious for a
week or so, and got better], after which she resumes her narrative, the tem-
po now marked Moderato. The maestoso here underlines the fact that it was
the young Elina Makropulos (now Emilia Marty) who, rather than the Em-
peror, was given the magic formula which has prolonged her life by three
hundred years, the underlying basis for the plot of the opera.
Marking important moments
All the maestoso underlining of important words described above are short
passages. But Janáček also used longer sections of maestoso to draw atten-
tion to important moment in a work. In Fate there is a long, purely orches-
tral passage (Scene 2, bars 143–200) marked maestoso. It comes early in Act
1 and therefore has none of the functions of the structural maestosos de-
scribed above. However the length is striking and this long orchestral pas-
sage helps to highlight an important moment in the opera when Míla has
caught sight of her former lover Živný, from whom she has involuntarily
38
