The Music of Leos Janacek--Its Origin in Folklore Author(s): Hans Hollander Source: The Musical Quarterly, Vol.

41, No. 2 (Apr., 1955), pp. 171-176 Published by: Oxford University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/739829 . Accessed: 08/02/2014 05:33
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THE MUSIC OF LEOS JANACEKITS ORIGIN IN FOLKLORE

By HANS HOLLANDER WITHIN the Slavonicrace-groups, the cultural division between

Czechoslovakia. This is chiefly due to the geographical of the position whose most has always had strong country, Bohemia, important province, links withEuropeand theWest,whereas theSouthern and Eastern dis- theEastern tricts - gravitate halfof Moravia,and Slovakia towards theEast. This contrast, withitspartly historical and partly psychological has alwayscharacterized Czechoslovakia's culturallife,quite reasons, the political thatexists between the urbanized apart from antagonism and industrialized of Bohemia and rural Slovakia with itsstrong province feudaland conservative traditions. In Czechoslovakian musicthisdivision is evidentin the Classic-Romantic orientation of Smetana and on theone hand,and Janatek's realism on the folklore-inspired Dvor~ik other. in the Janaiek (1854-1928) was bornin the villageof Hucvaldy, wooded of North-East where the hilly, region Moravia, people work hard to win a meagerlivingfromthe barrensoil, and whereartistic is likewise and untouched of expression rugged, powerful, by any form remained faithful all his life to his this stylization. world of Janaiek so closeto nature and to God, and hiswork drewitspeculiar childhood, from this contact with his native soil.As a descendant ofRomanvitality and as a contemporary of the awakening of the nationalconticism, sciousness of the Czechs,Janalekbecame,likeSmetanaand DvorFk, a nationalist that is to his music was the from composer, say developed melodicand rhythmic of his nativefolkmusic,and in characteristics - in the choice of textsand theirpoetic content subjectsfor songs, and symphonic his remain operas,choralworks, poems compositions within the nationalframework. 171

East and Westis perhaps so strongly marked nowhere as in

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Thus far but no farther stretches the commongroundon which to meethisgreatpredecessors, Smetanaand Dvo6tik. Janacek happened Whereas the twolatter of Eurocarried tradition the Classic-Romantic music into the of somewhat domain Czech nationalism Panpean (with slavistic in soon the chose leanings DvoFik'scase), Janatek, Moravian, hisown way.His musichad little or nothing in common withClassical which he found, as usedin themusic ofhisowntime, forms, stereotyped and anaemic.It had, in fact,an entirely thatof from different origin thetwoCzech masters. In accordance with theeast-west in Czechoslovakia's division cultural music her folk can be divided into two different kinds. physiognomy, One could evengo so faras to say thatthe contrast East and between Westin Czechoslovakia is nowhere marked morestrongly thanin her music.Romain Rolland once pointedout the vitalizing influence of the Bohemian of Mannheim the and school Karl composers (Johann A. Filtz,F. X. Richter)on thedevelopment of Classicalmusic Stamitz, themid-18th The natural of their during century. spontaneity compositionsinspired to Classicalmusic,in by theirown folkmusicbrought Rolland'sopinion, muchof itsvitality and freshness. This pointis interit since indicates the intimate between Classical music esting relationship and Czech folkmusic.Historical research has in factprovedthe close connection between Czech folksongs and dancesand melodic and structuraltypesin the musicof the 17thand 18thcenturies. Duringthe and Classical the Czechs came by variouswaysinto Baroque periods, contact with Western and thustheir old national tunes Europeanmusic, wereassimilated to the contemporary musicalidiom.Consequently the Czech melodiesare mostly of an instrumental character(frequently based on dancerhythms and chord theharmony remains essenmotifs), and theforms showtheusualsymmetrical into tially diatonic, grouping fourand eight-measure The workmanlike Bohemian musicians periods. of the 18thand 19thcenturies, in particular Smetanaand DvoFtk, carried on thistradition. Their styleis a clear recognition of Bohemia's attachment to Western Europe. The chiefriverof Moravia,the Morava, is usuallytakenas the between thetwodifferent ofculture in Czechoslovakia. boundary spheres In the eastern whichfor half,one can tracea lively populartradition centuries has undergone no appreciable The change. country people, rooted in their nativesoil,strongly resisted the urbanizing influences of

the 18th and 19th centuries.In this way, their language, music, and art, as well as their various popular handicrafts, remained untouched

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Leos Janicek

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- Its Origin in Folklore 173 Leo? JaniZek and unspoiled by the dissipationof modem life. It is characteristic of Leog JanaSekthat he was fullyconsciousof his role, of his missioneven, as an artistof his homeland.Therein lay his strength, but, in the opinion of his critics,also his limitations as a regionalfigure.He was not alone - the poet Bezru', the paintersUprka in this: a group of kindredspirits and Frolka,and the greatstudentof folklore, F. Bartos- wereexponents of that colorful,virile,and yet at the same time tenderart, originating in a rustic race. Janaiek, the most forcefulpersonality of this group, went farthest in the pursuitof his vision, perhaps because he had the deepest rootsin nature and in the traditionof his race. For thisreason he mustbe recognizednot onlyas one of the greatest in the music figures of the early 20th century, but also as one of the most important representativesof Czechoslovakianmusic in general. No picture of Janaiek could be complete without his profound Slavonic tenderness and his almost evangelicalbeliefin compassionand His such as the operas Jenufa, Katia Kabanovd, redemption. greatworks, The Music of Diary of a Young Man who Vanished, are full of that Tolstoian spirit which, throughguilt and the disgrace of sin, gives promiseat the end of divine forgiveness and salvation. His Christianmetaphysics, drawn so much fromemotionaland eroticsources,was in no way incompatible with his primitive of pantheismand his almost Franciscan identification himself withall creation.From thisromantic consciousness of his brotherhood both with animate and inanimate nature,whose closenessto God was a never-ending source of wonderment to him, Janaiek's art received its decisive impetus,its unique and timeless validity. dlan idiom is based on and followsthe Janacek's melodic and rhythmic natural inflections of human speech. From short,abrupt melodic fraghe built his ments, up lyricalperiodsand his dramaticpassages; frequent unusual and oftenbizarre intervals,irregularity changes of rhythm, of form, and frequentuse of modal tonalityare their most noteworthy characteristics. His melody,unmistakably based on the prosodyof lanhas a vocal guage, primarily origin,and the same applies to his instrumental music. This fact explains the predominanceof JaniEek's vocal music (operas and choral works) over his instrumental compositions. The question of his linkswith folk music arises in this connection,and we must thereforeconsider for a moment the nature of the EastMoravian and Slovakian melodies. Quite unlike Bohemian folk music, the songs and dances of Slovakia have sprungfromvocal sources.It is to distinguish usually difficult between songs and dances proper,since dance melodies were generallyassociated with words and have conse-

The Cunning Recollections or thesong-cycle Vixen, ofa Charnel-House,

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The Musical Quarterly

The structure ofthe tradition. in thepopular lived on as songs quently folk with their offive and Slovakian tunes, (measures rhythms irregular of the theunorthodox to be found), beatsare often seven grouping to thegreat all point and thefrequent modaltonality age measures, their at thesametime of these melodies and demonstrate dependence on thelawsofspeech. with thepeople, andidentity ofhisdeepaffinity Because Janfiek's Let of their music. with the imbued are spirit compositions completely us illustrate thispoint with The dance-chorus someexamples. Daleko, with an ofcontact shows from theopera siroko Jenufa interesting points East-Moravian love-song.1
Ex.

-A

must haveknown this since he useditswords well, again song JanAcek

Ze-le-n4'sem se - la.... e0/.

simplified periods.
Ex. 2

in a choralsongof his composition, withthe chorus almostidentical from This version withthe folksong, showsvarioussimilarities Jenufa. forinstance in the mirror-inversion of therhythm ) J) ( J ) I whichis typical of Slovakianfolk-music, but also distinct differences, such as the different placingsof the melodicclimax and Janiek's

to the closingcadence of the Jenufa showsan interesting similarity chorus.

Ex. 3
Ze-le-ncsem seltr.A

whose final melodic clause There is another version of this folksong,

betweenthe vocal melodiesof East CzechoThe intimate relationship slovakia and Jan6iek's type of melody is revealed even more clearlyin the following example fromthe Sinfonietta:
Ex. 4
Allegreto

Music Publishers, versalEdition, Inc., New York. Vienna,and Associated

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The Music of LeogJanZek- Its Originin Folklore

175

This lively from thefourth movement of the Sinfonietta polkatheme is a goodillustration ofa melody made up ofshort two-and three-measure several times. Butlet us compare theSinfonietta theme phrases repeated withthe following vocal melody from the region of Hustope&e.
Ex. 5

The similarity of the two melodies is evident. In the folksong we find the rhythmical beatsmodified melismatic a by figuration,phenomenon that also occursfrequently in music.This peculiarity often Janek's leads to polyrhythmical when those free-metrical passages,especially are appliedto a continually-repeated fixed figurations (Jenufa, rhythm vocal score,Universal Act Edition, I, p. 15). The instrumental in East-Moravian and Slovakian accompaniments folkmusicprovide of affinity withsomeof Janaiek's interesting points He frequently uses arabesque-like retypesof accompaniment. figures round a central or else motifs made of an volving note, up agglomerationofshort to support thevocal melody. Thoselively are notes, figures theplasticity of themelodic itsexpressiveapt to heighten line,stressing nessand increasing its emotional poignancy (Diary of a Young Man whoVanished, Nos. 10, 17, 18, and many other Thisstylistic examples). of music is also due to thewayfolk music is played peculiarity Jan'ek's in his homeland, wherebagpipesand violins, or veryoften dulcimers, the melody withfigurated accompany improvisations. The tonality of Janatek's musichas often been discussed. A close examination shows thathisharmony is also influenced byEast-Moravian and Slovakian folkmusic.This differs in harmonic structure from the folkmusicof Bohemiaby the predominance of minor overmajorkeys, but above all by themodaland exotic scalesthatform therawmaterial of manymelodies, a further proofof theirgreatage. Recentresearch thatcarriedout by the Slovakianmusicologist (in particular Theodor of Slovakianfolkmusic Hirner) has shownthat the modal tonality not fromGregorian derives, scales based on Chant,but fromancient the overtones of certain primitive shepherds' pipes.These scales correto the liturgical spondoccasionally as a rule modes,but are governed from the practice of Slavonicfolkmusic. by different laws, emerging Justas in the Slovakianand Moravianfolksongs, minor keyspredominate in Jan6_ek's music.Modal tonality leads to the use of the
Lydian fourth, as, forexample, in thischarmingdance-melody fromthe opera The Cunning Vixen:

Ach ml isem ji mi-lenku-..ek.

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176
Ex. 6

The Musical Quarterly

We could quote manyfolk-melodies of thistype.Here is an example witha similar and modal rhythm partly tonality:
Ex. 7

Dycky semti

As a youngman, JanaZek had alreadybegunto develophis later idiom. His stylistic earlyopera Sarka (1887-88) is essentially inspired at the timeand in whosespirit he by the folktuneshe was collecting himself. Lateron his attitude towards hisnative underfolklore steeped went a certain change.In his earlyromantic periodit appearsmore conventional and sentimental, in the fashion and of the 19thcentury, notuntil hismasterpiece realism, Jenufa (1895-1903) doeshispowerful of his deep attachment so expressive to his nativesoil,cometo its full maturity.

ii-k--v&.val.e*

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