La pasión juvenil de Leos Janacek

American Imago, 2015

Only in art does it still happen that a man who is consumed by desires performs something resembling the accomplishment of those desires and that what he does in play produces emotional effects-thanks to artistic illusion-just as though it were something real.-Sigmund Freud 1 So read how we have simply dreamt up our life.-Leoš Janáček 2 Prelude On June 27, 1928, in one of the last of the many "intimate letters" he exchanged with the love of his life, Kamila Stösslová, Leoš Janáček reported that the Moravian Quartet had that day come to his home in Brno to play for the first time his last major work, the String Quartet No. 2, "Intimate Letters." * All subsequent letters from Janáček to Stösslová will be cited by date only; all page references are from Janáček, 1994. Janacek wrote many more letters to Kamila than she to him, and far more of his letters have survived.

2009

7For more details o f the ideas o f Kant, Fichte, Hegel, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, and their connection to Romanticism, see Beard and Gloag (2005), pp. 161-2. Further information on the relevance o f Nietzsche to Romantic thought can be found in Dahlhaus (1980). 8Beard and Gloag (2005), p. 162. 9Quoted in Beard and Gloag (2005), p. 162. ,0Dahlhaus (1989), p.2. 1 ta ru sk in (2001), p.693. 13For details o f performances at the Provisional Theatre during the 1860s, see Tyrrell (1988), p.39. 14Yeomans (2006), p.63. 25 1844 Bagatelles and Im prom ptus (JB 1.19) Studies in harmony, counterpoint, and melody-song forms, marches, fugues, and canons (JB 3.1-17) (1844-5) 1846 Two Studies (JB 3.18) Studies in variation, rondo, and sonata form (JB 3.20-3) Sonata in G minor (JB 3.24) 1847 Six Characteristic P ieces op.l (JB 1.35) (1847-8) 1848 March f o r the Prague Student Legion (JB 136) March f o r the N ational Guard (JB 1.37) Album leaves op.3 (JB 1.65) (1848-56)

International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, 2012

The concept of an operatic "Slavic Catharsis" originated with the Czech musicologist Vladimir Helfert. Although the characterology of Slavic opera personages coined by him in 1932 is obsolete today, his ideas remain an interesting contribution to the history of the application of an ancient Greek notion to modern musicology and art theory. Helfert was concerned with explicating Leoš Janáček's idiom of musical drama. However, in Janáček's operatic works, catharsis is employed not primarily as a form of "purification". We try to demonstrate - by means of examples from his operas "The Cunning Little Vixen" and "From the House of the Dead" - that it might be more appropriate to define the specific Janáček catharsis not primarily through the category of compassion, but rather as a kind of nondiscursive insight, conveyed through music, into how we and our world are constructed.

The Musical Times, 2003

Fourth International Workshop on the History of Speech Communication Research (HSCR 2021), 2021

When discussing Leoš Janáček-whether in the field of musicology or among the general public-the topic of speech melodies often arises. What provokes interest is not only the composer's peculiar activity of listening to human speech and recording its intonation in standard musical notation but also the musical features of such melodies. However, the view of speech melodies has changed over time, and even today, there is no general agreement on how to interpret them. The first generation of Janáček scholars, encouraged by the composer himself, considered these notated extracts to be scientific documents of real sounds which could facilitate the research of spoken language. This view was later criticised by younger musicologists, who emphasized the high level of stylization and subjective qualities of speech melodies, such as the author's favourite melodic patterns. A third, alternative view has been provided by the writer Milan Kundera. In his essay Můj Janáček, he describes Janáček's activity as a ritual of everydayness, through which the composer searches for the "vanished present" and the "melodic truth". This paper provides an overview of Janáček's concept of speech melodies against the background of all three abovementioned approaches. Discussing different categories of speech melodiesnamely, normal, excited, and lyrical ones-it demonstrates Janáček's scientific ambitions and striving for precision as well as his artistic creativity and a tendency to stylise. Also, especially in light of Kundera's concept, speech melodies reveal themselves as tools to capture the elusive present.

Musicology Papers, XXV, 2,"Gheorghe Dima" Music Academy, Romania, 2010

The piano cycle On an Overgrown Path by Czech composer Leoš Janáček is in two series of 15 pieces and is one of the most frequently performed works. On an Overgrown Path is a music memoir that has a narrative theme with distinctive artistic connotations and emotional color that have dual lines of meaning. My research is an explanation of the distinctiveness of Janáč ek's On an Overgrown Path through systematic analysis. The purpose is to supplement existing resources by studying Janáček’s multiple identities as a composer, folklorist and music theorist. Janáček used Moravian and other ethnic elements that are comparable to another Czech composer, Antonin Dvorak. Included in my discussion are changes in style, and Janáč ek’s treatment of folklore. Janáček applied his theoretical concept, “speech melody,” to On an Overgrown Path. My research compares Janáček’s use of “speech melody” to the works of other composers who used similar themes to reflect the original modern musical style and includes Janáček’s musical aesthetics. A central concept of my research is an explanation of how Janáček’s language affected the way he composed, which lead to his treatment of rhythm as being speech like and complex. Throughout his life, Janáček pursued a musical style that was different than the norms of the day. In the early 20th century, romanticism still influenced Czech music. Janáč ek had grown weary of that musical era, which had been under the influence of Wagner and Smetana. On an Overgrown Path is a symbol of Janáček’s desire for change and represents his musical and philosophical beliefs.

Musicologica Brunensia, 2013