Janacek and his world /

Once thought to be a provincial composer of only passing interest to eccentrics, Leos Jan cek (1854-1928) is now widely acknowledged as one of the most powerful and original creative figures of his time. Banned for all purposes from the Prague stage until the age of 62, and unable to make it even ou...

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Bibliographic Details
Corporate Authors: De Gruyter.
Group Author: Beckerman, Michael
Published: Princeton University Press,
Publisher Address: Princeton, N.J. :
Publication Dates: [2003]
©2003
Literature type: eBook
Language: English
Edition: Course Book.
Series: The bard music festival
Subjects:
Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9781400832095
http://www.degruyter.com/doc/cover/9781400832095.jpg
Summary: Once thought to be a provincial composer of only passing interest to eccentrics, Leos Jan cek (1854-1928) is now widely acknowledged as one of the most powerful and original creative figures of his time. Banned for all purposes from the Prague stage until the age of 62, and unable to make it even out of the provincial capital of Brno, his operas are now performed in dynamic productions throughout the globe. This volume brings together some of the world's foremost Jan cek scholars to look closely at a broad range of issues surrounding his life and work. Representing the latest in Jan cek scholarship, the essays are accompanied by newly translated writings by the composer himself. The collection opens with an essay by Leon Botstein who clarifies and amplifies how Max Brod contributed to Jan cek 's international success by serving as "point man" between Czechs and Germans, Jews and non-Jews. John Tyrrell, the dean of Jan cek scholars, distills more than thirty years of research in "How Jan cek Composed Operas," while Diane Paige considers Jan cek's liason with a married woman and the question of the artist's muse. Geoffrey Chew places the idea of the adulterous muse in the larger context of Czech fin de si cle decadence in his thoroughgoing consideration of Jan cek's problematic opera Osud. Derek Katz examines the problems encountered by Jan cek's satirically patriotic "Excursions of Mr. Broucek" in the post-World War I era of Czechoslovak nationalism, while Paul Wingfield mounts a defense of Jan cek against allegations of cruelty in his wife's memoirs. In the final essay, Michael Beckerman asks how much true history can be culled from one of Jan cek's business cards. The book then turns to writings by Jan cek previously unpublished in English. These not only include fascinating essays on Naturalism, opera direction, and Tristan and Isolde, but four impressionistic chronicles of the "speech melodies" of daily life. They provide insight into Jan cek's revolutionary me
Carrier Form: 1 online resource (328 pages) : illustrations.
ISBN: 9781400832095
Index Number: E445
CLC: K712.8
Contents: Frontmatter --
Contents --
Acknowledgments --
Introduction: Janacek and Our World /
The Cultural Politics of Language and Music: Max Brod and Leo Jan ek /
How Janacek Composed Operas /
Janacek and the Captured Muse /
Reinterpreting Janacek and Kamila: Dangerous Liaisons in Czech Fin-de-Siecle Music and Literature /
A Turk and a Moravian in Prague: Jan ek's Broucek and the Perils of Musical Patriotism /
Zdenka Janackova's Memoirs and the Fallacy of Music as Autobiography /
Janacek's Vizitka /
Introduction: Janacek Writer /
"Tristan and Isolde By Richard Wagner" (1884-1885) --
"My Luhacovice" (1903) /
"Last Year and this Year" (1905) /
"An Example from Podskali" (1909) /
"Whitsunday 1910 in Prague" (1910) /
"Stage Direction" (1918) /
'Janacek On Naturalism" (1924-1925) /
Index --
Notes on the Contributors.