October 7, 1965 Brethren
in Babel -
Enclosed, hopefully (since this must be written before final returns are in on the Janacek Pronunciation Sweepstakes) are (1) some paragraphs concerning the text origin from the Deutsche Grarnmophonjacket of (2) a rough "transliteration" which their recording of M1 sa Glagolskaja, we request you transfer neatly, lightly and "erasably" to your voice-part (3) a comparable (We will have personal "live-coaching" at a later date.), transliteration of the Middle English pronunciation of Britten's Ceremony of Carols - according to authorities from Columbia University (The carols will be sung by women only but others among you may find uses for this rare pronunciation scheme.) and (4) the personnel -- by COGmembership number -- of those selected for the Chamber Chorus. last
With respect to this latter, this is a smaller chorus than that year and, at that, it is larger than it ought to be.
of
For the final performances of .Messiah which Handel supervised, conducted and in which he played -- at a time when his fame and financial backing could have secured him whatever forces he desired -- Handel used only twenty-six or twenty-seven voices including soloists, with boy's voices on the soprano and alto parts. His orchestra consisted of twentytwo strings, four oboes, four bassoons, two trumpets (used only in four out of fifty-three sections -- and one of these off-stage), timpani (used only in the "Hallelujah Chorus" and "Worthy is the Lamb") and organ and harpsichord. Since our attempt will be to reproduce as nearly as possible Handel's final performance of 1754 at the Foundling Hospital, it is apparent that even our Chamber Chorus forces are too large. However, the quality of the Chamber Chor~s auditions was such that it became impossible to make a choice of only twenty-seven voices without doing several persons some injustice. Moreover, today's halls are larger and our instruments more sonorous; so we shall go ahead rehearsing with our forty voices, listening carefully to sonorities and balance. From time to time we will divide int-o chmirs of lesser size; and, perhaps, even at performance we may find it advisable to use different choirs for the various performances or halves of performances. With all the recent scholarship that has revealed and revitalized Messiah the more who can make its re-acquaintance the better. Pax. R
1965-1966 Sopranos
411 . 423 425 428 429
Ed. (Just
463 467 471 478 480 484
CLEVELA ND ORCHESTRA CHAMBER CI-iORUS Altos Basses ' TelX>rs 210 .. .. 208 llO 166 304 . 357
321 330
3.54
355
as we go to press)
374 378 381 382
2.51 2.55 262 267
269 270 274 276
111 126 129 151
The Slavomic Mass will be available
167 171 174 176 Monday night.
"v Janacek - M'sa Glagolskaja
(Historical
notes)
The Glagolitic Mass is a fruit of Janacek's last creative period. At Luhacovice, a favourite health resort of Janacek in Moravia, the 72 years old master wrote on the score: "5th August t.o 15th Octobre 1926n. He several times gave information concerning the origins of this work. Especially important is his statement that with this work he was making his contribution to the celebrations marking the 10th anniversary of the foundation of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1928, and that in it he was paying tribute to the "spirit of Cyril and Methodius" which he felt to be missing in the preparations for the official celebrations. In the Glagolitic Mass, therefore, he intended to honour the memo~r of the brothers St. Cyril and St. Methodius of Salonika, who brought Christianity to the Czech people when they settled in Moravia. In this connection he undoubtedly cast his mind back to his youth, studying at a monastic school in Brno, he had since in 1869, while still taken part in the splendid ceremonies marking the thousandth anniversary of St. Cyril at the ancient shrine of Velehrad, the contrepoint for veneration of the two saints. Wishing to celebrate the occasion with a Mass, he considered it appropriate to use for his composition the Church Slavonic Mass-text; the two saints themselves had trnaslated substantial parts of the Bible and liturgical texts into early Church Slavonic (early Bulgarian), and had also preached in that language. For their translations they had employed the so-called Glagolitic script which they had devised, and in which the idiomatic sounds of Slavonic speech could be expressed. This script is the origin of the name given to the Glagolites who, following a tradition dating from the 9th century, still hold services in a Croatian form of Church Slavonic in certain parts of Croatia (on the north-eastern shore of the Adriatic with the island of In recent times the original Glagolitic script has been Krk (tEd.)) replaced by Latin characters, and it was the Church Slavonic text written in Latin characters which Janacek used for his Mass• •••• in this work religious-historical traditions are blended with popular elements. It is this combination of ideas to which the composer gives expression in his wholly untraditional manner: the people praise God but in their own language, proud of the strength which derives from their faith, but also of the ties which link them with their homeland, _proudly aware of the thousand years of history during which they have cherished the land which has s~tained them. V
(Kamil Slapak)
-2-
has translated Janacek's texts into German and who has made ceaseless for him, deserves the highest credit. ,
propaganda
v,
Janacek had already composed two operatic works (Sarka and The Beginning of ~ Romance), also some choruses and other compositions, but was st ill living the inconspicuous life of a small music teacher in a provincial city, such as BrUnn was before Czechoslovakia's declaration of independence. Everything Czech, moreover, was only of secondary importance in this city. When he was 50, hi s opera Jenufa, which was later to become a world success, was produced for the first time at BrUnn's very provincial Czech theatre. But the Prague theatre continued to reject the work and did not produce it until twelve years later, when the composer was 62 years old. In the same year, 1916, it was also performed at the Vienna Court Opera in German translation. Therewith the era of non-recognition came to an end. In the twelve remaining years of his life, in addition t o a whole series of other works, Janacek composed four more operas. In 1925 the honorary degree of Doctor of Philosophy was conferred upon him by the University of BrUnn; he received special honours in England in 1926; and, inspired with the idea of a new music, he was a central figure at the music festivals of the Interna t ional Society for Contemporary Music. All his remaining operas had their premieres at the same BrUnn theatre which had first produced Jenufa and which had become outstanding in the meantime. Many stages in Germany and in other countries produced the later works. In honour of his 70th birthday (1924) Prague and BrUnn gave Janacek cycles in their opera houses. In the summer of 1928 the composer, who appeared to be the picture of health, suddenly contracted pneumonia in his native land. He was taken to the hospital of Moravian Ostrau and died there, Aug. 12. On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of his death Janacek cycles were aga i n arranged in Czechoslovakia. The underlying principle of Janacek's compositions is a dynamic one; cr i tics have even spoken of his "dynamic leitmotifs." This dynamic quality may originate in the spoken word, for, as we have seen, the vocal element . is always of primary impor t ance with Janacek; it achieves unprecidented effects, particularly in his operas. Perhaps his second most pronounced characteristic is the mystical atmosphere of Nature, its creatures, and human beings in his works: the Volga (Kat'a Kabanova), the forest and its animals (The Sl,y Little Fox). All this is wonderfully depicted by the music, which oftenseeiiis to be put together like a mosaic. Lastly, Janacek and his art are inconceivable without his eastern Slavonic scales. A beautiful humanity is embodied in this art, a faith in mankind (Jenufa), which even in downfall of the individual, as a result of sickness, violence, or death, cannot destroy. But this faith has its roots in suffering and in a certain gentl e and dispassionate pessimism. In the final period of his career Janacek composed the grandiose Glagolitish Mass, based on old Slavonic li t urgy, a very di f ficult chora l work, rich in colourand folkloristic in spirit. One of the most original of his works is The Diary of One Who Vanished, for soloists and chorus. It is based on a curiousnewspaperre port which Ja nacek f ound. In a Moravian village, a well-to-do peasant's son, the hope of his paren t s, disappears. He leaves behind 22 poems, which tell how he had to follow a beautiful gypsy girl. His shame over succumbing to her spell has driven hi m into exile. The musi c contains enchanting sound effects and paints magnificent pictures of Nature and the human s oul.
V
'v
LEOS JANACEK (b. Hukvaldy, East Moravia, July 3, 1854 - d. Ostrau, by Paul Stefan
Moravia, Aug. 12, 1928)
Leos Janacek is one of t,he most interesting, almost mythical figures of East Czech, or strictly speaking, Moravian music, and a remarkable example of a composer who reached his prime late in life. He was born July 3, 1854, one of the many children of the school teacher and musician of the same name in the village of Hukvaldy (Hochwald) in East Moravia, on the Silesian border, in "lachish" country. The population there is influenced in part by its Polish neighbors; consequently words are often accented on the second syllable as in Polish, in contrast to Czech, which explains why Janacek was frequently accused of faulty declamation by his countrymen. His youth was cheerful but very needy. At the age of ten, ; as soon as he was seen to have musical talent, he was taken to BrUnn (Brno), the capital of Moravia. As a chorister in the Old BrUnn Monastery of the Austin Frairs (this same cloister was the home of the epoch-making biologist, Gregor Mendel) the boy received lodging and maintenance in exchange for playing and singing in the choir. The excellent musician Krizkowsky was conductor of the choir; Janacek later became his successor. In 1866 the boy's father died and left the family in dire poverty. Leos earned his living as a music teacher and went to the Organ School in Prague for a thorough education. There he led a life of indescribable hunger and starvation. In 1875 he was back in BrUnn, teaching at the Teachers' School, for which he wrote a manual of instruction in singing, his first theoretical work. He also conducted variou s choruses and a Philharmonic Orchestra, performing many works by Dvorak, a personal friend. In 1879 he attended a conservatory again, this time in Leipzig, and soon after the Vienna Conservatory. In 1881 he married and founded the Bri.lnn Organ School, giving practical and theoretical instruction in music. For almost 40 years he was a teacher there. He published a theory of harmony, not being satisfied with Helmholtz's theory. According to Janacek, harmony is the adjustment of the chaos which arises when a second chord is struck before the first has died away. In this process bold progressions and resolutions result. In 1920 his Organ School was taken over by the state; he became a Professor at the State Conservatory of Prague, where he taught a master-class, but retained his residence in Brunn. Beside s his occupation with the theory of harmony, he was attracted in particular to a study of the folksong of his native land, which has its roots in East Slavonic and Byzantine music. He published several collections of folksongs, but never :used the aoiigs themseive ¡s in his works, rather 11composing folksongs," like Smetana. The relationship between word and sound occupied him from another aspect also. He sought to ascertain the melody of every-day speech and eagerly made note of pitch, rhythm and accent. At a spa he requested a woman to repeat the exact words which she had just addressed to a peasant woman in buying eggs, so th at he could note down the musical equivalent of her speech . This woman later played an impor tant role in his life, for she and her husband kept a quiet room for work in readiness for him at all times in the Bohemian city of Pisek. His dramatic music in particular follows the Czech speech-melody precisely, which makes translating especially difficult. Thus the Prague writer, Max Brod, who
-3Janacek's later operas escape the conventional in story and treatment. Jenufa presents a gripping tale of village life by Gabrielle Preissova and the music is of powerful intensity. Kat'a Kabanova is the story of a Slavonic Madame Bovary, based on a Russian short story by Ostrovsky, and can be described as a mighty tone-painting of provincial life. The Makropoulos Affair, from the drama by Karel Capek, is the story of 300-year-old Elena Makropoulos, her 11elixir of life 11 and her escape in death -- an extremely expressive work and one which is very difficult to present. Aus einem Totenhaus dramatizes Dostoievsky's picture of the Siberian convict 1 s life.The climax is reached in a theatrical performance of the convicts, a comedy which changes from jest to sad earnest. Orchestra, singers and stage-manage.~ent are faced here with new problems. The score which Janacek left had to be revised and supplemented, because the manuscript version was unplayable in many places. Nevertheless, Janacek departed this life with a last powerful achievement. The last word has not yet been spoken about this composer, either by artist or scholar. In any case he is an extraordinary phenomenon: despite all his fantasy, he is earth-born and bound, a new distinction in Czech-Slavonic music. Janacek's works gradually are being assembled, archives of the University of BrUnn under Professor need much work to be completed. This same scholar, Janacek room of the National Museum of BrUnn, which arrangement of the room in which Janacek worked.
his letters sorted. The Janacek Helfert 1 s supervision still moreover, is in charge of the has faithfully preserved the
(From International Cyclopedia of Music and Musicians, edited by Oscar Thompson; Dodd, Mead & Co., 1949) Fellopolylinguists
-
Thank you for the sustained concentration of last Monday night. Never has so little been accomplished by so many in so much time with such great effort. There must have been a madnius in St. Cyril's Methodius. Chamber Chorus: Now hear thisl As the small red father promised in retrospect of your thrilling reading of Messiah last Sunqay, we will now proceed to cut our pre-orchestra rehearsals by 37 1/2% -- canceling the COCCrehearsals of October 31, November 7 and 14. Note that this leaves us with two rehearsals remaining in October -- 17th and 24th -- followed three weeks later by two: November 21 and 28, which precede the performance week. Take care. Love, R
ANNOUNCEMENTS : Sunday Monday
October October
17 18
¡ 3:00 p.m.
5:00 p.m.
Chamber Chorus Altos and Tenors - COC
8:00 p.m.
All