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Janáček's speech-melody theory in concept and practice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 August 2008

Paul Wingfield
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Extract

No aspect of Janáček's operas has been publicised more widely than their alleged use of ‘speech melodies’. Indeed, most commentators now assume the a priori existence of speech melodies in the composer's operas. However, only John Tyrrell has explored the matter in depth, and many basic questions about Janáček's speech-melody theory and practice remain unanswered. What follows is an attempt to investigate in detail one of the most prominent, and most misrepresented, issues of Janáček opera analysis. A brief initial digression into the principal characteristics of spoken Czech is unavoidable.

Type
Research Article
Information
Cambridge Opera Journal , Volume 4 , Issue 3 , November 1992 , pp. 281 - 301
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

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References

1 John Tyrrell deals with Janáček's speech-melody theory and operatic vocal writing principally in four publications: ‘Janáček and the Speech-Melody Myth’, Musical Times, 111 (1970), 793–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Leoŝ Janáček: Kát'a Kabanová, Cambridge Opera Handbooks (Cambridge, 1982), 9–20Google Scholar; ‘Janáček’ in The New Grove: Turn of the Century Masters, ed. Sadie, Stanley (London, 1985), 1–77 (pp. 42–6)Google Scholar; Czech Opera, Cambridge National Traditions of Opera (Cambridge, 1988), 282–98.Google Scholar

2 A more detailed account of the rhythm (but not the intonation) of Czech can be found in Tyrrell, , Czech Opera (see n. 1), 253–8.Google Scholar

3 Czech Opera, 255.Google Scholar

4 The characteristics listed here apply to standard Czech. As Tyrrell notes ( Czech Opera, 288Google Scholar), Janáček was born in north-east Moravia and his native dialect ‘under the influence of neighbouring Polish tended to stress the penultimate syllable’. Though Janáček's native dialect should always be borne in mind in any examination of his vocal writing, this dialect sheds no light on the musical examples in this article.

5 A catalogue of 98 articles and autograph sources containing Janáček's pronouncements about and/or examples of speech melody is printed in Bohumír Stédroň, Zur Genesis von Leoš Janáčeks Oper Jenůfa (Brno, 1968; rev. 2nd edn, 1972), 149–52.Google Scholar

6 Janáček, Leoš, interview for Literární svět (8 03 1928)Google Scholar, in Zemanova, Mirka, Janáček's Uncollected Essays on Music (London, 1989), 120–4 (p. 121).Google Scholar

7 Janáček, Leoš, ‘The Language of Our Actors and the Stage’ (Moravskcá revue, 1899), in Essays (see n. 6), 36–8 (p. 37).Google Scholar

8 Essays, 38.Google Scholar

9 Essays, 37.Google Scholar

10 Essays, 37.Google Scholar

11 Janáček, Leoš, ‘He had an Excellent Ear’ (Lidovénoviny, 8 01 1924)Google Scholar, in Essays, 48–50 (p. 49).Google Scholar Janáček gives no source for his alleged quotation from Plato.

12 Essays, 122.Google Scholar

13 Janáček, Leoš, ‘Around Jenůfa’ (Hudební revue, 1915–16)Google Scholar, in Essays, 84–91 (p. 90).Google Scholar

14 Essays, 90.Google Scholar

15 Essays, 87.Google Scholar

16 For details about this instrument and Janáček's use of it see Racek's, Jan introduction to Blažek, Zdeněk, ed., Leoš Janáček: Hudebně teoretické dílo [Music theory works], 1 (Prague, 1968), 9–20 (p. 18).Google Scholar

17 Štědroň, Bohumír, ed., Leoš Janáček: Letters and Reminiscences, rev. Eng. trans. (Prague, 1955), 183–4.Google Scholar

18 Essays, 85.Google Scholar

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21 A substantial account of Russian Realist ideas and their effect on nineteenth-century Russian opera is offered by Taruskin, Richard, ‘Realism as Preached and Practiced: The Russian Opera Dialogue’, Musical Quarterly, 56 (1970), 431–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

22 Dahlhaus, Carl, Realism in Nineteenth-century Music, trans. Whittall, Mary (Cambridge, 1985), 115.Google Scholar

23 Realism in Nineteenth-Century Music, 26.Google Scholar

24 Taruskin, , ‘Realism as Preached’ (see n. 21), 440Google Scholar; see also Leyda, Jay and Bertensson, Sergei, eds., The Musorgsky Reader: A Life of Modeste Petrovich Musorgsky in Letters and Documents (New York, 1947), 111–12.Google Scholar

25 See Vrba, Přemysl, ‘Janáčekova ruská knihovna’ [Janáček's Russian Library], S1ezský sbornik 58 (1960), 242–9.Google Scholar

26 Janáček's experience of Musorgsky's oeuvre is considered in depth in Gozenpud, Abram, ‘Janáček a Musorgskij’, Opus musicum, 12 (1980), no. 4, 101–9Google Scholar; no. 5, i–viii.

27 Brušák, Karel, ‘Drama into Libretto’, in John, Nicholas, ed., Janáček: Jenůfa/Katya Kabanová, ENO Opera Guides (London, 1985), 13–20 (p. 18).Google Scholar

28 Janáček, Leoš, ‘Smetana's Daughter’ (Lidové noviny, 3 10 1924), in Essays, 51–7.Google Scholar

29 Essays, 48–50 (p. 49).Google Scholar

30 Essays, 49.Google Scholar

31 Essays, 91.Google Scholar

32 Racek, Jan, Leoš Janáček: človék a umělec [Man and Artist] (Brno, 1963), 80.Google Scholar

33 Realism in Nineteenth-Century Music (see n. 22), 102–4.Google Scholar

34 See especially Tyrrell, , ‘Janáček and the Speech-Melody Myth’ (n. 1).Google Scholar

35 Tyrrell, , Turn of the Century Masters (see n. 1), 46.Google Scholar

36 Czech Opera (see n. 1), 297.Google Scholar

37 Leoš Janáček: Kát'a Kabanová (see n. 1), 13.Google Scholar

38 Turn of the Century Masters (see n. 1), 46.Google Scholar

39 References to vocal scores in this article will be to the following editions: Jenůfa, Hudební matice H. M. 89 (Prague, 1934)Google Scholar; Kát'a Kabanová, Universal Edition UE 7103 (Vienna, 1922)Google Scholar; and The Makropulos Affair, Universal Edition UE 8656 (Vienna, 1926).Google Scholar

40 See Czech Opera (n. 1), 292.Google Scholar

41 Czech Opera, 292.Google Scholar

42 Turn of the Century Masters (see n. 1), 42.Google Scholar

43 Turn of the Century Masters, 46.Google Scholar

44 John Tyrrell, disc notes to the Decca recording of The Makropulos Affair, conducted by Mackerras, Charles, 430372–2, p. 11.Google Scholar

45 Tyrrell, , notes to Makropulos (see n. 44), 20–2.Google Scholar

46 Tyrrell, , notes, 23.Google Scholar

47 Tyrrell, , notes, 23.Google Scholar

48 Williams, Bernard, ‘The Makropulos Case: Reflections on the Tedium of Immortality’, in Problems of the Self (Cambridge, 1973), 82–100 (p. 100).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

49 In particular, see the following: Abbate, Carolyn, ‘Wagner, “On Modulation” and Tristan’, this journal, 1 (1989), 33–58Google Scholar; Dahlhaus, Carl, ‘What is a Musical Drama’, this journal, 1 (1989), 95–111Google Scholar; and Abbate, Carolyn, ‘Opera as Symphony, A Wagnerian Myth’, in Abbate, Carolyn and Parker, Roger, eds., Analyzing Opera: Verdi and Wagner (Berkeley, 1989), 92–124.Google Scholar