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Janáček's ‘Lost’ Kreutzer Sonata
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2020
Extract
On 18 July 1896 the 41-year-old Leoš Janáček left his native village of Hukvaldy in north-eastern Moravia to visit Russia. At the end of the first day of travelling he noted in his copy of František Vymazal's Rusky v devíli úlohách (Russian in Nine Lessons; Telč, 1896):
12. hod. v noci Granica. Konečně cítím stát slovanský! … Jací šohaji, čistí, úhlední, úslužní, způsobní při dráze. S úzkostí jel jsem Haličí. A ted' mi tak veselo: probuzení, vykříšení! Otroctví setřásám. Vyjíždíme - Rusko!
(12 o'clock at night Granilsa. At last I can sense what it feels like to be in a Slav state! … These railwaymen are such fine lads' clean, tidy, obliging, polite. As I travelled across Galicia I was full of anxiety. Now I am light-hearted: awakening, resurrection! I shake off slavery Off we go - Russia!)
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © 1987 Royal Musical Association
References
1 Janáček’s copy of this book is now kept in the Janáček Archive (hereafter the JA), which is housed in the Music History Division of the Moravian Museum in Brno It has the classmark III - 55 The English translation of its title and all subsequent English translations of Czech in this article are my own.Google Scholar
2 A detailed account of Janáček’s initial visit to Russia can be found in Přemysl Vrba, ‘Janáčkova první cesta do Ruska roku 1896’ (‘Janáček’s First Journey to Russia in the Year 1896’), Slezský sborník, 57 (1959), 464-72 (p. 494).Google Scholar
3 This book was Josef Kolář’s Mluvnice ruského jazyka v příkladech a rozmluvách (A Practical and Conversational Grammar of the Russian Language, Prague, 1873) Janáček’s copy is in the JA under the classmark 111-53Google Scholar
4 The composer’s connections with the Brno ‘Russian Circle’ are considered in Přemysl Vrba, ‘Ruský kroužek v Brně a Leoš Janáček’ (‘The Russian Circle in Brno and Leoš Janáček’), Slezský sborník, 58 (1960), 71-85 (p 71) Additional information can be found in Bohumír Štědroň, ‘Leoš Janáček a Ruský kroužek v Brně’ (‘Leoš Janáček and the Russian Circle in Brno’), Program [Státního divadla v Brně], 44 (1972-3) and 45 (1973-4)Google Scholar
5 For a useful, but by no means complete or wholly accurate inventory of Janáček’s Russian library see Přemysl Vrba, ‘Janáčkova ruská knihovna’ (‘Janáček’s Russian Library’), Slezský sborník, 58 (1960), 242-9 (p 242)Google Scholar
6 Janáček’s uncompleted operatic projects are listed and described in Theodora Straková, ‘Janáčkovy operní náměty a torsa’ (‘Janáček’s Operatic Projects and Fragments’), Musikologie, 3 (1955), 417-49 (p 417)Google Scholar
7 For a detailed account of Janáček’s connections with this club see Ludvík Kundera, Janáček a klub přátel umění (Janáček and the Friends of Art Club, Olomouc, 1948)Google Scholar
8 The genesis of the Piano Trio and the circumstances of its première are described briefly in Korespondence Leoše Janáčka s Artušem Rektorysem (Leoš Janáček’s Correspondence with Artuš Rektorys, Prague, 1934, enlarged 2nd edn 1949), ed Jan Racek, 116. Racek’s information is taken from an advertisement for the première printed the day before the concert took place in the Brno daily newspaper Lidové noviny (1 April 1909) and from the entries about the Piano Trio in the records of the music section of the Friends of Art Club, which were written by one of the members, Zdenka Illnerová Janáček’s connections with the Brno Organ School are described in detail in Ludvík Kundera, Janáčkova varhanická škola (Janáček’s Organ School, Olomouc, 1948)Google Scholar
9 The Czech composer Josef Suk (1874—1935) was the Quartet’s second violinist at the timeGoogle Scholar
10 This letter, which is in the JA under the classmark A 3837, is also quoted on p v of Milan Škampa’s 1975 ‘Critical Edition’ of Janáček’s First String Quartet (Supraphon, H 5591)Google Scholar
11 The autograph of this Quartet is in the JA and has the classmark A 7443 The First Quartet was actually the second that Janáček wrote, but the earlier piece, composed in 1880, has been lostGoogle Scholar
12 The date of publication given here for the Quartet is based on evidence to be found in a letter from the printing firm Hudební matice to Janáček, which was posted on 20 April 1925 (JA D 198) In it, the firm informs Janáček that the full score of the Quartet will be printed by the following Wednesday (22 April) and that the parts will be available by the end of the monthGoogle Scholar
13 Perhaps the most useful introduction to the work can be found in Jaroslav Vogel, Leoš Janáček Leben und Werk (Prague, 1958, English translation, 1962, rev 2nd edn 1981; Czech original, 1963), 291-4 (All of the references to Vogel’s book in this article give page numbers from the revised English translation)Google Scholar
14 Max Brod, Leoš Janáček živol a dílo (Leoš Janáček Life and Works, Prague, 1924, German original, 1925, rev 2nd edn 1956)Google Scholar
15 A fuller account of the problems that Brod encountered when writing his biography is given in Charles Susskind, Janáček and Brod (New Haven, 1985), 78-9Google Scholar
16 The list is on pp 73-6 of Broď s biography The entry about the Trio can be found on p. 75Google Scholar
17 See, for example, Vogel, Leoš Janáček, 292Google Scholar
18 An extreme example of Janáček’s inconsistency in this respect is pointed out in Vogel, Leoš Janáček, 351Google Scholar
19 This review is also described briefly in Racek, Korespondence, 116.Google Scholar
20 Dědeček’s letter has the classmark B 1715Google Scholar
21 Even in the final versions of several of Janáček’s pieces the time signatures and the principal units of pulse conflictGoogle Scholar
22 Janáček’s original version of the whole of the Violin Sonata is in the JA under the classmark A 33 743Google Scholar
23 There are seven letters in all on this subject Janáček to Jan Branberger (6 January 1909), Branberger to Janáček (10 January), Janáček to Artuš Rektorys (between 10 and 21 January), Rektorys to Janáček (21 January), Janáček to Rektorys (22 January and 1 February) and Rektorys to Janáček (5 February) The first of these letters is in the JA (B 1437) and has not been published, the second is in a private collection and is not available in print, and the remaining five are all also in the JA and have been published in Racek, Korespondence, 103—7Google Scholar
24 See Racek, Korespondence, 109Google Scholar
25 Ibid., 113.Google Scholar
26 This letter (JA B 1496) has been published in Racek, Korespondence, 115-16 Janáček dated it 9 April and Racek reproduces that date in his book. However, the envelope is clearly postmarked 8 April and it thus seems obvious that the composer made a mistake Janáček’s date for the first performance of the Trio (3 April) is also wrong (the concert took place on 2 April).Google Scholar
27 There are ten extant letters about these performances in the JA five from Antonín Váňa to Janáček (A 3428, A 3430, A 3431, A 420 and A 3810, dated 28 July 1910, 16 August 1910, 13 November 1910, 21 May 1914 and 2 July 1914 respectively), three from Jaroslav Elgart to Janáček (B 339, B 342 and A 4536, the first two dated 19 March 1912 and 22 March 1912 respectively and the third undated), one from the secretary of the ‘Osvětový svaz’ (‘Cultural Union’) in Prague to Janáček (A 682, dated 4 December 1917) and one from Bohuslav Sich to Janáček (B 448, dated 3 March 1922) Vogel also records on p 224 of his biography that a further performance of the Trio was planned to take place in Prague in 1916 This concert was eventually cancelledGoogle Scholar
28 JA A 3430 (from Antonín Váňa to Janáček)Google Scholar
29 The sketches, early drafts and final autograph of Čarták on Soláň are all in the JA and have the same classmark (A 30 392)Google Scholar
30 Janáček’s working methods are described in more detail in Paul Wingfield, ‘“On an Overgrown Path”. A Re-appraisal of the Sources of, and the Editorial Problems in, the Music of Leoš Janáček’ (M.Phil dissertation, University of Cambridge, 1984), 8-22Google Scholar
31 ‘Janáček’s Development as an Operatic Composer as Evidenced in his Revisions of the First Five Operas’ (D Phil dissertation, University of Oxford, 1969)Google Scholar
32 L Janáček souborné kritické vydání (L Janáček Complete Critical Edition), ed Jiri Vysloužil et al (Prague, 1978-)Google Scholar
33 See p 59 of vol 4 of the edition (1981), which was edited by Jan Hanuš and Miloš Štědroň.Google Scholar
34 Čarták on Soláň was probably commissioned in December 1910 and was written between January and March of 1911 (see p XI of vol 4 of the Complete Edition)Google Scholar
35 The sketches for Mr Brouček cannot have been written earlier than 18 February 1910, for further details see John Tyrrell, ‘Mr Brouček’s Excursion to the Moon’, Časopis Moravského musea vědy společenské, 53-4 (1968-9), 89-124 (pp 109-10) Similarly, A Fairy-Tale was not begun until early 1910, see Vogel, Leoš Janáček, 200Google Scholar
36 The fact that the note values are shorter in the third movement of the Quartet than they are in the Trio fragment supports the theory put forward on P 234 above that the note values of the first movement of the Trio may have been reduced in 1923 This fact also raises an interesting analytical point The note values of a Janáček theme are often gradually diminished over the course of a movement in a finished work In the sources of the Trio and the First Quartet we can see this process being employed not only within the final version of a movement, but also throughout its whole genesisGoogle Scholar
37 See Racek, Korespondence, 116Google Scholar
38 This sheet is kept in the JA with the autograph of the workGoogle Scholar
39 19 pages of sketches are extant for the Second String Quartet (1928), for instanceGoogle Scholar
40 An in-depth account of how modern musicological methods can be applied to the sources of Janáček’s music can be found in Wingfield, ‘“On an Overgrown Path’”, 23—51Google Scholar
41 Of course, the ‘sul ponticello’ markings at several points in the final Quartet version have changed the actual sound of the music considerably.Google Scholar
42 This example gives the second rather than the first statement of this theme because the first page of the Quartet manuscript is missing (see p 245 above)Google Scholar
43 My reconstruction of the Trio version of movement III of the Quartet was performed on 31 July 1986 in the Queen Elizabeth HallGoogle Scholar
44 This view of Janáček’s sonata-form movements is offered in, for example, Miroslava Kaňková, ‘Sonátová forma v díle Leoše Janáčka’ (‘Sonata Form in Leoš Janáček’s Works’), Opus musicum, 14 (1982), 135Google Scholar