Leos Janacek (3.7.1854 Hukvaldy-12.8.1928 Ostrava)
one of the most important world composers of the beginning of 20th century. Born as ninth son of a provincial teacher and bandmaster in Hukvaldy, Moravia. He got the basic musical education from P. Krizkovsky in the Old Brno Monastery school which he attended since 1865. In 1869-72 he went on his secondatry classes here at the Normal School; after finishing the studies, he stayed here as assisting teacher for two more years. In 1874-75 he studied the Organists' School in Prague under F. Blazek and F. Z. Skuhersky. After his return to Brno he rolled out a wide variety of activities including teaching, playing instruments, conducting and composing. He replaced P. Krizkovsky as choirmaster of the Old Brno Monastery; became a conductor od "Beseda brnenska" (musical society of Brno), choirmaster of Svatopluk (the Craftsmen Union Choir). In 1879-80 he finished his musical studies at conservatories of Leipzig and Vienna. In 1881 he founded the organists school in Brno and worked there as teacher and schoolmaster until 1919. He was also a keen collector of traditional songs and dances from Moravia and co-editor of traditional songbooks. He wrote several books of musical theory (counterpoint and harmony), lots of articles, reviews and short essays.
As a composer he started as a follower of his first teacher P.Krizkovsky, writinf music based on classical and romantic tradition with inspiration in traditional Moravian music. Inspired by Dvorak's Slavonic Dances, he wrote his Lachian Dances, a masterpiece in traditional music adaptations. In his opera "Jenufa" (which he wrote between 1894-1903) he used his own theory od Speech Melodies for the first time. The theory became a starting point of all his following dramatic works, trying to translate the melody of speech into the musical language. His works become very original, staying away of short-term fashion influences, often predicting new musical styles (expressionism). Most of his contemporaries were not able to fully understand his contribution to classical music evolution. E.g. the well known theoretician Zdenek Nejedly regarded Janacek as pure musical amateur. Only the next generations of authorities were able to judge the value of Nejedly'statements (Nejedly later turned to politics, became a communist leader and keen propagator of the art of Social Realism).Prague premiere of Jenufa in 1916 (only 12 years after premiere in Brno) was finally a success which made Janacek known all over Europe. This encouraged him to write more works in challenging style experiments (Glagolska mse, Capriccio and Concertino, Vec Makropulos).
Today, Janacek and Dvorak are the most often played Czech composers worldwide. Numerous quotations and remakes of his works in scenic and movie music are the proof of his popularity until these days. The best known remake of his Sinfonietta can be found on the first album of the legendary artrock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer (the track called Knife-edge).
Works:
Sources:
Wikipedia
Foundation of Leos Janacek
Mala encyklopedie hudby (dr. Jar. Smolka; &kolektiv, Supraphon 1983)
Kniha o hudbe (Book of Music, V.Holzknecht & col., Orbis 1964)
Anthology of Czech Music (Divadelni ustav 2004)
Po zarostlem chodnicku (biographical novel by Frantisek Kozik (European Literature Club 2003)
Samples:
Suite for Strings-1877 (III.Andante con moto, Nezavisly komorni orchestr Boemia, cond. Hynek Farkac)
Lachian Dance No. 1 Starodavny /Old-Time - 1889 (Brno Philharmony, cond. Frantisek Jilek, Supraphon 1993/2006)
Lachian Dance No. 6 Pilky / Saws -1889 (Brno Philharmony, cond. Frantisek Jilek, Supraphon 1993/2006)
Sonata for violin and piano-1921 (Jaroslav Sveceny violin, Marie Synkova piano, Subitom 2003 as inlay for the book of Frantisek Kozik-Po zarostlem chodnicku)
Sinfonietta-1926 (Slovak Radio Symphonic Orchestra, cond. Josef Lenárd)
String quartet No.2 "Listy duverne" / Intimate Letters -1928 (Janackovo kvarteto, Supraphon 2000)