Orchestra
SKU:
BA.BA06861
Sinfonie
(1923-1928). Composed
by Leos Janacek. Arranged
by Leoš Faltus and
Miloš Štedron. This
edition: complete
edition, urtext edition.
Linen. Complete Critical
Edition of the Works of
Leos Janacek H/3.
Complete edition, Score,
Set of parts. Duration 40
minutes. Baerenreiter
Verlag #BA06861_00.
Published by Baerenreiter
Verlag (BA.BA06861).
ISBN 9790260104211.
34.3 x 27 cm
inches.
Leoš
Janácek’s symphonic
fragment Dunaj (The
Danube) dates from the
period of the composition
of “Katya Kabanova”.
The composer was not
concerned with a
musical-picturesque
description of a river
landscape, but with the
mythical link between
women’s destinies and
water.
“Pale
green waves of the
Danube! There are so many
of you, and one followed
by another. You remain
interlocked in a
continuous flow. You
surprise yourselves where
you ended up – on the
Czech shores! Look back
downstream and you will
have an impression of
what you have left behind
in your haste. It pleases
you here. Here I will
rest with my symphony.”
Thus Leoš Janácek
described the idea behind
the composition project
which occupied him in
1923/24. However, after
further work, it remained
incomplete in 1926. His
“symphony” entitled
Dunaj has survived as a
continuously-notated,
four-movement bundle of
sketches in score form.
It is one of the works
which occupied him until
his death. The scholarly
reconstruction by the two
Brno composers Miloš
Štedron and Leoš Faltus
closely follows the
original
manuscript.
A
whole conglomeration of
motifs stands behind the
incomplete work. What at
first seems like a
counterpart to
Smetana’s Vltava, in
fact doesn’t turn out
to be a musical depiction
of the Danube. On the
contrary, the fateful
link between the destiny
of women, water and death
permeates the range of
motifs found in the work.
It seems to be no
coincidence that
Janácek, whilst working
on the opera Katya
Kabanova, in which the
Volga, as the river
bringing death plays an
almost mythical role,
planned a Danube
symphony, and that its
content was linked with
the destiny of women: in
the sketches, two poems
were found which may have
provided the stimulus for
several movements of the
symphony. He copied a
poem by Pavla Kriciková
into the second movement,
in which a girl remarks
that whilst bathing in a
pond, she was observed by
a man. Filled with shame,
the young naked woman
jumps into the water and
drowns. The outer
movements likewise draw
on the poem “Lola” by
the Czech writer Sonja
Špálová, published
under the pseudonym
Alexander Insarov. This
is about a prostitute who
asks for her heart’s
desire: she is given a
palace, but then goes on
a long search for it and
is finally no longer
wanted by anyone. She
suffers, feels cold and
just wants a warm fire.
Janácek adds his remark
“she jumps into the
Danube” to the
inconclusive
ending.
To these
tangible literary models
is added Adolf
Veselý’s verbal
account which reports
that the composer wanted
to portray “in the
Danube, the female sex
with all its passions and
driving forces”. The
third movement is said to
characterise the city of
Vienna in the form of a
woman.
It is
evident that in his
composition, Janácek was
not striving for a
simple, natural lyricism.
The River Danube is
masculine in the Slavic
language – “ten
Dunaj” – and assumes
an almost mythical
significance in the
national character,
indeed often also a role
bringing death. The four
movements are motivically
conceived. Elements of
sound painting, small
wave-like figures in the
first movement, motoric,
driving movements in the
third are obvious
evocations of water. And
the content and the
literary level are easy
to discover. The
“tremolo of the four
timpani”, which was
amongst Janácek’s
first inspirations,
appears in the second
movement. It is not
difficult to retrace in
it the fate of the
drowning bather. The oboe
enters lamentoso towards
the end of the movement
over timpani playing
tremolo, its descending
figure is taken over by
the flute, then upper
strings and intensified
considerably. The motif
of drowning – Lola’s
despair – returns again
in the fourth movement in
the clarinet, before the
work ends abruptly and
dramatically.
One
special effect is the use
of a soprano voice in the
motor-driven third
movement. The singer
vocalises mainly in
parallel with the solo
oboe, but also in
dialogue with other parts
such as the viola
d’amore, which Janácek
used in several late
works as a sort of
“voice of
love”.
About
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MUSICOLOGICA
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reliable musical text
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description of the
sources
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Information on the
genesis and history of
the work
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practice
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an introduction with
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explaining source
discrepancies and
editorial decisions
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