III
Between Smetana and Dvořák and the contemporary Bohemians stands Zdenko Fibich, a most prolific composer, well known in Bohemia but little heard of outside it. Fibich was born at Leborschitz in Bohemia, December 21, 1850. Studying at Prague and later at the Leipzig Conservatory, he became in 1876 assistant conductor of the National Theatre in Prague, and in 1878 director of the Russian Church choir. He is said to have written over seven hundred works, but they are more facile than profound. Of his many Czechish operas the most successful was 'Sárka' (1898). He was much interested in the musical form known as 'melodrama' (not to be confused with the stage melodrama). It is a recited action accompanied by music; classic examples are Schumann's 'Manfred' and Bizet's L'Arlésienne. Fibich wrote six melodramas, three 'scenic melodramas,' and a melodramatic trilogy, Hippodamia (text by Brchliky, 1891). His orchestral works include several symphonic poems, two symphonies, and several overtures, of which 'A Night on Karlstein' is well known. He also wrote chamber music, songs and choruses, piano pieces, and a method for pianoforte. He died in 1900.
A number of minor composers, contemporaries of Fibich, are only of local importance for their Czechish operas, produced in Prague. Such are Heinrich von Káan-Albést (born 1852), director of the Prague Conservatory in 1907; Vása Suk (born 1861), composer of the opera Der Waldkönig (1900); Karl Navrátil (born 1867), who writes symphonic poems and chamber music; and Karl Kovařovic (born 1862), conductor of the Royal Bohemian Landes und National-Theater. This theatre was erected in 1883, by subscription from Czechs in Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, northern Hungary, even the colony in America. The Austrian government is said to be not very favorable to it, vetoing the posting of placards announcing performances in Austrian watering places. The subsidy is raised by the country of Bohemia, not by the government. In August, 1903, a cycle of operas was given here, including Fibich's 'The Fall of Arcana,' Kovařovic's Têtes de chien, Nedbal's Le Gros Jean,[24] Dvořák's Roussalka and several operas of Smetana.
A better known composer of Czechish operas is Emil Nikolaus von Reznicek, who was, however, born not in Bohemia but at Vienna, May 4, 1861. His comic opera Donna Diana, produced in 1894 at Prague, made so great a success that in a short time it was heard in forty-three European opera-houses. Other operas by him are Die Jungfrau von Orleans (1887), Satanella (1888), Emmerich Fortunat (1889), and Till Eulenspiegel (1901), on the subject made famous by Strauss's witty symphonic poem. For orchestra he has written a 'Tragic Symphony,' an 'Ironic Symphony,' an 'Idyllic Overture,' a 'Comedy Overture,' two symphonic suites, etc., while a string quartet was played by the Dessau Quartet at Berlin in 1906.
Fibich's pupil O. Ostřcil, whose contrapuntal skill and brilliant orchestration testify to his ability, has written the operas 'Kunal's Eyes,' 'The Fall of Wlasta,' and 'Buds' (Knospen), also an Impromptu and a Suite for orchestra. Of the pupils of Dvořák Rudolf Karel has written a symphony in E-flat minor and Jugend, a symphonic poem in which he pictures the struggles of a youth of genius; and Alois Reiser is known as the composer of an opera, Gobi, showing melodic and harmonic originality without exaggeration, and of a trio, a 'cello concerto, and solo pieces for violin in which his nationality is reflected. Other contemporaries are Ottokar Jeremiaš (symphonies, overtures, and chamber music) and his brother Jaroslav Jeremiaš, a follower in his two operas of modern French tendencies; K. Krǐcka, W. Stepán, J. Maxner, B. Novotny, and others.
Without doubt the two most important living Bohemian composers are Joseph Suk and Vitešlav Novák. Suk, who was born at Křecovic, January 4, 1874, became a pupil of Dvořák at the Prague Conservatory in 1888, and later married his daughter. He is second violin of the Bohemian Quartet. Among his works may be mentioned a 'Dramatic Overture,' an overture to 'A Winter's Tale,' a Symphony in E, a suite entitled 'A Fairy Tale,' a piano quartet, a piano quintet, and two string quartets. The symphony (in E major, op. 14, published in Berlin) has charm and is most skillfully written, especially for the strings, like everything by this violinist-composer, but is somewhat prolix and student-like, revealing Dvořák in many places, and in the finale containing a theme too obviously suggested by the overture to Smetana's 'The Bartered Bride.' 'A Fairy Tale,' op. 16, sonorously and brilliantly scored, is of programmistic character, especially the fourth movement. Both of these orchestral works introduce a number of folk-themes. This is also the case in an early string quartet, op. 11 (1896), in B-flat major, the finale of which is built on a polka tune in six-bar phrases.
If one were to judge him by these things one would say that Suk was a skillful violinist who thoroughly understood how to write for his instrument, that he had caught much of the charm of Bohemian folk-melody and especially of Dvořák's way of treating it, but that his musical expression was neither very far-reaching nor very original. He may have felt this himself, for in his second quartet, op. 31, published in 1911, he has thrown over his earlier style completely, and adopted a so-called 'modern idiom.' The work is played in one movement, without pauses. It is full of changes of tempo and of key, extremely complicated in harmony, frightfully difficult for the players as regards intonation, and difficult for the listeners, too, from its spasmodic and constantly changing character. So far as one can tell about such a work from reading the score, it would seem as if the composer had abandoned his natural speech here without gaining real eloquence in exchange. Whether he be misguided or not, however, there can be no doubt of his marked natural talent for the same kind of impulsive, fresh musical expression we find in Smetana and Dvořák.
The music of Novák, on the other hand, if less immediately ingratiating, is much more thoughtful. The influence of Dvořák is less felt in it than those of Schumann and Brahms. Although the Bohemian and also the allied Moravian and Hungarian-Slovak folk-melodies are to some extent drawn upon for material, the treatment is more intellectual than popular, rhythmic subtleties abound, and the types of construction are often highly complex and ingenious, there being considerable use of those cyclic transformations of a single theme throughout a long composition to which César Franck and his school attribute so high a value. It is worth noting that Novák, who was born December 5, 1870, at Kamenitz, Bohemia, is a man of general as well as technical education, having attended the Bohemian University and the Conservatory of Music at Prague. He has continued to live in Prague as a music teacher, several times receiving a state grant for composition. Among his works are an Overture to a Moravian Popular Drama, op. 18, the symphonic poems 'On the Lofty Tatra,' op. 26, and 'Eternal Longing,' op. 33, a 'Slovak Suite,' op. 32, two piano trios, two string quartets, a piano quartet, a piano quintet, and a piano sonata.
In his early compositions Novák shows the influence of the German romantic school, as in the trio, op. 1, with its somewhat pompous main theme and its contrasting theme for 'cello solo, verging dangerously upon the sentimental. The piano quartet, op. 7 (1900), on a striking and even noble theme, suffers from Brahmsian mannerisms of style and a treatment at times drily academic. On the other hand, the piano quintet, op. 12 (published in 1904, but doubtless written much earlier), on a plaintively poetic folk-theme in A minor, and the first string quartet, op. 22 (1902), show clearly the more native influence of his master Dvořák. He thus shows the impressionability of all really highly-endowed minds, and in his mature works writes with as much flexibility as authority. The Trio quasi una Ballata, op. 27 (1903), and the second string quartet, op. 35 (1906), are masterpieces.
The trio is dramatic and powerful in expression, original in style and structure. It begins, andante tragico, with a fine bold melody, of folk character, in D minor, given out by the violin, and later powerfully developed by the piano. A secondary section in D-flat, also somewhat 'folkish,' immediately follows, without break. Next, again without pause, comes a 'quasi scherzo, allegro burlesca' in G minor, the 'trio' of which is ingeniously derived from the main theme of the work. Recitative-like passages in the strings and cadenzas for the piano then lead back to the original andante theme, worked out in combination with subsidiary matter and bringing the whole to an impressive soft close.
The string quartet in D major is equally original, though different in mood. Dramatic declamation here gives place to a meditative thoughtfulness especially suited to the four strings. There are but two movements. The first is a fugue, largo misterioso, on a deliberate, impressive theme, in the mood of the later Beethoven—a fugue admirably fresh and spontaneous, with the accepted 'inversions' of the theme and so on, to be sure, but coming less as academic prescriptions than as natural flowerings of the thought. The second movement, Fantasia, is composite, containing first suggestions of the root theme (of the fugue), introducing a sort of sonata-exposition in which the same fugue then figures as first subject and a new melody as second; then, instead of a development, a scherzo section, derived again from the root theme; then the recapitulation of the two themes, completing the suggested sonata; and finally, a literal repetition of the last three pages of the fugue movement, thus binding the two parts into unity. The scheme of construction is thus as original as the music itself is impressive and beautiful.
If Novák can avoid the pitfall of over-intellectualism peculiar to his temperament, he may easily become one of the most vital forces in contemporary European music.
D. G. M.