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.

IV

It may appear surprising at first that Hungary, a thousand-year-old nation, has not until our own day achieved an independent cultural existence, and more especially an individual musical art. For we know that the Magyar race is inherently musical and recent researches have unearthed unsuspected treasures of folk-song as ancient as they are characteristic. There has indeed been for some time a recognized Hungarian 'flavor' utilized in the manner of an exotic by various composers, notably Brahms and Liszt, and the dance rhythms so utilized have proved no less fascinating than those of the Slavs, for instance. But native Hungarian composers have not until recently developed these artistic germs with sufficient ability to arouse the attention of the musical world.