Czech Composers in

Music Education I
PhDr. Ji Kusk, Ph.D.
Department of Music Education
Pedagogical Faculty
University of Ostrava
Czech Republic
jiri.kusak@osu.cz

Czech music geographical, historical

and cultural context
Music in the Bohemia and Moravia has
existed for many centuries.
Long ago, music was linked with many
different activities of people
Since the Middle Ages, people would sing
during services

Czech music geographical, historical

and cultural context
In the czech music has very important role
folk music
The most internationally famous dance is
Bohemian polka
Polka is a dance in duple time that
became popular across Europe in the 19th
century and spread across the world

Czech music geographical, historical

and cultural context
Bohemian traditional folk music is most
innovative in region Chodsko, where
bagpipes are common
Moravian traditional folk music is bestknown for the cimbalom, which is played
in ensembles that also include double
bass, clarinet and violins.

Czech music geographical, historical

and cultural context

Czech music geographical, historical

and cultural context
In the 19th century, a period of
romanticism, the Bohemia got a new
format regarding Czech music
In the context of Czech music the
traditional music of Bohemia and Moravia
has been well documented and influenced
the work of composers like, Antonn
Dvok, Bedich Smetana, Leo Janek

Czech music (czech composers) in

music education didactic aspects
We can apply issue of czech music and
czech composers in lessons of music
education
We offer to pupils informations about
composers personality, life and main
compositions related with context of
european music
In my opinion its very effective to connect
theoretical and historical aspects with
musical activities

Czech music (czech composers) in

music education didactic aspects
Musical activities didactically support
teaching of musical history:
1. Singing
2. Listening (with basic analysis)
3. Rhytmic activities
4. Dancing

Czech music (czech composers) in

music education didactic aspects
Singing
excerpt of main themes, melody of
composition
folk song which inspirated composer to
create composition (folk song is used as
citation or its stylized in composition)

Czech music (czech composers) in

music education didactic aspects
Listening (with basic analysis)
key musical activity to know, understand
construction and complex intention of
composition
we divide 2 forms of listening with basic
analysis:
intuitive: pupils listen and analyze
composition without the input information
about music

Czech music (czech composers) in

music education didactic aspects
intellectual: the teacher provides to pupils
elementary information about composer,
composition, cultural context
the teacher emphasises moments of
composition and pupils try find (verify)
these moments in listening music

Czech music (czech composers) in

music education didactic aspects
Rhytmic activities
We can utilize rhytmic activites for rhytmic
accompaniment of part of listening
composition
We mean graphical rhytmic scores
Graphical rhytmic scores are focused to
playing on body: clap, patter, stomp, drub

Antonn Dvok - biography

Antonn Dvok - biography

Dvok was born on September 8, 1841,
in the Bohemian village of Nelahozeves
Dvoks love for his Bohemian heritage
strongly influenced his music
Although his father wanted him to be a
butcher as well, Dvok was be in future a
composer
From 1857 to 1859 he studied music in
Prague's organ school

Antonn Dvok - biography

Johannes Brahms had a huge influence
over Dvoks work, especially as the two
later became friends.
In 1890, influenced by P. I. Tchaikovsky,
Dvok also visited Russia, and conducted
the orchestras in Moscow and in St.
Petersburg

Antonn Dvok - biography

In 1891 Dvok received an honorary
degree from the University of Cambridge
and was offered a position at the Prague
Conservatory as professor of composition
and instrumentation
From 1892 to 1895, Dvok was the
director of the National Conservatory of
Music in New York City

Antonn Dvok - works

Dvok wrote in a variety of forms: he
wrote nine symphonies
Many of his works also show the influence
of Czech folk music: elements such as
rhythms and melodic shapes
Dvok also wrote operas; serenades for
string orchestra and wind ensemble;
chamber music; songs; choral music; and
piano music

Antonn Dvok - symphonies

During Dvok's life, only five of his
symphonies were widely known
Symphony No. 9 in E minor, may be better
known by its subtitle, From the New World
Dvok wrote it while he was in New York
This symphony is most popular and one of
the most popular in the modern world
repertoire

Antonn Dvok symphonic

works
Slavonic dances are a series of 16
orchestral pieces
Originally written for piano four hands, the
Slavonic Dances were inspired by
Johannes Brahms own Hungarian Dances
and were orchestrated at the request of
Dvok's publisher soon after composition

Antonn Dvok symphonic

works

The types of dances upon which Dvok

based his music include: the furiant, the
polka, sousedsk, skon etc.

Slavonic dances in lesson of

music education
Methodical procedure
General introduction to Dvoks Slavonic
dances
Listening, Slavonic dance No. 7
Complementary music activity:
1. graphical rhytmic score (clap, patter,
stomp)
2. training folk dances used in composition

Antonn Dvok symphonic

poems
Dvok's symphonic poems are among his
most original symphonic works
He wrote five symphonic poems, all in
18961897
The Water Goblin (1896), The Noon Witch
(1896), The Golden Spinning-Wheel, The
Wood Dove, The Heros Song

Antonn Dvok choral works

Requiem
is a funeral mass for soloists, choir and
orchestra
This composition is one great reflexion on
generally alarming questions of human
existence
Te Deum
Stabat mater

Antonn Dvok choral works

a religious cantata
the composing of the cantata was
Dvok's reaction to the death of his
daughter Josefa
He returned to the final stylisation of the
composition in 1877, when his two
surviving children died within a short time
of each other

Antonn Dvok operas

Dimitrij
The Jacobin
The Devil and Kate
Rusalka
libretto was written based on the fairy
tales
Rusalka is a water sprite of Slavic
mythology, usually inhabiting a lake or
river.

Antonn Dvok operas

Rusalka is one of the most successful

Czech operas, and represents a
cornerstone of the repertoire of Czech
opera houses

Bedich Smetana- biography

Bedich Smetana

Bedich Smetana was born on 2 March

1824, in Litomyl,east of Prague near the
traditional border between Bohemia and
Moravia

Bedich Smetana
Smetana is widely regarded in his
homeland as the father of Czech music
The basic materials from which Smetana
fashioned his art, were nationalism,
realism and romanticism
all his major compositions are written to
programmes
Smetanas works: piano, vocal and choral,
chamber, orchestral,operas

Bedich Smetana-piano works

Smetana's most popular piano works were
the two Czech Dances cycles of 1877 and
1879.
The first of these had the purpose, as
Smetana explained to his publisher, of
"idealising the polka, as Chopin in his day
did with the mazurka.
The second cycle is a medley of dances,
each given a specific title so that people
would know "which dances with real
names we Czechs have."

Bedich Smetana-piano works

Listening: Bedich Smetana: Polka F major

Bedich Smetana orchestral

works: My country
My country (1874-1879)
My country is a set of six symphonic
poems composed between 1874 and 1879
Smetana dedicated My country to the city
of Prague; after its first performance in
November 1882 it was acclaimed by the
Czech musical public as the true
representation of Czech national style.

Bedich Smetana orchestral

works: My country
Each poem depicts some aspect of the
countryside, history, or legends of
Bohemia
I have choosen 2 parts for listening and
basic analysis: rka and Vltava

My country: rka
The third poem is named for the female
warrior rka, a central figure in the
ancient Czech legend of the Maidens War
Smetana describes old czech legend
through music
this poem rka can be used in music
education (listening with elementar
analysis)

My country: rka
Main personages: rka, Vlasta, Ctirad,
army
Entrance information/motivation
rka ties herself to a tree as bait and
waits to be saved by the princely knight
Ctirad, deceiving him into believing that
she is an unwilling captive of the rebelling
women.

My country: rka
Once released by Ctirad, who has quickly
fallen in love with her, rka serves him
and his comrades with drugged mead and
once they have fallen asleep she sounds a
hunting horn: an agreed signal to the
other women
The poem ends with the warrior maidens
falling upon and murdering the sleeping
men

My country: rka
rka (My country)
Listening:
intelectual form
entrance information (teacher) about
composition, pupils try analyze listening
music
X
intuitive form
pupils try write own story, repeated
listening with analysis

My country: rka
6 parts
1. description of rka (wild, beautiful,
disappointed in love)
2. moving Ctirads army (sound of
horseshoes)
3. love scene between Ctirad and rka,
clarinet (musical symbol of rka),
violoncello (musical symbol of Ctirad)

My country: rka
4. cheerfulness of Ctirads army, dancing
(polka 2/4, famous czech folk dance),
singing, drinking alcohol, slow sleeping
5. rkas signal (horn) to Vlasta and other
maidens
6. victory of maidens death of Ctirad and
his army

My country: Vltava
Entrance information/motivation
in this piece, Smetana uses tone painting
to evoke the sounds of one of Bohemia's
great rivers: Vltava
Analysis
1. starting Vltava from the two small springs,
the Cold and Warm Vltava, to the
unification of both streams into a single
current

My country: Vltava

My country: Vltava
2. the course of the Vltava through woods
and meadows, through landscapes where
a farmer's wedding is celebrated

My country: Vltava
3. the round dance of the mermaids in the
night's moonshine

My country: Vltava

on the nearby rocks loom proud castles,

palaces and. ruins aloft

My country: Vltava
4. The Vltava swirls into the St John's
Rapids; then it widens and flows toward
Prague, past the Vyehrad, and then
majestically vanishes into the distance,
ending at the Labe (or Elbe, in German).

My country: Vltava

My country: Vltava

Bedich Smetana-operas
The Bartered Bride (1863-1866)
comic opera in three acts
the opera is considered to have made a
major contribution towards the
development of Czech music
In its final version, premiered in 1870, it
gained rapid popularity and eventually
became a worldwide success.

Bedich Smetana-operas
Smetana's musical treatment makes
considerable use of traditional Bohemian
dance forms such as the polka and furiant
although he largely avoids the direct
quotation of folksong
It was performed in Chicago in 1893,
London in 1895 and reached New York in
1909, subsequently becoming the first,
and for many years the only, Czech opera
in the general repertory

Bedich Smetana-operas
Dalibor (the name of a main character)
The opera received criticism at the time
for being overly influenced by German
opera, including that of Richard Wagner.

The Two Widows (1873-1874)

The Kiss (1876), The Secret (1878)

Libue (1871), festival opera" in three
acts

Bedich Smetana-operas

In Czech historical myth, Libue, the title

character, prophesied the founding of
Prague