Works/Mp3 Biography Links Books Worklist | Books aboutLeos Janacek3 jul 1854 (Hukvaldy) - 12 aug 1928 (Moravská Ostrava) |
Michael Beckerman Janacek and His World (The Bard Music Festival) Princeton University Press, 2003; ISBN 0691116768; 328 pages Once thought to be a provincial composer of only passing interest to eccentrics, Leos Janácek (1854-1928) is now widely acknowledged as one of the most powerful and original creative figures of his time. Banned for all purposes from the Prague stage until the age of 62, and unable to make it even out of the provincial capital of Brno, his operas are now performed in dynamic productions throughout the globe. This volume brings together some of the world's foremost Janácek scholars to look closely at a broad range of issues surrounding his life and work. Representing the latest in Janácek scholarship, the essays are accompanied by newly translated writings by the composer himself. The collection opens with an essay by Leon Botstein who clarifies and amplifies how Max Brod contributed to Janácek 's international success by serving as "point man" between Czechs and Germans, Jews and non-Jews. John Tyrrell, the dean of Janácek scholars, distills more than thirty years of research in "How Janácek Composed Operas," while Diane Paige considers Janácek's liason with a married woman and the question of the artist's muse. Geoffrey Chew places the idea of the adulterous muse in the larger context of Czech fin de siècle decadence in his thoroughgoing consideration of Janácek's problematic opera Osud. Derek Katz examines the problems encountered by Janácek's satirically patriotic "Excursions of Mr. Broucek" in the post-World War I era of Czechoslovak nationalism, while Paul Wingfield mounts a defense of Janácek against allegations of cruelty in his wife's memoirs. In the final essay, Michael Beckerman asks how much true history can be culled from one of Janácek's business cards. The book then turns to writings by Janácek previously unpublished in English. These not only include fascinating essays on Naturalism, opera direction, and Tristan and Isolde, but four impressionistic chronicles of the "speech melodies" of daily life. They provide insight into Janácek's revolutionary method of composition, and give us the closest thing we will ever have to the "heard" record of a Czech pre-war past-or any past, for that matter. Price indication: $ 23.95 |
Paul Wingfield and Julian Rushton Janacek: Glagolitic Mass (Cambridge Music Handbooks) Cambridge University Press, 1992; ISBN 0521389011; 146 pages Price indication: $ 21.99 |
Mirka Zemanova Janacek: A Composer's Life Northeastern University Press, 2002; ISBN 1555535496; 368 pages Leos Janacek (1854-1928), who wrote such highly acclaimed operas as The Cunning Little Vixen, Jenufa, and Katya Kabanova, as well as choral, chamber, and orchestral pieces, was one of the most original, complex, and appealing artists of the twentieth century. Inspired by the rhythmical and melodic strains of Czech speech patterns and Moravian folk songs, Janacek used unconventional composition principles to create a new musical style that blends tremendous energy and lyricism, passion and tenderness. His music continues to enchant listeners, and his operas, in particular, address universal human emotions and moods that remain strikingly relevant for today's audiences. While Janacek's works are performed frequently on stages around the world, little is known about the composer himself. In this biography, the first to appear in English in over two decades, Mirka Zemanova draws on previously unavailable Czech-language sources, memoirs, and letters, including Janacek's intimate correspondence with Kamila Stoesslova, his great love and sometimes reluctant muse. Zemanova depicts a shy, lonely, moody, and self-doubting man with a fiery temper and an intensely independent and proud spirit. She also reveals a man who glorified women in his operas but treated them cruelly in his own life. The author tells the fascinating story of an isolated artist who was virtually unknown outside of his native Moravia until his early sixties, when the triumphant Prague premiere of Jenufa brought Janacek international fame. She sheds light on the creative surge in his final years, attributing his remarkable late flowering to the success in Prague, his fierce patriotic pride in the newly independent Czechoslovakia at the end of World War I, and, perhaps most of all, his passionate attachment to Kamila Stoesslova. From the time they met, when Janacek was sixty-three and she was twenty-five, to his death eleven years later, Kamila held the composer under her spell and inspired many of his late works. Zemanova also thoroughly chronicles Janacek's ardent courtship of and tempestuous marriage to Zdenka Schulz, his extramarital love affairs and infatuations, and the tragic deaths of his two children. Price indication: $ 23.80 |
John Tyrrell Janaceks Operas a Documentary Account Faber Faber Inc, ; ISBN 0571195822; 420 pages One of the most original and engaging of 20th-century composers. Janacek is now regarded as one of its major musical dramatists; his operas are a regular part of the repertory. This book presents annotated translations of documents relating to the genesis and early performances of his nine operas. Price indication: $ 39.59 |
Michael Beckerman and Glen Bauer Janacek and Czech Music: Proceedings of the International Conference : (Saint Louis, 1988) Pendragon Press, 1995; ISBN 094519336X; 402 pages Price indication: $ 60.00 |
John Tyrrell and Richard Wagner Leos Janacek: Katya Kabanova (Cambridge Opera Handbooks) Cambridge University Press, 1982; ISBN 0521298539; 252 pages Kát'a Kabanová is both the first Janácek opera to have been performed in Britain and the one which has received the most productions in Britain and the USA. In this book John Tyrrell brings together letters, early reviews and other documents (most of them translated from Czech for the first time) on the opera's composition and its early performances. A group of key interpretations of the opera ranges from one by the opera's German translator and Janácek's first biographer Max Brod to specially commissioned essays by Wilfrid Mellers and by David Pountney, producer of the highly successful Welsh National Opera/Scottish Opera Janácek cycle. Price indication: $ 31.99 |
Zdenka Janackova My Life With Janacek: The Memoirs of Zdenka Janackova Faber & Faber, 1999; ISBN 0571175406; 278 pages Zdenka Janackova's memoirs, published in this book, were considered too personal for publication at the time of her death in 1937. She tells the tale of her extraordinary life with the Czech composer, Leos Janacek, from her years as his young piano pupil to his sudden death at the age of 74. Her story provides first-hand account of Janacek's day-to-day life, and the many dramatic revelations include an account of his tempestuous affair with the singer Gabriela Horvatova, Zdenka's subsequent suicide attempt, and her strange "divorce" from her husband (they continued to live together until his death). Among other striking passages are a harrowing description of the long illness and painful death of their daughter Olga, and a forthright account of Janacek's increasing infatuation during his late years with his "muse", Kamila Stosslova, and of the events surrounding his death. Price indication: $ 24.99 |
Leos Janacek and Mirka Zemanova and John Tyrrell Janacek's Uncollected Essays on Music Marion Boyars Publishers, 1993; ISBN 0714529516; 253 pages Price indication: $ 18.95 |
Jaroslav Vogel Leos Janacek W W Norton & Co Inc, 1981; ISBN 0393013316; 16 pages Price indication: $ 15.00 |
Nigel Simeone and John Tyrrell and Alena Nemcova Janacek's Works: A Catalogue of the Music and Writings of Leos Janacek Oxford University Press, 1998; ISBN 0198164467; 500 pages Price indication: $ 210.00 |
Michael Beckerman Janacek As Theorist (Studies in Czech Music, No 3) Pendragon Press, 1994; ISBN 0945193033; 141 pages Price indication: $ 60.00 |
Ian Horsbrugh Leos Janacek Scribner, 1982; ISBN 068417443X; 327 pages Price indication: $ 15.00 |
Leos Janacek and Kamila Stosslova and John Tyrrell Intimate Letters Princeton University Press, 1994; ISBN 0691036489; 384 pages Price indication: (used only): from $ 40.00 |
Paul Wingfield Janacek Studies Cambridge University Press, 1999; ISBN 0521573572; 300 pages Price indication: $ 70.22 |
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