Janáček : years of a life / John Tyrrell.
| Author/creator |
Tyrrell, John, 1942-2018 |
| Format | Book and Print |
| Publication Info | London : Faber and Faber, 2006-2007. |
| Description | 2 volumes : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm |
| Subject(s) |
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| Contents | Volume I. 1854-1914: the lonely blackbird. A late starter (1854-80). Images of Janacek ; Nations and languages ; The Janaceks ; Hukvaldy ; Childhood (1854-65). Brno I: 1860-1914 -- From schoolboy to schoolmaster: Brno 1865-74. Pavel Krizkovsky ; Pan-Slavism I -- Early professional life: before Prague (1872-4) ; Musical studies: Prague 1874-5 ; Early professional life: after Prague (1875-9). The Schulzes ; What's in a name? Leo, Lev and Leos -- Musical studies: Leipzig 1879-80 ; Musical studies: Vienna 1880 -- The young professional (1880-8). June 1880-December 1881. Janacek as teacher ; Janacek as music theorist -- 1882-summer 1884. The organ school ; Antonin Dvorak -- Autumn 1884-summer 1888. Hudebni listy ; Janacek's knowledge of opera I: up to Sarka ; Janacek's first opera: Sarka in 1887-8 -- The black ribbon (1888-1903). Summer 1888-90. Janacek as music ethnographer -- 1891-3. Folk dances in the orchestra and on stage ; Folksong accompaniments as Janacek's workshop -- 1894-5 ; 1896. What Janacek learnt from The Queen of Spades ; Pan-Slavism II -- 1897-9. Speech melody ; On the Overgrown Path -- 1900-01. Music as autobiography I ; Janacek's finances I: to 1903 / Jiri Zahradka -- 1902-February, 1903. What Olga died of / Stephen Lock -- In the mists (1903-14). 1903 (March-December). Spas, especially Luhacovice ; Louise and the hidden agenda -- 1904. The missing link: Jenufa in 1904 ; Betes noires I: Karel Kovarovic ; Janacek at fifty -- 1905. Music as autobiography II -- 1906. The Bezruc choruses -- 1907 ; 1908. Betes noires II: Zdenek Nejedly -- 1909. Pan-Slavism III -- 1910. Janacek's knowledge of opera II (1890-1914) -- 1911 ; 1912. Janacek's illnesses I / Stephen Lock -- 1913 ; 1914a (January-28 July). Janacek's finances II (1904-14) / Jiri Zahradka ; Janacek at sixty. |
| Contents | Volume II. 1914-28: Tsar of the forests. Storms (1914-18). An interview in time of war ; 1914b (July-December) ; 1915 ; 1916a (January-28 May) ; 1916b (28 May-9 July) ; 1916c (10 July-3 September) ; 1916d (3 September-31 December). Max Brod, friend and meddler ; Why Broucek took so long I -- 1917a (January-June) ; 1917b (July-August) ; 1917c (September-December). Why Broucek took so long, II -- 1918a (January-17 February) ; 1918b (18 February-July). Did Janacek really have gout? / Stephen Lock ; Janacek and programme music -- 1918c (July-December) ; Janacek's finances III (1915-18) / Jiri Zahradka ; How Janacek composed operas -- Calm (1919-26). 1919a (January-June) ; 1919b (July-December). Brno II (1914-28) -- 1920 ; 1921a (January-June) ; 1921b (July-December) ; 1922 ; 1923 ; 1924a (January-June) ; 1924b (July-September). Janacek at seventy: Janacek's view of himself -- 1924c (October-December) ; 1925a (January-June) ; 1925b (June-December). Music as autobiography III -- 1926a (January-April) ; 1926b (April-May) ; 1926c (June-July). Janacek's finances IV (1919-28) / Jiri Zahradka -- 1926d (August-December) -- Written in fire (1927-8). 1927a (January-April) ; 1927b (April-August). Janacek and Modernism -- 1927c (August-November). Pan Slavism IV -- 1927d (November-December). Janacek's knowledge of opera III (1914-28) ; Janacek and the leitmotif ; The conventions of Janacek's operas ; Genre in Janacek's operas -- 1928a (January-March). Music as autobiography IV: the Kamila connection -- 1928b (March-April) ; 1928c (April-June) ; 1928d (July-August). Janacek's death / Stephen Lock ; Janacek's finances V: Janacek's estate and last will / Jiri Zahradka ; Janacek at a hundred and fifty. |
| Abstract | This book is the culmination of a life's work in the field. It stands upon his existing documentary studies of Janacek's operas and translations of other key sources and his examination of thousands of still unpublished letters and other documents in the Janácek archive in Brno. Altogether it provides the most detailed account of Janacek's life in any language and offers new views of Janacek as composer, writer, thinker and human being. Volume 1, which goes up to the outbreak of the First World War and Janacek's sixtieth birthday in the summer of 1914, consists of chronological chapters providing a straightforward account of Janacek's life year by year and another forty contextual chapters. Topics include on-going sequences ('Music as autobiography I', etc.; 'Janacek's knowledge of opera I', etc.) and individual chapters on Janacek as a teacher, as a theorist, as an music ethnographer, on his speech-melody theory, his relationship to particularly influential operas (Tchaikovsky's Queen of Spades, Charpentier's Louise), on his mentors (such as Antonin Dvorak) and his betes noires (such as Karel Kovarovic). A particular feature are the specially commissioned chapters on Janacek's health and on Janacek's earnings and finances. Volume 2 opens at the the outbreak of the First World War and at the time of Janacek's lowest ebb. Within two years, however, his fortunes were transformed by the Prague production of Jenufa This led to international fame and fortune and to the magnificent creative flowering in which the elderly composer wrote most of his best-known works. His personal life was affected by his public affair with Gabriela Horvatova and his friendship with Kamila Stosslova, whom he saw as the inspiration for many of his late works. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references and indexes. |
| Other title | Lonely blackbird. |
| Other title | Tsar of the forests. |
| LCCN | 2007701581 |
| ISBN | 0571175384 (v.1) |
| ISBN | 0571236677 (v. 2) |
| ISBN | 9780571175383 (v.1) |
| ISBN | 9780571236671 (v. 2) |
Available Items
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions | |
| Music | Music Stacks | ML410.J18 T97 2006 V. 1 | ✔ Available | Place Hold | |
| Music | Music Stacks | ML410.J18 T97 2006 V. 2 | ✔ Available | Place Hold |