NvB: Bored in Brno?: Changing Faces of Brno

Changing Faces of Brno

In 1875 Leoš Janáček, probably the most well-known of Moravian composers, took up residence in Brno. He was soon intently working on raising the musical profile of the city, particularly as he saw its musical life as inferior to Prague's (some things never change). Janáček was a fervent cultural and musical critic who often contributed reviews and opinion pieces to the local papers. (From 1884 &ndash 1888 he even published and edited a musical newspaper, Hudební listy ["The Music Pages"].) In an essay accompanying the critical edition of Janáček's "literary works," Theodora Straková explains:

After his return to Brno (1875), Janáček became aware of the chasm between the relatively advanced Czech cultural life in Prague and the predominantly German-speaking Brno of that day. Thereafter he searched for ways to remedy the situation, and considered possibilities for elevating Brno's weak standard.

He was not afraid to stand his ground even if in an outspoken position and tenaciously argued the importance of Moravian (and Brunensian) music. These activities, what might be called today "advocacy," were all the more intense and exhausting when he was relatively unknown and championing a subject often considered hopelessly rural and beswamped by the residual rhetoric of folk song remaining after the nineteenth-century national revival. (Stubborn tenacity remains a necessary character trait for anyone endeavoring to study musical life here even today.)

Excerpt from "Janáček's Literary Legacy" by Theodora Straková in Leoš Janáček: Literární dílo (1875 &ndash 1928), vol. 1-1 (Brno: Editio Janáček, 2003), p. liii.

Tags: Brno, music, Janáček

Posted 13 April 2006 at 21:01.

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What is "Bored in Brno"? a) the best Czech movie of 2003, b) a blog about Brno (the Czech Republic's second largest city) and my adventures in and observations of south and east Moravia. I usually post about music, arts, culture, and stuff in Brno; or, I talk about whatever; or, I may bore you.

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The Blogger

A graduate student in music and anthropology writing a dissertation about music in Moravia, the eastern third of the Czech Republic. At some point, the Czech Republic's "second city" (that would be Brno) captured my attention, and I've since been blogging about events, arts, music, and other stuff—basically whatever interests me in and around the cityscape. I'm not living in Brno now, but I keep up with the cultural pulse from afar as best I can.

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