A Study of "Pãsnij z Tijšãnska" of Petr Eben

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2009
A Study of Písn# z T#šínska of Petr Eben
Matthew Markham
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FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF MUSIC
A STUDY OF PÍSN Z T ŠÍNSKA OF PETR EBEN
By
MATTHEW MARKHAM
A Treatise submitted to the
College of Music
in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Music
Degree Awarded:
Summer Semester, 2009
The members of the committee approve the treatise of Matthew Markham defended on
May 28, 2009.
____________________________________
Stanford Olsen
Professor Directing Treatise
____________________________________
Charles Brewer
Outside Committee Member
____________________________________
Lisa Ryoko Wakamiya
Committee Member
____________________________________
Timothy Hoekman
Committee Member
The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members.
ii
Dedicated to Roy Delp
iii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to acknowledge the following for their support and contribution
towards the success of this project: Theodore Presser Foundation, Florida State University,
Artistic and Administrative Staff of the Ameropa Solo and Chamber Music Festival,
Jablunkov Folk Festival, librarians of the National Library of the Czech Republic and of
the Prague Municipal Library, historians of the Czech Music Information Centre in Prague
and of the Muzeum Těšínsko, Academy of Music in Prague, Dvo ák Society in London,
Lisa Ryoko Wakamiya, Stanford Olsen, Timothy Hoekman, Charles Brewer, Jindrich
Bajgar, Mojmír Sobotka, Adam Mohammad, Martina Bojdorá, Jakub Debef, Jan Víčár,
Ivan Kusnjer, Iva Raková, Jonathan Pilkington, David Eben, Katerina Englichová, Jan
Rokyta, Boleslav Slováček, Karel Janovicky, Timothy Cheek, Barbora Baronová, Graham
Melville-Mason, Antonín Tučapský, Eva Vítová, Katerina Vondrovicová-Cervenková,
Miloslová Fousková, Jesse Johnston, Zdenka Brodska, Dagmar Szturcová, Roman Grycz,
Renata Utíkal, Marek Grycz, Halina Cymorek, Beata Suszka, Katharine Ball, Malcolm
Shackelford, Edward and Kathryn Markham, Ralph Bentley, Randy Steinman, Kristin
Ditlow, Dan Pardue, and the beautiful people of Těšín, especially Adam and Judith.
iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Figures .................................................................................................................... vi
Abstract ............................................................................................................................. vii
1. BIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................1
2. EBEN’S T ŠÍN PERIOD .............................................................................................11
3. THE T ŠÍN REGION ..................................................................................................18
3.1 Těšín History...........................................................................................................22
3.2 Těšín Folk Music and Culture.................................................................................24
3.3 Těšín Dialect ...........................................................................................................28
4. THE FOLKSONGS ......................................................................................................35
4.1 “Hej, koło Těšina” .................................................................................................36
4.2 “Ten Těšinsky mostek” ..........................................................................................39
4.3 “Tam z tej strony jeźora” .......................................................................................41
4.4 “V zelenym hajičku” .............................................................................................43
4.5 “Dolina, dolina” ....................................................................................................47
4.6 “V neděli rano” .....................................................................................................50
4.7 “Ja věm o ptaškovi” ..............................................................................................53
4.8 “Litali, litali dva holubci mali” .............................................................................55
4.9 “Śvětě marny” .......................................................................................................57
4.10 “Za gorum, za vodum” .........................................................................................60
4.11 “Paněnky se chłubjum” ........................................................................................63
CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................67
APPENDICES
A. WORD-FOR-WORD TRANSLATIONS....................................................................68
B. RECORDINGS OF NATIVE SPEAKERS SPEAKING THE FOLK TEXTS ...........85
C. T ŠÍN FILM DOCUMENTARY ................................................................................87
D. A CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF EBEN’S WORKS FOR SOLO VOICE ................88
E. APPROVAL FORMS AND CONSENT LETTERS ...................................................90
BIBLIOGRAPHY ..............................................................................................................98
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ...........................................................................................101
v
LIST OF FIGURES
3.1: Map of the Czech Republic. ......................................................................................19
3.2: Map of the Czech Republic, Poland, and Silesia. ......................................................20
3.3: Map of Český Tĕšín/Cieszyn. ....................................................................................21
4.1: “Hej, koło Těšina” unpublished piano introduction. .................................................38
4.2: “Ten Těšinsky mostek” measures 25-29. ..................................................................40
4.3: “Ten Těšinsky mostek” measures 42-44. ...................................................................40
4.4: “Tam z tej strony jeźora” measures 19-26. ................................................................43
4.5: “V zelenym hajičku” measures 1-15. ........................................................................45
4.6: “V zelenym hajičku” measures 23-24. ......................................................................46
4.7: “Dolina, dolina” measures 6, 13, 18-20, 27-28, 33-34, and 37-38 ............................49
4.8: “Dolina, dolina” measures 44-46. ..............................................................................50
4.9: “V neděli rano” measures 9-11. ................................................................................51
4.10: “V neděli rano” measures 24-30. .............................................................................52
4.11: “Ja věm o ptaškovi” measures 1-4. ..........................................................................54
4.12: “Ja věm o ptaškovi” measures 44-47. ......................................................................54
4.13: “Litali, litali dva holubci mali” measures 1-9. .........................................................56
4.14: “Litali, litali dva holubci mali” measures 10-13. .....................................................57
4:15: “Śvětě marny” measures 1-6, 16-20, 31-32, 35-37, and 43-45. ..............................59
4.16: “Za gorum, za vodum” measures 1-6. .....................................................................61
4.17: “Za gorum, za vodum” measures 33-42. .................................................................62
4.18: “Paněnky se chłubjum” measures 52-75. ................................................................65
4.19: “Paněnky se chłubjum” measures 76-99. ................................................................66
vi
ABSTRACT
In 1952 The State Institute for Folksong in Brno invited Czech-born composer Petr
Eben (1929-2007) to collect and transcribe folksong in the original dialect from the
Moravian-Silesian district around the town of Těšín, which straddles the Czech/Polish
border. The resulting collection of 280 folksongs provides rich documentation of the
spirit of the Těšín people, the regional landscape, folk culture, and Těšín’s unique regional
dialect. This treatise is a study of the musical and cultural influences in the eleven songs
known as Písně z Těšínska (Songs from Těšín) as arranged by Eben for voice and piano.
The treatise contains biographical information about the composer, extant
information about the method of the collection of the songs, historical and cultural
background of the region, and detailed research into the dialect including firsthand
interviews and a video diary of those interviews. The author also makes use of personal
interviews with contemporaries and relatives of the composer, folklorists, music
professors, school children, and teachers; as well as personal observations while on a two
month journey through this region of the Czech Republic. The sections of the treatise
include a general biography of Eben, a focus on Eben’s associations with the Těšín region
(beginning with the 1952 study and the influence of this period in his subsequent
compositions), an overview of the historic context through which the district Těšínské
Slezsko (Těšín region) and its unique dialect came to be, and a specific exploration of
Písně z Těšínska including consideration of text, music, and cultural references.
Appendices in the electronic format will include a word-for-word translation of the
texts, an audio recording of the readings of the texts by native speakers, a chronological
listing of Eben’s works for solo voice and piano or chamber ensemble, and a 25-minute
video documentary presenting highlights of the author’s two-month journey through the
Czech Republic, supported by a grant from the Theodore Presser Foundation.
vii
CHAPTER ONE
BIOGRAPHY
When Czech composer Petr Eben, born 22 January 1929, died in 2007 he had
gone from being an obscure academic laboring in a second rate position to one of the
Czech Republic’s leading and most revered composers. His compositions are universally
admired, have been extensively recorded, and were performed by the composer himself
and continue to be performed by others in the finest concert venues in the world. For one
who began in modest circumstances, son of two schoolteachers, who then survived the
invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Nazi regime, incarceration at Buchenwald, and
ostracism by the subsequent Communist Soviet regime in Czechoslovakia, this is an
astonishing development.
Petr Eben was born in Žamberk, a town to the east of Prague, the son of a Jewish
father and a Catholic mother. His initial exposure to music was at home; his mother sang
and played the guitar, while his father played the violin. Eben’s elder brother, who later
became a doctor, was also a good musician. When Petr Eben was five years old, the
family moved to the historic village Český Krumlov, a fairytale setting in southern
Bohemia providing day-to-day exposure to the humanist art and architecture of the
Middle Ages and the Renaissance. As schoolteachers, Eben’s parents were anxious to
procure a broad based education for their children. Eben learned both Czech and
German. His parents spoke French, he was taught English and Greek at the grammar
school, and Latin was a standard part of the curriculum. In spite of growing up in this
environment, however, Eben describes the town as “an utter musical wilderness. It was a
pretty provincial community; there were rarely concerts and we didn’t have a
gramophone.”1 Among those rare musical occasions, he recalls a performance of the
German tenor Julius Patzak singing Mozart and a performance by German dancer and
1
Janá Marhounová, “Czech Music in the Web of Life,” (Praha: Empatie, 1993),
221; quoted in James L. Evans, The Choral Music of Petr Eben (M.A. thesis, University
College Cork, 1995), 35.
choreographer Harald Kreutzberg.2 These early impressions would emerge as later
manifestations. For example, the influence of Mozart can be heard in Eben’s work for
orchestra, Pražské nokturno (Prague Nocturne, 1983), which was dedicated to Mozart,
and the influence of dance, in his Biblické tance (Biblical Dances, 1991) for organ and
dancers.
Eben’s keen musical intuition and extraordinary ability to improvise enabled him
to benefit from what few resources were available. He studied harmony and counterpoint
on his own and gained a certain amount of keyboard facility playing chamber music with
his father on violin, his brother on cello, and himself at the piano. Because music parts
were in short supply, young Eben began composing works of his own for his family to
play.
With the German invasion of Czechoslovakia and the outbreak of the Second
World War in 1939, life became increasingly difficult for the Eben family. Český
Krumlov was a town in which the Czechs were in the minority to the German population,
even more so as most of the Czechs had managed to get away before the invasion.
Eben’s family was to be particularly targeted by the new regime because his father was
Jewish. As a result of the racial persecution by the Nazi regime, the Eben family
suddenly found themselves socially ostracized. This ostracization meant the Ebens could
only make music at home, which lent a new intensity and significance to that activity in
his life.3
Another important event in the musical development of the young composer came
as a direct result of the German occupation. Compulsory military service meant that
many positions in the community were left vacant, among them the position of organist at
the church of St. Vitus. The curate knew that the young Eben played the piano and
offered him the position as organist at the church. He accepted the position and began
playing the organ at the church even though his legs could barely reach the pedals.4 In
2
Graham Melville-Mason, A Tribute to Petr Eben: To Mark His 70th Birthday
Year (Burnham-on-Crouch: The Dvo ák Society, 2000), 4.
3
David Eben, interview by author, 3 August 2008, Prague, Czech Republic.
4
Melville-Mason, 4.
the hours spent alone in the organ loft, he was able to explore the tonal and coloristic
possibilities of the organ. “It opened up a marvelous world to me. I had always longed
to hear an orchestra, but had no access to one either as player or listener and now
suddenly there I was sitting at an organ console. . . . I would try all the stops in turn,
enjoying the different tone colors, experimenting with various combinations, and
spending hours improvising.”5 Thus came Eben’s introduction to the organ, for which he
would compose many of his major works.
Although the family embraced the Catholic faith, the fact that his father was a Jew
meant that, in 1943, he was ostracized by friends and expelled from school. Later that
year the Eben family was torn apart and put in various concentration camps. Eben and
his brother were imprisoned at Buchenwald in Germany. Here, as a teenager, he came
face to face with life and death, the cruelty of mankind, as well as man’s capacity for
faith and sacrifice. He remembers vividly holding the hand of his brother as they stood in
the camp showers, expecting gas to engulf them, and the relief that came over them when
they realized it was water coming down.6 The succeeding daily contact with death and
suffering brought him an early understanding of faith and the importance of life with
hope in survival. In one of his early works, the Suita balladica (Ballad Suite, 1955) for
cello and piano, he reflects on this period and says of the work that “it is a remembrance
of the dead in the mass graves . . . a testimony of the wonderful faith of human beings . . .
faith and hope cannot be killed . . . the spirit cannot be defeated by external events.”7 It
was this same philosophy, faith, and inner strength that sustained him for a further forty
years of political oppression. It is a fortunate irony that these conflicts drew him to
repeated meditations on mortality and an affirmation of the supremacy of God over life
and death in his compositions.
After the war in 1946, Eben returned to Český Krumlov where his family was
reunited. He resumed his schooling by attending the Music School in Česky Budějovice
where he studied the cello, piano, and organ. At this time a post-war revival of national
5
Marhounová, 37
6
Melville-Mason, 5.
7
Ibid.
culture influenced Eben to study the works of early twentieth century Czech composers
Dvo ák, Janáček and Martinů, many of which were inspired by folksong. This left a
lasting impression on the composer who later arranged multiple works based on folk
tunes.
From his piano and organ studies came an easy keyboard facility and he
developed into a fine accompanist fed by his interest in the Lieder composers Schubert
and Brahms. As an accompanist Eben played for singers in school, marking the
beginning of what would become a lifetime of collaborative experiences premiering his
own works. Such collaborations extended through the turn of the new millennium when
he recorded a majority of his songs with two of the Czech Republic’s most famous
singers: baritone Ivan Kusnjer and mezzo-soprano Dagmar Pecková.
In 1948 he entered the Prague Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, studying
piano with František Rauch. In 1950 he began taking composition classes at the same
institution under the tutelage of neo-classicist Pavel Borkovec, whom Eben credits for his
sense of formal structure and eschewing the increasingly unfettered “freedoms” of much
contemporary writing.8 It was a difficult time to be a student of composition because the
Communist regime made it nearly impossible for anyone to study unapproved music, and
it was impossible to obtain music from the west. “Suddenly we weren’t allowed to play
Stravinsky or Schoenberg. These weren’t just forbidden; they were unobtainable. You
couldn’t even get scores or records. There were people teaching musicology who
deplored Debussy and Ravel as decadents, Janáček as an expressionist and naturalist,
Martinů as a traitor, and Stravinsky as a spineless émigré.”9
After graduating from the Prague Academy in 1954, Eben was appointed Lecturer
of music history at Charles University in Prague, where he remained until 1990.
Although he clearly deserved promotion, it was denied him because of his refusal to join
the Communist Party and his devotion to Catholicism. During this span of thirty-five
years, Eben was retained at the lowest academic rank. He had been forced to make a
choice between following the State’s directives and hence bettering his chances of
8
Marhounová, 39.
9
Ibid.
material well-being, or following his Catholic beliefs and putting his career and life in
constant danger. Eben chose the latter and continued to compose spiritual music and use
his art, along with other intelligentsia, to keep alive an underground agitation against the
repressive regime by using quotations from the Catholic plainchant repertory, which went
against the rules of the authorities.
The atheist communists, Eben said, also tried to restrict his musical activity by
forbidding organ concerts “because it was the instrument bringing spiritual ideas.” He
astonished himself, and no doubt the communist authorities too, when his organ cycle
Nedělní hudba (Sunday Music, 1957) became an international success.10 Eben showed in
this piece his love of dramatic contrasts as a sense of conflict and resolution intended “to
portray the fight between good and evil within the human heart.”11
Despite the traditional influences of his teacher and interest in plainchant and
folksongs that make his compositions rather conservative, there is a distinctive 20th
century musical voice threading through each composition. Although he did not follow
some of his contemporaries into more extreme experiments with tonality, his sense of
tonality has a tonal freedom about it; any flirtation with more modern techniques,
aleatorical, serial, or atonal, has been brief. Further style characteristics include:
bitonality, polytonality, chromaticism, use of tritones, rhythmic vitality, ostinati, theme
and variation, repetition of motifs, sequential writing, and firm musical structure. From
his experimental years in the organ loft at Český Krumlov also comes his impressive
facility as an improviser, features of which find their way into his compositions, notably
his three major organ works based on literary texts.
Eben composed for a myriad of instruments in a variety of settings: choral, organ,
solo instrumental, chamber, opera, orchestral, and oratorio. He composed or arranged
more than a dozen song cycles or sets, mostly for low voice. It was the genre of art song,
divided between arrangements of folksongs and original song compositions, upon which
he focused during his professional studies at the Academy. Šestero piesní milostných (Six
Old-time Love Songs, 1951), for voice and piano and/or harp, incorporated medieval texts
10
David Eben, interview.
11
Author unknown, “Petr Eben,” The Times, United Kingdom, 7 December 2007. of various provenances, a fact that documents the composer’s multilingual capacity. This
is the first set of songs he composed. The Czech, English, German, Italian, and French
texts about love (mostly by anonymous authors, the exception being a poem by François
Villon) signified “the eternal and universal power of love which I [he] was experiencing
the same year.”12 His second set of songs, Písně k loutně (Songs for Lute, 1951), also
using texts of varying languages, was written as an engagement present for his soon-to-be
wife, Šárka. The third composition for solo voice, Písně z Těšínska (Songs from Těšín,
1952), whose texts and tunes come from the Těšín region, held personal significance for
Eben because Šárka and her family were from that region.
With a modest income, the growing family lived in a small home outside of
Prague. Eben and his wife had three sons who have become highly successful figures in
their respective fields in the Czech Republic. Kryštof Eben is a scientist, mathematician,
and researcher affiliated with the Institute of Computer Science in Prague. Marek Eben
is an actor, singer, composer, writer, and television host. He is known for standing up for
his Christian beliefs and for his sense of humor and polite manners. David Eben is a
musicologist and specialist in Gregorian chant. The Schola Gregoriana Pragensis
(School of Gregorian Chant) ensemble, which he founded and now directs, has been
giving concerts throughout the Czech Republic and abroad since 1989. The Schola was
in fact founded two years earlier, but before the fall of communism it could only perform
during church services. The three brothers formed a band, Bratři Ebenové (Eben
Brothers), in 1984, and perform all over Prague and its neighboring cities through the
present day. The success of the three sons is a result of the efforts of their father and the
changing political climate that existed in the early part of their adult lives.13
An avid reader and literary scholar, Petr Eben chose his texts very carefully.
David Eben said of his father with a laugh:
12
Petr Eben. Songs: Dagmar Pecková, mezzosoprán, Ivan Kusnjer, baryton, Petr
Eben, Klavír, Jan Pěruška, viola. Supraphon, 2000. Compact disc.
13
David Eben, interview.
He has a reputation for being calm and only reverent or spiritual. No! My father
has a fiery temper, especially while driving a car and some attest even at the
organ, and a flair for the dramatic. This can be felt in his compositions with rise
and fall of climax and release. The text was very important to him and it would
dictate the wild flow of emotions and drama as captured in his compositions. He
loved the human voice, particularly mezzo-sopranos and baritones. He would
read many books and mark with a piece of paper, write down page numbers,
check the top of a page, or dog-ear a page, if he found a poem or a phrase that
struck him as capable of being set to music.14
Eben’s personal library contains a variety of books and biographies: Brahms,
Lieder of Hildegard von Bingen, the Mendelssohns, Ernst Krenek, Josef Sudek,
Benjamin Britten, Honegger, Mozart, Martinů, hymnals, Goethe’s Faust, and the Bible.
Next to his piano, a large book remains open, words in Latin, displaying markings in
pencil, perhaps texts of which were about to be set by the composer. Vividly abstract
paintings and sculptures, few in number, adorn the studio where Eben worked. These
works of art by Czech artists were inspired by specific Eben musical compositions.
David Eben continued, “My father would spend many hours in this study. He was
inspired by all things, by what he read, saw, and experienced. We knew that while father
was working, we were not to disturb, for this work was the source of our survival.”15
In spite of the difficult years, Eben continued to develop his individual style true
to his beliefs and slowly the quality of his work became recognized abroad. By the late
1970s, Eben’s reputation as both a performer and a composer extended as far west as
Great Britain, and he was allowed to accept a teaching opportunity outside his homeland.
In 1978-79 he served as Visiting Professor of Composition at the Royal Northern College
of Music in Manchester. From this year onward Eben developed a close relationship
with musicians and professors in London. Professor Graham Melville-Mason and Czech
composer Karel Janovicky of the Dvo ák Society formed a bond with Eben that would
continue to the end of his life.16 Due to the harsh realities of the Communist regime, this
relationship would not be able to develop fully until a decade later. It was not until the
14
Ibid.
15
Ibid.
16
Karel Janovicky, interview by author, 13 August 2008, Prague, Czech
Republic.
year 1989 that Eben received his due recognition.
The Velvet Revolution (November 16–December 29, 1989) is the name given to
the non-violent revolution in Czechoslovakia that saw the overthrow of the Communist
government. On Friday, November 17, 1989, riot police suppressed a peaceful student
demonstration in Prague. That event sparked a series of popular demonstrations from
November 19 through late December. By November 20 the number of peaceful
protesters assembled in Prague had swollen from 200,000 the previous day to an
estimated half-million. A two-hour general strike involving the citizens of
Czechoslovakia was held on November 27 at Wenceslas Square in the heart of Prague.
With the collapse of other Communist governments and increasing street protests,
the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia announced on November 28 that it would
relinquish power and dismantle the single-party state. On December 10, President
Gustáv Husák appointed the first largely non-Communist government in Czechoslovakia
since 1948, and then he resigned. Alexander Dubček was elected speaker of the federal
parliament on December 28 and Václav Havel the President of Czechoslovakia on
December 29, 1989. In June 1990 Czechoslovakia held its first democratic elections
since 1946.
After the Velvet Revolution, in a student led protest against professors who
remained affiliated with the ideology of the Communist regime, a vote was cast for those
people whom the students hoped would remain or become their future professors. One
name was common on the ballot among the music history students past and present of
Charles University–Petr Eben.17 Eben, age 60, was appointed Professor of Composition
and elected president of the Prague Spring Music Festival, among other important
positions in Czech musical life. While holding the presidency with typical modesty, he
refused to allow his own music to be played at the festival.18
17
Melville-Mason, 6.
18
Ibid.
In England, he served as composer-in-residence at the Dartington International
Summer School for the first Czech Week in 1993, and at Aldeburgh in 1997. In 2000 he
was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Organists and of the Royal
Academy of Music and served as a Patron of the British Dvo ák Society for Czech and
Slovak Music since 1995. As a performing artist, especially as an improviser on piano
and organ, he presented concerts in London’s Westminster Cathedral and Paris’s Notre
Dame Cathedral. In spite of the onset of a debilitating illness, Petr Eben continued for
many years to travel abroad to festivals in his honor. Besides writing one church opera,
Jeremias (Jeremiah, 1996), he continued composing mainly organ and choral pieces for
church festivals while living quietly in Prague with his wife, in close proximity to his
sons and grandchildren.
With numerous opera houses and concert venues, spring and summer festivals,
and the success of world renowned musicians and artists, the Czech Republic is now in a
particularly advantageous situation politically and culturally for establishing itself as one
of the finest musical centers in the world. A new sense of national identity and pride has
taken hold among its people.19 Of all the recently liberated nations of central and eastern
Europe, the Czech Republic has fared as well or considerably better in adapting to its new
world position, due in great measure to the heroic example of the nation’s President who,
with Eben, shares the distinction of being one of the Czech Republic’s most beloved and
highly respected figures in its cultural life and in the self-sacrificing pursuit of
independence through artistic statement.
Karel Janovicky said of his friend: “Petr Eben was a typical angel without any
trace of malice or rivalry. A bloody good honest man! It was remarkable that towards
the end of his life while he was gradually losing his mind and did not recognize people,
that he could play his compositions with all of the skill, facility, and technical refinement
of a young brilliant organist. Seeing him play the organ for a special event in his honor
sponsored by The Royal Academy of Music and Royal College of Organists in London
was an artistic highlight. The music was so strong; it came out of him without any
19
Miloslová Fousková, interview by author, 21 July 2007, Prague, Czech
Republic.
problem. He was just plain original!”20 A testament to Eben’s close relationships with
relatives, friends, colleagues, students, and citizens of the Czech Republic and Great
Britain was never more seen than at his funeral service. Janovicky informs the author:
“People came from all over the world. Some of his works were played and David’s
Gregorian choir sang. Some former students joined to sing some of his choral pieces. I
have never seen something quite like it.”21
The announcement of his death reads: “On Wednesday, October 24, 2007 Petr
Eben gave his soul to God after a long and serious disease. He died among his family.
Mass will take place at St. Jacob’s Church in The Old City of Prague on Tuesday,
October 30 at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. Petr Eben is survived by his wife Šarka, their
three sons Kryštof, Marek, and David, and six grandchildren Marta, Anna, Daniel,
Dominik, Jakub, and Simon.”22 Atop the notice of his death, a verse from the Book of
Wisdom reads: “But the souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall
touch them.”23
20
Janovicky, interview.
21
Ibid.
22
The announcement of Eben’s death can be found at the Czech Music Centre in
Prague.
23
The quotation on the death notice is in Czech. The translation above is from
The New American Bible (Camden, New Jersey: Thomas Nelson Inc., 1971).
CHAPTER TWO
EBEN’S T ŠÍN PERIOD
“Eben’s Těšín period is quite marginal and not too important.”24 This was Czech
composer, professor, and conductor Antonín Tučapský’s response to the author’s initial
inquiry concerning Petr Eben’s Písně z Těšínska. The authors of the two existing
biographies on Eben, Evá Vítová and Kate ina Vondrovicová-Červenková, disregarded
the arrangements of Těšín songs as “insubstantial”25 and “unworthy of exploration.”26
The scope of this treatise proves, to the contrary, that Eben’s 1952 study in the Těšín
region has broader implications. It becomes clear that the time that Eben spent in the
Těšín region was significant when one realizes the number of works that emerged from
this experience. Písně z Těšínska is a set of folksongs that has been, up until now,
overlooked, and has been viewed as a peripheral exploration of the Těšín people, the
regional landscape, folk culture, and Těšín’s unique regional dialect. However, Těšín is
not a marginal place, but rather a cosmopolitan town with much folk culture that
continues to thrive today. Eben’s arrangements of Písně z Těšínska preserve folklore and
are a vehicle for the transmission of it.
Other composers have arranged folksongs from the Těšín region in styles that
contrast with the distinctive musical voice of Eben. Jan Víčár, musicologist and
professor at the Academy of Music in Prague, shared the names of these composers:
“Mojžíšek, Vogel, Novák, Pískáček, Hradil, Dvo ák and Janáček. Another Těšín
folksong arranger that no one speaks of, not even here in Prague, is German composer
24
Antonín Tučapský, “Re: Songs from Těšín,” personal e-mail, 10 May 2008.
According to Antonín Tučapský, Eben did not find any new material on this and although
the author has been unable to find specific documentation regarding the purpose of the
survey, Dr. Tučapský implies that because of this lack of new material coming forth, the
project was not successful.
25
26
Evá Vitová, interview by author, 11 July 2008, Prague, Czech Republic.
Kate ina Vondrovicová-Čerenková, interview by author, 12 July 2008, Prague,
Czech Republic.
Ervin Shulhoff. His Těšín folksong arrangements from the 1920s and 1930s employ jazz
harmonies.”27 The composers who have arranged folksongs from this region prior to
Eben, while not vast in number, are interesting to note: they demonstrate that there is a
historical and cultural context for the study of Eben’s Písně z Těšínska and underline the
need for the study of these overlooked compositions.
Tučapský continued in his response: “Songs from Těšín are nice and should be
better known. The main obstacle is the strange dialect–a mixture of Czech, Slovak,
Polish, and German languages, and for people from different areas, very difficult to
pronounce. Your topic is interesting but not easy and I must stress very strongly that Petr
Eben was not a folklorist.”28 Therein lies the complexity of the folksongs and perhaps
part of the reason why they are overlooked. An ethnomusicological study of these
folksongs provides insight regarding the musical and cultural life of an entire region of
people to whom even Eben was a stranger.
The people of Těšín speak kratký (short), owing to the influence of the Polish
language spoken just across the river, explaining why there is an absence of the čárka in
the folk texts. The čárka is the acute accent mark which denotes the long vowels for
which the Czech language is known. It is important to note that čárka’s are found above
certain consonants in this dialect, atypical of the Czech language but common in Polish.
The dialect contains many differences when compared to the Czech and Polish
languages. A discussion of the rich history of Těšín and the unique dialect commonly
known among its natives as po našimu (in our own manner) will be discussed in Chapters
Three and Four.
A Czech folklorist and friend of Petr Eben, Jan Rokyta provided the author with a
radiobroadcast interview made in Ostrava in the late 1950s. In it the folklorist Jaromír
Gelnar interviewed the young Eben about his work and study in the Těšín region. Gelnar
asked Eben to explain the purpose, process, and result of the 1952 journey. Eben
explained:
27
Jan Víčár, interview by author, 9 July 2008, Prague, Czech Republic.
28
Tučapský, personal e-mail.
In 1952 Státni ústav pro lidovou píseň (The State Institute for Folksong) in Brno
(now called the "Institute of Ethnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno
Branch") asked the Prague Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts to select a
student who would be interested in collecting folksongs in the Těšín region during
summer holiday. I loved folksongs so I accepted the offer and went there
immediately and full of passion. I am very grateful that The State Institute for
Folksong recruited me as a student to the Těšínské Slezsko (Těšín region) and
Slezské Beskydy (Silesian Mountains) where I had the opportunity to collect the
folksongs not yet transcribed. I believed that the people, nature, and folktunes themselves helped me to understand this music and the local folklore more
deeply. I hope that I have captured in my transcriptions something of the
suggestive atmosphere of the region. While I was there I experienced profound,
emotional, and moving moments. It was really a wonderful experience because
typically you just see the folktunes in books or collections or hear them on the
radio maybe, but I had the opportunity to dwell in the landscape of the region
where they really were born and was able to hear the songs sung by the people
whose parents, grandparents and great-grandparents made these songs. This was
a lovely experience to be in this land and absorb the rich folklore. In my
arrangements of Písně z Těšínska, for example, this experience was my main
source of inspiration.29
Eben continues to explain the complexities in transcribing and arranging the folk
tunes:
Initially it seems like it would be easy for composers to stylize and arrange a
folksong. Basically the composer already has a melody and he has to add the
accompaniment. The question remains: In which style does the accompaniment
complete the melody? Should it be adapted to the time when the folksong
emerged or should it be rather “modern”? Wouldn’t the modern ones harm the
melody? Of course different melodies need different accompaniments. I think
that a living composer cannot deny “his or her” century. His or her period should
be reflected in the arrangement but it has to be in harmony with the whole.
Upon hearing the songs sung by village peasants, the “performers” do not always
sing clearly and the rhythm can be misrepresented. Intonation can be bad and a
composer has to sometimes surmise a given note or interval within the folksong.
To transcribe the melody of Bohemian folksong is no problem because they are
very transparent, but the melodies of Moravian-Silesian songs are very rich and
more complicated. You can find unusual intervals, modulations, and interesting,
complicated harmonies. Therefore, the composer has to be very careful so that he
does not suppress the richness of the song by adding his own ideas.
29
Petr Eben, interview by Jaromír Gelnar, 1950s, translated by Iva Raková. Radio
broadcast, Ostrava, Czech Republic.
I think that in contemporary music we recede from basic sources. It is necessary
to be experimental but the current musical jargon is getting complicated and I
wanted to return to my musical roots, my main inspirations, Gregorian chant with
its simple monody (afterall it was the beginning of European music) and folksong.
I know quite well the German, English, and French folksongs but I think Czech
folksongs are really the great treasure! Our folksongs are very rare, holding in
them its history, and among them we can find both western and eastern type. The
western type in Bohemia has rather a classicist and instrumental character. There
are many texts for one melody. On the other side, Moravian-Silesian folksong is
full of many lyrical melodies with one given text. These folksongs have rich
harmony and many influences from other countries. Most of the MoravianSilesian songs are sung in 3/4 bar and are modal. I wonder how people can sing
such difficult songs so well in tune? The melody is variable, almost adventurous.
My assistant Bohumil Indra (1912-2003) transcribed the words as best he could in
our Czech language, giving more of a transliteration as it were, and I transcribed
the melodies as I heard them sung. This short and succinct language is reflected
in my accented accompaniments. I did not have the opportunity to work directly
with speech intonation as Janáček did, for my task was to compose the
accompaniment and arrange the songs.30
Eben includes a preface in the score of Písně z Těšínska explaining more about his
method of arrangement and collection of the folksongs:
Today a composer may encounter folksongs only, for the most part, in printed
collections. A published song may exhibit beauty and originality; however, it is a
plucked flower that conveys as little about its home and its origins as a pressed
flower does about its scent, or the meadow and bees around it. If the recorded
folksongs of the Moravian-Silesian Beskids region created such a meaningful and
unforgettable impression on me, then this speaks to their richness: I could hear
songs from people of a region that was created by their ancestors. These three
fertile regions – in their natures, people, and songs–helped me to understand
melody more deeply. This is especially critical in these songs, in which are mixed
Moravian, Silesian, Polish, German, Old Church Slavic, and any other number of
elements.
The vivid, authentic interpretation, however, did not merely give me the key to
the melodies themselves, but also revealed much about the accompaniment of
these arrangements. If an old peasant taps his heels during a rhythmically
accented song, in irregularly alternating time, then those beats must appear in the
piano accompaniment. And the moon would have to shine in the arrangement of
the song “Za gorum, za vodum,” just as brightly as it did at the time when I
perceived its melody, when an old woman recalled exactly when the moon
appeared: “Once more about the moon…” I would be glad if I was able to capture
30
Ibid.
and translate in the arrangements at least something of the suggestive atmosphere
that accompanied my encounter with Moravian-Silesian songs31
According to Tučapský: “Eben was invited to collect folksongs in the Těšín region
because he was able to notate the tunes very well and the recorder (magnetophone) was
not available but he didn’t discover more folksongs… nothing new…folksongs and folk
poetry had simply vanished from villages. Many songs were already known in various
collections and school songbooks.”32 The resulting collection from the 1952 study
included two hundred eighty folksongs. While they may not have been newly
discovered, Eben discovered them nonetheless, and of the total sum, he chose eleven and
arranged them in his Písně z Těšínska, which reflected his experience.
The Czech National Revival in the 19th century represents an important turning
point for traditional music. During the national revival, scholars and specialists were
responsible for documenting folk music of the entire Austro-Hungarian Empire. Later, in
1835, the priest František Sušil (1804-1868) published Moravské národní písně
(Moravian National Songs), the founding collection of Moravian folk songs. The second
important collector of folk songs was the dialectologist and folklorist František Bartoš
(1837-1906), who published his collection Nové národní písně moravské s nápěvy do
textu vřaděnými (New Moravian Folksongs with Melodies Set to Text) in 1882. He
closely collaborated with Czech composer Leoš Janáček, who later became the leader of
the Moravian folklore movement. During the 1930s, Janáček published his folksong
collection called Moravské písně milostné (Moravian Love Songs) and also organized the
first recordings of the folk music with a phonograph. His recordings represent the oldest
documentation of Moravian folk music. Many other valuable regional folksong
collections and songbooks compiled by František Lýsek, Helena Salichova, and her son,
Milan Salich, were also published during this time, and collecting activities continued
through the second half of the 20th century. Today thousands of folksongs from Moravia
are archived in the Ethnographic Division of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech
Republic, formerly The State Institute for Folksong.
31
Petr Eben, Písně z Těšínska, Bärenreiter Editio Supraphon, Praha, 1952.
32
Tučapský, “Re: Songs from Těšín,” personal e-mail, 21 May 2008.
Indeed, several of the melodies and/or texts from Eben’s Písně z Těšínska have
been discovered by the author of this treatise in various collections located in the archives
of libraries in Prague and Těšín. These folk tunes were found in Josef Mojžíšek’s Lidové
písně z Těšínska (Folksongs from Těšín, a collection of 106 folksongs) and Miroslav
Kyjonka’s Z pěvník lidových písní z Těšínska (Songbook of Folksongs from Těšín). The
folk tunes are shown with variances in text, melodic line, and rhythm when compared to
Eben’s transcriptions.
Tučapský wrote to the author, “I can’t say if he used these songs somewhere else
or if they had certain influence on his music.”33 No extant material until now documents
the direct relationship between Eben’s Těšín period to his later works. Indeed, this period
significantly influences his later works. Following the arrangement of Písně z Těšínska,
Eben composed a setting of Christmas carols for children, Kolednici z Těšínska (Carols
from Těšín, 1963), based on Těšín folksongs. Graham Melville-Mason informed the
author that these were the only two vocal compositions influenced by Eben’s study in the
Těšín region.34 While no other future compositions by Eben incorporated entire folk
melodies or texts from the region, much of his work was influenced by his overall
experience in the Těšín region. The author has determined that the following works were
a result of the 1952 study in Těšín: Balady pro sola, smiseny sbor a orchestr (Ballads for
Solos, Mixed Chorus, and Orchestra, 1953 and 1957); choral cycles: Laska a smrt (Love
and Death, 1957-58) and O vlaštovkách a dívkách (On Swallows and Girls, 1959-60); a
collection for piano (Four Hands); and Hájíčku zelený (The Green Grove, 1963, 197879).
In addition to the works inspired from the 1952 study, it should be duly noted that
all of his life he turned to folksong from other regions, and they are reflected in the
following works: Narodní písně pro smíšený sbor (National Songs for Mixed Chorus,
1952); Krumlovský žamek (The Castle of Krumlov, 1955) for female choir, piano and
wind quintet; Orffova skola (Orff’s School, 1966) for children’s chorus and piano;
33
Tučapský, personal e-mail.
34
Graham Melville-Mason, “Petr Eben Songs,” personal e-mail, 5 February 2008.
Podzimní a zimní lídově písně (Autumn and Winter Folksongs, 1969); and Sto lidových
písní (One Hundred A Cappella Folk Choral Arrangements).35
Eben’s experience in the Těšín region, along with the reactionary upsurge in
interest in national folklore during the Soviet occupation, had a profound effect on his
music, as evidenced by the number of subsequent compositions that resulted. The
arrangements in Písně z Těšínska are a direct result of his encounter with folk culture and
the people of the region Těšínske Slesko, specifically in the town of Těšín. An
exploration of the historical and the cultural background of the town and research into the
dialect provides insight into the musical and cultural influences in the eleven songs.
35
Kate ina Vondrovicová-Červenková, Petr Eben, 2d ed. (Praha: Panton, 1995),
70.
CHAPTER THREE
THE T ŠÍN REGION
Understanding the location of the Těšín region requires an understanding of the
geography and bordering countries of the Czech Republic in general. The Czech
Republic borders Germany, Austria, Slovakia, and Poland. The country is divided into
two parts: Bohemia and Moravia. An area known as Silesia is located in both the
Moravian part of the Czech Republic and in Poland. The Těšín region spans Hrčavy,
Czech Republic and Jaworzynka, Poland in the east to Bohumín, Czech Republic and
Chalupki, Poland in the west. The Olše river creates a natural border at the heart of the
region where the towns Český Těšín, Czech Republic and Cieszyn, Poland are situated.
This town straddles the Czech/Polish border, lying in the region of Northern Moravia and
Silesia.
Many folksongs, including the ones in Eben’s Písně z Těšínska, originated from
the Moravian-Silesian region, specifically in the area known as Lašsko, where the Těšín
region lies.36 This was the region to where, in 1952, The State Institute for Folksong in
Brno, sent Petr Eben to collect and transcribe folksong in the original dialect. The
resulting collection of 280 folksongs and the eleven songs arranged by Petr Eben provide
rich documentation of the spirit of the Těšín people, the regional landscape, folk culture,
and Těšín’s unique regional dialect.
A map of the Czech Republic and its borders can be seen in Figures 3.1 and 3.2
and a closer view showing the Olše river dividing Český Těšín, Czech Republic and
Cieszyn, Poland can be seen on the map labeled Figure 3.3.
36
Boleslav Slováček, interview by author, 7 August 2008, Těšín, Czech Republic.
Figure 3.1: Map of the Czech Republic.37
37
Map of the Czech Republic, The World Factbook, Central Intelligence Agency,
http://www.cia.gov/library/publication/the-world-factbook/geos/ez.html (accessed 16
May 2009).
Figure 3.2: Map of the Czech Republic, Poland, and Silesia.38
38
Map of the Czech Republic, Poland, and Silesia,
http://warchat.org/history/history-world/wars-in-year-1900-1950.html (accessed 16 May
2009).
Figure 3.3: Map of Český Těšín/Cieszyn.39
39
Map of Český Těšín/Cieszyn, Vydalo Muzeum Těšínsko, Copyright Shocart, 2007.
3.1: T šín History
Legends and myths are integral traditions of folklore. The town of Těšín is rooted
in folklore and its origins are described in this tale. In the year 810 three sons of a
prince–Bolko, Leško and Těško–were reunited after a long pilgrimage. At their meeting
point, they founded a new settlement and called it Těšín.40 In Czech, těšit se (to look
forward to; to enjoy) is contracted to form the word těšín and thus they called the town
Těšín at the time of their reunion.41 “We will come here with other people and in eternal
memory of our happy meeting we will build a fortified city on this very hill. We will
name the city Těšín (Happiness) because we are all overjoyed with our meeting.”42 Some
Těšín natives say that it was Těško’s name that helped in choosing the name for the new
city because he was the last one who came to this beautiful countryside. The legend
continues that that autumn Bolko, Leško, and Těško turned a Těšín spring into a well that
commemorates their happy reunion. “The Well of Three Brothers” still stands in a
narrow and picturesque street in Old Cieszyn. A plaque on the well tells the legend about
the founding of the town on the Olša River and explains the origin of its name.
The first recorded reference to Těšín is in a document dated 23 April 1152,
regarding the castle of Těšín. Around the castle and the Olše River a town was founded
and is mentioned as early as the year 1223. The municipal rights for this town are
documented as of 1290. Prince Měšek Piastovci I became not only the founder of the
Těšín line of Piasts, but also the first prince to reside in the Těšín castle. An independent
Těšín princedom was created and the town of Těšín, due to its convenient location at the
crossroads of trading routes, became the administrative and commercial center of the
region. The Piasts ruled in Těšín until 1653, when the last Těšín princess from the Piast
dynasty died. The Těšín princedom became part of the Czech Crown and devolved to the
Hapsburgs, who reigned until 1918.
40
Adam (last name unknown, a Těšín native), interview by author, 9 August
2008, Jablunkov, Czech Republic.
41
Barbora Baronová, interview by author, 9 August 2008, Těšín, Czech Republic.
42
“The Well of Three Brothers,” Těšín/Cieszyn landmark.
In 1918 the Těšín region was divided between Czechoslovakia and Poland. It was
determined that the Olše River be made the border between the two countries. The Těšín
region was fought over. In the end the Těšín region was divided by a decree of the
ambassadorial conference of the Allied Powers on 28 July 1920. The historic Těšín
region became the twin-town of Český Těšín/Cieszyn. The more developed part of the
town on the right bank of the river, including the castle, fell to Poland, and the
underdeveloped area of villages on the left bank fell to Czechoslovakia. This village
area, however, had promising prospects for development. The redeeming aspect of the
left bank was the railway station from where trains left for T inec, Jablunkov, Slovakian
Košice, and to the railway junction in Bohumín, from where there was a connection
through Ostrava to Brno and Prague.
During the course of the following eighteen years, Poles and Czechs continued to
dispute over the town. After the Munich Conference in 1938, Český Těšín was assigned
to Poland. This was shortlived because at the outbreak of the Second World War in
1939, the two countries became occupied by Hitler’s Nazi Germany and were officially
incorporated into the Third Reich. Both towns were merged into one unit. Thus Těšín
and Cieszyn belonged to Germany until the end of World War II.
At the end of the Second World War in 1945, the towns were freed by the Soviet
army and the borders were restored to their pre-1938 division. Disputes over ownership
of the town erupted once again, but a decision was made to keep the towns separate on
either side of the border. Armed guards would stand along the border, prohibiting the
people from crossing between the two countries.43
With a myriad of nationalites of people living in the region and neither Poles
living exclusively in Cieszyn nor Czechs exclusively in Těšín, a law was made that in a
town where a minority makes up at least 10% of the population, bilingual notices were to
be used in public.44 This explains why Těšín and Cieszyn to this day have bilingual
street, restaurant, and railway station names.
43
Judith (last name unkown, a Těšín native), interview by author, 8 August 2008,
Těšín, Czech Republic.
44
Ibid.
The towns grew significantly, due to the administrative connection of the
neighbouring villages. On the outskirts of the town several settlements were created. In
the town center, vacant sites were gradually built up, but not always in a unified
architectural form. One can find medieval, gothic, renaissance, baroque, classicist,
cubist, and functionalist monuments within Cieszyn. Because Český Těšín had the
disadvantage of being initially a village area, the town remained rather underdeveloped
until the 1960s, when schools, a library, and a theater were built. Plays and concerts in
the theater were and still are performed in Czech and Polish. By the 1980s Český Těšín
was known as an industrial center for the making of paper and paper products.
After 1989, with the change in the political regime, the border was opened.
Citizens of the towns were permitted to walk freely across the border from one country to
the other. Unfortunately, the newfound freedom of the past twenty years has not
diminished rivalry between the older citizens of Český Těšín and Cieszyn.
In the year 2010 Český Těšín will celebrate its 90th anniversary; however, Cieszyn
will celebrate its 1,200-year anniversary because Poles consider the origin of the city to
date to the legend of the three brothers and its founding in 810.45 Today Český Těšín and
Cieszyn are considered one town made up of a Czech and Polish government. Czech
folklorist and leader of the Český Těšín folk group Slezan, Boleslav Slováček, believes
that the current rivalry exists because of the town’s rich history.46
3.2: T šín Folk Music and Culture
Traditional Moravian music represents a part of the European musical culture
connected with the regions around the western Carpathian Mountains. It is characterized
by specific modal melodies and harmonic textures related to the Eastern European
musical world. According to Czech musicologist Jan Víčár, Moravia is the area where
45
Slováček, interview.
46
Ibid.
the European East musically meets the West.47
The traditional music of Western Moravia is closely related to the music of
Bohemia. It was influenced by the folk music of Germany and other western regions as
well as the classical music of the Baroque and Classical periods. The music is mostly
written in major keys and its rhythm and structure are regular and firm. The music of
Southeastern Moravia differs substantially. It is closely related to the musical style of
Eastern Europe, using minor keys, modes, exoticism, irregular musical features, and
melodic elements characterisctic of eastern countries such as Ukraine, Slovakia,
Romania, and Hungary. Here it is also possible to find elements of gypsy scales that
contain augmented intervals unusual for the traditional music of Western Europe. The
key elements of the traditional music of Southeastern Moravia are emotional variegation
and great rhythmic leeway.
Moravian folksongs can be categorized as follows: love songs of various types
(joyous songs, sad songs), wedding songs, recruitment and army songs, shepherd songs,
jocular songs–with ironic and pointed remarks focusing on human weaknesses, drinking
songs–in praise of the scent and flavor of wine and spirits or poking fun at those who
drink too much, ceremonial songs, carnival songs, work songs, dance songs, carols, and
funeral songs.48
Moravian folk music incorporates various types of instruments. A characteristic
folk instrument often used in Moravian music is the cimbalom, similar to a folk hammer
dulcimer. In performance it is often carried by a single musician, typically using a strap
around the neck of the player, who leans one edge of the instrument against his or her
waist. Like the folk hammer dulcimer, the cimbalom is played by striking two beaters
against strings. There are also no damper mechanisms, therefore much use of the hand,
fingers, and forearm takes place for damping. The instrument can play a wide range of
pitches and employs full chromatic scales.
Despite the fact that in the time of capitalism there were major changes in
folksongs in Bohemia, the decline of the traditional folk singing was not as widespread in
47
Víčár, interview.
48
Jan Rokyta, interview by author, 10 August 2008, Ostrava, Czech Republic.
other parts of the Czech Republic, including the Těšín region. The villagers still worked
in fields and in forests and maintained old-fashioned ways of living and enjoying old
folksongs and folk music traditions. The inhabitants who worked in the industrial parts
of Těšín also maintained the older folkloric traditions.
The Těšín region is “the most singing” area in the Moravian–Silesian territory.49
The songs from the region are diverse in subject and form. They serve as strong artistic
representations of folklore and stem from the influences of Czech, Slovak, German,
Jewish, and Polish cultures. The vigorously expanding industry of the Těšín region
attracted many nationalities of people from different parts of the world who were looking
for work. They brought with them their own folksongs.50
An average folksinger from Těšín is about seventy years old, but in the more
mountainous areas of the region there are many singers as young as thirty. A specific
way of singing dominates. The songs are sung in a high tessitura with tones created in
the throat–as if the singer were shouting in chest voice.51 Because many of the songs are
sung to gajdy (bagpipes), which are tuned in D major, it forces a very high tessitura. Men
have to sing in this range because this is considered the ideal voice–singing in tune with a
bright, high, and strong voice. If men sing an octave lower, people will laugh at them.52
The technique used for this type of singing is equivalent to the belt technique of a musical
theater singer. Technically, the thyroarytenoid muscles of the larynx dominate, resulting
in chest-dominated phonation. The singer does not have the assistance of a microphone
or the ability to sing with classically produced resonance, therefore the singer has to
shout. There are two reasons for this type of singing: the tuning of gajdy and singing in
open air.53 Video footage of the 2008 Summer Folk Festival in Jablunkov documents this
49
Jaromír Gelnar and Old ich Sirovátka, Slezskě Písně (Praha: Státní
Nakladatelství Krásné Literatury, Hudby a Umění, 1957), 8.
50
Ibid.
51
Slováček, interview.
52
Ibid.
53
Gelnar, radio broadcast.
style of singing and is included in the documentary attached to the appendix of this
treatise.
The tradition of preserving folk culture began in the 17th century when local
scribes from the ranks of the peasantry began to chronicle both interesting historical
events and ethnocultural facts. They began documenting folksongs and folk tales in
collections. Among the best-known writings include the “notebooks” of J. Galacz from
Dolní Těrlicko, J. Gajdzica from Cisownice, J. Michalik from Žukov-Kotz, A. Pustówka
from Old ichovice, and P. Syurman from Dolní Lištná.
During the national revival period of the mid-19th century, two of the foremost
exponents of the Těšín revival, P. Stalmach and A. Cinciała, became major contributors
to the development of folklore in the Těšín region. They approached the folk tradition
not as occasional collectors (as their forerunners had done), but as authors who were fully
aware of the significant role folk culture played in the ennoblement of the national
spirit.54 During his studies in Bratislava, P. Stalmach, author of the Collection of Slavic
Songs (Cieszyn 1849), Book of the Slavic Nation (Cieszyn 1887), and Cieszymir (Cieszyn
1890), drew inspiration from the ideas of the Slovak revivalist L. Štúr. A. Cinciała, a law
student at the University of Cracow, gained his experience of folklore from Professor L.
Malinowski and his followers. Among Cinciała’s groundbreaking works are a collection
of 402 songs, which unfortunately lack a musical score (Folksongs from the Těšín Area,
Cracow 1885); his collection of 1,312 proverbs (Proverbs, Sayings and Interesting
Expressions of the Silesian Polish Population in the Těšín Dukedom, Cieszyn 1885); and
the first extensive dictionary of the Těšín dialect (Dictionary of the Dialect of the Těšín
Dukedom), for which he was awarded a prize by the Cracow Academy of Arts, and which
was reprinted in 1998. Cinciała’s grandson, a native of Dolní Datyně named Jan Bzstroń,
who was a student of the Jagellonian University in Krakow under Professor Malinowski,
was the author of the first scholarly study of one of the Těšín dialects (On the Polish
Dialect in the Lucyna and Stonawka River Basin of the Těšín Dukedom, Cracow 1885).
The study includes a wide range of interesting material on proverbs and folk prose, with
an especially valuable section on superstitious tales. These works gave inspiration to
54
Karol Daniel Kadłubiec, Andrej Sulitka, and Jaroslav Štika, Těšínsko (Těšín:
Muzeum Těšínska Valašské muzeum v p irodě Nakladatelství Tilia, 2003), 148.
local teachers and collectors who saw folklore as a repository of important educational,
artistic, national, and social values.55
The varying cultures and differentiations within the Těšín region in terms of
religion, education, and the mixture of linguistic groups result in a uniquely folkcentric
culture. Following the Second World War, the new era brought with it a new approach to
the revival of folk culture. Folk groups were formed and their stage performances
brought a revival of folk costumes, traditions, songs, dances, children’s games,
embroidery, and other manifestations of folk art. The folklore, together with song, music,
and dance, became important in identifying various groups.
The Těšín region is one of the last remaining areas in the country with a truly
living folk tradition. The folklore event with the longest tradition in the Těšín region is
the Mountain Festival in Jablunkov, mentioned previously, which was first held in 1948.
In an age of globalization, such traditions are critical to preserving a community’s
identity.
3.3: T šín Dialect
There are many dialects of the Czech language in the two parts of the Czech
Republic: Bohemia and Moravia. Regional dialects are merely variations of one
language, identified by the use of particular words and usually by a distinctive
pronunciation. For example, Czechs from Prague (in Bohemia) tend to lengthen some
vowels while Czechs from Brno (in Moravia) tend to shorten them. Literary Czech
provides a standard for the whole country, and is taught in schools and heard on
television and other public venues. The Těšín region is linguistically mixed and the
people speak a dialect known as po našimu, which means “the way we talk” or “in our
own manner.”56 Po našimu can be identified with the group of Silesian dialects and is
phonetically closer to Polish than Czech.
55
Ibid.
56
Baronová, interview.
Czech baritone Ivan Kusnjer recorded Písně z Těšínska with Eben at the piano.
Kusnjer informed the author, “Even Czechs don’t understand some of these words! I
added my own variations to the words in the score because I know a few sounds from this
dialect. Eben did not say a word.”57 Being a language that relies more on oral tradition
than literary, there are variances in the pronunciation depending on the generation, the
distance from one village to another, or level of education. Barbora Baronová told the
author, “My family speaks po našimu but within each household there are variances. We
can go to a restaurant and sit next to a table of a family from Poland, Prague, or even
from a nearby village and we will not be understood.”58
Miroslav Kyjonka describes in the Introduction to Songbook of Folksongs from
Těšín the complexities in transcribing Těšín folksongs in the local dialect.
Esteemed admirers of fine singing!
Many compilations of songs from various ethnic regions of our republics have
now been published. What is missing, however, is a contemporary,
comprehensive songbook from the Těšín region suitable for wide use in school
practice, folk ensembles, choruses, families, etc. Strictly professional
publications, such as those by Dr. Jaromír Gelnar, Dr. I. Stola ík, and others, were
written specifically for a specialized audience.
This collection of folksongs was compiled with the aim of popularizing the great
wealth of songs from Těšín, which have been often overshadowed by songs from
other regions, particularly from Slovakia, Wallachia, and others, despite the fact
that they possess a large wealth of unusual melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic
elements. An obvious obstacle to their wider application is the linguistic
difficulty of the characteristic dialect, which, with its distinct pronunciation, is
dissimilar to that of other regions in our republics. In addition to this, the songs
differ according to source: from the mountainous parts of Těšín (Jablunkovsko,
T inecko), or the northwestern region closer to Frýdek, Orlov, and Bohumín.
Beyond that there are often considerable differences between close communities
and between the residents of a single community.
Considering the circumstances, one must treat (beyond Mojžíšek) the records of
the bulk of the postwar period (the 1950s), where it is possible to see the obvious
influence of written classroom instruction, Czech as well as Polish. Therefore at
57
Ivan Kusnjer, interview with the author, 15 July 2008, Prague, Czech Republic.
58
Baronová, interview.
the time of the final recording of individual songs, I made the effort for the
written page to be examined by specialists on the ethnographic and linguistic
levels. In several instances a general pronunciation was used, avoiding the
specific practice of individual singers to use the pronunciation characteristic of
their community. This practice is typical, for example, in the community of
Hrčava, where Czech mingles specifically with Polish and Slovak. This practice
is definitively featured in recordings of songs performed by a single singer. To
more than four hundred years of performance by the folk ensembles of Slezan
from Český Těšín, I can add, for example, the performances of the legendary
bagpipe player and singer Pavel Zogat, who in the 1960s often performed with
our ensemble. The versions of the texts of songs in his renditions often changed
from performance to performance, and even from verse to verse. From this is it
possible to make the definitive claim that folklore can never be regarded as
something archaically rigid, but rather as something continually developing and
alive. Many years of familiarity from work with a folkloric ensemble has
illustrated that which can also be seen in the work of Pavel Zogat: definitive
change in the lyrical and melodic parts of performed songs. It was determined
that there was a special need for a logical approach to the problem of why the
lyrical forms of recorded songs did not correspond to the written forms. In
addition it was necessary at some point to revise the melodic and rhythmic forms
of the songs, considering the fact that in the act of transcribing the songs,
collectors wrote their own verses which did not correspond with widely used
melodic and rhythmic practices.
As I have already noted, it was my intent that the songs could be used in various
circumstances. With this goal in mind, the songs in the collections are maximally
simplified, especially their rhythms, and a specialized audience will perceive this
simplification. The harmonic elements of the accompaniment are in the majority
of cases equally simplified, so that they may be used by students and by amateur
musicians. The simplification is expressed in such a way that the capital letters
represent major chords (C, G, D, and so forth), and the lower case letters represent
minor chords (a, d, g, and so on).
I would be glad to focus on a few problems that concern the graphic entry of the
texts of songs. I have made an effort to adhere to Czech orthography, which
however, does not accurately express the phonetic pronunciation of some songs.
For example, in the word "my" (muj), the phonetic pronunciation has a sound
between the letters "u" and "o." Considering that the closest letter to that sound in
Czech is pronounced "u," I used that letter. Another problem is the transcription
of the soft and hard "l." Written Czech has only one sign to represent these
sounds; in many dialects there are two pronunciations, hard and soft. The
pronunciation of "l" in words in Těšín is distinguished phonetically; therefore I
used the letters used in Polish to represent hard "ł" and soft "l." I will further note
that in Orlov and on to Frýdek the pronunciation of hard "l" was not so often
used. So far, the "l" here is a transitional one between the hard and soft. In these
times, considering the integration of the inhabitants, this sign is changing, in
Czech and in Polish.59
There is an extensive amount of vocal repertoire set to texts written in Moravian
dialects both by Moravian and Bohemian composers. Novák, Martinů, and Janáček, to
name a few, all set texts to Moravian dialect as well as to literary Czech. Janáček’s
folksong arrangements were transcribed in a manner similar to Eben’s. In his collection
Fifty Moravian Folksongs, the words and melodies are faithful to folk performances.
Janáček collected thousands of folksongs throughout Moravia. “He listened to a number
of natives and wrote down the varying pitch levels and rhythmic accentuation of the
spoken dialect, and inflection of words. In some cases, only krátký dialects were used, as
is the case with Písně z Těšínska.”60
According to Timothy Cheek, author of the Czech lyric diction textbook Singing
in Czech, there is no need to try to sound Moravian in singing this music. Czech singers
invariably adopt a standard literary Czech pronunciation even for the Moravian dialect.
Singers need only sing what is written.61 The arrangements in Písně z Těšínska are
transliterations by Bohumil Indra from the spoken dialect po našimu. Because neither
Eben nor Indra knew the dialect intimately, there are mistakes of consonant and vowel
spellings in the musical score. The author of this treatise recommends referring to the
recording of native speakers in Appendix B and studying the rudimentary breakdown
listed below as a guide in adhering to the authentic pronunciation of the dialect. A
rudimentary breakdown of the dialect is listed below.
1. The Czech tě is given the IPA symbol [t’ɛ] where the t is an unvoiced,
unaspirated alveolar palatal consonant followed by open [ɛ]. The [t’] does not occur in
the English language. In Czech, it is considered a soft version of [t], making sure that the
tip of the tongue is resting against the lower incisors, and allowing the top arch of the
59
Miroslav Kyjonka, Z Pěvník lidových písní z Těšínska trans. Lisa Ryoko
Wakamiya (Český Těšín: PRO print spol. S.r.o., 2004), 3-4.
60
61
Timothy Cheek, interview by author, 6 March 2009, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Timothy Cheek, Singing in Czech: A Guide to Czech Lyric Diction and Vocal
Repertoire (Lanham: The Scarecrow Press, 2001), 121.
tongue to meet the hard palate. The Czech ti is pronounced [t’i]. The same is for the
Czech dě [d’ɛ], except the [d’] is a voiced, unaspirated alveolar palatal consonant.
Likewise, the Czech di is pronounced [d’i]. In the Těšín dialect, the aforementioned
letter combinations are pronounced almost as an affricate and can be given the following
IPA symbols: tě = če [tʃ’ɛ], ti = či [tʃ’i], dě = dže [dʒ’ɛ], and di = dži [dʒ’i] in the dialect.
2. In Polish sz [ʃ], ż [ʒ], and cz [tʃ] are identical sounds in the Těšín dialect, but
spelled š, ž, č.62 The dialect will have no čárka’s over the vowels because the dialect is
influenced by Polish and is spoken with all short vowels.
3. A strong tendency of this region, unlike the typical Czech language, is to
disregard the glottal after one-letter prepositions, as in v okně (on the window),
pronounced [vɔkɲɛ] in the dialect. For singers, this is optional.63
4. A few isolated areas in Moravia, including the Tĕšín region, have either the
hard or wrapped ł or the typical Czech soft l. Soft l and hard or wrapped ł are used
interchangeably in the dialect. The hard or wrapped ł, pronounced [w], is more common
in the “mountain” folksongs, whereas the soft l pronounced [l’] is spoken in the lowlands,
therefore used in the “river” folksongs. The sound [l’] is a voiced fricative alveolar
lateral consonant that is always light and forward, like the Italian and French [l], or
similar to the occasionally light [l] in English words such as lit [lɪt]. The tip of the tongue
rises to the alveolar ridge, not too far back, thus avoiding the often dark and thick English
[l]. Singers may certainly employ these sounds interchangeably, if desired, but Czech
singers typically disregard the wrapped ł and sing l.64
5. All vowels are short (krátký) in the dialect: mila (beautiful), stoji (stand).
6. Most words in the Těšín dialect have different spellings for the same words in
the literary Czech language. For example, polić (dialect) is páliti (literary Czech)
meaning: burn; staro (dialect) is starý (literary Czech) meaning: old; vrota (dialect) is
vrata (literary Czech) meaning: gate; prog (dialect) is práh (literary Czech) meaning:
62
Petr Eben, Písně z Těšínska.
63
Cheek, Singing in Czech.
64
Ibid.
doorstep; śostra (dialect) is sestra (literary Czech) meaning: sister; ščana (dialect) is
stěna (literary Czech) meaning: wall.65
7. In Czech pronunciaton i and y are discerned as closed i [i] and open y [ɪ]. The
local dialect does not differentiate between these two vowel sounds, resulting in both i
and y being pronounced closed [i].
8. The dialect contains differences in declination. For example, in the dialect the
declined singular feminine form ending is ym (rybym, meaning fish), which is y in typical
Czech (ryby). Another example is the singular feminine form ending of um (dźevuchum,
meaning girlfriend), which is ou in typical Czech (dívkou).
9. The endings of pronouns have variances, for example, s tum našum (with
ours), which in typical Czech is s tím naším.
10. The past tense is formed in a way different from literary Czech.
11. Typical of Polish, the stress in the Těšín dialect is on the penultimate syllable,
for example: ńedogońi (they do not catch me), where go receives the word stress. In
typical Czech, the stress is always on the first syllable of the word.
12. It is important to note that in both typical Czech and in the Těšín dialect, the
vowel sounds are forward, similar to those of the Italian language. For this reason, it is
the brightest of the Slavic languages.
The complexity of the dialect inspired the author to find a definitive pronunciation
guide by way of interviewing various people from Těšín. In so doing, matters only
became more complicated when each group of people from Těšín had a different opinion
of not only how the folktexts of Eben’s Písně z Těšínska should be pronounced, but a
discrepancy as to which region the folksongs belonged. After an extensive interview
process, three groups of people from Těšín have been determined to claim the songs as
their own, therefore claiming that they have the “correct” pronunciation. The three
groups of people from Těšín are 1) Polish, 2) Czech, and 3) Těšín natives. The people in
all three groups speak po našimu with its own variances, and currently live in Těšín. At
home the groups of people speak their native language; the Poles living in Těšín speak
Polish, the Czechs living in Těšín speak Czech, and the group of natives speaks only po
65
Rokyta, interview.
našimu. While Těšín school children are taught either Czech or Polish in their schools,
many still speak po našimu with their families and friends.
The results of this interview process have proven that a definitive pronunciation
does not exist; however, it is the intent of this treatise to preserve the most authentic
reading, translation, and written form of the texts. The Těšín natives provide the most
authentic version. Included in the Appendix is a reading of the entire folk texts by two
natives of Těšín: Boleslav Slováček and Dagmar Szturcová. This reading represents the
most definitive pronunciation and is recommended by the author as the primary study
guide for singers and vocal coaches of these songs. Two phrases from two of the
folksongs have been selected for a closer comparative analysis. These phrases are read
by one person from the first group (Roman Grycz, a Pole living in Těšín), two people
from the second group (Renata Utíkal, a Czech living in Těšín and Ivan Kusnjer - Czech
living in Prague, who is familiar with the Těšín dialect), and two people from the more
authentic third group (Boleslav Slováček and Dagmar Szturcová). These comparative
readings display the slight and sometimes glaring differences in the spoken dialect from
one region to another; they are also attached to the Appendix. Additionally, Chapter Four
includes the folk texts in the written form of the dialect by Těšín native, Barbora
Baronová. These recordings and written folk texts help to preserve the dialect known as
po našimu as represented in Písně z Těšínska.
To paraphrase Steven Roger Fischer in his provocative book A History of
Language: once dead, languages cannot be resurrected.66 Most linguists accept that the
mass extinction of languages or dialects is already a foregone conclusion: the price
humanity is paying for the new global society. The broad implications and impact of
Eben’s Písně z Těšínska, a result of his 1952 journey to Těšín, defy the statements by
previous authors and professors that this period in Eben’s compositional life was
insignificant; there is promise that within Petr Eben’s arrangments of folksongs from the
historically rich town of Český Těšín/Cieszyn, its folklore will be preserved and its
dialect will not die.
66
Steven Roger Fischer, A History of Language 2d ed. (The Netherlands: BCA by
arrangement with Reaktion Books Ltd., 2005), 198.
CHAPTER FOUR
THE FOLKSONGS
A specific exploration of Písně z Těšínska including consideration of text, music,
and cultural references reveals Moravian-Silesian folk characteristics as captured through
the distinct musical voice of Petr Eben. First, the folksongs have been categorized as
either “river” or “mountain” songs, based upon their origin within the Těšín region.
Second, special attention has been given to the folk texts in terms of authenticity.
Because the texts in the musical score are merely transliterations of the dialect, it is
important to view the texts in a more authentic form, written by someone who speaks the
dialect. In this written form the dialect more closely matches the vowel and consonant
sounds of the native speakers. An English translation of the texts as seen in the musical
score follows this authentic form of the written dialect. Included in Appendix A is a
word-for-word translation of the texts as transcribed by Eben and Indra. Third, at least
one music example from each of the eleven folksongs is included that represents a
hallmark of Eben’s compositional style with Moravian-Silesian folk idioms. The goal for
Eben was simply to capture the spirit of Těšín. While that remains the objective for
performers, an ethnomusicological endeavor for authenticity gives clarity and deeper
insight into the folksongs.
Folksongs originating from the mountains are labeled “mountain” songs.67 These
folksongs are influenced by the old-Slavonic language and are sung in the local dialect po
našimu. Musical characteristics of the folksongs from this area of the Těšín region
include the use of Mixolydian and Lydian modes, use of primitively whittled wood
whistles, use of the cimbalom, and use of gajdy (bagpipes), which has a scale of six tones
only. Folklorists assume that the oldest “mountain” songs come from the middle of the
17th century. These folk tunes have smaller vocal ranges because the instruments that
accompany them were not as developed and could not produce the full range of pitches
that more modern instruments are capable of producing.
67
Rokyta, interview.
Folksongs originating from the lowlands are labeled “river” songs.68 These folksongs
are also sung in the local po našimu dialect. Musical characteristics of the folksongs from
this region are as follows: use of ordinary Ionian mode (C major), more “Czech” and
“Bohemian” song qualities such as major keys, wider vocal ranges, not as many Polish
influences as found in the “mountain” folksongs, no gajdy, music ensembles including
string instruments, wind instruments, and the cimbalom. The “river” songs are younger
than “mountain” songs as they originated mostly in the 19th century.
The “mountain” and “river” songs were sung by a group of people known as
gawendžioře (storytellers). These storytellers told personal tales of their ancestors
through the songs. Eben and Indra met some of the gawendžioře during the 1952 study
in the Těšín region. These encounters influenced Eben’s style in arranging the songs, and
some of their stories are documented below. It is significant to note that Eben’s primary
goal in the arrangment of these songs was the communication of text. He does not alter
the folk tunes themselves in his arrangements, but adds his own inventions and
incorporates many interesting compositional devices in the piano accompaniments, which
reflect the meaning of the text, and in some cases add subtext. The technique of
composition was secondary.69
4.1: “Hej, koło T šina”
River Song
1. Około Ciešyna, je tam cestečka. A na tej cestečce, stoji džiyvečka. Stoji, stoji,
učosano, jak by była malovano, džiyvčynka moja, džiyvčynka moja.
2. A jo se ji pytoł, čy by mě chčiała. A ona mi na to rynčki podała. Ojcově se
dozvědžieli, zaroz po nas p ijechali, bylo věšeli, bylo věšeli.
68
Ibid.
69
David Eben, interview.
3. A potym žech dostoł kožuch na šviynta. Co něboščyk sta ik pos v nim čielynta.
Kdyby byli sta ik žyli, to by byli v nim chodžili, jo by nimioł nic, jo by nimioł nic.70
1. Hey, around Těšín, there is a path on which a maiden stands. She stands all dressed
up as if she were painted like a bride, hey, just like a bride.
2. So I asked her if she would be mine, and she gave me her little hands in reply. Her
parents learned about our courtship and they came right away. We all shared in good
cheer.
3. Then they gave me a wedding coat that my late grandfather wore while herding in the
cattle. If grandfather were still alive he would be wearing this coat now, and not me. I
would be left wearing nothing at all! Hey, I would not have anything on at all!71
The melody and rhythm of this folksong come from the Mazur dance of Poland,
specifically from the Mazury region around the Mazur Lakes. This energetic song was
sung at weddings and is therefore an example of a Moravian-Silesian wedding song. The
key of C Major was a popular key for “river” songs. People danced while singing it in
3/4 meter with the accent on the first beat. It is a song of celebration, reminiscent of the
opening wedding scene of Zerlina and Masetto from Act One of Mozart’s Don Giovanni.
Eben offsets the accentuation of the rhythm of the dialect in his accompaniments by
adding grace notes leading to accents on weak beats. The syncopation provides the song
with a celebrative and improvised quality. To sing this song well, the performer should
practice with physical movement, beer in hand, stomping on downbeats. Eben marks the
song allegro accentato and reiterates this in his use of accent marks, staccati, and sfz in
the left hand on the downbeat of each phrase. It is interesting to note that while the piano
70
Barbora Baronová, “Tĕšín Songs,” personal e-mail, 20 September 2008. These
are translations by Barbora Baronová into an authentic form of the po našimu dialect.
They are to be used as a reference and comparison guide to the transliterated texts in the
score of Písně z Těšínska.
71
These are translations of the texts by Matthew Markham and are recommended
for use in recital programs. A word-for-word translation may be found in Appendix A.
accompaniment contains rich chromaticism, dissonances, syncopation, and colorful
harmonies, the folk tune remains diatonic.
The rhymed couplets of the folk poem provide a firm musical structure with two
eight-bar phrases. Eben chose for the song three verses arranged in strophic form. The
musical score does not include a piano introduction; however, Eben improvised an
opening four bar phrase on the piano in his performances of this piece. The improvised
introduction contains material that is not repeated later in the song. With an ambiguous
tonality and a jaunty rhythmic structure beginning on the dominant and not landing on the
tonic until the second measure of the folk tune, Eben sets up the folksong with a
surprising introduction. A transcription of the improvised piano introduction used in
performances with baritone Ivan Kusnjer is shown below.72 It is recommended that this
piano introduction be used in concert although it is not included in the published score.
Figure 4.1: “Hej, koło Těšina” unpublished piano introduction.
72
Katharine Ball, “Hej, koło Těšína.” Transcription of piano introduction,
April 2009, University of Michigan: Ann Arbor, Michigan.
4.2: “Ten T šinsky mostek”
River Song
1. Tyn ciešynski mostek ogibo se a po nim vodžička rozlyvo se, ach, jaja, tralalala, a po
nim vodžička rozlyvo se.
2. Čymu mě tatulku něrad močie, že vy mě na vojne vysyłoče, ach, jaja, tralalala, že vy
mě na vojne vysyłočie.
3. Něvysyłajčie mě, pujdym jo sum, šiednym na kunička, bedym husar, ach, jaja,
tralalala, šiednym na kunička, bedym husar.
4. Tyn branny kuniček mě poněšie a švarno džievucha p ituli šie, ach, jaja, tralalala, a
švarno džievucha p ituli šie.
5. Co branny kuniček, to podstata, co švarno džievucha, to utrata, ach, jaja, tralalala, co
švarno džievucha, to utrata.
1. The bridge in Těšín bows and water flows under it. Ah, yes, tra-la-la-la-la, the
water flows under it.
2. Why, my good father, are you so unhappy with me that you send me away to
serve in the army?
3. No need to send me, I will go of my own accord. I will saddle a horse and be
a hussar.
4. The mighty horse will carry me safely away and the fair maiden will
remember me and keep me in her heart.
5. A mighty horse can bring one safety but a beautiful maiden will always bring
heartache.
This is an example of a military song. Such songs were sung when young men
were sent off to war. The man going off to war sings about his family, beloved, parents,
best friend, and horse–the mark of safety and heroism. The song usually tells about a
maiden who will wait for him until the end of the war.
Eben structures this song in ABA form with the lyrical A section in the key of D
Major. The first interval in the accompaniment is a surprising augmented second (D to
E-sharp) in the right hand of the opening measure and is atypical of the D Major scale.
Another atypical note of D Major that is found in the piano accompaniment of this song
is the frequent use of G- sharp. These altered notes of a raised second and raised fourth
suggest a folk derived mode, rather than a standard church mode.
The B section modulates to the key of B-flat Major and is rhythmically
contrasting to the A section. The heroic and militant B section incorporates a polonaise
dance rhythm in 3/4 meter that recurs throughout the following two verses. The
polonaise rhythm is shown below in the right hand of the piano part.
Figure 4.2: “Ten Těšinsky mostek” measures 25-29.
The polonaise rhythm continues into the third verse of the B section, underscoring
the folk tune.
Figure 4.3: “Ten Těšinsky mostek” measures 42-44.
At the return of the A section, Eben modulates back to the key of D Major with a
simpler accompaniment consisting of a descending motive that alternates between the
right and left hands. This simple accompaniment enables the text to be the dominating
focus since here, the moral of the story is told–a maiden will always bring heartache.
Resolving with pedal points throughout the final two systems on a sustained low D, the
piano accompaniment echoes the modal sounds of the raised second (E-sharp) in the right
hand resolves to a D-Major chord. The solitary D is reiterated in the left hand, signifying
the loneliness of the young man at war.
4.3: “Tam z tej strony jeźora”
Mountain Song
1. Tam z tej struny ježiora, stoji lipka želuno, ej, stoji, stoji lipinka želuno a na ni sum
ptoškovie.
2. Ej něsum to ptoškově, sum to kavalirově, rozmovjajum šie o švarnej džievuše,
kjeremu šie dostaně.
3. Jedyn pravi “Bydžie mo”, a tyn drugi “Jak Bug do”, ej a tyn t eči “Ty moje serduško,
šak ty bedžieš yny mo.”
1. On the yonder side of the lake there stands a linden tree. Hey, there stands a
linden tree and up inside it nests some little warbling birds.
2. Hey, but they are not just little warblers, they are cavaliers. They are singing
about a beautiful maiden and which one of them is about to marry her.
3. The first one says, “She will be mine!” The second one says, “God will
decide.” The third one says, “Hey, she is already my sweetheart and I know she will be
only mine.”
This is a popular folk tune from the Bílé Karpaty (White Karpaty) mountain range
of Moravia. It is an example of a Moravian-Silesian love song. Symbolism in Těšín
folksong is not Romantic or philosophical in the Germanic sense, but rather
straightforward, often equating lovers to birds and the heartshaped leaves of the linden
tree to the hearts of the lovers, as in the case of this folksong.
This folk tune is in A mixolydian. The mixolydian mode is typical of many
mountain songs.73 The piano introduction seems to be bitonal with F Major in the left
hand and A Major in the right hand. It is not until the sixth measure of the piece, with the
entrance of the voice part, that a firm tonality is established.
Eben uses rhythm and texture to delineate the characters of this piece. The light
texture of the staccati in the accompaniment represents the chattering of the birds. When
the beautiful girl and the linden tree are being described, Eben changes the texture to a
more legato accompaniment in thirds and in octaves in both hands in the piano part.
Eben also changes the rhythm of the accompaniment with the commentary of each bird.
When the third bird concludes, “Ty moje serdečko, šak ty benděs enem ma” (she is
already my sweetheart and I know she will be only mine), Eben stops the flow of the
accompaniment altogether by writing whole note chords. He clearly marks forte and then
piano for the two parts of the third bird’s final sentiment. The stark dynamic contrast and
rhythmic diversity are typical style characteristics of Eben. The arrangement ends on the
dominant after the piano postlude recapitualizes the chattering of the birds with light
staccati in an ascending flurry of triads (measure 23). The excerpt below shows this clear
delineation of character with the sudden changes in texture and dynamics.
73
Rokyta, interview.
Figure 4.4: “Tam z tej strony jeźora” measures 19-26.
4.4: “V zelenym hajičku”
River Song
1. V želunym hajičku, v želunym rubali, kumu mě zostaviš synečku kochany?
2. Zostaviym jo čie tymu, co je z něba a za roček za dva p ijadym po čiebie.
3. A jak něp ijadym, bedym listy pisač a ty jednak mušiš mojum miłum zostač.
1. In a green grove there are trees that have been cut down for wood. Oh, tell
me, who will watch over me while you are gone, my own true love?
2. I will commend you to him who dwells in Heaven. In a year or two, I will
return and be with you again.
3. If I do not come back, I will write you letters. You must love me still.
Nature is a key element in this sad Moravian-Silesian love song. The color green
is often used to represent growth, rebirth, or a resting place. In addition, the opening
reference to the “trees that have been cut down for wood” might be symbolic of a coffin.
Barbora Baronová informs the author that she believes a dark and tragic subtext
underlines the imminent sadness of this folksong.74 A foreshadowing of events to come–
death and the writing of letters to the beloved who is far away–underlines the obscure
piano introduction of the otherwise seemingly sweet and lyrical folk melody. The
opening four bar piano introduction is in 7/8 meter, which is not used anywhere else in
the folksong. Once again the key is ambiguous and full of chromaticism until the voice
part enters in the fifth measure. Eben structures this folksong uniquely with repeated
parts of the verses, adding to the ominous sentiment of the folk text. The song includes
syncopation, meter changes, chromaticism, and a descending bass line typical of
composers of the Baroque to signify death. The piano introduction and first verse is
shown below, revealing the syncopation of the voice part against the piano
accompaniment, descending bass line, and repeated structure.
74
Baronová, personal e-mail.
Figure 4.5: “V zelenym hajičku” measures 1-15.
Kochany, (milovaný in the Czech language), means beloved. This is a strong
dialect word used in the first verse of this folk text. This word is included with eighteen
other dialect words in a glossary at the back of the musical score of Písně z Těšínska.
Eben met a young man on his 1952 study in the Těšín region who sang this folk
tune for him. The man explained to Eben that his wife had died one year ago and this
folksong meant something very special to him. While he sang the tune his body swayed
on the offbeats, which Eben shows in the syncopation of his accompaniment. During the
last verse of the song the singer “bent” one note, which Eben recreates in the last verse of
his arrangement with a B-flat as opposed to the B-natural of the previous verses. This is
shown in the example below.
Figure 4.6: “V zelenym hajičku” measures 23-24.
It is interesting to note that one year after the 1952 study in Těšín, Eben learned
that the young man who had sung this folk tune had died an unexpected and tragic
death.75
75
Rokyta, interview.
4.5: “Dolina, dolina”
Mountain Song
1. Dolina, dolina, a v dolině sosna, poviydz mi, džievucho, do kogo urosła.
2. Urosłach, urosłach, ale ni do čiebie, do tego synečka, co z vojny p ijedžie.
3. P ijedžie, p ijedžie na brannym kuničku, podkovjynki złote, šablička na boku.
4. Džievucho, džievucho, porachuj se sobie, věla jo chodničkuv nachodžił ku tobie!
5. Kdybyžech jo miała chodnički rachovač, musiała bych jo se pisa ička chovač.
6. Pisa ička chovač, papiur mu kupovač, něstarčylo by mi ani na jedyn rok.
1. Down in the valley there is a pine tree. Tell me fair maid, for whom are you
growing?
2. Indeed, I am growing, but not for you. Rather I am growing because of the
armed lad who has been at war.
3. He will return on a mighty horse with golden horseshoes and with a sword at his side.
4. Fair maid of mine, try to count the many paths I have trodden to find you.
5. Were I to add them all up, I would need a scribe just for this task alone.
6. I would have to keep a scribe and buy the lad all the paper he needs. Then I would
spend all that I have from you in less than one year.
This Mountain song represents another type of Moravian-Silesian love song. This
song is a dispute between a man and a woman. The woman is still in love with her
partner who has gone off to war and who has not returned for at least nine months. The
reference to “growing” means that the young woman is pregnant. The current boyfriend
questions her pregnancy for fear that the woman has been unfaithful to him. Alas, it is a
folk text based upon love and betrayal.
The importance of musical stucture, for which Eben credits his first composition
teacher Pavel Borcovec, provides Eben the impetus for arranging this folksong.76 The
76
David Eben, interview.
technique of theme and variation allows Eben to delineate the shifting emotionally
charged interjectory remarks of the disputing lovers throughout this folksong. The
beginning of each verse is shown below.
Figure 4.7: “Dolina, dolina” measures 6, 13, 18-20, 27-28, 33-34, and 37-38.
The technique of theme and variation holds the folksong together in terms of
rhythm, but in terms of tonality, the piece is in ABA form. Beginning in E Major,
modulating to E minor, and returning to E Major, Eben makes use of rich chromaticism
and numerous tritones, which heighten the tension between the quarreling lovers. A
flourish of quintuplets, extreme dynamic contrasts, sfz, and dotted rhythms are indicative
of the fast changing emotions and explanations proclaimed by the man and woman. The
piano accompaniment is very active and requires great technical facility in order to
execute the large chords and specific markings, which range legato, staccato, marcato,
scherzando, and cover a wide range of the keyboard. This expansive song is the most
operatic in scope of all the folksongs in Písně z Těšínska and requires the most diverse
color palatte and technical skill for both singer and pianist. The final resolution in E
Major follows three highly dissonant chords arranged in pairs as shown in the example
below. A pair of slurred chords stated three times as shown in the excerpt below perhaps
might represent the characters of the song.
Figure 4.8: “Dolina, dolina” measures 44-46.
4.6: “V ned li rano”
River Song
1. V nědžiele rano, v niedžiele rano drobny dešč pado, moja nejmilejšo, moja nejmilejšo
krovy vygaňo, moja nejmilejšo, moja nejmilejšo krovy vygaňo.
2. Ty pujdžieš gurum, ty pujdžieš gurum a jo dolinum, ty zakvitnieš ružum, ty zakvitnieš
ružum a jo malinum, ty zakvitnieš ružum, ty zakvitnieš ružum a jo malinum.
3. Ty pujdžieš gurum, ty pujdžieš gurum a jo gospodum, ty beješ pannum, ty beješ
pannum a jo młodžiencym, ty beješ pannum, ty beješ pannum a jo młodžiencym.
1. The rain is falling lightly on a Sunday morning. My own betrothed is out to herd the
cattle again.
2. You will go by hill and I will go by valley. You will blossom as a rose and I
will be the berry.
3. You will go back by hill and I will stop off at the pub. You will return as a
maid and I will remain a bachelor.
The title of this song might be amended to read “V nedělu rano” (not v neděli)
because this is the Moravian ending of that word. This is an example of a MoravianSilesian dancing song. Apart from the more generic dances (waltzes, polkas), a dance
that is linked to north Moravia is the starodavný. It is a triple meter dance that uses
triplet figures and dotted rhythms, and is related to the mazurka or the krakowiak.
Janáček called this dance the starodávný (old-time) in his writings on Lachian folk music
from the Lachian region just south of Těšín.77 The dance is in 3/4 meter. Women would
often wear white dresses for this dignified dance. Even though it is a dancing song, an
underlying mystery pervades this folksong.
This is a beautiful poetic representation of sexual intercourse symbolized by the
rose and berry. The secrecy and urgency with which the secretive lovers are plotting
their meeting over the hill and by way of the valley is reflected in the relentless,
breathless piano accompaniment. While the folk tune is based upon the starodávný,
Eben’s arrangment of the piano part to reflect the rain falling implies anything but a
merry dance. The third verse of the folk poem tells the imminent separation of the lovers
after intercourse: she will return to her home and he will have a drink at the local pub.
Eben changes the texture of the piano accompaniment abruptly at the start of the third
verse. The accompaniment is now full of syncopation and rhythmic accents contrasting
greatly to the “rain” accompaniment of the first two verses.
The musical example below shows the dotted rhythm of the starodavný in the 3/4
meter folk tune against the light texture of the running sixteenth-note repeated figure
representing the rainfall.
Figure 4.9: “V neděli rano” measures 9-11.
77
Jesse Johnston, “Re: Folk Institute in Brno,” personal e-mail, 3 March 2009.
The following musical example shows the stark contrast of the third verse. Note
that while we are still in 3/4 meter, the accompaniment has shifted to the middle register
and is full of syncopation and an overall heavier, bitter mood even though the folk tune
retains the rhythm of the starodavný. The arrangement ends with a climax to ff, quite
contrasting to the light texture at the beginning of the piece.
Figure 4.10: “V neděli rano” measures 24-30.
4.7: “Ja v m o ptaškovi”
River Song
1. Jo viym o ptoškovi v lešie, jo viym o ptoškovi v lešie, malovane vajca něšie, malovane
vajca něšie.
2. Jedno biołe, drugi šare, jedno biołe, drugi šare, kany inšy roz džeuchi stare, kany inšy
roz džeuchi stare.
3. A v yce sum młodušinki, a v yce sum młodušinki, majum gymby słodušinki,
majum gymby słodušinki.
4. Jo juž jednum pocałowoł, jo juž jednum pocałowoł, t i dni žech se oblizovoł, t i dni
žech se oblizovoł.
1. I know about the bird in the forest. It lays beautifully colored eggs.
2. One is white, the second pale. You better try to go somewhere else old maids.
3. Here in eka, the young maidens dwell, and they have very sweet and tender mouths.
4. I have already kissed one, and for three days I have been smacking my lips.
This is an example of a Moravian-Silesian ceremonial dance song. It is a comic
song about a man who really prefers young women. He is young and handsome and is
able to choose the most beautiful girl for himself. He is boastful and wants to tell
everybody about his success with the young girls.
The original folk tune was danced to the polonaise, but Eben arranged the song
with a depiction of birds in the piano part with an alternating meter of 3/4 and 6/8 to
match the rhythm of the dialect.78 The group of 4 eighth notes followed by the group of
two eighth notes gives the song a comedic character aptly marked giocoso. Eben sets the
first half of the song with both hands playing in treble clef. This lightness of timbre
symbolizes the character of the birds and the flirtation of the young man with the young
maidens.
78
Rokyta, interview.
Figure 4.11: “Ja věm o ptaškovi” measures 1-4.
The second example is representative of a typical Bohemian folksong melody,
ending on the third of the chord rather than the root. River songs were sometimes
influenced by the Bohemian folksong.
Figure 4.12: “Ja věm o ptaškovi” measures 44-47.
Special notes about this song: 1. Gembe is a dialectal word meaning “mouth.”
2. There is a wrong note in the musical score on the top of page 22. The last eighth notes
in the right hand of measure 16 should be E and D, not E and C.
4.8: “Litali, litali dva holubci mali”
Mountain Song
1. Lotali, lotali, dvo gołumbcy mali, dživała se jim nadobno džiyvečka, dživała se jim
oběma.
2. Či gołumbcy mali, gňiozdečko se słali, dživała se jim nadobno džiyvečka, dživała se
jim oběma.
3. A z tej piyrvšej struny, błavatek žieluny, dživała se jim nadobno džiyvečka, dživała se
jim oběma.
4. A z tej drugi struny, stebelečko słumy, dživała se jim nadobno džiyvečka, dživała se
jim oběma.
1. The two pigeons flew around, and a beautiful maiden saw them.
2. The pigeons were making a nest, and the maiden started to watch.
3. On one side there was a green leaf; the beautiful maiden was staring.
4. On the other side she saw a long stem of straw; the maiden watched both of them.
This is an erotic Moravian-Silesian folk tune using only six pitches and is in the
mixolydian mode. Eben uses a motivic compositional device typical of Janáček in the
piano introduction. A motive is given in the first measure and then sped up twice as fast
in the following measures. The motive represents pigeons flying around the two lovers.
This motive can also be seen in the bass clef throughout the arrangement. This Janáček
influence can be seen in the works of many 20th century Czech composers. Note in the
examples below, the use of the Janáček motivic device in the right hand of the piano
introduction in measures 1-3 and in the left hand in measures 6-9.
Figure 4.13: “Litali, litali dva holubci mali” measures 1-9.
This folksong is full of erotic symbols representing the first sexual act between
two young lovers. The role of the couple is typical where the innocent virgin behaves
passively and the boy is represented in the folk text with the shape of a sword, straw, or
sabre. The green bud is symbolic of the mature girl who is still a virgin. The young
maiden is dreaming of the day she, too, will find true love. The folksong is told from the
perspective of the young maiden who is witnessing the two young lovers.
Jan Rokyta informs the author that Eben did not choose the most beautiful tune
for this folk text. There are many other versions that other composers have arranged;
however, he feels that Eben’s musical characteristics in this arrangement are a mark of
genius.79 The interlude between the two verses and final resolution after the climax at the
end of the arrangement is indicative of Eben’s use of chromaticism and harmony to
heighten the dramatic aspects of a work. Eben ends the folksong on the dominant in the
piano accompaniment. The example below shows the interlude between verses one and
two. The use of chromaticism and ascending intervals is indicative of the onlooker’s
state of revery. Eben reveals subtext in his interludes, piano introductions, and postludes.
Figure 4.14: “Litali, litali dva holubci mali” measures 10-13.
4.9: “ v t marny”
River Song
1. Šviečie, šviečie, šviečie marny, šviečie, šviečie, šviečie marny, odešeł mi synek
švarny, odešeł mi synek švarny.
2. Kozoł se mi nezarmucač, kozoł se mi nezarmucač, že se ješče može vručič, že se ješče
može vručič.
79
Rokyta, interview.
3. Jo se rmučič něbedym, jo se rmučič něbedym, inšego se hledač bedym, inšego se
hledač bedym.
4. Co bedžie mioł gury, lasy, co bedžie mioł gury, lasy, štyry kuně, dvě kolasy, štyry
kuně, dvě kolasy.
5. A bičisko z papručiny a bičisko z papručiny, něbedžieš ty, bedžie inny, něbedžeš ty,
bedžie inny.
1. Vain world, go away. The handsome boy has left for eternity.
2. He told me not to weep in sorrow, that he might return.
3. I will not grieve the loss, but rather seek another.
4. The new one will have mountains, forests, four horses, and two carriages.
5. There will also be a whip that is made of fern. Yes, now that you are gone, there will
be another one.
This folksong originates from the lowlands and is therefore typical of river songs
that have been influenced by Bohemian character. Rokyta assumes we could find its
original version in some hymnbook from the middle of the 19th century with its strophic
form.80 The formal structure of the folk poem is in four parts, enabling Eben to structure
the song musically to match. With a demanding piano stylization, Eben uses rhythm and
syncopation to vary the verses. The song has a dramatic quality and is characterized by
strong thematic material as well as varied rhythms and changing meter.
Eben met an old peasant man who was singing this song in a Těšín village. The
man was sitting in front of his house holding a stick. While he sang the folksong he used
his stick to tap the offbeats in syncopation with his melody. For Eben, this was of major
importance because he incorporated the rhythm in the arrangment of this song.
According to David Eben, the Těšín region inspired his father to write rhythmically
accented and harmonically courageous accompaniments and sharp dissonances.81
Shifting from 9/8 to 6/8 to 6/4 to 7/4 and returning to 6/4, Eben incorporates his
80
Rokyta, interview.
81
David Eben, interview.
trademark of rhythmic vitality to match the meaning of the text in that the lover will not
stop and grieve, but rather move on to another love. Five excerpts from this folksong
show Eben’s use of rhythmic variation with the beginning of each of the five verses. The
folk tune remains the same, whereas the piano accompaniments differ.
Figure 4.15: “Śvětě marny” measures 1-6, 16-20, 31-32, 35-37, and 43-45.
4.10: “Za gorum, za vodum”
Mountain Song
1. Za gorum, za vodum, miešiunček vychodži, rada bych viedžiała, kdžie muj miły
chodži.
2. Včora obiecovoł, že tu věčur p idžie, abych go čakała, až miešiunček vyndžie.
3. Miešiunček juž vyšeł, muj miły něp išeł, však un juž napevno, však un za inšum šeł.
1. Beyond the mountain and beyond the water, the moon is rising. I would like to know
where my beloved is tarrying.
2. Yesterday he promised me that he would come back this evening. He told me that I
should wait for him when the moon was nigh.
3. The moon is now up above, but my beloved has not returned. I can be sure of it, to
another has he gone.
This folksong is an example of a Moravian-Silesian love song. Typical of many
“mountain” songs, this folk tune incorporates only six scale degrees. There are songs in
Těšín folk culture that capture beautifully the sound of the folk cimbalom. Eben captures
this sound in the piano introduction. The interval of a tritone–approached by an octave
leap, or the interval of a twelfth–in the second measure, is a characteristic of both Eben
and of Moravian music.82 To obtain the sound quality of the folk cimbalom in the piano
introduction to this folksong, it is suggested that the pianist use the sustaining pedal and
allow the notes to blend into one another. The example below represents Eben’s
compositional technique of recreating the sounds of this instrument.
82
Rokyta, interview.
Figure 4.16: “Za gorum, za vodum” measures 1-6.
In transcribing this folksong Eben tells of a moving experience.
We [Eben and Indra] met an old peasant woman who had not sung since the death
of her husband forty years ago. After much thought she agreed to accompany us
to a nearby meadow where she took care of goats. She began singing and I
transcribed the melodies. At the time there were no gramophones and the older
people did not have the physical capability to repeat the songs many times so I
listened to it once or twice and then transcribed what I heard. The old woman
began to remember many songs and she was very surprised that she still knew the
melodies and words. We sat there the entire day while she sang songs taught to
her by her ancestors. It was getting late in the evening and she was still singing
when I could see the moon. She sang until she almost lost her voice. I had to
wait for a cloud to roll away so that the moonlight could guide my pen and I could
see what I was transcribing. The clouds dissipated and what remained was
something of the blackest night I have ever seen. The old woman wanted to sing
a final folksong and I remember the clear sky and how the moon was shining as
she started to sing: “Za gorum, za vodum, mešonček vychodi…”83
The piano interlude after the second verse becomes quite dramatic, contrapuntal,
chromatic, and harmonically ambigious after the simplicity of the opening verses. This
interlude captures a state of the soul where there is confusion, expectation of the lover
returning, the pain, and the realization that he will not return.84 The interlude is very
organ-like in the way the pianist must use finger substitutions to maintain a legato line.
The bass part of the piano accompaniment is also indicative of writing for organ pedals.
83
Petr Eben, radio broadcast.
84
David Eben, interview.
It is a contrapuntal echo of his religious influence.85 The example below shows these
compositional characteristics.
Figure 4.17: “Za gorum, za vodum” measures 33-42.
A model for this song was made on Czech broadsheet print, which was a part of
Czech folk culture appearing at the beginning of the 17th century. This extensive ballad
was spread throughout the Czech regions and varied by different folkgroups. By the 19th
century it was a well-known folksong throughout the Moravian-Silesian mountain area.
The song in this collection proves the influence of broadsheet singing in the Těšín
region.86 The song “Za gorum, za vodum” follows the original broadsheet text quite
accurately; however, in the song’s text there are strong dialectal features.
Eben’s use of haromic progression is interesting and inventive in this folksong.
The arrangement begins in B-flat Major and shifts to G minor just before the extended
85
Cheek, interview.
86
Rokyta, interview.
and harmonically adventurous interlude between the second and third verses. The third
verse begins in G minor and through a succession of running eighth notes in perfect
fourths, tritones, and thirds, the folk tune ends on the dominant; however, Eben cadences
the arrangement on the supertonic, ending on an A Major chord. This surprising
resolution adds another poignant layer of subtext to this beautiful folksong.
4.11: “Pan nky se chłubjum”
River Song
1. Paněnky se chvolum, že jich syncy kochajum a syncy se šmiejum, že svodzač umium.
2. O moje paněnky, něchvolčie se, prošym, bo jo vum zašpiyvum, jyny posłuchač
prošym.
3. Ku jednej se šiednym, na drugum se podživum, t eci muwiym do pusy, čvortum ješče
chcym.
4. Piuntum pieknie poščiskum, šustej dum puse, šiudmej listy pišym a z usmum głupnym.
5. Džieviuntej to muviym, že jum mum rod sče e, džiešiunto zawidži, až to nima možne.
6. Jedynostum šidzym, svodzum na p emiany, od dvanostej panny ježech ukochany.
1. The maidens are boasting of the lads they love. The lads are laughing about the girls
whom they have seduced.
2. Dear girls of mine, stop your boasting, listen to the song I am singing to you.
3. I will sit by the first girl, the second I will behold, the third I will flirt with, and the
fourth I will beg.
4. I will snuggle with the fifth girl, kiss the sixth, write letters to the seventh, and trifle
with the eighth.
5. To the ninth girl I will say that she is the one for me, and the tenth girl–how jealous
she will be.
6. I will cheat on the eleventh, yet entice her all the more, but the twelfth girl–she will be
my love–fair and true.
This folksong is the “Champagne Aria” from Těšín.87 This jocular “river” song is
in C Major and full of rhythmic vitality. The text is a popular nursery rhyme taught to
Těšín schoolchildren, although its text is flirtatious in nature. In order to be closer to the
character of the nursery rhyme, Eben used alternating 2/8 and 3/8 bars. In Bohemian and
Moravian-Silesian folksong tradition there is a similar principle called mateník, which is
the alternation of 2/8 and 3/8 bars. The alternating meter with chromatically ascending
and descending chords permeates the entire six-versed modified strophic song.
This piece is an example of Eben having fun with melodic repetition and rhythmic
vitality, while cleverly incorporating traditional compositional techniques. Between the
second and third verse, he writes an interlude of 14 bars of a dominant progression to the
new key of D-flat Major. Instead of writing a change of key signature, he marks
accidentals throughout the next two verses, which are an exact repetition of the opening
verses with the exception that the entire piece is now one half step higher.
The second interlude modulates from D-flat Major back to C Major, with the
incorporation of a canon. This can be seen in the example below.
87
Kusnjer, interview.
Figure 4.18: “Paněnky se chłubjum” measures 52-75.
The word chłubjum is a Czech literary word and it does not belong to the dialect.
Eben used it in the first verse only because of the rhyme scheme chłubjum – ljubjum. As
is documented in the original written form of the dialect above, the rhyming dialectal
words chvolum – kochajum are the authentically used words of the po našimu dialect.
The final two verses round off the folksong in C Major, giving the piece a clear
musical structure. Harkening back to his childhood days of making music in the home
for sheer enjoyment and improvising and experimenting in the organ loft at Český
Krumlov, Eben has fun with the coda of the eleventh folksong. He uses parallel ninths,
and the rhythmic drive does not wane, but rather accelerates to a bright chord marked
sffz.
Figure 4.19: “Paněnky se chłubjum” measures 76-99.
CONCLUSION
Písně z Těšínska is merely one culmination of work from a single year of Petr
Eben’s life. While the authors of his biographies and professors of Moravian music
claim that these songs are insubstantial in regard to his vast compositional output, this
treatise proves the significance of this work not only in terms of the influence it had on
many of his future compositions, but in preserving the folklore of the unique town of
Tĕšín. These songs contain many of the hallmarks of Petr Eben’s compositional style:
firm musical structure, rhythmic vitality, improvisatory techniques, adventurous
harmonic progressions, and incorporation of modal writing. These Eben trademarks pair
well with folk Moravian-Silesian musical tradition.
These songs serve as a window into the folk culture of the Tĕšín region.
Preserved within the folk tunes, texts, and Eben’s interestingly complex piano
accompaniments, his folksong arrangments capture the spirit of this unique place. While
other composers have arranged songs from Těšín, Eben’s arrangements represent a
modern approach, while maintaining the authenticity of the melodies themselves. The
songs from Tĕšín provide a wonderful introduction to Czech art song, and as Tučapský
wrote the author, “should be better known.”88
Miroslav Kyjonka concludes in the Introduction to the Songbook of Folksongs
from Těšín: “As I already noted in the beginning, this songbook will serve important and
beautiful goals: to take advantage of the great wealth of songs left to us by our ancestors
in order to enrich our present. I am certain that many will be surprised that such beauty
arose in Těšín and you will convey it further. To you, my esteemed admirers of fine
singing, in this I wish you much success.”89
88
Tučapský, personal e-mail.
89
Kyjonka, 4.
APPENDIX A
WORD­FOR­WORD TRANSLATIONS Compiled by Barbora Baronová and Matthew Markham 1. “Hej, koło T šina”
hej
hey
koło
around
Těšina
Těšín
je
there is
tam
there
cestečka
a small path
a
and
na
on
tej
that
cestečce
small path
stoji
stands
děvečka
a girl
stoji
she stands
ustrojena
dressed
jakby
as if
była
she was
malovana
painted
jako
as
dvorečka
a courtyard
a
and
jo
I
ji (ona)
her (she)
pytoł e
I asked
či
if
by
would (she)
mě
me
chtěla
want
a
and
ona
she
mi
to me (I)
na to
in response
runčky
her hand
podava
gave
ojcově
parents
se dověděli
heard
zaraz
immediately
po
for
mě
me (I)
było
it was
vě eli
happy
dostał žech
I got
ti
for you
potom
after that
kabot
a coat
na
on
věnta
wedding
co
that
neboščik
deceased
pos
for
v
in
něm
it
tělenta
wore
kdyby
if
byli
was
sta ik
grandfather
žili
alive
to
so
by byli
he would
v
in
nim
it
chodili
go about
jo
I
by
would
něměł
not have
nic
anything
2. “Ten T šinsky mostek”
ten
that
těšinsky
Těšin´s
mostek
small bridge
ogyba se
bows
a
and
po
under
něm
it
vodička
water
rozleva se
flows
ach
ah
jaja
oh dear
tralalala
tralalala
což
why
mě
(with) me
tak
so
tatíčku
Daddy
něrad matě
are you unhappy
že
that
vy
you
mě
me (I)
na
to
vojnem
military service, army, war
vy iłatě
send
něvy iłajtě
Don’t send
mě
me
pujdem
I’ll go
ja
I
sam
alone
sednem
sit
na
on
konička
horse
bedem
and will be
husar
a hussar
ten
this
branny
armed
koniček
horse
mě
me
poněse
will take
a
and
švarno
buxom
děvucha
girl
p itiskně se
will snuggle
co
the
branny
armed
koniček
horse
to
is
podstata
a prize
co
the
švarno
buxom
děvucha
girl
to
is
utrata
a waste
3. “Tam z tej strony jeźora”
tam
there
z
from
tej
that
strony
side
jeźora
of the lake
stoji
stands
lipka
a lime tree
źelona
green
ej
hey
stoji
it stands
lipinka
small lime tree
a
and
na
on
ni
it
sum
are
ptaškově
birdies
ej
hey
něsum
are not
to
those
ptaškovie
birdies
sum
are
to
those
kavalirově
cavaliers
rozmovjajum e
they talk
o
about
švarnem
a buxom
děvčenťu
girl
kjeremu
and who
se dostaně
will get (her)
jeden
one
pravi
says
bedě
she will be
ma
mine
a
and
ten
the, that
drugy
second
jak
how
bog
God
da
decides
ej
hey
a
and
ten
the, that
t eti
the third one
ty
you
moje
my
serdečko
sweetheart
šak
however
ty
you
benděš
will be
enem
only
ma
mine
4. “V zelenym hajičku”
v
in
zelenym
green
hajičku
grove, wood
rubali
they hewed
komu
to whom
mě
me
zostaviš
leave to
synečku
my love
kochany
darling, beloved
zostavim
I leave
ja
I
těbě
you
tomu
to the one
co
who
je
is
z
from
něbě
heaven
a
and
za
in
roček
a year
za
in
dva
two
p ijedu
I will come
pro
for
tebě
you
a
and
jak
if
něp ijedem
I don’t come
bedem pisať
I will write
listy
letters
a
and
ty
you
jednak
nevertheless
mu iš
must
mojum
my
miłum
lover
zostať
remain
5. “Dolina, dolina”
dolina
lowlands
a
and
v
in
dolině
the lowlands
sosna
pine tree
poviz
tell
mně
me
děvucho
girl, maiden
dla
for
kogo
whom
urosła
did you grow up
urosłach
I grew
ale
but
ně
not
dla
for
těbě
you
dla
for
tego
that
synečka
boy, sweetheart, beloved
co
that
z
from
vojny
war
p ijedě
comes
na
on
brannem
armed
koničku
horse
podkovjynky
horseshoes
złate
golden
šablička
sword, saber
na
at
boku
waist
děvucho
girl, maiden
porachuj se
count
sobě
you
věla
how many
ja
I
chodničkuv
way, path
utlačił
I have taken
ku
to
tobě
you
dybych žech
if
ja
I
mjała
have to
chodničky
way, path
rachovať
to count
mu ela bych se
have to
ja
I
pisa ička
scribe, writer
chovať
keep
papir
paper
mu
for him
kupovať
to buy
něstačiło by
would not have enough
mně
I
ani
neither
na
for
jeden
one
rok
year
6. “V ned li rano”
v
on
neděli
sunday
rano
morning
drobny
a small
dešť
rain
pada
is falling
moja
my
nejmilejši
most beloved
krovy
cow
vygaňa
to pasture
ty
you
pujděš
go
gurum
by hill
a
and
ja
I
dolinum
by valley
ty
you
zakvitněš
blossom out
ružum
as a rose
malinum
as a raspberry
gostincem
by the pub
ty
you
buděš
will be
pannum
maiden
mładěncem
young man, bachelor
7. “Ja v m o ptaškovi”
ja
I
věm
know
o
about
ptaškovi
birdie
v
in
le e
forest
malovane
painted, decorated
jajka
eggs
ně ě
lays
jedno
one
bjałe
white
druge
the second
šare
pale
kany
try
indy
where
děuchy
girls
stare
old
a
and
v
in
ece
eka (15 km from a very beautiful village near
Těšín)
sum
are
młodušinky
very young ones
majum
they have
gembe
mouths
słodušinky
very sweet
ja
I
juž
already
jednu
one
pocalovał
kissed
ti
three
dni
days
ech e oblizovał
I smacked my lips
8. “Litali, litali dva holubci mali”
litali
they flew
dva
two
hołubci
pigeons
mali
small
divała se
looked at
jim
them
nadobna
beautiful
děvečka
girlie
oběma
both
ti
those
gňazdečko
nest
se słali
were making
a
and
z
from
tej
that
pěrvej
first
strony
side
błavatek
corn-flower
źelony
green
a
and
z
from
tej
that
drugej
the second
strony
side
stebełečko
stalk
słomy
straw
9. “ v t marny”
větě
world
marny
vain
odešeł
left
mi
my
synek
boy
švarny
handsome
kozoł e
he commanded
mi
me
nězarmutiť
not to be sad
kozoł e
he commanded
že
that
može
he can
ještě
again
se vrućiť
to come back
jo
I
e rmućiła něbedem
do not grieve for
innego
another one
si hledať bedem
to look for
co
who
bedźe měł
to have
gory
mountains
lasy
forest
štyry
four
kuně
horses
dvě
two
kolasy
carriages
a
and
bičisko
whip
z
from
papručiny
fern
něbenděš
if
ty
you
bendě
were not
inny
another one
10. “Za gorum, za vodum”
za
beyond
gorum
the mountain
za
beyond
vodum
the water
mě onček
moon
vychodi
rises
rada bych
I would like to
věděła
know
kdě
where
muj
my
miły
love
chodi
is walking
včora
yesterday
mně
to me
lubovał
he promised
že
that
tu
this
věčor
evening
p ijdě
he would come
abych
and
go
for him
čekała
I waited
až
until
mě onček
moon
vyjdě
to rise
mě onček
moon
juž
already
vzešeł
to rise
muj
my
miły
love
něp išeł
didn’t come
však
but
on
he
juž
already
zajiste
for sure
však
but
on
he
za
after
jinši
another girl
šeł
went
11. “Pan nky se chłubjum”
paněnky
maidens, girls, virgins
se chłubjum
are boasting
že
that
ich
they
chłapci
boys, young men
lubjum
love
a
and
se smějum
can laugh, ridicule
že
that
zvodiť
to seduce
umějum
know
o
oh
moje
my
něchlubtě se
not to boast about
pro im
please
bo
because
ja
I
vam
to you
zazpivam
am singing
tylko
just
słuchať
listen
pro im
please
jedne
the first one
u endzem p i
I sit by
drugum
the second one
spoglundom na
I look at
t etěj
the third one
do
into
ust
mouth
młuvim
I talk to
čvartej
the fourth
ještě
still
žondam
I want
pjontum
the fifth
mile
nicely
ćisněm
to snuggle
šustum
the sixth
pocajułem
to kiss
šudmej
the seventh
listy
letters
pišem
I write
a
and
s
with
vosmum
the eighth
žartujem
to trifle
děvjontej
the ninth
to
it
młuvim
tell
že
that
jum
she
kocham
I love
šči e
very truly
děšonta
the tenth
zazdrošti
is jealous
až
so much
to
it
nima
is not
k
to
vi e
believe
nima k vi e
hard to believe
jedenaste
the eleventh
idźim
to cheat
svodzem
to seduce
na
for
p emjany
change
od
since
dvanaste
the twelfth
panny
virgin, maiden
jestem
to be
ukochany
in love, darling
APPENDIX B
RECORDINGS OF NATIVE SPEAKERS SPEAKING THE FOLK TEXTS
Boleslav Slováček - Male
Dagmar Szturcová - Female
“Hej, koło T šina”
Male
Female
“Ten T šinsky mostek”
Male
Female
“Tam z tej strony jeźora”
Male
Female
“V zelenym hajičku”
Male
Female
“Dolina, dolina”
Male
Female
“V ned li rano”
Male
Female
“Ja v m o ptaškovi”
Male
Female
“Litali, Litali dva holubci mali”
Male
Female
“ v t marny”
Male
Female
“Za gorum, za vodum”
Male
Female
“Pan nky se chłubjum”
Male
Female
“Ten T šinsky mostek”
Excerpt:
Což m tak, tatičku, n rad mat , že vy m na vojnem vysiłat , ach, jaja, tralalala, že
vy m na vojnem vysiłat
Boleslav Slováček
Dagmar Szturcová
Ivan Kusnjer
Renata Utíkal
Roman Grycz
- T šín native/authentic Tĕšín dialect
- T šín native/authentic Tĕšín dialect
- Czech living in Prague/familiar with T šín dialect
- Czech living in T šín/speaks the T šín dialect
- Pole living in T šín/speaks the T šín dialect
“Za gorum, za vodum”
Excerpt:
Včora mn
lubovał, že tu v čor p ijd , abych go čekała, až m onček vzjd
Boleslav Slováček
Dagmar Szturcová
Ivan Kusnjer
Renata Utíkal
Roman Grycz
- T šín native/authentic Tĕšín dialect
- T šín native/authentic Tĕšín dialect
- Czech living in Prague/familiar with T šín dialect
- Czech living in T šín/speaks the T šín dialect
- Pole living in T šín/speaks the T šín dialect
APPENDIX C
T ŠÍN FILM DOCUMENTARY
APPENDIX D
A CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF EBEN’S WORKS FOR SOLO VOICE Šestero piesní milostných (Six Old-time Love Songs), 1951, with Czech, English, German,
Italian and French medieval texts from the twelfth through fourteenth centuries. Only the
first song is in Czech. For low voice and piano; or voice, piano, and harp; or voice and
harp. Duration: 14′30′′ Premier in Prague, May 1951. Publisher: Supraphon. CD –
Signum.
Missa adventus et quadragesimae (Mass for the coming of Lent), 1951-52, for male solo
voice or mixed choir and organ. Duration: 15′
Písnĕ k loutně (Songs with Lute), 1951. Six songs with medieval and Renaissance texts
for medium voice and lute, guitar, or harp. Three are in Czech, the rest in English,
French, and German. Duration: 10′ Publisher: Supraphon – Bärenreiter Verlag. CD –
Signum.
Písně nejtajnější (The Most Secret Songs), 1952. Nine songs for low male voice. Four are
with Czech translations of Persian mystics, one with text by Petr Eben, and the rest with
poetry of Czech writers. Duration: 15′ Publisher: Bärenreiter Editio Supraphon Praha. CD
– Signum.
Písně z Těšínska (Songs from Těšín), 1952. Eleven folksongs to Moravian-Silesian folk
texts for low voice. Duration: 20′ Publisher: Bärenreiter Editio Supraphon Praha. CD –
Signum.
Nursery Songs, 1953, with Czech and English medieval texts. For soprano and piano.
Duration: 4′ CD – Signum.
Hudba k Rytirske Veselohre (Music for the Knight of Veselohra), 1953, for wind
instruments, guitar, viola and actor or singer.
Tři tiché písně (Three Quiet Songs), 1955, for soprano, flute, and piano. Poems written
by František Halas. Duration: 6′ Publisher: Český hudebni fond.
Liturgicke zpevy (Liturgical Songs), 1955-60, for solo voice or unison choir and organ.
Ten songs in the form of antiphons and psalms. Publishers: Bärenreiter Verlag, Moravske
hudebni vydavatelstvi. CDs- selections on Signum, Rottenburger, and Antiphona.
Piano jde do sveta (The Piano Goes into the World), 1960, for solo voice and five
instruments. Duration: 13′ Publisher: Panton.
Písně na slova R.M. Rilkého (Songs on Words of Rainer Maria Rilke), 1961, set to
original German, for mezzo-soprano or baritone. Duration: 13′ Publisher: Deutscher
Verlag. CD – Signum.
Písně nelaskavě (Unkind Songs), 1963. Six songs for alto and viola. Eben also wrote a
version for an ensemble of violas and voice. Poems written by Zuzana Rencova.
Duration: 14′ Publisher: Panton. CD – Signum.
Malé smutky (Little sorrows), 1964-65. Five songs for medium voice and piano.
Duration: 7′ Publisher: Supraphon. CD – Signum.
Jestli já půjdu první (If I Go First), 1966, for low voice and piano. Duration: 3’20”
Árie Ruth (Song of Ruth), 1970, an Old Testament text, for alto and organ or piano. In
1997, Petr Eben arranged the songs for voice and wind quintet. Duration: 5′45′′
Publisher: Universal Edition. CDs – Supraphon, Bonton, Opus B, and Signum.
Písně na slova Miroslava Floriana (Songs on the Words of Miroslav Florian), 1970. Six
songs for tenor and piano. Duration: 11′ Premier: February 21, 1970, in Prague.
Písničky medvídka Pú (Little Songs of Pooh Bear), 1976. Six songs for voice and guitar
to Czech translations (and possibly original English) of A.A. Milne texts. Duration: 7′
Premier: October 16, 1976, in Prague.
Poselství (Message), 1981. For baritone or mezzo-soprano and orchestra. Duration: 4′30′′
Premier: January 8, 1982 in Magdeburg, Germany.
Železně Boty (Iron Shoes), 1983, for solo voice and instrumental ensemble.
De nomine Caeciliae (From the Name of Caeciliae), 1994, for mezzo-soprano or baritone
and organ. Poems by Tomas Kempensky. Duration: 6′30′′ Publisher: Pro organo. CD –
Signum.
APPENDIX E
APPROVAL FORMS AND CONSENT LETTERS
April 1, 2009
Bärenreiter Music Corporation
c/o Schott/European American Music
254 West 31st Street
New York, NY 10001
Attn: Jessica Rauch
Dear Bärenreiter Music Corporation:
This letter will confirm my recent e-mail exchange with George Sturm. I am completing
a doctoral treatise at Florida State University entitled “An Exploration of Písně
z Těšínska of Petr Eben.“ I would like your permission to reprint in my treatise short
excerpts (two or three measures) from a few of the songs, Eben’s opening remarks about
the songs with an English translation, and the folk texts with English translation.
The requested permission extends to any future revisions and editions of my dissertation,
including non-exclusive world rights in all languages, and to the prospective publication
of my treatise by UMI Company. These rights will in no way restrict republication of the
material in any other form by you or by others authorized by you. Your signing of this
letter will also confirm that Bärenreiter owns the copyright to the above-described
material.
If these arrangements meet with your approval, please sign this letter where indicated
below and return it to me in the enclosed return envelope. Thank you very much.
Sincerely,
Matthew Markham
PERMISSION GRANTED FOR THE USE REQUESTED ABOVE:
Bärenreiter
By: ________________________________________________
Title: _______________________________________________
Date: __________________
-----Original Message----- From: Julie Haltiwanger
Sent: Wed, 14 May 2008 11:13 am Subject: FW: Human Subjects Staff Review
Julie Haltiwanger
Office of Research
P O Box 3062742
Tallahassee Fl 32306-2742
850-644-7900
Fax 850-644-4392
-----Original Message----From: Human Subjects [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2008 8:29 am
Subject: Human Subjects Staff Review
Human Subjects Application - For Full IRB and Expedited Exempt Review
PI Name: Matthew Edward Markham
Project Title: An Exploration of the Songs from Těšín by Petr Eben
HSC Number: 2008.1157
Your application has been received by our office. Upon review, it has been
determined that your protocol is an oral history, which in general, does not
fit the definition of "research" pursuant to the federal regulations
governing the protection of research subjects. Please be mindful that there
may be other requirements such as releases, copyright issues, etc. that may
impact your oral history endeavor, but are beyond the purview of this
office.
Dear Speakers from Těšín,
I, Matthew Markham, am a Doctoral Candidate in Voice Performance under the direction of
Professor Stanford Olsen at the Florida State University College of Music. As a recipient of a
music grant sponsored by the Theodore Presser Music Foundation I am engaged in substantive
research applicable to my treatise – a study of Písně z Těšínska by Czech composer, Petr Eben.
Visiting Těšín and recording native speakers speaking the eleven folk texts arranged by Eben is
an integral part of my study.
Your participation will involve a reading of the eleven folk texts to be recorded by an audio
recording device. This recording is to preserve the dialect unique to the people of Těšín and to
promote an authentic performance of these folksongs by non-native speakers and singers. The
results of this study and digital recording of your voice may be included in the publication of my
treatise and/or used in the lecture accompanying the exploration of the folksongs. The recording
will be a part of the electronic version of my treatise and may eventually be included in a book
on the songs of Petr Eben.
Your participation in this recording is voluntary. If you choose not to participate or to withdraw
from the study at any time, there will be no penalty. There is no risk involved. You will have the
opportunity to express any concerns or pose any questions at any moment in the recording
process. The process should only last approximately thirty minutes and will take place in a
private room at a local Těšín library. You can choose to remain anonymous but it is important
that your level of education, gender and age be documented.
Although there may be no direct benefit for you, the possible benefit of your participation is that
your dialect can be preserved for future generations of Moravian-Silesian folksong interpreters.
Thank you,
Matthew Markham
I understand that I _________________________________________will be recorded by the
researcher, Matthew Markham. These recordings will be securely kept by the researcher and
included as a pronunciation guide in the doctoral treatise “An Exploration of Písně z Těšínska by
Petr Eben.”
I give my consent to participate in the above study.
_______________________________________ (signature) _________________ (date)
If you have any questions about your rights as a participant in this research, or if you feel you
have been placed at risk, you can contact the Chair of the Human Subjects Committee,
Institutional Review Board, through the Vice President for the Office of Research at 850-6448633.
Thank you.
Matthew Markham
Informovaný souhlas účastníka v dizertační práci Explorace Písně z Těšínska Petra Ebena
Souhlasím s tím, že Matthew Markham, student doktorského studia v oboru zpěv a hudební
teorie, udělá zvukový záznam mého čteni textu Písní z Těšínska. Rozumím, že ten zvukový
záznam bude bezpečně chráněn pánem Markhamem.
Souhlasím s tím, že zvukový záznam bude zahrnutý v dizertační práci Explorace Písně z
Těšínska Petra Ebena k tomu, aby poučil nerodilých mluvčích češtiny o správné české
výslovnosti textu písní.
Souhlasím s výše uvedeným návrhem.
V_______ dne________________________
Podpis účastníka ______________________
V p ípadě, že v pozdější době:
• nesouhlasíte s výše uvedeným návrhem
• nesouhlasíte nebo jste znepokojen/a podminkami výzkumu
máte právo kontaktovat hlavu Etické Komise univerzity:
Julie Haltiwanger
Email: [email protected]
Telefon: (850)644-7900
Děkuji za účastnictví,
Matthew Markham
Podpis ____________________
I, Matthew Markham, am a Doctoral Candidate in Voice Performance under the direction of
Professor Stanford Olsen at the Florida State University College of Music. As a recipient of a
music grant sponsored by the Theodore Presser Foundation I am engaged to conduct research
through libraries, interviews and a study of the Tesin dialect applicable to my treatise – An
Exploration of Písně z Těšínska by Petr Eben. Visiting London and the Czech Republic in order
to conduct interviews on Eben’s life, compositional style and circumstances during the 1952 year
leading to the composition of his Písně z Těšínska along with Moravian folk influences will be
the integral part of my research.
Upon my return to FSU in the fall of 2007 after teaching on the voice faculty of the International
Ameropa Solo and Chamber Music Festival in Brandýs-nad-Labem and Prague, Czech Republic, I
began exploring vocal works by the contemporary Czech composer Petr Eben. I was immediately
drawn to the lyric melodies, complex harmonic progressions, modal tonalities, dance rhythms, and
powerfully personal texts of his Písně z Těšínska (Songs from Tesin, 1952). My treatise will consist of a
study of these eleven Moravian-Silesian folksongs, drawing from my own interviews with Eben's family
and contemporaries and a study of the dialect unique to the people of Těšín. Mr. Eben’s passing on
October 24, 2007, and the relative lack of published research on his work, provides the impetus for my
intended research. Existing publications focus on Eben’s choral and organ music; as such, my research
project will represent the first scholarly investigation of his folk compositions.
My project has the academic and musical support of noted experts in the field of Czech studies,
Moravian history and Czech music. Such notables are Dr. Lisa Wakamiya of the Modern Language
Department at FSU; Mr. Graham Melville-Mason of the Dvo ák Society in London; Ms. Katerina
Englichová of the Prague Philharmonic; the Artistic Staff of the Ameropa Festival in Prague and Dr.
Timothy Cheek of the University of Michigan. These scholars, along with my doctoral supervisory
committee, have been a source of guidance in the preliminary stages of my research and suggested I
make my research available to others in the form of articles, a definitive book on the life and songs of
Petr Eben accompanied by a CD of the folk texts spoken by native speakers, and finally a recording of
me singing the songs of Petr Eben. It is my intention to have articles published in the following peerreviewed journals: NATS Journal of Singing, Journal of Moravian History, Classical Singer and
Kosmos: Czechoslovak and Central European Journal.
Your participation is voluntary. If you choose not to participate or to withdraw from the
interview at any time, there will be no penalty. There will be no risk involved. You will have the
opportunity to express any concerns or pose any questions during the interview process. The
interview will last approximately one hour and will take place at your discretion. The
information which you provide can remain confidential, in which case the audiovisual recorder
will be turned off. Otherwise, our discussion of Mr. Eben will be recorded for the purposes of
further promoting the legacy that is the Czech Republic’s foremost composer of the second half
of the twentieth century.
If you have any questions about your rights as a participant in this research, or if you feel you
have been placed at risk, you can contact the Chair of the Human Subjects Committee,
Institutional Review Board, through the Vice President for the Office of Research at 850-6448633.
Thank you,
Matthew Markham
I understand that I ________________________________________will be recorded by an
audiovisual recording device by the researcher, Matthew Markham. These recordings will be
securely kept in his possession and the information provided will be included in the doctoral
treatise “An Exploration of Písně z Těšínska by Petr Eben” as well as in articles, lectures and
may eventually included in a book on the songs of Petr Eben.
I give my consent to participate in the interview as stated above.
__________________________________________ (signature)
___________________________ (date)
Souhlasím s tím, aby svůj hovor se studentem doktorského studia v oboru zpěv a hudební teorie Matthew Markham byl zaznamen digitálním záznamníkem. Rozumím, že záznam bude bezpečně chráněn pánem Markhamem, a je možné, že část hovoru bude citována v dizertační práci Explorace Písně z Těšínska Petra Ebena , v článkách a významných publikacích, nebo ve přednáškach o Písních z Těšínska Petra Ebena. Souhlasím s výše uvedeným návrhem. V_______ dne________________________ Podpis účastníka ______________________
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Adam (last name unknown, a Těšín native). Interview by author, 9 August 2008,
Jablunkov, Czech Republic.
Author unknown, Petr Eben, “The Times.” United Kingdom, 7 December 2007.
Ball, Katharine. “Hej, koło Těšína.” Transcription of piano introduction. 2009.
University of Michigan: Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Barbora Baronová. Interview by author, 9 August 2008, Těšín, Czech Republic.
Bartoš, František. Národni Písně Moravskě František Bartoš po stránce hudební pořádal
Leoš Janáček v Praze. Praha: Česka Akademie, 1901.
Bojdová, Martina. Interview by author, 8 August 2008, Těšín, Czech Republic.
Cheek, Timothy. Interview by author, 6 March 2009, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
________. Singing in Czech: A Guide to Czech Lyric Diction and Vocal
Repertoire. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 2001.
Cymorek, Halina. Interview by author, 7 August 2008, T inec, Czech Republic.
Eben, David. Interview by author, 3 August 2008, Prague, Czech Republic.
Eben, Petr. Písně z Těšínska: Lieder aus dem Teschnerland. Praha: Bärenreiter
Editio Supraphon, 1973.
________. Songs: Dagmar Pecková, mezzosoprán, Ivan Kusnjer, baryton, Petr Eben,
Klavír, Jan Pěruška, viola. Supraphon, 2000. Compact disc.
Evans, James L. “The Choral Music of Petr Eben.” The Degree of Magister Arts diss.,
University College Cork, 1995.
Gelnar, Jaromír. “Modern Composers: Interview with Petr Eben.” Radio broadcast,
1960. Ostrava, Czech Republic.
Gelnar, Jaromír and Old ich Sirovátka. Slezskě Písně. Praha: Státní Nakladatelství
Krásné Literatury, Hudby a Umění, 1957, 8.
Fishell, Janette. “The Organ Music of Petr Eben,” Ph.D. diss., Northwestern University,
1998.
Fisher, Steven Rogers. A History of Language. The Netherlands: Reaktion Books, 1999.
198.
Fousková, Miloslová. Interview by author, July 2007, Brandys-nad-Labem, Czech
Republic.
Grycz, Marek. Interview by author, 7 August 2008, T inec, Czech Republic.
Grycz, Roman. Interview by author, 7 August 2008, T inec, Czech Republic.
Hvíždala, Karel. “Romantik a d íč Petr Eben.” Spolecnost (January 2003): 8.
Janovicky, Karel. Interview by author, 14 August 2008, Prague, Czech Republic.
Johnston, Jesse. “Re: Folk Institute in Brno,” personal e-mail, 3 March 2009.
Judith (last name unkown, a Těšín native). Interview by author, 8 August 2008, Těšín,
Czech Republic.
Kadłubiec, Karol Daniel, Andrej Sulitka, and Jaroslav Štika, Těšínsko (Těšín: Muzeum
Těšínska Valašské muzeum v p irodě Nakladatelství Tilia, 2003), 148.
Kusnjer, Ivan. Interview by author, 15 July 2008, Prague, Czech Republic.
Kyjonka, Miroslav. Z Pěvník Lidových Písní z Těšínska trans. Lisa Ryoka Wakamiya
(Český Těšín: PRO print spol. S.r.o., 2004), 3-4.
Large, Brian. “Some Czech Composers Today.” Tempo 80 (1967): 2-11.
Map of the Czech Republic, The World Factbook, Central Intelligence Agency,
http://www.cia.gov/library/publication/the-world-factbook/geos/ez.html.
Map of the Czech Republic, Poland, and Silesia,
http://warchat.org/history/history-world/wars-in-year-1900-1950.html.
Marhounová, Janá. “Czech Music in the Web of Life,” (Praha: Empatie, 1993), 221;
quoted in James L. Evans, The Choral Music of Petr Eben (M.A. thesis,
University College Cork, 1995), 35.
Melville-Mason, Graham. “A Tribute to Petr Eben: To Mark His 70th Birthday Year.”
Burnham-on Crouch, Dvorak Society, 2000.
________. “Petr Eben Songs,” personal e-mail (5 February 2008)
Mohammad, Adam. “Re: Native Speakers of Těšín,” personal e-mail, 15 May 2008.
Mojžíšek, Josef. Lidově Písně z Těšínska. Ostravě: Vydal Krajský národní výbor, 1956.
The New American Bible, Camden, New Jersey, Thomas Nelson, Inc., 1971.
Pecháček, Stanislav. “Petr Eben: Folklorní inspirace.” Cantus 72 (January 2007): 1619.
Pilka, Ji í. “Písně Petra Ebena.” Hudební Rozhledy 11 (October 1957): 448-451.
Putzlacher, Lenka. Interview by author, 8 August 2008, Těšín, Czech Republic.
Racek, Jan and Ji í Vysloužil. “Problems of Style in Twentieth-Century Czech Music.”
The Musical Quarterly Vol. 51, No. 1, Special Fiftieth Anniversary Issue:
Contemporary Music in Europe: A Comprehensive Survey. (Jan., 1965), pp. 191204.
Rokyta, Jan. Interview by author, 10 August 2008, Ostrava, Czech Republic.
Sobotka, Mojmír, historian at Czech Music Information Centre. Interview by author, 8
July 2008, Prague, Czech Republic.
Slováček, Boleslav. Interview by author, 7 August 2008, Těšín, Czech Republic.
Steyn, W.H. “A Thematic Catalogue of the Organ Works (1954-1995) of Petr Eben.”
The Degree of Magister Musicae diss., University of Port Elisabeth in South
Africa, 1996.
Suszka, Beata. Interview by author, 7 August 2008, T inec, Czech Republic.
Szturcová, Dagmar. Interview by author, 8 August 2008, Těšín, Czech Republic.
Tučapský, Antonín. “Re: Songs from Těšín,” personal e-mail, 10 May 2008.
________. “Re: Songs from Těšín,” personal e-mail, 21 May 2008.
Utíkal, Renata. Interview by author, 8 August 2008, Těšín, Czech Republic.
Víčar, Jan. Interview by author, 9 July 2008, Prague, Czech Republic.
Vitová, Eva. Interview by author, 11 July 2008, Prague, Czech Republic.
________. Petr Eben. Praha: Baronet, 2004.
Vondrovicová-Červenková, Kate ina. Interview by author, 12 July 2008, Prague, Czech
Republic.
________. Petr Eben, 2nd edition: Praha 1995.
Yeomans, David. Piano Music of the Czech Romantics: A Performer’s Guide.
Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2006.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Matthew Markham, baritone, enjoys an active career on the operatic, concert,
recital, and musical theater stages. He has appeared on the operatic stage with Ash Lawn
Opera, Janiec Opera, Spoleto Festival, New Jersey Opera, Manhattan Opera Theater of
the French Institute Alliance Française in New York City, Da Ponte Concert Opera,
Westminster Opera Theater, and Florida State Opera. Roles span Mozart through lyric
French and English/American opera. This versatile artist is a frequent soloist of oratorio
ranging Bach to Britten and has performed in prestigious concert venues including Suk
Hall at the Rudolfinum in Prague, Czech Republic. An avid interpreter of art song, he
has had the opportunity to work with musical luminaries Martin Katz, Graham Johnson,
John Harbison, Jake Heggie, Ricky Ian Gordon and the late Craig Smith in performances
at Songfest in Malibu, California. Mr. Markham has participated in master classes with
Elly Ameling, Wolfgang Holzmair, Helmut Deutsch, Rudolf Jansen, Edith Wiens, Robert
Tear, and Jorma Hynninen at the Franz Schubert Institute in Baden bei Wien, Austria.
He has twice been selected to participate in the Baldwin-Wallace Art Song Festival in
Ohio where he has worked with Warren Jones, François Le Roux, and Stephanie Blythe.
Most recently, Mr. Markham was named a Finalist in the Franco-American Vocal
Academy French Art Song Competition held in Tribute to Gérard Souzay. He has been a
competition winner of the Regional MacAllister Awards, State and Regional NATS
Competitions, Westminster Choir College Graduate Voice Competition, and numerous
Rotary Club sponsored competitions. Mr. Markham has been featured on a PBS Film
Documentary sponsored by NATS and has recorded with the German label Classic
Produktion Osnabrück.
In the fields of music research and vocal pedagogy, Mr. Markham has been the
recipient of prestigious grants such as the national Theodore Presser Award for Graduate
Research in Music and Florida State University grants including a Dissertation Research
Award and The Glenys Gallaher Memorial Award. As a pedagogue, Mr. Markham was
chosen to be a 2008 NATS Intern. He has presented lectures on art song repertory and
pedagogy for the college level voice student. He has taught on the voice faculty of the
Purnell School for Girls in New Jersey, maintained a private voice studio, and continues
to teach at the Ameropa Solo and Chamber Music Festival in Prague, Czech Republic
each summer. He has taught applied voice and assisted courses in song literature,
diction, foreign language for singers, and vocal pedagogy at Florida State University,
where he will receive his Doctorate in Voice Performance in 2009. He is an active
member of NATS, College Music Society, and the Dvo ák Society of London.
Mr. Markham holds the Bachelor of Music degree in Voice Performance from
The Florida State University College of Music and the Master of Music degree in Voice
Performance and Pedagogy from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey.
He will join the voice faculty of the DePauw University School of Music in August 2009.