Josef Bohuslav Foerster (1859 - 1951) was a leading Czech composer of the late romantic era, like for example Josef Suk (1875 - 1935), Vítězslav Novák (1870 - 1949) and Otakar Ostrčil (1879 - 1935). This generation is sometimes called as "The first generation of Czech modern", but their musical language is directly connected to oeuvre by famous Czech composers of the nineteenth century Smetana, Dvořák and Fibich. Foerster's musical language is mystical, lyrical and emotional, mostly replete rich harmony and especially specific polyphony. He was not only an important musician but also a thinker, writer and painter. Until today, his great composer's work is not valued and only sometimes performed.
This thesis is concerned with the specific traits of composer's musical language, polyphony, which is often different from Bach, Beethoven or Smetana. We can talk about specific free polyphony and way of musical thinking dependent on many things and ideas. This cause and many others aspects provide particular problems for performers and music listeners. The dissertation includes many analyses of selected compositions by Foerster, which are also compared with others by his contemporaries, especially Suk and Mahler (1860 - 1911), who was Foerster's close friend. In liturgical music Foerster created a unique and very distinctive product of the Caecilian reform movement in church music, which had its striking culmination in the Czech lands during Foerster's lifetime. Extensive choral oeuvre is made in a specific musical-poetic style. Symphonic compositions, especially five symphonies are to a large extent autobiographical; and operas are in a realistic concept, which we can compare with dramas by Leoš Janáček (1854 - 1928). The thesis is based upon author's wide experience of performing composer's work and large volume of literature with some works written by J. B. Foerster. The author tries to solve problems of performing this music, as a conductor, choir master, educator and propagator.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:nusl.cz/oai:invenio.nusl.cz:178065 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Židek, Tomáš |
| Contributors | KOUTNÍK, Tomáš, CHVÁLA, Jiří |
| Publisher | Akademie múzických umění v Praze.Hudební a taneční fakulta. Knihovna |
| Source Sets | Czech ETDs |
| Language | Czech |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess |
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