Taras Bulba reflects Janáček's love of Russian literature and the sound of his own mother tongue

Leoš Janáček was a classical music composer with a distinctly Czech style. Although one of his greatest works - Taras Bulba –was inspired by Russian literature, the music itself reflects the cadence of  Janáček’s mother tongue and its Silesian dialect.

Leoš Janáček was born on July 3, 1854 in the small town of Hukvaldy in the eastern part of the Czech Republic. He showed exceptional musical talent from an early age and as a young boy he became a choir singer at the prestigious Augustinian Monastery in Brno.

Photo: Parliament Records

He received a formal musical education in Brno and later studied at the College of Organ Studies in Prague to become a music teacher. In 1878 he spent some time in Vienna to improve his skills and upon his return founded and led the Organ School and Conservatory in Brno.

In 1896 he undertook his first visit to Russia and his studies of Russian literature influenced his later works.

Among the most prominent of those is Taras Bulba - a rhapsody for orchestra inspired by Gogol’s novel of the same name. It was composed in 1918 and Janacek chose three episodes from Gogol’s story which he set to music.

Illustration from the novel 'Taras Bulba' |Photo: Pyotr Fyodorovich Sokolov, Wikimedia Commons/Gogol's House, public domain

The epic tale of the lives of Cossack warriors tells the story of Taras Bulba and his sons who are both killed –one by Taras Bulba himself when Andrei, fighting on the side of the Poles, meets his father in battle. His second son Ostap is killed and executed by the Poles in the second movement, and in the third movement Taras Bulba himself is burned to death by the Polish army, issuing a defiant prophecy that “no one would ever vanquish the Cossacks, who would eventually subjugate the world”.

Although Taras Bulba is inspired by Russian literature, which Janáček greatly admired, the music itself reflects the cadence of the composer’s mother tongue and its Silesian dialect.

The premiere of Taras Bulba in 1921 was a huge success and was performed in the presence of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk. To this day it remains one of Janáček's most famous works.