Zdenek Fibich - the master of the melodrama
Today we look at the least known of the founding trilogy of Czech classical music in the 19th century, that's Zdenek Fibich, who is now remembered very much in the shadow of his better known contemporaries, Smetana and Dvorak. I'm joined by musicologist Patricia Goodson. Could you tell me something about Zdenek Fibich, who he was?
"He was born in 1850 and lived to be only fifty years old, which is quite a loss to Czech music. But in that time he was extremely productive. He wrote operas, he wrote hundreds of piano pieces, he wrote songs in both German and Czech, and most interestingly, he excelled at the unusual form of melodrama."
What actually is melodrama?
"Simply put, it is music for reciter and accompaniment. It can be piano or it can be an orchestra, or you can also have multiple reciters and some kind of accompaniment."
Now melodrama is very much a genre which Fibich made his own. How did that come about?
"He was an extremely cultivated man in all areas of the arts, and he had a particularly great knowledge of literature. In fact he was friends with the leading literary figures of his day. So this was a natural choice for him. Czech is a wonderful language for this. The vowels are very bright and the consonants are explosive, so it's a particularly good language for this form.
"One work that he wrote for performance in the home with just piano accompaniment is called 'Revenge of the Flowers'. It has something to do with nature 'getting its own back', as it were. Typically the melodramas are set to "ballade" texts which are quite gloomy and gothic. This is an example of that, where a young girl is overcome by the aroma of flowers and in fact suffocates."
That work is for the piano and the voice. Let's move on to something for the full orchestra.
"Well, there's his 'Vodnik' or Water Goblin, which is probably Fibich's best known piece, set to poetry by the great 19th century Czech poet, Karel Jaromir Erben. It is for male reciter and full orchestra, and it shows Fibich really at his best at tone-painting and mood-setting. And it really is a very moody and dramatic piece, very gloomy, and in the end horrifying! In the beginning the Water Goblin, who is an evil presence, is sitting by the lake sewing and talking about how he is sewing his wedding costume - green cloth and red shoes.
"A young woman is mysteriously lured to the Water Goblin's lake, and he seduces her - in fact drowns her, I suppose. She goes to live with him in the watery depths and they have a child. But of course she longs to go back to her mother and to her life on land, so grudgingly he permits her to do this, although only under certain conditions. She can't embrace anyone or really be part of the daylight world. But of course, being human, she fails to adhere to these conditions and tragedy ensues."
So much for the Water Goblin and blood and gore. Let's end on a more upbeat note.
"Yes. Fortunately there are more cheerful melodramas out there. Also very well known in this country is Fibich's Christmas Day - also to poetry by Erben - for female reciter and orchestra. It's a good bit more cheerful!"
Magic Carpet - world music in the heart of Europe
It is presented by Petr Doruzka, one of the Czech Republic's foremost music journalists.
world.freemusic.cz
COMING UP
More than 10 years after the partition of Czechoslovakia many Czechs consider Slovakia a strong musical inspiration, while Slovak musicians see Czech audiences as a potential and friendly market. The Bratislava band Jej dru¾ina (Her escort) made their well received debut three years ago, inspired by the rich heritage of Slovak folk songs. Soon afterwards this highly respected band split in two equally interesting parts, and both made new albums recently. But it's not only local musicians who collect folk songs in Slovakia. Nowadays, musicians from Hungary, like the Fono Folk Band, are looking over the border to find more about the music heritage of both Slovaks and the Hungarian minorities living in Southern Slovakia.
For copyright reasons we are unable to archive the programmes in audio, but here at least are a few words about some of the recordings featured recently in the programme.
ARCHIVE
In the first Magic Carpet of 2005, you'll hear some rare and unusual albums of 2004 which didn't fit into the previous programmes. Cankisou (pronounced "Chankishow") from Brno "rediscovered" the mysterious tribe of the Chanki people, famous for their devotional and ritual songs. Banana is led by the young female singer of mixed Italian-Ukrainian origin, who calls herself Vladivojna La Chia. If you miss the bad girls of the punk rock era, Vladivojna will be be a singer of your choice. Ahmet má Hlad (Ahmet is Hungry) is an 8 piece band mixing clarinets and accordion with electric guitars, and playing crazy adaptations of folk songs from all Eastern Europe. And NUO stands for The Art ensemble from Nusle, a hard driving and flexible jazz band. Their first album, Multimusic Miniband, reaches from funk to electronica.
Since the fall of the Iron Curtain 15 years ago, one of the most interesting exports from East European countries has been Gypsy music: wedding brass orchestras from Serbia, cymbalom and fiddle bands from Romania and Hungary. In the Czech Republic, Gypsy music is on the rise too, but often it sounds very different from the style of our East European neighbours. Terne Chave has earned a reputation as a great live band. Their new album, Kai Dzas (Where are we going), gives us a flavour of where Gypsy music may be going.
Link: Terne Chave live
www.ternechave.net
The violin maestro Yehudi Menuhin, who died in 1999, once said: "When we think about the violin, we think about the tradition of Stradivarius. But we forget the violin is derived from a folk music instrument, the fiddle." Jiri Plocek, Czech researcher and musician, comments: "There is a link between fiddlers from Moravia, my home region, and fiddlers from Scotland or Scandinavia. Their music is vibrant and sparkles with energy." Plocek's musical partner Jitka Suranska, explains: "This is a very different style than playing with a symphony orchestra, which is my second job. But playing with Jiri opens a new door for me: playing from the heart."
Link: www.mujweb.cz/www/gnosis_brno
Link: www.traband.net
Link: www.docuku.centrala.org
See also:
Gypsy music - a rediscovered heritage?
Reinventing folk music with the Moberg Ensemble
No respect for borders from Quakvarteto
