Page 280 - Weiss, Jernej, ur. 2017. Glasbene migracije: stičišče evropske glasbene raznolikosti - Musical Migrations: Crossroads of European Musical Diversity. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 1
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glasbene migracije: stičišče evropske glasbene raznolikosti
Publications of Jan Bohumír Dlabač (Gottfried Johann Dlabacz, 1758–1820)
and Christian d’Elvert (1803–1896) can serve as an example.1 These works
perceive the music in Bohemia and Moravia (Moravian Silesia) as the set of
musical expressions connected with given region by their origin or func-
tion regardless of ethnical, national or stylistic context. Concept framed
like this can include musical production of all nationalities and ethnic
groups settled in the area (Czechs, Germans, Poles, Croats, Jews and Gyp-
sies). These authors also came to belief that the musical individuality of Bo-
hemia and Moravia is given by the openness of the territory to the various
cultural influences. When describing the following period, authors draw
the attention to a significant change in the nature of culture in Bohemia
around the year 1860. The focus of the musical development clearly shifted
from the chateau residences and churches into the urban environment, the
civic opera theatres and musical troupes.
A significant portion of this period, focus of this paper, is described
in the book Czech Modern Music: A study of Czech musical creativity (1936)
by Vladimír Helfert.2 Helfert’s attempt to write-up distinctive history of
Czech modern (read national) music builds on the concept of indigenous
historiography and is parallel with more broad cultural and political move-
ments. Helfert’s viewpoint is focused on his own nation seeking its identity.
The author’s interpretation is led by the effort to relieve the domestic music
from foreign influence. On a laboratory scale, he measures a degree of iden-
tification with national culture and the method how individual authors ex-
press specifically Czech musical thinking. For obvious reasons Helfert did
not reflect domestic German culture that have been referred to as the sude-
tendeutsch since 1902 (Franz Jesser).3
Such way of thinking can be paralleled to Masaryk’s political pro-
gramme which will appear in the book The Czech Question (1924). Helfert
comes up with a unilateral national solution concerning German music in
Czech territory. A number of composers thus find themselves outside the
context of Czech music. I am referring to German and Jewish authors (Fi-
1 Gottfried Johann Dlabacz, Allgemeines historisches künstler-Lexikon für Böhmen
und zum Theil auch für Mähren und Schlesien (Prag: Gottlieb Haase, 1815).
Christian d’Elvert, Zur Cultur-Geschichte Mährens und Oest. Schlesiens (Brünn:
Verlag der histor. statist. Section, in Commission der Buchhandlung von Carl Wini-
ker, 1866).
2 Vladimír Helfert, Česká moderní hudba. Studie o české hudební tvořivosti [Czech
Modern Music: A study of Czech musical creativity] (Olomouc: Index, 1936).
3 In one of his essays in 1902 used Franz Jesser (1869–1954) term sudetendeutsch as a
designation for the German-speaking population of the Czech lands.
278
Publications of Jan Bohumír Dlabač (Gottfried Johann Dlabacz, 1758–1820)
and Christian d’Elvert (1803–1896) can serve as an example.1 These works
perceive the music in Bohemia and Moravia (Moravian Silesia) as the set of
musical expressions connected with given region by their origin or func-
tion regardless of ethnical, national or stylistic context. Concept framed
like this can include musical production of all nationalities and ethnic
groups settled in the area (Czechs, Germans, Poles, Croats, Jews and Gyp-
sies). These authors also came to belief that the musical individuality of Bo-
hemia and Moravia is given by the openness of the territory to the various
cultural influences. When describing the following period, authors draw
the attention to a significant change in the nature of culture in Bohemia
around the year 1860. The focus of the musical development clearly shifted
from the chateau residences and churches into the urban environment, the
civic opera theatres and musical troupes.
A significant portion of this period, focus of this paper, is described
in the book Czech Modern Music: A study of Czech musical creativity (1936)
by Vladimír Helfert.2 Helfert’s attempt to write-up distinctive history of
Czech modern (read national) music builds on the concept of indigenous
historiography and is parallel with more broad cultural and political move-
ments. Helfert’s viewpoint is focused on his own nation seeking its identity.
The author’s interpretation is led by the effort to relieve the domestic music
from foreign influence. On a laboratory scale, he measures a degree of iden-
tification with national culture and the method how individual authors ex-
press specifically Czech musical thinking. For obvious reasons Helfert did
not reflect domestic German culture that have been referred to as the sude-
tendeutsch since 1902 (Franz Jesser).3
Such way of thinking can be paralleled to Masaryk’s political pro-
gramme which will appear in the book The Czech Question (1924). Helfert
comes up with a unilateral national solution concerning German music in
Czech territory. A number of composers thus find themselves outside the
context of Czech music. I am referring to German and Jewish authors (Fi-
1 Gottfried Johann Dlabacz, Allgemeines historisches künstler-Lexikon für Böhmen
und zum Theil auch für Mähren und Schlesien (Prag: Gottlieb Haase, 1815).
Christian d’Elvert, Zur Cultur-Geschichte Mährens und Oest. Schlesiens (Brünn:
Verlag der histor. statist. Section, in Commission der Buchhandlung von Carl Wini-
ker, 1866).
2 Vladimír Helfert, Česká moderní hudba. Studie o české hudební tvořivosti [Czech
Modern Music: A study of Czech musical creativity] (Olomouc: Index, 1936).
3 In one of his essays in 1902 used Franz Jesser (1869–1954) term sudetendeutsch as a
designation for the German-speaking population of the Czech lands.
278
