Page 282 - 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
P. 282
glasbene migracije: stičišče evropske glasbene raznolikosti
His student Vítězslav Novák, similarly to Dvořák, attempted to enrich
Czech music with new “exotic” idioms. He was famous for his fondness
for travelling. In the spirit of romantics Novák focused on secluded places
where he would take long hikes and climb up mountains. He realized his
touristic hobbies, accompanied with collecting folklore material, primarily
in Slovakia and Eastern Moravia.
A specific type of migration is resettlement motivated by creative
needs, accompanied with the desire to identify with a certain place, cultur-
al atmosphere etc. Large cultural centres such as Paris, Vienna, Berlin, etc.
are becoming magnets for migration. An interesting and in many ways dis-
tinctive is the identification of Bohuslav Martinů (1890–1959) with differ-
ent types of environments. Initially he attended Josef Suk’s lessons of com-
position at the Prague Conservatory. In 1923 he completed studies at Albert
Roussel’s in Paris and since then permanently lived outside his home coun-
try. He lived in Paris, USA and in 1953 he returned to Europe and perma-
nently settled in Nice. Despite all the different places, or maybe because of
them, he managed to preserve a relationship with his home country (his
birthplace) and creatively transform it into his own work. His journey was
symbolically completed 20 years after his death by repatriation of his re-
mains to the family tomb in Polička.
Identification with large cultural centres is also specific to Alois Hába
(1893–1973). The road from the periphery of the East Moravia initially leads
him to Prague (1914–1915) then to Vienna (1917–1920) and then to Berlin
(1920–1923). Each major cultural centre of European culture actually coin-
cides with imaginary degrees of “learning pilgrimage” of the young com-
poser. Studies in Novák’s and Schreker’s classes or Berlin meetings with
Ferrucio Busoni are without a doubt important moments of Hába’s artis-
tic growth. What he gets in addition to new experience and knowledge of
composition is a hallmark of a remarkable innovator and propagator of new
avant-garde movements. In the intentions of young generation’s collective
belief, Hába identifies with a stream of current modern music and at the
same time increases his creative differentiation.
Hába’s distinctiveness and originality which clearly started to develop
during his stay in Vienna has become a respected a reality in Berlin. If the
stance of being »different, distinctive« represented, according to contempo-
rary musical norms of the 19th century, unambiguously negative value and
coincided with position of dilettante in the sense of exclusion from the pro-
fessional assertion, now, on the contrary, position of being different means
280
His student Vítězslav Novák, similarly to Dvořák, attempted to enrich
Czech music with new “exotic” idioms. He was famous for his fondness
for travelling. In the spirit of romantics Novák focused on secluded places
where he would take long hikes and climb up mountains. He realized his
touristic hobbies, accompanied with collecting folklore material, primarily
in Slovakia and Eastern Moravia.
A specific type of migration is resettlement motivated by creative
needs, accompanied with the desire to identify with a certain place, cultur-
al atmosphere etc. Large cultural centres such as Paris, Vienna, Berlin, etc.
are becoming magnets for migration. An interesting and in many ways dis-
tinctive is the identification of Bohuslav Martinů (1890–1959) with differ-
ent types of environments. Initially he attended Josef Suk’s lessons of com-
position at the Prague Conservatory. In 1923 he completed studies at Albert
Roussel’s in Paris and since then permanently lived outside his home coun-
try. He lived in Paris, USA and in 1953 he returned to Europe and perma-
nently settled in Nice. Despite all the different places, or maybe because of
them, he managed to preserve a relationship with his home country (his
birthplace) and creatively transform it into his own work. His journey was
symbolically completed 20 years after his death by repatriation of his re-
mains to the family tomb in Polička.
Identification with large cultural centres is also specific to Alois Hába
(1893–1973). The road from the periphery of the East Moravia initially leads
him to Prague (1914–1915) then to Vienna (1917–1920) and then to Berlin
(1920–1923). Each major cultural centre of European culture actually coin-
cides with imaginary degrees of “learning pilgrimage” of the young com-
poser. Studies in Novák’s and Schreker’s classes or Berlin meetings with
Ferrucio Busoni are without a doubt important moments of Hába’s artis-
tic growth. What he gets in addition to new experience and knowledge of
composition is a hallmark of a remarkable innovator and propagator of new
avant-garde movements. In the intentions of young generation’s collective
belief, Hába identifies with a stream of current modern music and at the
same time increases his creative differentiation.
Hába’s distinctiveness and originality which clearly started to develop
during his stay in Vienna has become a respected a reality in Berlin. If the
stance of being »different, distinctive« represented, according to contempo-
rary musical norms of the 19th century, unambiguously negative value and
coincided with position of dilettante in the sense of exclusion from the pro-
fessional assertion, now, on the contrary, position of being different means
280
