Some Czech Composers Today

Extract

The liberation and establishment of a peoples' democracy in Czechoslovakia gave a tremendous impetus to musical life throughout the republic. Not only were the ravages of war being made good but new conditions and opportunities were being created for the growth of music. Composers in an outburst of activity were producing works which not only reflected the bitter experiences of the war, but the optimism of a new life. Traditionalists like Vítězslav Novák who was born in 1870, and Josef Foerster, then in his eighty-sixth year, were composing alongside their own pupils and those of Janácek. Alois Hába, who had founded schools of microtonal music, was still experimenting with quartertones and at the same time producing cantatas based upon the diatonic system. Pavel Bořkovec, a pupil of Suk and a romantic at heart, together with Jaroslav Rídký were producing works in established styles and idioms and passing on their working methods to their many pupils. Others like Emil Hlobil and Emil Burian continued to compose in the traditions of Czech romantic music almost untouched by modern trends. New names were springing up everywhere. Composers who had matured during the occupation years had by 1946 grown into artists to be reckoned with and alongside them were musicians who were about to mature.