10 Greatest Easter Movies

by Hermione Lai, Interlude  April 12th, 2022

Easter is the most important holiday for Christians around the world. But you don’t have to be seriously religious to enjoy that particular time of year, as the coming of Spring, at least in the Northern hemisphere also signals a sense of renewal. Many of our modern Easter celebrations actually reflect non-Christian traditions. The name “Easter” comes from “Eastre,” a Saxon goddess of fertility and spring. Her festival was celebrated on the day of the spring equinox, and modern Easter is also tied to the vernal equinox. Springtime fertility probably explains the two most popular Easter traditions, the Easter bunny and Easter eggs. The Easter bunny was originally a hare, and as a symbol of new life, painted eggs have been around for a very long time. So, Easter can actually be both a deeply religious celebration and a secular festivity “with ancient pagan or modern commercial origins.”

I think that most everybody has a favourite Easter tradition or two, and I tend to get in the mood for this special holiday by watching a marathon of Easter-themed movie. Here then is my personal list of the 10 greatest Easter movies ever made, starting with the 2006 biographical drama “Miss Potter. 

I just love historical costume dramas, and the story of this fantastic film is based on the life of children’s author and illustrator Beatrix Potter, who created one of the most loveable and endearing Easter characters in “Peter Rabbit.” Starring Renée Zellweger and Ewan McGregor, the film features animated sequences with characters from her stories.

Nigel Westlake

Beatrix is trying to convince a publishing house to publish her “The Tale of Peter Rabbit.” The publishers think her book is ridiculous, but agree because they promised their younger brother Norman, a project. In the event, the book becomes a huge success and Beatrix and Norman fall in love. Beatrix’s parents are decidedly unhappy about their daughter marrying a tradesman, and they simply won’t consent to the union. They threaten to cut her off financially, but Beatrix soon finds out that the royalties from her book have made her a very wealthy woman. Her parents finally relent under the condition that Beatrix and Norman will spend the summer apart, and if she still wishes to marry him at the end of that period, they agree that they will not object to the marriage. Sadly, Norman dies and overcome with grief, Beatrix turns to her drawing but discovers that her characters disappear off the page. The award-winning Australian composer Nigel Westlake, famous for his Omphalo Centric Lecture for percussion quartet, sensitively scored “Miss Potter” in the wide-flowing manner of a romantic historical drama. 

Peter Rabbit

Beatrix Potter first introduced Peter Rabbit in 1902, and it became such a huge hit that she wrote five more books on the subject. Peter Rabbit recently came alive in a 2018 3D live-action/computer-animated comedy film. The subject matter is still based on Potter’s book, but this 21st-century take features a much tougher and probably less likeable Peter Rabbit.

Set in the Lake District of England, Peter Rabbit, his cousin Benjamin Bunny and the sisters Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail, are stealing vegetables from Mr. McGregor, who had killed and eaten their father. After McGregor suddenly dies of a heart attack, Peter invites all the local animals to take over McGregor’s manor. The manor is inherited by Thomas McGregor, who kicks out Peter and the other animals and upgrades the security of the garden. Peter and Benjamin sneak back in, and an enraged Thomas buys and electric fence and dynamite to keep out the rabbits. Meanwhile, Thomas falls in love with Bea, a local resident who has been kind to Peter and all rabbits. Things get predictably out of control, but in the end Thomas and Bea resume their relationship and they allow wildlife to take from the garden. The soundtrack to the movie features 28 soundtrack songs, including a version of the song “Steal My Sunshine” by the band Len with the lyrics rewritten to be about Peter Rabbit. And just in case, in 2021 the sequel “Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway” was released, and now Thomas and Bea are married and live with Peter and his rabbit family. Bored at home, Peter goes to the big city, where he meets shady characters and ends up creating chaos for the entire family.

A more loveable version of Peter Rabbit became the subject of an animated television special in 1971. The young Easter Bunny Peter Cottontail lives in April Valley together with his fellow Easter Bunnies. They make Easter candies, sew bonnets, and they decorate and deliver Easter eggs. But trouble starts brewing when Peter Cottontail, who is somewhat unreliable and gossipy, is supposed to be appointed Chief Easter Bunny. An evil rabbit named January Q. Irontail also wants the job, but his motivation is a little different. He wants to ruin Easter for children as revenge for a child roller-skating over his tail. Now he has to wear an artificial tail, and he is not a happy bunny. After much intrigue, scheming, and treachery, Irontail does become the new Chief Easter Bunny. He quickly passes various laws to make Easter a disaster. Eggs have to be painted brown and gray, candy sculptors become tarantulas and octopuses, and instead of Easter bonnets, he orders that Easter rubber boots be made. Of course, things do work out in the end, and Cottontail, all reformed and reliable becomes the official Chief Easter Bunny. It is one of my favourite animated films, and the song “Here comes Peter Cottontail,” written by Walter E. Rollins and Steve Nelson, became a huge hit.

Ben-Hur

Let’s depart the world of animation for some seriously epic drama. And when it comes to epic, the 1959 film Ben-Hur comes in at the top of the class. Based on a novel by Lew Wallace, it tells the story of a fictitious aristocratic Jew living in Judaea who incurs the wrath of a childhood friend, now a Roman tribune. He is falsely accused of attempting to assassinate Roman governor Valerius Gratus, and is forced into slavery on a galley and compelled to witness the cruel persecution of his family. Plotting his revenge, Ben-Hur’s life intersects with that of the Biblical Jesus, and compassion eventually overrides Ben-Hur’s thirst for revenge.

Miklós Rózsa

The film won a record 11 Oscars, and everybody loves the most memorable sequences of the sea battle and the chariot race. The film score was composed and conducted by Miklós Rózsa, a Hungarian-American composer who had trained in Germany and worked in France, the United Kingdom and the United States. Rózsa had made his name composing concert music, with his compositions championed by such major artists as Jascha Heifetz, Gregor Piatigorsky, and János Starker. Rózsa became an American citizen in 1946 and composed the music for nearly one hundred films, with the score to Ben-Hur considered to be his best. In preparation for the film Rózsa researched Greek and Roman music, searching for musical authenticity in a track of over three hours of music. “While the score contains no leitmotifs, the music always transitions from full orchestra to pipe organ whenever Jesus Christ appears.” This particular soundtrack was hugely influential well into the mid 1970s, and spawned a huge film music following.

The Last Temptation of Christ

Easter films have long delighted children and adults alike. In some cases, however, they have also courted controversy. The great film director Martin Scorsese shocked many Christian religious groups with his The Last Temptation of Christ of 1988. The film depicts the life of Jesus Christ and his struggle with various forms of temptation including fear, doubt, depression, reluctance, and lust. Christ is tempted by imagining himself engaged in sexual activities as he had an undisclosed prior relationship with Mary Magdalene, a Jewish prostitute. While on the cross, Jesus is in a state of hallucination and he perceives that God wants him to be happy. An angel brings him down off the cross and, invisible to others, takes him to Mary Magdalene, whom he marries. They are soon expecting a child and living an idyllic life, but she abruptly dies. Next he takes Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus, for his wives. He starts a family with them, having many children, and lives his life in peace. When he finds himself on the cross once more, he has overcome the last temptation of escaping death.

Peter Gabriel: Passion

The film decidedly departs from the gospel narratives, especially in a scene when Jesus and Mary Magdalene consummate their marriage, and it drew vocal and violent protest and boycotts. The famed Peter Gabriel composed the soundtrack and the CD released under the title Passion won a Grammy in 1990 for Best New Age Album. Gabriel brought together a lineup of international artists, including Pakistani Musician and vocalist Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Egyptian Kanun player Abdul Aziz, Turkish Ney flute player Kudsi Ergüner, Armenian Doudouk players Antranik Askarian and Vatche Housepian. It became a path-breaking score as it popularized world music.

Jesus Christ Superstar 

The story of Easter also made it into the 1971 rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar. The plot is loosely based on the Gospel accounts of the Passion, but it explores and interprets the psychology of Jesus and other characters, with much of the plot centering on Judas. Judas is really unhappy with the direction in which Jesus is steering his disciples. Religious groups condemned the initial Broadway show and subsequent productions, and the rock opera was banned in Hungary. Andrew Lloyd Webber, frequently called the “most commercially successful composer in history,” composed the musical score.

Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade in the West End and on Broadway, and surely you know such hit songs as “The Music of the Night” from The Phantom of the Opera, “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” from Evita, and “Memory” from Cats. Jesus Christ Superstar was one of his earlier projects, and audiences were rather shocked by the controversial portrayals of Mary Magdalene, and her unrequited love for Jesus. Yet, many of the most popular tunes from this rock opera have gained independence and stormed the pop hit charts.

Risen 

For a number of years, audiences were glued to their Netflix accounts in order to watch the unfolding dramas offered by “Game of Thrones.” If you throw “Game of Thrones” in a blender and mix it with the 2000 epic historical drama “Gladiator,” the outcome is something like the 2016 biblical drama film “Risen.” Directed by Kevin Reynolds and starring Joseph Fines, and Tom Felton, it is a historical detective story as the Roman Centurion Clavius is on the hunt for Jesus’ body after it mysteriously disappears following his crucifixion.

Roque Baños

The disappearance is a PR nightmare for the Romans, specifically as there is talk throughout the land of a miraculous return. Pilate initially treats it as a management problem, as the emperor is set for a visit. As Clavius gets deeper drawn into the story, he starts to wonder if he is actually on the wrong side. We all know how this story has to end, but “Risen” provides us with a gritty sense of Jerusalem as an occupied territory that could soon slip from the master’s grasp. The Spanish composer Roque Baños provides a swelling orchestral score that takes us on an even deeper emotional level.

Easter Parade

Irving Berlin

For our next selection, we change gears a little and look at the long tradition of Easter Parades. They are said to date back to the early days of Christianity, but they really got going in New York City in the mid-1800s. It was an entirely social event, actually the biggest social event of the year. After the upper crust of society attended Easter services at various churches alongside Fifth Avenue, they strolled outside to show off their new spring outfits and hats. They soon attracted ordinary onlookers wanting to see what the rich and famous were up to, and the tradition of the Easter parade was born. It was highly popular during the mid-20th century, and it even inspired the very popular film “Easter Parade” in 1948.

The film features Broadway star Don Hewes played by Fred Astaire who has just lost his dancing partner Ann Miller. So he declares that he can make a hit performer out of the next dancer he sees. This turns out to be the inexperienced Hannah (Judy Garland), who bristles as Don tries to make her into his old partner. But as he realizes that he is falling in love with Hannah, Don knows that he must let her grow into her own kind of dancer if he wants her to reach her full potential. With the music composed by Irving Berlin, there are plenty of popular tunes and hits on offer.

The Prince of Egypt

When it comes to animation, my favorite Easter-themed movie has to be “The Prince of Egypt.” It tells the story of the Book of Exodus in a very entertaining way as it follows the life of Moses. Essentially it depicts the first Passover, a holiday that regularly overlaps with Easter. In the event, Moses, Miriam, Aaron and Tzipporah lead the Hebrews out of Egypt. At the Red Sea, the Hebrews discover that a vengeful Rameses is pursuing them with his army, intent on killing them. However, a pillar of fire blocks the army’s way, while Moses uses his staff to part the sea. The Hebrews cross the open sea bottom; the fire vanishes and the army gives chase, but the sea closes over and drowns the Egyptian soldiers, sparing Rameses alone. Moses sadly bids his brother farewell and leads the Hebrews to Mount Sinai, where he receives the Ten Commandments.

The story of Moses’s deliverance of the Israelites is generally considered a biblical foreshadowing that parallels the death and resurrection of Jesus. Composer Stephen Schwartz wrote the songs for the film, and they were arranged and produced by Hans Zimmer for the film score. Various tracks feature contemporary artists such as K-Ci & JoJo and Boyz II Men, and also include the fabulous Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston duet “When You Believe,” a Babyface rewrite of the original Schwartz composition, sung by Michelle Pfeiffer and Sally Dworsky in the film.

Hank and Mike 

To conclude this little blog on the 10 Greatest Easter Movies let’s get a little silly and look at the hilarious comedy “Hank and Mike.” Mike and Hank are two blue-collar Easter Bunnies and things get dicey when the corporation that owns all holidays decides to make some serious cutbacks. Hank and Mike get fired, and try to find different jobs with devastating result. As they miserably fail at everything they touch, they are fighting depression, debt and eventually each other. Finally, they make it their mission to get their jobs back, get the girls they love, and settle the score. Talking about score, the funky music was provided by the eclectic Phil Electric. Whatever movie tickles your fancy, I hope you will enjoy a Happy Easter!

MAKE MUSIC - NOT WAR!

Music - from the Greek "mousikos" and pertaining to one of the nine muses in the Greek mythology - is the art of combining sounds or sequences of notes into harmonious patterns hopefully playing to ears and satisfying to our emotions. An insipid and dry explanation - I must confess. 

Can you, my dear reader, imagine a life without music? For me, it would be such a monotonous and boring world. I don't think only about the musical "mayfly" or the so-called "musical nine days wonder". Music doesn't consists of Groove or Techno alone. I am not against these or other music trends, because each generation has its own music development. But we have greater riches of different kinds of music by going back to the Middle Ages, the Renaissance (which means 'rebirth'), the Baroque Age, the Classical Period, and the Romantic Era up to 1900. The Western tradition of music has its origins in the chant tradition of the Early Christian Era.

Everybody can develop his  or her own passion of music. When I was four or so, I grew up already with those kinds of music. I asked my parents voluntary if I could get piano lessons. It was easy for us because the church organist at that time was our neighbor and a proud owner of a grand piano. I listened my first organ recital composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. My passion of music was in stage of development that made it possible for me to join the school band. The Beatles - and Rolling Stones later - era followed - much to the disappointment of my parents and grandparents, who still dreamed of their music, such as Jazz and Swing back to the Golden Twenties.

Everybody has his or her own music philosophy. I learned from my dentist friend in Los Angeles, that her patients lose their state of anxiety by listening soft background music during having their teeth attended to. A gynecologist explainEd, that if a pregnant woman mostly listens to classical music, her child might hear, learn, find out and experience another (better?) development then other children. 

The church reformator Martin Luther (1483-1546) explained it in this way: "Many times, when I was in terrible darkness, I prayed - and I listened music, which delivered and refreshed me!" The German poet and composer E. T. A. Hoffmann said 1801: "If you start simply being speechless, music will take over!" And Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), without doubt one of the true and just awesome Western composers said: "Music is utmost revelation then an wisdom and philosophy!" 

"I feel like flying after entering a church, praying and listening the music of heaven!" the German poet Friedrich Schiller (1759-1809) philosophized about music in his drama "Maria Stuart".

A simple melody can make feel us happy, sentimental, smiling or crying, aggressive or relaxed. A form of light entertainment in which songs, dialogue, dance, and humor are combined with a not too serious plot is as much as important then a dramatic opera or the single musician or street singer, not being a man of culture, but entertaining us people.

Let's develop our own passion of music, so that we might see the great resources for our daily life, if we accept, that music plays a rule in it. Make music - not war!

The Dark Childhood of Joseph Haydn

 by Emily E. Hogstad, Interlude

Joseph Haydn has entered music history as a jovial, grandfatherly figure with a reputation for a quick wit. Generations later, we still chuckle at the stories behind the Surprise Symphony or the Farewell Symphony. His famous good humor is all the more striking considering his often difficult upbringing.

Joseph Haydn was born in the little town of Rohrau, Austria, on 31 March 1732, the second of twelve children. His father Mathias was a wheelwright by day and a folk musician by night. He was especially fond of accompanying himself on the harp singing folk tunes, and he would often encourage his family to sing along with him.

It’s no surprise that Joseph’s talent blossomed in this idyllic, naturally musical environment. That talent would soon change his life forever. When he was six, a distant relative named Johann Matthias Frankh visited Rohrau. Frankh was a schoolmaster and choirmaster in the town of Hainburg, and he thought that Joseph would do well to become his apprentice. Joseph’s parents hoped that such training would assist Joseph in becoming a clergyman, and so they agreed to send him away. Accordingly, Joseph Haydn left home at the age of six.

The Frankh family didn’t take very good care of their brilliant new charge. He frequently went hungry and he was beaten regularly. Later in life, he remembered being embarrassed at the dirty clothing the Frankhs forced him to wear. Nevertheless, he learned the basics of music: how to play the violin and harpsichord, and, more importantly for his immediate future, how to sing.

In 1739, not long after Joseph had arrived at the Frankh house, an important musician named Georg von Reutter came to town. Reutter was the director of music at St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, and he was on a tour of the smaller Austrian cities, scouting out new talent for his cathedral choirs. (A steady supply of boys was needed, since every year a certain percentage of their high voices fell victim to puberty.) During this scouting trip, Reutter heard Haydn and was deeply impressed, offering him a position as a chorister. In the spring of 1740, Joseph made his second big move, arriving in Vienna at the age of eight.

He worked for nearly a decade at the cathedral as a chorister. He was steeped in church music, but he didn’t receive the systematic training in theory and composition that he craved. He eventually resorted to asking his father for money to buy the famous textbook Gradus ad Parnassum so that he could start to teach himself. He also still struggled to get enough to eat. But if he sang well enough, he was invited to perform at aristocratic parties, where he was fed.

By 1749, Haydn’s voice was starting to break. Apparently the Empress herself referred to his singing as “crowing.” Joseph didn’t help matters when he jokingly snipped off the pigtail of a fellow chorister. Ruetter threatened to cane Haydn for his insubordination. Haydn replied that he’d rather leave the choir than be so humiliated. Ruetter replied, “Of course you will be expelled…after you have been caned.”

So it was that a teenaged Joseph Haydn found himself humiliated, fired, and homeless. Luckily an acquaintance named Johann Michael Spangler invited the young genius to share (cramped) quarters with him, his wife, and baby son. His lodging secured, Haydn started working as a freelance musician, finally gaining a certain level of control over his life after years of lonely nights, tiny meals, and hard teachers.

Haydn was clearly more than a great composer or a quick wit. He was a survivor.

Tchaikovsky’s house destroyed by Russian army in north-east Ukraine

6 April 2022, 15:02 | Updated: 6 April 2022, 16:23

Tchaikovsky stayed in Trostyanets in his 20s; the city is now destroyed. Picture: Getty

By Sophia Alexandra Hall, ClassicFM

@sophiassocials

 

One of Russia’s most famous composers once called Trostyanets home. Now the city lies in ruin. 

Trostyanets is a city in the north-east of Ukraine, which once played host to Russian composer, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

Aged 24, the famed 19th-century Romantic composer stayed in a villa in the city of Trostyanets, then a part of the Russian Empire. It was here he composed his first symphonic work - the overture ‘The Storm’ (1864).

The villa, like the rest of Trostyanets, now lies in ruin following the capture of the city on 1 March 2022 during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

After a month of occupation, where civilians were reportedly killed by Russian hand grenades, Ukrainian forces used heavy shelling to gain back control of Trostyanets.

Though the Russian army have now left after a brutal month, reminders of their occupation can be seen everywhere; buildings – including the villa – have been destroyed, and the letter ‘Z’ has been graffitied on ruins and cars across the city.

Since the invasion began in February, food and water have become dangerously scarce in Trostyanets, which has a population of 25,000.

Residents now have to line up in front of the Tchaikovsky Music School for Children, next to the museum of the same name, in order to collect food.

During the first days of the Russian invasion, the concert hall at the Tchaikovsky Music School for Children was used to register Ukrainian volunteers for the Territorial Defense Forces.

While waiting in line to collect food, citizens spotted reporters from international outlets in their city and ran to them. A cacophony of testimonies were given all at once to the reporters.

“They smashed my place up.” “They stole everything, even my underwear.” “They killed a guy on my street.” “The f*****s stole my laptop and my aftershave.”

The mayor of Trostyanets has said it is too early to give an estimate as to how many of his city’s citizens were killed.

Civilians in Trostyanets were reportedly targeted by hand grenades when they protested Russian occupation, which killed two.

Due to the harrowing testimonies from the city’s residents, and other parts of Ukraine, on Monday the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, backed an investigation into reported Russian war crimes in the country.

After a call with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, von der Leyen said that EU investigators will help Kyiv to probe reports from Ukrainian officials and NGOs that Russian forces massacred and sexually assaulted civilians in towns near the Ukrainian capital.

Statue of Tchaikovsky in Trostyanets central park. Picture: Wikimedia Commons

Exploring Partitas: Johann Sebastian Bach

by Georg Predota, Interlude

Johann Sebastian Bach

In the course of your instrumental studies or attending concert performances you might have come across works title “Partita.” It is a slippery term, and throughout history it has designated a number of different concepts. At times it was used to indicate a variation, a piece, a set of Variations and a Suite or other multi-movement genres. In the late 16th and early 17th centuries it was applied to variations or elaborations on a bass of a traditional tune. Over time this evolved into a collective term for a set of variations. This musical application seems to have been rather popular in Italy, with keyboard compositions thus titled by Trabaci, Frescobaldi, Rossi, Strozzi and Scarlatti. However, this musical form also made it into Germany and Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) composed a number of Partitas on various chorale melodies.

Bach: Partita No. 1

As the 17th century progressed, “Partita” acquired an additional meaning in Germany. Whether by design or linguistic uncertainty, the “Partita” was considered a kind of instrumental piece made up of connected sections or movements. As the word “Partita” appears in dictionaries as “consignment, item or game,” it evolved into a collection of contrasting movements of dance character, something that we would call a “Suite.” Johann Sebastian Bach individually published a set of six keyboard suites titled “Partitas” starting in 1726. The entire set was published in 1731 as his “Clavier-Übung I.” The six partitas for keyboard are the last set of suites Bach composed, and they are the most technically demanding. Above all, the Partitas are some of the most sublime instrumental compositions that Bach ever composed. 

Bach: Partita No. 2 in C minor – I. Sinfonia

Johann Sebastian Bach’s systematic exploration of stylized dance music and music based on dance rhythms represent some of his greatest musical achievements. In all, he composed three sets of dance suites for solo keyboard, each consisting of six individual suites. The French Suites are compact and light in characters, while the English Suites have more extended opening movements. The Partitas, chronologically composed last, offer music on the grandest scale. Remarkable for the extreme technical demands they place on the performer, each Partita opens with an elaborate, ornate and complex movement that is structurally unique with respect to the other five. The C-minor Partita is one of the best known and frequently performed suites; it is also one of the most eccentric. The opening “Sinfonia” functions as an overture and imparts a high degree of seriousness. An austere and highly dissonant French overture introduction gives to highly decorated melody over a walking bass line. It concluded with a lively and animated two-part fugue, “an astonishing progression of moods that defines the ambitious scope of this suite.” The Bach biographer Nikolaus Forkel wrote in 1802. “Such excellent compositions for the clavier had never been seen and heard before. Anyone who had learnt to perform well some pieces out of them could make his fortune in the world thereby; and even in our times, a young artist might gain acknowledgment by doing so, they are so brilliant, well-sounding, expressive, and always new.”

Title page BWV1001-1006 autograph manuscript, 1720

Johann Sebastian Bach was an accomplished violinist. He probably received first instructions on the instrument from his father, and his first official post engaged him as a violinist. As such, it is hardly surprising that Bach would compose music for his own performances. And his Solo Violin Sonatas and Partitas, BWV 1001–1006, might easily have served this particular purpose. We learn from Bach’s student Johann Friedrich Agricola, that these pieces “were personally so meaningful to Bach that he would often sit at the harpsichord and play for himself keyboard versions of the works.” They are dated 1720 on the manuscript, but it is likely that they had been composed between 1708 and 1717, during Bach’s stay in Weimar.

Bach: Chaconne manuscript

At any rate, Bach’s contemporaries were not really warm to these solo compositions, and Schumann and Mendelssohn actually published accompaniment to clarify the harmony. It is unbelievable to think that the entire set was first published only in 1802, and that the first complete recording was made by Yehudi Menuhin in 1936. These Partitas offer a synthesis of dances borrowed from all over Europe, and the first four movements of the Partita No. 2 follow the order of a traditional Baroque dance suite. While this pays homage to one branch of the Partita DNA, the massive concluding Chaconne addresses the other branch; it is a monumental set of variations on a ground bass. In Bach’s hands, both Partita traditions combined in one unbelievable composition. 

BWV 1006 Preludio autograph manuscript, 1720

Carl Philipp Emanuel vividly remembered his father’s violin playing. “In his youth, and until the approach of old age,” he reports, “he played the violin cleanly and penetratingly, and thus kept the orchestra in better order than he could have done with the harpsichord. He understood to perfection the possibilities of all stringed instruments. This is evidenced by his solos for the violin and for the violoncello without bass. One of the greatest violinists once told me that he had seen nothing more perfect for learning to be a good violinist, and could suggest nothing better to anyone eager to learn, than the violin solos without bass.” The Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin showcase Bach’s skill as both performer and composer. They demonstrate a level of “technical and musical mastery previous composers had not approached, and indeed, they are still one of the high peaks of the violin literature.” While the solo violin sonatas follow the habitual Baroque sonata layout of slow-fast-slow-fast, the partitas unfold as a sequence of dance-inspired movements. Bach held the opening movement of the Violin Partita No. 3 in particular high esteem, as he subsequently arranged it for an instrumental movement of a wedding cantata and a festive overture for a church cantata.

Bach: Flute Partita

In 1917, the German musician Karl Straube discovered a manuscript entitled “Solo [pour une] flûte traversière par J. S. Bach.” Straube believed that he had found a Bach autograph, but more recent research has shown that two copyists had produced it. Looking at watermarks and paper types, it appears that a substantial part of the manuscript was copied in Leipzig around 1723/24, while the “copyist of the first five lines suggest that it may have been begun slightly earlier, between 1722 and 1723 in Köthen.” During his tenure as music director at the Calvinist court in Köthen from 1717-1723, Bach produced a prolific number of chamber and solo music. Among them the keyboard suites and inventions, the first book of the Well-Tempered Clavier, and the Brandenburg Concertos. Concurrently, the baroque flute was quickly becoming one of the most popular instruments among amateurs and virtuosos. This particular work was surely composed for the virtuoso, “as the technical demands of the unaccompanied Partita require the flutist to juxtapose melody with the illusion of harmony by quickly moving between registers.” It is scored in four instrumental-dance movements, but Bach never actually called it “Partita.” After much consideration and research, 20th-century scholars and editors affixed that specific designation.

On This Day 4 April: Bedřich Smetana’s Vltava (The Moldau) Was Premiered

by Georg Predota, Interlude

Vltava in Prague

The conductor Adolf Čech (1841-1903) premiered a number of significant works by Antonín Dvořák, Zdeněk Fibich, and Bedřich Smetana. Such was the case on 4 April 1875, when he took the podium with the Orchestra of the Prague Provisional Theatre in a musical depiction of Bohemia’s longest river. Smetana tone poem Vltava (The Moldau), perhaps the most famous river journey ever sounded in music, was rapturously received by audiences and critics alike.

Adolf Čech

Smetana had actually composed the work after losing his hearing completely. He had noticed substantial hearing loss in 1874, and he informed the Provisional Theatre’s management of his situation. “It was in July… that I noticed that in one of my ears the notes in the higher octaves were pitched differently than in the other and that at times I had a tingling feeling in my ears and heard a noise as though I was standing by a mighty waterfall. My condition changed continuously up to the end of July when it became a permanent state of affairs and it was accompanied by spells of giddiness so that I staggered to and fro and could walk straight only with the greatest concentration.” And while he could no longer perform music, he certainly could still write. Almost immediately “he plunged into composing the first two movements of his Má Vlast (My Country) cycle.” 

Bedřich Smetana

Like many educated Bohemians, Smetana spoke German rather than Czech, and his musical education and orientation were entirely Germanic. Yet, he was profoundly sympathetic to the patriotic yearnings of his fellow people. Political stirrings of national identity and pride ignited a great awakening across Europe in 1848. Urging an end to Habsburg absolutist rule, Smetana openly participated in this revolution, and he was barely able to escape arrest. Unable to establish a career in Prague, Smetana left for exile in Sweden. Once he was able to return, he devoted himself to a musical career in Prague that would honour his homeland. Stirred by the rhythms and melodies of Czech folk music, he created a new and unique poetic language. Smetana enthusiastically envisioned operas and symphonic works based on themes from Czech history and mythology, and he proudly proclaimed, “I am Czech in body and soul.” The establishment of the Provisional Theatre in 1863 celebrated the autonomy of a unique Czech nation, and it exclusively promoted Czech music, specifically Czech nationalist opera.

František Dvořák: Bedřich Smetana and Friends in 1865

Smetana’s comic opera The Bartered Bride is the intimate realisation of the composer’s artistic vision. Set in a country village with realistic characters, the spirited heroine has to use all her determination, charm and cunning to marry the man she loves. It is a joyous celebration of Czech culture and identity, and the distinct rhythmic inflections of the Czech language and of Czech folk dances combine irresistibly. Smetana said he was trying to give the music “a popular character, because the plot was taken from village life and demanded a national treatment.”

Provisional Theatre, Prague

In so doing, he rhythmically referenced the characteristic folk dances of Bohemia—the polka, the skočná and the furiant. Smetana provides only occasional glimpses of authentic Czech folk melodies, and the habitual emphasis on the authenticity of the setting and costumes in productions is primarily a matter of staging. Nevertheless, Smetana “clearly felt the pulse of peasantry” and the simplicity of the music not only connected to a broad folk base, but also proved highly inspirational to the emerging independence movement.

Vltava from Bohnice

The subject of turning the Vltava River into a tone poem first occurred to Smetana in August 1867. Traveling with his musical friend Mořic Anger to the western edge of Bohemia, near its border with Germany, Anger recalled. “Great and unforgettable was the impression made on Smetana by our outing to Čenek’s sawmill in Hirschenstein, where the Křemelná joins the River Vydra. It was there that the first ideas for his majestic symphonic poem Vltava were born and took shape. Here he heard the gentle, poetic song of the two streams. He stood there, deep in thought. He sat down and stayed there, motionless as though in a trance. Smetana looked around at the enchantingly lovely countryside, at the confluence of the streams, he followed the Otava, accompanying it in spirit to the spot where it joins the Vltava, and within him sounded the first chords of the two motives which intertwine and increase and later grow and swell into a mighty melodic stream.” Smetana’s river journey was well received across the political spectrum. For the feared critic Eduard Hanslick, “Smetana was at bottom a German composer; for the radical German nationalist critics, the composer’s Czech nationalism was seen as a salutary model for properly German national composers to emulate.