-Brian Mendonça
In the days of Lockdown 4 I tried to push the frontiers of my knowledge of western classical music.
No more for me the three B’s of western classical
music. Bach-Beethoven-Brahms, the German triad, I had heard them all. I wanted
more. The strains of Mozart were coming out of my ears – his Symphony No. 40 in
G minor was overdone. Schumann dazzled but I had divined him with his Manfred
overture. Albinoni and his Adagio (also in G minor) had me in raptures. But
that was not life with its tumult.
I was looking for a new contemporary sound.
That left the moderns. They have a music quite
their own. The nineteenth century is also known for the Romanticism it exuded
and the sense of nationalism - particularly in the Slavic countries. Here was a
new idiom born out of the folk music of a community. It prided itself in the
poetry of its own language. It was not sacred - nor profane like Orff’s Carmina Burana.
Amarus
(1897)
– available on YouTube - is a Cantata for soloists, mixed chorus and orchestra.
It was composed by Czech composer Leoš Janáček (1854-1928). It lasts about 30
minutes and is in the Czech language.
His compositions include music for opera, orchestra, chamber, piano,
organ, choral, and voice and piano.*
Amarus
reminds one of Mozart’s Requiem in D. Yet it
is not ecclesiastical. The grieving is not rooted in religion. It is divided
into five movements – which indicate tempo - and tells about a boy named
Amarus.
I.
MODERATO (moderate): A boy finds
himself in a monastery. He does not know who his mother is. He is believed to have
been born in sin. The monks name him Amarus which means ‘bitter’ in Latin. The
sounds of the hushed voices are like monks at prayer in the monastery. The rich
baritone of the male voice has strains of Sibelius’s Finlandia.
The movement recalls Janáček’s own life. As the tenth child, his parents placed him in a monastery in Brno, Czechoslovakia.
II. ANDANTE (slow): Amarus feels unloved and alone. An angel appears to him. He asks the angel when he will die. The angel says he will die on the night the lamps of the monastery fail to be lit – a task assigned to him.
III. MODERATO: Amarus sees two lovers on a Spring day. Curious about the love denied to him, he follows them. The lovers discover each other among the tombstones. Amarus falls asleep.
IV. ADAGIO (very slow) The monks in the monastery discover that the lamps are not lit. They search for Amarus. They find him dead on a tombstone they know to be his mother’s.
V.
Epilogue (Funeral March) Amarus is
carried to his rest.^
There are many more works by Janáček (yana-check) that are waiting to be discovered. One is inspired by his original music, his life, and the love he had for his land.
-------------------------------------------------------
*International
Music Score Library Project (imslp.org); ^allmusic.com
Published in Gomantak Times Weekender, Panjim, Goa on Sunday, 31st May 2020. Pic courtesy meeting 2340(dot)rssing.com
Comments