A Composer for Every Country: Czechia

The current Czech Republic is the result of Czechoslovakia's dissolution in 1993. The Velvet Revolution which led to that dissolution is one of the few historical examples I have found of non-violent protest actually effecting national boundaries. I feel I have to call attention to that fact for some reason. Alas...

Czechia is further split into three smaller historical entities: Bohemia, Moravia, and Czech Silesia. That no country is comprised of a single cultural entity is a recurring theme in my admittedly cursory readings of each country's history. Besides the Czech, there are two groups are of note. On the Western Bohemian side are the Chodové. These people were drawn from the Carpathian Mountains, near Slovakia, Poland, and Ukraine to serves as guards against Germanic expansion during the late 1200's. The Bohemian Shepherd dog breed is descended from the guard dogs allowed to the Chodové as one of many privileges accorded to them in return for their guard duty. On the Eastern Silesian side are the Silesians. This group is the the cultural descendant of Celts, Germans, Slavs, and Polish peoples fluctuating through the area. If you want to start an argument, get a group of Polish and Czechs together, then tell the Polish that the Silesians are Czech and tell the Czech that the Silesians are Polish.

Artistically speaking, Czechia is another one of those European countries which isn't really touched on in art/music surveys. And yet, especially during the 19th century, the ideal of the Bohemian held a certain exotic appeal. One need only look at Puccini's la bohème for a famous late Romantic example. For some reason, Bohemians were always poor artists with a predilection to dying of pneumonia (la bohème) or getting stabbed by jealous lovers (Carmen). Why? Because the 19th century French got all floozy about the Romani, and somehow or another got it into their French heads that the Romani all came from Bohemia. News flash: they don't, but jump 100 years later and suddenly "bohemianism" is short hand for certain artsy-fartsy counter-culture. Like hippies. I'm sure the Bohemians are pleased by this turn of events.

In music, the big thing everybody and their mother knows from Czechia (Bohemia, specifically) is the polka. The polka is everywhere. It has a particularly strong presence in Texas and Mexico, because a lot of Czech immigrants ended up in the Gulf coast area. One big example is The Beer Barrel Polka, written by Jaromír Vejvoda . If you've seen Liberace, you've heard this song, but it was a smash hit during World War II years.

My composer for today is a good trek off the beaten path and into the weeds: Alois Hába (1893-1973). His early education showed a natural interest in Smetana, whose influence is probably hard to escape in Czechia, as well as late Romantics like Debussy, Scriabin, and R. Strauss. He also developed a fondness for Schoenberg's music, but had decided that, really, twelve notes wasn't enough to work with, so he started writing for 24, an octave divided into quarter-tones. And then he went full plaid, producing a full microtonal opera, Matka. His music necessitated the invention of a number of instruments: quarter-tone clarinets, quarter-tone trumpets, harmoniums tuned in 1/6-tones. He even established a "Department of Quarter-Tone and Sixth-Tone Music" at Prague Conservatory. So what does this all sound like? I'm glad you asked! It sounds like this.



There's also a crazy jazz cover of one of his Suites for piano, performed by jazz group Planet MicroJam. Czech it out!