Pavel Haas: Music at the Piano
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1 Pavel Haas: Music at the Piano Jan Krejcar, Department of Performance, Schulich School of Music McGill University, Montreal April, 2012 A paper submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of D. Mus. Performance Studies ©Jan Krejcar, 2012 2 Table of Contents English and French Abstracts ....................................................................................................3 Introduction ...............................................................................................................................4 Pavel Haas's life, studies, and career .......................................................................................5 Pavel Haas - Suite for Piano, op. 13 .........................................................................................6 Suite as Genre ......................................................................................................................7 Motivic Work .........................................................................................................................9 Polyrhythms ........................................................................................................................ 13 Jazz Influences .................................................................................................................... 16 Tonality ................................................................................................................................ 18 Pedal Points and Endings ................................................................................................... 18 An Historical Connection .....................................................................................................20 Folk Music ................................................................................................................................22 Janacek's Cycle- In the Mists ..................................................................................................24 Pavel Haas- Six Songs in Folk Tone, op. 1 ............................................................................24 Use of Folk Genres and Folk Instrument Stylization ................................................................ 29 Performance Considerations ...................................................................................................35 Conclusion ...............................................................................................................................36 Works Cited .............................................................................................................................37 3 Abstract Pavel Haas, student of Leos Janacek and proponent of Czech Modernism, is known today primarily as one of the Terezin composers who perished during World War II. His compositions, underperformed in the past, are now attracting renewed interest. Haas's writing for piano, while not a huge body of work, is an example of the diversity of Czech works in the inter-war years. On one hand composers continued in their art-music tradition, on the other, they pursued modernist tendencies with the same intensity as other European composers. This paper examines Haas's contribution to the solo and chamber piano literature, it scrutinizes various techniques that he employed, both modernist and those harking back to the past, and it looks at Haas's inspiration from and methods of working with Moravian folk music. In an effort to better understand Haas's use of folk music the author compares Haas's methods with those of Leos Janacek in Janacek's cycle for solo piano, In the Mists. Abstrait Pavel Haas, eleve de Leos Janacek et promoteur du modernisme tcheque est connu aujourd'hui essentiellement comme un des compositeurs de Terezin qui ont peri pendant la Deuxieme Guerre mondiale. Son travail, oublie pendant des annees, attire maintenant interet renouvele. Son ecriture pour piano, tandis que pas un ceuvre enorme, donne un exemple de la diversite des ceuvres tcheques dans les annees entre les deux guerres. D'une part les compositeurs ont continue dans leur tradition de l'art musical, et d'autre part ils ont poursuivi les tendances modernistes avec la meme intensite que d'autres compositeurs europeens. Ce document examine la contribution Haas a la litterature pour piano solo et de chambre. Il examine diverses techniques employees par lui, a la fois moderniste et ceux renouant avec le passe, et il regarde a !'inspiration Haas dans la musique folklorique morave et les methodes de travail avec elle. Dans un effort pour mieux comprendre !'utilisation de Haas de la musique folk il la compare a un cycle pour piano solo par Leos Janacek, Dans les brumes. 4 Introduction Robin Freeman, in his essay Excursus, an extensive appendix to his essay on the young Moravian-Jewish prodigy Gideon Klein, writes about the terrors of persecution followed by the "indifference of a Soviet client state built on the ruins of a Nazi protectorate" as the cause for much neglect of an entire generation of Czech composers and artists from between the two World Wars (Freeman, Excursus 38). In the latter decades of the twentieth century some scholars commented on the marginalization of research of this era of European music history (Bohlman 21). Fortunately, Terezin composers' works have been resurrected for some time now. This paper focuses on another Moravian, Pavel Haas (1899- 1944). More specifically, it examines his contribution to solo piano literature and chamber works that include piano, in an effort to better understand the influences and tendencies that are embodied in it. It shows how Haas's writing for piano is characterized by modem tendencies that can be found in the music of his contemporaries. My examination begins with a brief consideration of the historical context of Haas's life, education, and compositional career before his internment in Terezin. This is followed by a closer examination of two of his works: first, the Piano Suite, op. 13, in which I outline his compositional methods and the various influences that can be heard in it. The second work examined is the Six Songs in Folk Tone, op. 1, for soprano with piano accompaniment. My focus in this cycle is on Haas's treatment of folk music. I view this as important, as folk music played a crucial role in the work of many Czech composers. Haas's use of it shows how he held the cultural heritage ofhis homeland dear. I precede my observations on this cycle with an examination of the cycle In the Mists by Haas's teacher, Leos Janacek. I then show how the two composers differed in their approach to folk music. This paper also demonstrates how an understanding of Haas's piano works helps the performer prepare a thoughtful and informed interpretation. Although I do believe that a deeper understanding of a work is important for the performer, I do not want to draw away from the wider application of such 5 knowledge. A musical work is multi-layered and it is possible to experience it on multiple levels. Performance is one of them, but the knowledge of the work's makeup and history deepens the experience of all who are engaged with it, whether it is the listener, performer, or analyst. Understanding music has a value in itself, in addition to experiencing the music solely as a listener. Pavel Haas's Life, Studies, and Career Haas belongs to a group of composers known as the "Terezin" composers, all of whom were interned during the Second World War in Theresienstadt. This is a small town near Prague that had been converted in 1941 for the duration of the War into a ghetto and holding camp for Jews and other 'undesirables' before the transport of the inmates to concentration and extermination camps further away (Karas 9). Terezin composers continued and expanded the classic European tradition and were also part of the exciting modernist and avant-garde movements between the two World Wars. Living in a time of both musical and societal change and upheaval, they were poised to play major roles in the future of music in Central Europe (Ross 332). Unfortunately, almost all of them had their lives cut short by the tragic events of World War II. In Czechoslovakia and other countries that carne under the Soviet sphere of influence, their works were ignored in place of works by officially sanctioned composers such as Miroslav Barvik or V aclav Dobias writing in a Socialist Realist style (Svatos 15). Pavel Haas's surviving output for piano consists of only one major work and a small number of minor works for solo piano, several works with chamber ensembles, and several song cycles for different voice types and piano. Some juvenilia have been preserved in the Museum of Moravian Music in Brno in the Czech Republic and are not readily available for examination. He was not among the most prolific of composers; he was extremely self-critical and gave opus numbers to only eighteen of the roughly fifty surviving works. During his time in Theresienstadt, Haas completed a number of works but only three from that period survive (Karas 69). 6 Haas was born into the family of a Jewish shoemaker and merchant in 1899 near Bmo in southern Moravia, a part of the modem-day Czech Republic. He showed musical talent early, and with the support of his parents studied piano and composition. He displayed conscientiousness in both practising the piano and composing. Haas dedicated a set number of hours to both every day, even during the years he was working to support himself in his father's