Lenka Křupková
The Folk Song as Salvation of Vítězslav Novák’s Compositions
While Leoš Janáček, who was in his ethnographic phase wanted to document and preserve as many folk songs and dances for future generations, Vítězslav Novák used folk music first and foremost as a source of artistic inspiration from the onset. The discovery of folklore opened a door for Novák’s approach to the melodic and rhythmic layers of his composition structure in works from the Moravian-Slovenian Era (not only at the turn of the 20th century), where a series of compositions were created that were thematically tied to the folk environment. This is true for all of Novák’s subsequent work. A unique feature of Novák’s music is connecting folklore to a highly rational technique of varying motivational and thematic work in the spirit of the German tradition.
design by Bedřich Vémola
