A masterpiece of operatic literature, Antonín Dvořák’s Rusalka steadily rises to international recognition and popularity. With its lush melodies, beautiful orchestration, and poetic text, Rusalka continues to transcend the idea that it exists strictly as a Czech opera unable to be understood by foreign audiences. Though it remains the only of Dvořák’s operas to receive international fame (and is arguably the greatest), the romanticism and universal appeal of the story aide in securing a place for Dvořák in history as not only a great orchestral composer, but also a gifted composer of opera. Rusalka tells the story of a water nymph (Rusalka) who falls passionately in love with a human prince. She makes a deal with a witch to become a human herself, so that she might experience love. However, this compromise comes at a price. First, Rusalka will not be able to use her voice to communicate with humans. Second, if she fails to win the Prince’s affections, she will be pulled back by the water, forever cursed to exist as a bludička, or will-o’-the-wisp, a soulless light moving erratically over the water and luring men to their deaths in the swamps. Though Rusalka is initially successful in winning the Prince’s love, he grows increasingly frustrated with her inability to speak to him and is seduced by a foreign princess. Rusalka, betrayed, returns to the water to accept her fate. As Rusalka laments her fate, the witch returns with a knife to tell her she can avoid a soulless
In Alexander Solzhenitysn’s story “Matryona’s Home”, Solzhenitsyn creates a relationship between an out of town visitor, Ignatch and an elderly woman, Matryona. Matryona reluctantly opens up her home to Ignatch, over the course of their housing together they begin to form some sort of a friendship. Ignatch begins to understand Matryona’s way of life that “she illustrates a spirituality that eschews greed and self-interest” (Paloni). Her willingness to help others without expecting anything in return is her main flaw and ends up becoming the death of her. Foreshadowing and irony are used throughout the story to show how society misuses Matryona.
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky is the author of six symphonies and the finest and most popular operas in the Russian repertory. Tchaikovsky was also one of the founders of the school of Russian music. He was a brilliant composer with a creative imagination that helped his career throughout many years. He was completely attached to his art. His life and art were inseparably woven together. "I literally cannot live without working," Tchaikovsky once wrote, "for as soon as one piece of work is finished and one would wish to relax, I desire to tackle some new work without delay." The purpose of this paper is to give you a background concerning Tchaikovsky's biography, as well as to discuss his various works of
Many composers use various techniques in which they communicate the distinctly visual. John Misto’s ‘The Shoe-Horn Sonata’ and Alexander Kimel’s ‘The Action in the Ghetto of Rohatyn, March 1942’ represent significant issues in our world by using various literary and dramatic techniques. Through using these techniques it is evident that the composers of these texts allow the audience to ‘see’ with our eyes as well as with our minds. The many literary and dramatic techniques have the ability to create a visual that
The famed Czech composer, Antonin Dvorak, was born in a Bohemian village of Czechoslovakia on September 8th, 1841 (Carlson & Smith, 154). After several years of living and learning music in his home village, eventually Dvorak moved to Prague at the age of 16 to continue his education in music. Pursuing his studies diligently, and after working various odd jobs, he eventually became a professor of music at the Prague Conservatory (Pogue & Speck, 64). While in Prague, he married his lovely wife Anna Cermakova in the November of 1873, and was happily married for the rest of his life to her (Encyclopedia Britannica). Performing all over Prague, eventually Dvorak’s incredible work was discovered by the famed composer Johannes Brahms, who recommended Dvorak to Brahms’ publisher Simrock. Simrock took to liking Dvorak’s works so much, that he agreed to publish works like the Moravian Duets in 1876, and the Slavonic Dances in 1878. These works
Dvořák was arguably the foremost representative of Czech culture in an international context. His music captured the
It is said that the rusalka “hide among the branches so that she cannot be seen—only her reflection in the water below is visible… When he bends to take a closer look, the rusalka… drags him under the water.” This serves as a type of foreshadowing with the intent of getting listeners’ minds ready for what may happen.
The novel, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, depicts how prisoners endure and survive life in the gulag camp. Solzhenitsyn suggests that the prisoners’ ability of surviving in the camp depends on how they view the work they are assigned. Within the camp a majority of the prisoners’ time is spent dedicated to work assigned to them from the guards. Throughout the novel it is suggested that those who have a good work ethic are more likely to survive than those who do not. The ways in which they can survive include being hard-working, focusing intently on the work and taking on multiple job roles. This allows them to gain favours or an offering from fellow prisoners. This is principally shown through the two contrasting characters, Ivan Denisovich and Fetiuokov.
After Dvorak left the Organ School in 1859, he basically disappeared from the public eye for twelve years until 1871, which is when he emerged back into the public as a composer. For those twelve years he spent in seclusion, he was occupied with extensive writing in the classical form (8). To much grief and disappointment Dvorak’s first son died in September and his second daughter in October of 1877. These tragic losses were experienced within his grandiose oratorio “Stabat Mater.” For the next twenty years, Dvorak was invited to other European countries to conduct performances of his own works while enduring a struggling relationship with his publisher Hitherto Simrock (7).
World War 2 not only had terrible battles where many people were killed, but had many other acts of brutalization. People who were deemed to be outsiders were brutalized for political beliefs, race, religion and many other reasons. Most of these reasons seem illogical and a lot of people wonder how someone can be brutalized because they look different or think differently. The most famous example where outsiders were brutalized is the Holocaust in Germany, but there are many other examples. Outsiders were even brutalized before in the United States. There are many different accounts of brutalization throughout World War 2 and after World War 2. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn is one piece of literature that portrays what life in the Gulag system was life through the eyes of Ivan Denisovich. The film Stalingrad shows the brutalization of the Russian soldiers by the German soldiers. The play In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Heiner Kipphardt shows the brutalization of people with communist views or pasts. All three of these works portray how groups that are brutalized are viewed as outsiders. These works are important because they document what happened to these “outsider” and how they were brutalized.
When one thinks of impressionistic composers, it is only natural for Claude Debussy to be part of the subject. However, it is rare that impressionism and classical form are mentioned within the same breath. For that reason, it is necessary to remind oneself that the free-flowing music of the contemporary only exists by standing on the shoulders of the rigidly methodical music that came before it. Claude Debussy’s First Violin Sonata exemplifies this beautifully. Though the harmonic language is that of parallelisms and unstable key centers, motivically, the piece is balanced around the same Sonata Principal that governed Debussy’s forefathers, going back to Beethoven and Haydn.
Antonin Dvorak Antonin Dvorak is a famous Czech composer from the 19th century. He was a composer during the Romantic era. Antonin Dvorak was known for embodying the folk music from his native land of Czechoslovakia into much of his
1.Meeting his sister again: His meeting with her reflects the personality of Mikolka. He show cases the personality of a little boy when he meets his mother and sister for the second time.
Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) was born a year before the emancipation of serfism in Russia took place. Although he was the grandson of a serf, Chekhov was able to attend the medical school at the University of Moscow and become a physician. Chekhov started writing in order to support his family economically, becoming a master in drama and short stories. His literature is characterized by the use of colloquial language which could be understood even by the less educated and recently liberated serfs. Social change is the main theme in ‘The Cherry Orchard’, a four-act play written in 1904. In this play the different characters portray how changes in Russia after the emancipation of 1861 were taking place and although the play is set several
Piano Trio in G Minor, Op. 15, is the first of several pieces of music to be inspired by a tragedy in Smetana’s life. Spurred by the death of his beloved daughter Bedřiška (1851-1855), “an extraordinarily gifted child, [Smetana was inspired] to compose [his] chamber work in 1855.” (Large 65) The trio starts with feelings relating to Smetana’s anguish, followed by a dedication to the memory of his daughter torn between her life and death, and ending with a movement that gives eventual closure to Smetana’s loss.
Russian Avant-Garde was born at the start of the 20th century out of intellectual and cultural turmoil. Through the analysis of artworks by Aleksandr Rodchenko and El Lissitzky this essay attempts to explore the freedom experienced by artists after the Russian Revolution in 1917. This avant-garde movement was among the boldest and most advanced in Europe. It signified for many artists an end to the past academic conventions as they began to experiment with the notions of space, following the basic elements of colour, shape and line. They strove for a utopian existence for all benefited by and inspired through the art they created. They worked with, for and alongside the politics of the time. The equality for all that they sought would