Jindrich Feld
Encyclopedia
Jindřich Feld was a Czech composer
of classical music
.
which followed the tradition of Otakar Ševčík
, the master of Jan Kubelík
. His mother was a violin
ist. While he studied violin and viola with his father, he began studying composition early, studying at the Prague Conservatory
and then graduating from the Academy of Music
(HAMU) in 1952. In this year he also earned his doctorate
from the Charles University in Prague
, with degrees in musicology
, aesthetics
and philosophy
.
In 1968 and 1969 Feld accepted an invitation to be a Guest Professor of Composition at Adelaide University
in Australia. He also continued to teach at the Prague Conservatory, where he was Professor of Composition from 1972 until 1986. He was guest lecturer at Indiana University
in Bloomington, Indiana
in 1981 and 1984. His teaching has also taken him to positions at other American universities as well as ones in Denmark
, Norway
, Germany
, France
, England
, and 1991 in Japan
. Among his notable students are Ivan Romanoff
and Martin Wesley-Smith
.
system referred to here as J). It includes compositions of great diversity ranging from an opera for children (The Postman's Tale, 1956) to partitions with full scores for orchestra, as well as the cantata Cosmae Chronica Boemorum, 1988) in the tradition of Dvorák on a mediaeval text. His Symphony n°3, "The End of the Century" was premiered in Prague in 1998.
Numerous works of chamber music as well as chorals have suggestive titles, such as ‘Three Inventions or Mockery about Names’, for female choir, and Laus Cantus for soprano voice and string quartet (1985, to the memory of J.S.Bach), Gloria Cantus or Three Inventions for mixed chorus, or Nonsense Rhymes for women’s chorus and small instrumental ensemble, in direct line with the ’Říkadla’ (Nursery rhymes) of Janáček. One of his internationally-best known compositions is the ‘Concerto for flute and orchestra’, written in 1954.
Jean-Pierre Rampal
commissioned this concerto and performed it in multiple concerts, and recorded it. ’The Sonata for flute’ (1957) is a standard piece in the repertoire of all virtuosos, including Rampal, to whom it was dedicated, as well as the younger Irishman Sir James Galway
, sometimes regarded as his challenger. Rampal ordered the very elaborate and the virtuoso ‘Fantasy Concertante for flute, string quartet and percussion instruments’ which was first performed in Paris in 1980 (required work for his First International Flute Competition).
Feld forged aesthetic guidelines during more than half a century of activity and admitted having initially felt close to Martinů
, but even more to the French school of Debussy
to Messiaen
, including Honegger
of course: Above all however, he felt akin with the more French side of Stravinsky
and Prokofiev
as well as the ethnic side of Bartók
.
Musical composition
Musical composition can refer to an original piece of music, the structure of a musical piece, or the process of creating a new piece of music. People who practice composition are called composers.- Musical compositions :...
of classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
.
Biography
Feld was born into a musical family, his father a well-known professor of violin at the Prague ConservatoryPrague Conservatory
Prague Conservatory, sometimes also Prague Conservatoire, in Czech Pražská konzervatoř, is a Czech secondary school in Prague dedicated to teaching the arts of music and theater acting.- Instruction :...
which followed the tradition of Otakar Ševčík
Otakar Ševcík
Otakar Ševčík was a Czech violinist and influential teacher. He was known as a soloist and an ensemble player, including his occasional performances with Eugène Ysaÿe.-Biography:...
, the master of Jan Kubelík
Jan Kubelík
Jan Kubelík was a Czech violinist and composer.-Biography:He was born in Michle . His father, a gardener by occupation, was an amateur violinist. He taught his two sons the violin and after discovering the talent of Jan, who was aged five at the time, arranged for him to study with Karel Weber and...
. His mother was a violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
ist. While he studied violin and viola with his father, he began studying composition early, studying at the Prague Conservatory
Prague Conservatory
Prague Conservatory, sometimes also Prague Conservatoire, in Czech Pražská konzervatoř, is a Czech secondary school in Prague dedicated to teaching the arts of music and theater acting.- Instruction :...
and then graduating from the Academy of Music
Academy of Performing Arts in Prague
The Academy of Performing Arts in Prague is a university level school of music, dance, drama, film, TV and multi-media studies.- Faculties :*Film and TV School - FAMU*Music Faculty - HAMU*Theatre Faculty - DAMU-Notable alumni:...
(HAMU) in 1952. In this year he also earned his doctorate
Doctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...
from the Charles University in Prague
Charles University in Prague
Charles University in Prague is the oldest and largest university in the Czech Republic. Founded in 1348, it was the first university in Central Europe and is also considered the earliest German university...
, with degrees in musicology
Musicology
Musicology is the scholarly study of music. The word is used in narrow, broad and intermediate senses. In the narrow sense, musicology is confined to the music history of Western culture...
, aesthetics
Aesthetics
Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
and philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
.
In 1968 and 1969 Feld accepted an invitation to be a Guest Professor of Composition at Adelaide University
University of Adelaide
The University of Adelaide is a public university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third oldest university in Australia...
in Australia. He also continued to teach at the Prague Conservatory, where he was Professor of Composition from 1972 until 1986. He was guest lecturer at Indiana University
Indiana University Bloomington
Indiana University Bloomington is a public research university located in Bloomington, Indiana, in the United States. IU Bloomington is the flagship campus of the Indiana University system. Being the flagship campus, IU Bloomington is often referred to simply as IU or Indiana...
in Bloomington, Indiana
Bloomington, Indiana
Bloomington is a city in and the county seat of Monroe County in the southern region of the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 80,405 at the 2010 census....
in 1981 and 1984. His teaching has also taken him to positions at other American universities as well as ones in Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, and 1991 in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. Among his notable students are Ivan Romanoff
Ivan Romanoff
Ivan Romanoff was a Canadian conductor, violinist, arranger, and composer. For three decades he led the "Ivan Romanoff Orchestra and Chorus" on a variety of radio and television programs for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, on commercial recordings, and in live concerts throughout North...
and Martin Wesley-Smith
Martin Wesley-Smith
Martin Wesley-Smith is an Australian composer with an eclectic output ranging from children's songs to environmental events. He works in a range of musical styles, including choral music, operas, computer music, music theatre, chamber and orchestral music, and audiovisual pieces which bring words,...
.
Introduction to the musical world of Feld
The abundance of the works is due to numerous factors. The American musicologist, Dr Lana Kay Johns (her "Annotated Bibliography"), has counted more than two hundred titles (a catalogingOpus number
An Opus number , pl. opera and opuses, abbreviated, sing. Op. and pl. Opp. refers to a number generally assigned by composers to an individual composition or set of compositions on publication, to help identify their works...
system referred to here as J). It includes compositions of great diversity ranging from an opera for children (The Postman's Tale, 1956) to partitions with full scores for orchestra, as well as the cantata Cosmae Chronica Boemorum, 1988) in the tradition of Dvorák on a mediaeval text. His Symphony n°3, "The End of the Century" was premiered in Prague in 1998.
Numerous works of chamber music as well as chorals have suggestive titles, such as ‘Three Inventions or Mockery about Names’, for female choir, and Laus Cantus for soprano voice and string quartet (1985, to the memory of J.S.Bach), Gloria Cantus or Three Inventions for mixed chorus, or Nonsense Rhymes for women’s chorus and small instrumental ensemble, in direct line with the ’Říkadla’ (Nursery rhymes) of Janáček. One of his internationally-best known compositions is the ‘Concerto for flute and orchestra’, written in 1954.
Jean-Pierre Rampal
Jean-Pierre Rampal
Jean-Pierre Louis Rampal was a French flautist. He has been personally "credited with returning to the flute the popularity as a solo classical instrument it had not held since the 18th century."-Early years:...
commissioned this concerto and performed it in multiple concerts, and recorded it. ’The Sonata for flute’ (1957) is a standard piece in the repertoire of all virtuosos, including Rampal, to whom it was dedicated, as well as the younger Irishman Sir James Galway
James Galway
- External links : IMGArtists.com 15 September 2008. AllAboutJazz.com 5 August 2008.*...
, sometimes regarded as his challenger. Rampal ordered the very elaborate and the virtuoso ‘Fantasy Concertante for flute, string quartet and percussion instruments’ which was first performed in Paris in 1980 (required work for his First International Flute Competition).
Feld forged aesthetic guidelines during more than half a century of activity and admitted having initially felt close to Martinů
Bohuslav Martinu
Bohuslav Martinů was a prolific Czech composer of modern classical music. He was of Czech and Rumanian ancestry. Martinů wrote six symphonies, 15 operas, 14 ballet scores and a large body of orchestral, chamber, vocal and instrumental works. Martinů became a violinist in the Czech Philharmonic...
, but even more to the French school of Debussy
Claude Debussy
Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
to Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen was a French composer, organist and ornithologist, one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex ; harmonically and melodically it is based on modes of limited transposition, which he abstracted from his early compositions and improvisations...
, including Honegger
Arthur Honegger
Arthur Honegger was a Swiss composer, who was born in France and lived a large part of his life in Paris. He was a member of Les six. His most frequently performed work is probably the orchestral work Pacific 231, which is interpreted as imitating the sound of a steam locomotive.-Biography:Born...
of course: Above all however, he felt akin with the more French side of Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
and Prokofiev
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century...
as well as the ethnic side of Bartók
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
.
Selected works
- Orchestral
- Three symphoniesSymphonyA symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, scored almost always for orchestra. A symphony usually contains at least one movement or episode composed according to the sonata principle...
(1967, 1983, 1994-8) - Sinfonietta (2001) "Pour les temps d’harmonie"
- ConcertoConcertoA concerto is a musical work usually composed in three parts or movements, in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra.The etymology is uncertain, but the word seems to have originated from the conjunction of the two Latin words...
s- For flute (1954), cello (1958), bassoon (1959), oboe (1970), piano (1973), trombone (1975), accordion (1975), violin (1977), saxophone (1980), harp (1982), viola (2003-4, J.208)
- Concerto for chamber orchestra (1957)
- Three symphonies
- Chamber music
- Six string quartetString quartetA string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...
s (1949, 1952, 1962, 1965 J. 61, 1979 J. 126, 1993 J.181)- String trioString trioA string trio is a group of three string instruments or a piece written for such a group. The term is generally used with reference to works of chamber music from the Classical period to the present.-History:...
(by 1966)
- String trio
- Rhapsody for organ (1963)
- String quintetString quintetA string quintet is a musical composition for a standard string quartet supplemented by a fifth string instrument, usually a second viola or a second cello , but occasionally a double bass. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who favoured addition of a viola, is considered a pioneer of the form...
(quartet + viola) (1972) - Wind quintetWind quintetA wind quintet, also sometimes known as a woodwind quintet, is a group of five wind players . The term also applies to a composition for such a group....
s (1949, 1968) - Brass quintet (c. 1972)
- Quintet for Saxophone (or Clarinet) and Strings J. 194 (1999)
- SonataSonataSonata , in music, literally means a piece played as opposed to a cantata , a piece sung. The term, being vague, naturally evolved through the history of music, designating a variety of forms prior to the Classical era...
s- Viola and piano (1955)
- Flute and piano (1957)
- Bassoon and piano sonatina (1969)
- Clarinet and piano sonatina (1970)
- Piano (1971-2)
- Cello and piano (1972)
- Guitar (1974)
- Oboe and piano (1982)
- Violin and piano (1985)
- Alto saxophone and piano (1989–90)
- Piccolo and Piano (2005)
- Other chamber works
- Cello and piano : two compositions (Elegy and Burlesque) J. 22 (1954–1955)
- Rhapsody for violin and piano (1956)
- Five inventions for two flutes (1975)
- Toccata and Passacaglia for harp (1976)
- Two Dances (Danse lyrique - Danse barbare) for flute and guitar (1975)
- TrioTrio (music)Trio is generally used in any of the following ways:* A group of three musicians playing the same or different musical instrument.* The performance of a piece of music by three people.* The contrasting section of a piece in ternary form...
for oboe, clarinet and bassoon (1987) - Suite rapsodica for alto saxophone (1992)
- Six string quartet