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Janáček's speech-melody theory in concept and practice

Paul Wingeld

Cambridge Opera Journal / Volume 4 / Issue 03 / November 1992, pp 281 - 301

DOI: 10.1017/S0954586700003803, Published online: 27 August 2008

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0954586700003803

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Paul Wingeld (1992). Janáček's speech-melody theory in concept and practice. Cambridge
Opera Journal, 4, pp 281-301 doi:10.1017/S0954586700003803

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Cambridge Opera Journal, 4, 3, 281-301

Janacek's speech-melody theory in concept

and practice
PAUL WINGFIELD

No aspect of Janacek's operas has been publicised more widely than their alleged
use of 'speech melodies'. Indeed, most commentators now assume the a priori
existence of speech melodies in the composer's operas. However, only John Tyrrell
has explored the matter in depth, and many basic questions about Janacek's speech-
melody theory and practice remain unanswered.1 What follows is an attempt
to investigate in detail one of the most prominent, and most misrepresented,
issues ofJanacek opera analysis. A brief initial digression into the principal charac-
teristics of spoken Czech is unavoidable.

An unusual (though not unique) feature of Czech is its predominant first-syllable

accentuation, as a result of which Czech prose mainly comprises a mixture of
trochees (—u) and dactyls (—uu).2 Another characteristic is the independence of
stress and vowel quantity: long vowels are not necessarily stressed, neither are
short vowels always unstressed. For example, in the word 'Kat'a', the first vowel
is long and stressed, the second one short and unstressed; whereas in 'Kudrjas',
the first vowel is short and stressed, the second one long and unstressed. Conse-
quently, although both these words have trochaic first-syllable accentuation, they
have, respectively, a trochaic (—u) and an iambic (u—) durational pattern. As Tyrrell
observes, 'it is these syncopations caused by the independence of stress and length
that are so distinctive in Czech and any musical setting that reflects them will
itself be distinctive'.3 A further complication is the flexible stress of non-
prepositional monosyllables; the accentuation of such words varies according to
context and emphasis. A clause might, for instance, begin with two unstressed
1
John Tyrrell deals with Janacek's speech-melody theory and operatic vocal writing principally
in four publications: 'Janacek and the Speech-Melody Myth', Musical Times, 111 (1970), 793-6;
Leos Janacek: Kdt'a Kabanovd, Cambridge Opera Handbooks (Cambridge, 1982), 9-20;
'Janacek' in The New Grove: Turn of the Century Masters, ed. Stanley Sadie (London, 1985),
1-77 (pp. 42-6); Czech Opera, Cambridge National Traditions of Opera (Cambridge, 1988),
282-98.
2
A more detailed account of the rhythm (but not the intonation) of Czech can be found
in Tyrrell, Czech Opera (see n. 1), 253-8.
3
Czech Opera, 255.
282 Paul Wingfield

monosyllables followed by a stressed one, producing an initial anapaestic rhythm

(uu-). Thus iambs, anapaests and amphibrachs (u-u), for example, do occur some-
times in the dimension of stress (even if trochees and dactyls predominate) and
frequently in the dimension of duration.
Czech intonation is much flatter than that of English. A typical sentence begins
with a consonantal explosion and continues with a sequence of syllables more
or less on a monotone. Whether the sentence rises or falls at the end is determined
as follows: if it is an indicative statement or a question requiring an answer other
than 'y es> o r ' n o > it concludes with a fall; if it is a question requiring a 'yes'
or 'no' answer it ends with a rise. Finally, clauses within sentences generally
end with an ascent.4

Janacek's speech-melody theory is not set out in a single document but is distributed
among more than 90 printed articles and several unpublished sources. Those writ-
ings cover the period 1885-1928 and adopt a wide variety of literary styles.5
Nevertheless, the composer's premisses remain essentially consistent, the later
publications elaborating on, rather than modifying, the earlier ones.
'Speech', Janacek maintains, is the 'embodiment' of 'thought' or 'emotion'.
Hence the intonational curve of an utterance conveys, in addition to the sense
of the words, the 'inner life' (the mood and feelings) of the speaker. In Janacek's
own words (1928):

Perhaps it was like this, strange as it seemed, that whenever someone spoke to me, I
may not have grasped the words, but I grasped the rise and fall of the notes! At once
I knew what the person was like: I knew how he or she felt, whether he or she was
lying, whether he or she was upset.6

According to Janacek, the spoken word itself comprises four interconnected com-
ponents: speed of delivery, register, rhythm and intonation. The precise combi-
nation of these elements making up an individual utterance is determined not
only by the actual words of and the emotion behind that utterance, but also
by the nature and mood of the person (if any) to whom it is spoken, and by
environmental factors such as place, time, state of the light and prevailing tempera-
ture. In short, speech embodies both external and internal 'realities' or 'truths'.
Since speech is the vehicle for spoken drama, this art form should 'plunge to
4
The characteristics listed here apply to standard Czech. As Tyrrell notes (Czech Opera, 288),
Janacek was born in north-east Moravia and his native dialect 'under the influence of
neighbouring Polish tended to stress the penultimate syllable'. Though Janacek's native dialect
should always be borne in mind in any examination of his vocal writing, this dialect sheds
no light on the musical examples in this article.
5
A catalogue of 98 articles and autograph sources containing Janacek's pronouncements about
and/or examples of speech melody is printed in Bohumir Stedron, Zur Genesis von Leos
Janaceks Operjenufa (Brno, 1968; rev. 2nd edn, 1972), 149-52.
6
Leos Janacek, interview for Literdrni svet (8 March 1928), in Mirka Zemanova, Janacek's
Uncollected Essays on Music (London, 1989), 120-4 (p. 121).
 Janacek's speech-melody theory 283

the depths to find the truth'. 7 In other words, 'at the theatre people ought to
see the school of real life'.8 All theatrical declamation in the Czech lands must
be 'genuinely Czech' ? Moreover, the actor must realise as far as possible the
emotions behind his text and adjust each utterance according to the dictates of
implied or specifically indicated environmental factors. On no account should
an actor 'intrude with a distinctive, individual tone'. 10 Snippets of speech that
are genuinely 'realistic' Janacek labels 'speech melodies'. The composer further
suggests that speech shares its principal properties of speed, register, rhythm and
intonation with song, which should be viewed as a heightened form of 'true'
speech. Qanacek invokes the authority of Plato in support of this claim.11) Thus
the duty of an opera composer is to convert into precise musical notation the
speech melodies inherent in his libretto, thereby encapsulating the inner life of
the characters and emphasising the differences between them. He also names such
realistic musical realisations of fragments of text 'speech melodies' and describes
them as 'windows into people's souls'.12
Of course, opera is not for voices alone. The orchestral fabric should 'support
the motif of the word' by reinforcing and projecting the vocal setting.13 If there
is not complete congruence in meaning between the vocal and instrumental lines
the opera is 'a violation of man'}* Janacek proposes that every spoken utterance
has an ideal notational form: 'under the given circumstances, the speech melody
cannot he anything other than what it is. Its note values cannot be anything else,
and the melodic effect also cannot be anything else'.15 In addition, each person
has an innate ability to assimilate the musical elements of speech melody; a pro-
fessional musician can, with practice, convert fragments of speech into musical
notation. He needs technical assistance only in the assessment of speed of delivery,
which can be measured by a Hipp's chronoscope, a sort of chronometer that
gives readings in l/10,000ths of a minute.16
Janacek insists that it is essential for an opera composer to collect and study
speech melodies in real-life situations, in order to heighten his sensitivity when
he is composing operas. In a 1926 letter to Jan Mikota he remarks: 'I am certain
that all melodic and rhythmical mysteries of music in general are to be explained
solely from rhythmical and melodic points of view on the basis of the melodic
curves of speech. No one can become an opera composer who has not studied

7
LeosJanacek, 'The Language of Our Actors and the Stage' (Moravskd revue, 1899), in Essays
(see n. 6), 36-8 (p. 37).
8
Essays, 38.
' Essays, 37.
10
Essays, 37.
11
Leos Janacek, 'He had an Excellent Ear' {Lidove noviny, 8 January 1924), in Essays, 48-50
(p. 49). Janacek gives no source for his alleged quotation from Plato.
12
Essays, 122.
13
Leos Janacek,' Around Jenufa' (Hudebni revue, 1915-16), in Essays, 84-91 (p. 90).
14
Essays, 90.
15
Essays, 87.
16
For details about this instrument and Janacek's use of it see Jan Racek's introduction to
Zdenek Blazek, ed., Leos"Janacek: Hudebne teoreticke dilo [Music theory works], 1 (Prague,
1968), 9-20 (p. 18).
284 Paul Wingfield

living speech'.17 However, a composer must never use a collected speech melody
in an actual work, because each speech melody is tied to a specific time and environ-
ment. The melodic curves of individual words, even everyday ones, vary according
to their context. Janacek comments: 'How many variations of melody could be
found for the same word'.18 As a result, he was particularly irritated by the
suggestions of some critics that he used his speech-melody jottings in actual compo-
sitions: 'Is it conceivable . . . that I could furtively take collected speech melodies,
these cuttings from alien souls so sensitive that they hurt, and "compile" my
work out of them? How is it possible to spread such nonsense?'1
In Janacek's opinion, opera librettos should be in prose, not verse. Translation
should be avoided; although, if an opera is performed in translation, a listener
who speaks the original language will at least have the consolation of being able
to blot out mentally the unsuitable foreign words and recover the essence of
the original text through the contours of the vocal lines. Lastly, the composer
indicates the extent to which his theory is applied in his operas. The early versions
of Sdrka (1887 and 1888) and the final one of The Beginning of a Romance (1891)
do not put these ideas into practice, but 'the motifs of every word in Jenufa
are close to life', as apparently are those in the other six operas.

What Janacek proposes for opera is a sort of nested double tautology: the instrumen-
tal fabric reinforces the voice parts, which encapsulate speech melody, which embo-
dies 'emotion'. The theory is, of course, both fiercely nationalistic and seemingly
naive philosophically. It appears to rest on the crude assumption that 'true reality'
can be established merely on the evidence of the human senses, a concept that
was challenged by Kant, among others, more than a century earlier. In addition,
few scholars today would share Janacek's apparent conviction that a definitive
interpretation of a text can be reached. Furthermore, we could make the point,
even at this early stage, that Janacek has not taken into account the fact that
operatic time unfolds much more slowly than dramatic time. Nevertheless, we
need to place Janacek's ideas in their historical context. Viewed in this way, they
seem to be both a distinctive amalgam of many general late nineteenth-century
preoccupations and a partly garbled version of a more up-to-date aesthetic view-
point.
Anyone possessing a casual acquaintance with the mid-nineteenth-century Rus-
sian Realists - especially Nikolai Chernuishevsky, author of the seminal essay
'The Aesthetic Relations of Art to Reality' (1855) - will have noted many superficial

17
Bohumir Stedron, ed., Leos Janacek: Letters and Reminiscences, rev. Eng. trans. (Prague, 1955),
183-4.
18
Essays, 85.
19
Essays, 91.
20
Essays, 91.
 Janacek's speech-melody theory 285

parallels between the Realists' 'aesthetics of the true' and Janacek's theory. 21 Signi-
ficantly, the Realists recognised that 'reality is not a straightforward, direct donne'e,
but is constituted as a relationship between the amorphous material received by
the senses, and the categorial form contributed by the perceiving consciousness'.22
To them, although the aim of artists should be to strive towards 'true reality',
in practice all they can hope to attain is a stance as rigorously objective as possible.
As Carl Dahlhaus puts it, mid-nineteenth-century Realists
sought 'true' reality in an objectivity which would be free of the influence of subjectivity,
but under the premisses of modern epistemology their only hope of attaining it was
by eliminating one subjective element after another, proceeding one step at a time along
an avenue of approach to which there was no end. There being no direct access to realism,
it became a Utopia, because it appeared that the only way to objectivity was by passing
through a subjectivity which they sought to wear down by degree, but were unable to
bypass altogether.23
Although this viewpoint is based on some problematic assumptions, it does appear
to lie behind Janacek's speech-melody writings.
It is perhaps useful to compare Janacek's ideas with those of the most prominent
Russian composer influenced by the 'aesthetics of the true': Musorgsky. A clear
statement of Musorgsky's concept of realism can be found in his letter of 30
July 1868 to Ludmila Shestakova:
This is what I would like: my stage people should speak like living people; but besides
this, their character and power of intonation, supported by the orchestra, which forms
the musical pattern of their speech, must achieve their aim directly, that is, my music
must be an artistic reproduction of human speech in all its finest shades. That is, the
sounds of human speech, as the external manifestations of thought and feeling must, without
exaggeration or violence, become true, accurate music, but (read: which means) artistic,
highly artistic ... In Marriage I am crossing the Rubicon. This is living prose in music.24

Despite the obvious similarities between Janacek's and Musorgsky's pronounce-

ments (they often even use the same terminology), there are some significant
differences. In particular, Musorgsky's proposals for opera are more flexible:
because speech is only the 'external manifestation' not the 'embodiment' of
'thought and feeling', the instrumental lines in an opera can by implication be
permitted to amplify or supplement emotions suggested by the words of a libretto.
In short, what is to Musorgsky 'living prose in music' (my emphasis) is to Janacek
living prose as music. Janacek's shift of focus may be a reflection of the fact
that he learned of the 'aesthetics of the true' from secondary sources. He does
not appear to have read Chernuishevsky, for example, but he did have an extensive
21
A substantial account of Russian Realist ideas and their effect on nineteenth-century Russian
opera is offered by Richard Taruskin, 'Realism as Preached and Practiced: The Russian Opera
Dialogue', Musical Quarterly, 56 (1970), 431-54.
22
Carl Dahlhaus, Realism in Nineteenth-Century Music, trans. Mary Whittall (Cambridge, 1985),
115.
23
Realism in Nineteenth-Century Music, 26.
24
Taruskin, 'Realism as Preached' (see n. 21), 440; see also Jay Leyda and Sergei Bertensson,
eds., The Musorgsky Reader: A Life ofModeste Petrovich Musorgsky in Letters and Documents
(New York, 1947), 111-12.
286 Paul Wingfield

personal library of nineteenth-century Russian Realist novels and plays.25 More-

over, in spite of the fact that Janacek had much in common with Musorgsky,
he did not see a vocal score of Boris (the Rimsky-Korsakov version) until 1909,
did not hear that opera until 1923, and apparently never got to know the unfinished
Marriage; prior to 1909, he experienced Musorgsky's ideas and works mainly from
the writings about them by other musicians.26
The aggressively nationalist cast of Janacek's theory derives from two further
important secondary sources: the Czech Realism of the 1880s and 1890s and Czech
ethnographic positivism. Karel Brusak notes about Czech Realism:
Several Czech dramatists had attempted from the late 'eighties onwards to portray typical
Czech life as truthfully as possible. Following the Russians Belinski and Dobrolyubov
rather than the Western theoreticians of Realism, they had taken their subject matter
from the village, as they were convinced that it was only there that typical Czech life
could be found ... But even when dealing with the darker side of village life - the bigotry,
greed, brutality and alcoholism - Czech dramatists of this period had always avoided
naturalism and hardly ever saw their characters as being influenced by social conditions.
They were ... Realists only in the setting, local colour, details and dialogue.27
Janacek encountered Czech Realism through his reading of plays such as Gabriela
Preissova's Her Step-Daughter (1890), which he discovered in 1892 and later used
as the basis for his opera Jenufa. The composer's involvement with the practical
side of ethnographic positivism began in 1888, when he started to collect Moravian
folksongs with Frantisek Bartos. He immersed himself in folk music in the next
three years and maintained an interest for the rest of his life. The speech-melody
theory might thus be regarded fundamentally as an idiosyncratically Czech deriva-
tive of the 'aesthetics of the true', the composer's ideas about opera actually proving
to be yet more restrictive than those of most Russian composers of a similar
persuasion.

Janacek's speech-melody articles contain musical jottings taken from a wide variety
of settings: the local cabbage market, railway stations, theatres and so on. These
jottings encapsulate the speech of people from all walks of life: street traders,
railway workers, university lecturers, etc. Example 1 shows some of his sketchiest
musical representations of speech, from an article published in the Brno daily
newspaper Lidove noviny in 1924.28 The article describes Janacek's meeting and
conversation with Smetana's daughter, Zdenka, in the Moravian spa town of Luha-
covice. Only intonation and register are represented in full, which suggests that
Janacek regarded these elements as the most important.
25
See Pfemysl Vrba, 'Janacekova ruska knihovna' [Janacek's Russian Library], Slezsky sbornik,
58 (1960), 242-9.
26
Janacek's experience of Musorgsky's oeuvre is considered in depth in Abram Gozenpud,
'Janacek a Musorgskij', Opus musicum, 12 (1980), no. 4, 101-9; no. 5, i-viii.
27
Karel Brusak, 'Drama into Libretto', in Nicholas John, ed., Janacek: Jenufa/Katya Kabanovd,
ENO Opera Guides (London, 1985), 13-20 (p. 18).
28
LeosJanacek, 'Smetana'sDaughter' {Lidovenoviny, 3 October 1924), mEssays, 51-7.
 Janacek's speech-melody theory 287

The fragments in Example 1 possess many 'realistic' characteristics: one melodic

phrase sets each utterance; no words or syllables are repeated; the melodic range
of each fragment is relatively small; no melismas are employed; and many pitches
are repeated. Also, Examples 1/b, d and h descend at the end, while Examples
1/c and g rise, exactly as we might expect. There are some surprises, however:
in general, we might have looked for a more positive start to each snippet of
speech melody; and the rising contours of Examples I/a, e and f appear anomalous,
given that these represent indicative utterances. Janacek explains these discrepancies
in the article. He observes that, despite Zdenka's superficially calm manner, she
is a nervous person, who frequently utters indicative statements with a questioning
intonation, as if seeking approval. The rising inflection of her initial greeting
is defensive, for example. Her inner anxiety also accounts for the undemonstrative
openings and the at times contorted intervallic content of her speech melodies.
Finally, Janacek records that Zdenka has a deep contralto speaking voice, hence
the low range of Example 1: f°-a . Overall, Example 1 does appear to contain
musical representations of spoken fragments uttered by a highly strung woman.
Examples 2a and 2b show two versions of a more fully notated speech melody,
the second with piano accompaniment. These are from another article published
in Lidove noviny in 1924. Janacek describes the scene, apparently in the street:
She: Young, wretchedly dressed woman looks up closely at a young soldier. Her face
is sickly, the eye has a weary glow.
In a voice veiled in reproach she said: 'You weren't there'.
/: I have borne in my mind these words wrapped up in pain. They wanted to be absorbed
in tears. 29

The composer first sets the woman's utterance for voice alone (Ex. 2a). The mf
dynamic is suitably restrained, and the vocal range is low enough to portray
the weary reproach conveyed by the words. An initial rise of a tone appropriately
emphasises the 'ne-' (not) of 'nebyF (were not), and the final exaggerated fall
of a minor sixth might well be thought to portray the pain detected by Janacek
in the utterance. Rhythmically, the setting is equally persuasive. The pair of semi-
quavers allotted to the trochee 'nebyl' appears appropriate, as does the quaver
employed for the monosyllable 'tarn' (there), with its lengthened final consonant.
Only the full dotted crotchet used for 'Tys' (You) seems uncalled for, and once
again this anomaly is justified by Janacek. He writes: 'In the word "Tyss" [sic]
it was as if the consonant " s " broke loose. A heavy painful reproach has settled
on it'. 30
The composer next adds a piano accompaniment to the voice part (Ex. 2b).
In his memory the utterance is now imbued with an underlying tenderness, and
he modifies the vocal setting accordingly: the percussive initial monosyllable is
shortened; a small, expressive gap inserted between 'ne-' and '-byl'; and the gentler
final monosyllable 'tam' lengthened. The supporting piano accompaniment, whose
top line doubles the voice, moves chromatically from V of A flat minor, via
29
Essays, 48-50 (p. 49).
30
Essays, 49.
288 Paul

(a)

Do - bry den
[Good-day]

J j]
Jak vy se rac - te dlou - ho zdr - zet?
[How long are you staying?]
(c)

No - ty?
m
[Music?]

(d)
?
to mne bu -de ve - lmi za - ji - mat
[that interests me very much]

Jsem tfi - a - se - de - sat

[I am sixty-three]

ze pry to tarn ne - ni pek - ne

[I do not think it is very nice there]

(g)
mu - ze - te u - had - nout a'?
[can you pitch a'?]

(h)
J
tak ne - kdy u ha - dnu
[I can sometimes]
Ex.1

a stabbing, dissonant trichord on 'ne-', to a closing, poignantly hanging dominant

ninth. In summary, the music in Examples 2a and 2b captures elegantly the
spirits of both versions of the utterance as Janacek describes them. The only
criticism concerns the composer's measurement of speed of delivery. He claims
that his Hipp's chronoscope gave a reading of 0.0077 minutes, or 0.462 seconds.
This would prescribe a metronome marking of quaver = c.650 for his setting!
Before we leave Janacek's articles, one further point should be made. So far,
we have seen instruments used merely as a melodic and harmonic support for
the voice. In a 1916 article about Jenufa, Janacek does exemplify the use of an
orchestral ostinato derived from the melodic contour of a key word ('Kostelnicka')
 Janacek's speech-melody theory 289

i Tys ne - byl tam

[You were not there]
Ex. 2a

Ex. 2b

in the text.31 This technique can thus be regarded as another authorised method
of supporting 'the motif of the word in the orchestra'.
The speech-melody jottings examined so far are typical of all those that Janacek
published. Hence we can now construct a working theoretical model of Janacek's
concept of operatic speech-melody: (1) a self-contained musical unit should set
each segment of text; (2) words and syllables should not normally be repeated;
(3) stress patterns should be reflected in one or more of the musical dimensions
of metre, rhythm, pitch, dynamics and harmonic rhythm; (4) key words should
be placed on the first beats of bars; (5) there should be a preponderance of repeated
pitches; (6) intervallic ascents and descents should reflect the rises and falls of
speech; (7) each unit should have a small melodic range; (8) melismas should be
avoided; (9) a limited variety of relatively short rhythmic values should be
employed; (10) musical motifs should rarely be repeated; and (11) the intervallic
structure of a unit should reflect the mood and/or character of the person who
sings it by means of the conventional distinctions between, and associations of,
consonance and dissonance. All divergences from the above model must be
accounted for by specific personal or environmental factors. For example, a pro-
longed exclamation in the libretto might be set melismatically in exceptional cir-
cumstances. The orchestral lines should function as a backdrop to the voice parts.

When considering vocal writing in Janacek's operas many scholars have tended
simply to assume a consistent literal correspondence between text and melodic
shape and have also suggested that the orchestral parts are text-determined. To
quote only one commentator, Jan Racek, who writes about Jenufa: 'speech-melody
31
Essays, 91.
290 Paul Wingfield

formations . . . determine the basic character of the melodic and motivic material
of the opera, both vocal and instrumental'. 32 Curiously, such literalism is also
espoused by Dahlhaus, who devotes a chapter of his Realism in Nineteenth-Century
Music to Janacek. In it, he seeks to show that Janacek is a Realist composer par
excellence. Janacek's abandonment of 'beautifully balanced periods' and his use
of both prose texts and realistic subject matter are not in themselves 'enough
to justify the epithet realist':
Janacek sought to mediate between the different layers in the musical fabric by constructing
his orchestral melody from speech melodies too ... And it is the fact that Janacek was
able to draw form-building consequences from the speech melodies themselves - rather
than from musical structures completely alien to speech motives - which made him a
composer for whom, it can be said, realism was a stylistic principle, not merely a condition
governing his choice of subject matter, an aesthetic viewpoint, or a source of material.

Astonishingly, Dahlhaus's assertions appear to have been made entirely on the

basis of the short passage from Janacek's 1916 article about Jenufa referred to
above.
John Tyrrell puts forward a very different view, firing several broadsides at
the literalists.34 First, he demonstrates that during the geneses of all the operas
up to and including The Excursions of Mr Broucek (1908-17), Janacek frequently
composed the instrumental parts first, only later fitting in the voice parts as best
he could. More devastating still, Tyrrell reveals that Jenufa, for instance, is a prose
opera merely in name: Janacek actually turned much of the prose into a sort
of 'quasi-verse' by arranging the words metrically into lines, in order to accommo-
date the often symmetrically constructed orchestral music. In fact, when composing
Fate (1903-5), he even 'instructed his librettist to turn the prose draft into "Pushkin-
esque verse'". 35 Thus in the first five operas the instrumental 'accompaniment'
in fact largely determines the shape of the vocal lines, not vice versa.
Tyrrell argues that in Janacek's 1918 revision of Sdrka and the last four operas
a new type of texture is established. Here a 'core of regular phraseology' is 'enun-
ciated by the orchestra', allowing 'the voice part to roam freely above it in a
more or less realistic stylisation of spoken Czech'.36 Hence Tyrrell finds a limited
application of the speech-melody theory in the later operas. However, Janacek's
practice contradicts some of the theory's basic precepts: in particular, Tyrrell's
proposed independence of voices and instruments is difficult to reconcile with
Janacek's demand for the orchestra to 'support the motif of the word'. Moreover,
there are, according to Tyrrell, many passages in the last four operas where unrealis-
tic voice parts are used for characterisation purposes or to highlight dramatic
turning-points. An example of the former is the 'quasi-verse' accompanied by
symmetrical and lyrical melodic vocal writing that is often allotted to the heroine
in Ka't'a Kabanovd (1919-21); this type of music depicts Kat'a's 'quiet dignity
32
Jan Racek, Leos Janacek: clovek a umelec [Man and Artist] (Brno, 1963), 80.
33
Realism in Nineteenth-Century Music (see n. 22), 102-4.
34
See especially Tyrrell, 'Janacek and the Speech-Melody Myth' (n. 1).
35
Tyrrell, Turn of the Century Masters (see n. 1), 46.
36
Czech Opera (see n. 1), 297.
 Janacek's speech-melody theory 291

and serenity'.37 As an example of an 'emotionally important moment' Tyrrell

suggests 'Marty's great final monologue in Makropulos, when voice and orchestra
come together in an expansively lyrical rhythmically united whole'.38 Such dia-
metrically opposed views invite further investigation.

Example 3 shows the voice part from the beginning of what is to all intents
and purposes an aria for Laca from near the start of the first scene of Jenufa
- Vocal Score (hereafter 'VS'), p. 17.39 Even a brief glance at this passage suggests
that it cannot be interpreted as a literal application of Janacek's speech-melody
theory. The rhythmic values are mainly too slow, there are melismas, a whole
clause of text is repeated (bars 8-12), most weak final syllables of polysyllabic
words are allotted long notes, short vowels are allocated long notes and vice versa,
and there is a large amount of pitch variation. Moreover, in bars 15-21 Laca
sings the same basic material to two completely different sets of words. But there
is a glimmer of hope for the literalists. Despite Janacek's apparently unequivocal
1916 claim that 'the motifs of every word in Jenufa [begun in 1894] are close
to life', he contradicts himself several times in print when dating his speech-melody
theory, suggesting five years altogether: 1879, 1881, 1888, 1897 and 1901.40 And
we do know that his first systematic collecting of speech melodies occurred as

(Allegro)

-bi - te ze vzdy-cky, vzdy- cky jen clo - ve-ka, kte-re-mu se da-te najest,

[Yes, old lady,

there are lots of things your eyes don't see properly,
lots of things they don't see properly.
Don't treat me always, always like someone
who just gets his meals,]
Ex.3
37
Leosjandcek:Kdt'aKabanovd(seen. 1), 13.
38
Turn of the Century Masters (see n. 1), 46.
39
References to vocal scores in this article will be to the following editions: Jenufa, Hudebni
matice H. M. 89 (Prague, 1934); Kdt'a Kabanovd, Universal Edition UE 7103 (Vienna, 1922);
and The Makropulos Ajfair, Universal Edition UE 8656 (Vienna, 1926).
40
See Czech Opera (n. 1), 292.
292 Paul Wingfield

late as 1897, three years after Jenufa was begun.41 Perhaps, then, it is only in
the last two acts of the opera, largely composed after 1897, that we should search
for speech melodies.
Example 4a shows the first nine bars (VS 279) of Kostelmcka's final redemptive
monologue in the penultimate scene of Jenufa. Superficially, this passage seems
much more promising for the speech-melody spotter. The rhythmic values are
on the whole faster and less varied than those in Example 3, the stress patterns
of many words are respected, the range covered by each utterance is relatively
small, notes are constantly repeated, and some clauses rise and fall in accordance
with their spoken inflection. Indeed, Kostelnicka's chromatic intervals - for exam-
ple, in bars 3, 4, 7 and 8 - might encapsulate her anguished guilt. Yet more impor-
tantly, the repeated semiquavers in the instrumental fabric simply 'support the
motif of the word', and some of the snippets of melodic material in the bass
line - for example, in bars 2 and 4 - actually derive from vocal figures. Unfortuna-
tely, there are stumbling blocks. For instance, Kostelnicka repeats herself unneces-
sarily, and the word 'ty' (you) is twice held through almost an entire bar. A
speech-melody-oriented approach to the monologue becomes untenable at the
climax (VS 280-1), on the arrival of the famous prolonged C major chord that
accompanies Kostelnicka's crucial lines 'Even on me the Saviour's gaze will light'.
Here the vocal line (Ex. 4b) is highly unrealistic. Admittedly, its pure pentaphony
might indicate spiritual cleansing. But the range of a ninth, the five and a half
quavers allotted to the preposition 'na' (on), and the break after 'mne' (me) are
not at all encouraging.

8
Jenufa does indeed appear to be hybrid in terms of vocal writing, as Tyrrell implies.
What about the later operas? Example 5 gives part of Kat'a's confessional mono-
logue from Act I scene 2 of Kdt'a Kabanovd (VS 49-50). Kat'a confides to her
companion, Varvara, that she cannot sleep, unable to stop thinking about a man
(whose name she does not reveal). In the first eight bars of the extract voice
and orchestra are essentially independent motivically and the voice part reasonably
realistic: triplets for dactyls, several repeated notes, indicative statements with
descending melodic contours and so on. In fact, even the long notes on 'spat'
(sleep) and 'takove' (this) are justifiable on the grounds of vowel length, and the
seemingly over-long crotchets allotted to the two syllables of 'Varjo' might be
an attempt to distinguish Kat'a's initial exclamation from its continuation.
There is a sudden change of textural hierarchy in bars 10-24. Orchestral repeti-
tions and transformations of the opening five-note motif ('x' in Ex. 5) and this
motif's derivative ('x1') shape much of the melodic and rhythmic content of the
voice part. At first, the voice shadows the top line of the orchestra, but increasingly
the two enter into a free imitative dialogue. These events have unfortunate conse-
quences for the text: words are repeated, realistic accentuation and inflection aban-
doned. A particularly obvious anomaly is the prominence allotted to the weak
41
Czech Opera, 292.
 Grave (J> = 63)
Kostelnicka

od-pust'mi je - nom

H 4 4 4 4 4 H 4 4 4 4 4 4 4

^ ^
vciluz vi-dim, zejsemse-be mi-lo-va-la vicnez te-be, ze jsem se - be

[It is only your forgiveness I ask,

it is only your forgiveness I ask,
for now I see
that I loved myself more than I did you,
that I loved myself more than I did you.]
Ex. 4a

Kostelnicka
(Grave)

p pi > p
A - ji na. mne Spa-si - tel po-hle-dne!
[Even on me the Saviour's gaze will light!]
Ex. 4b
294 Paul Wingfield

final syllable of 'objimaP (held) in bars 18-19. In bars 25-31, after Varvara's
impatient interjection 'Well, and?', Kat'a's line abandons all pretence of realism.
As Kat'a confesses that in her daydreams she goes away with the mysterious
man, she outlines two ascents to a prolonged ab , mangling the rhythm and inflec-
tion of the repetitive text. Meanwhile, the orchestra ever more inventively con-
tinues its manipulation of 'x'. In short, Kat'a's line is subsumed by the instrumental
fabric. What has become of the practice of supporting 'the motif of the word
in the orchestra'?
The extent to which bars 10-31 transcend straightforward speech-melody is
driven home immediately in bars 32-7 by an abrupt return to a voice-dominated
texture in which the word-setting is impeccably realistic: the melodic range is
restricted to a perfect fourth, notes are repeated, important words are placed on
the first beats of bars, triplets are used for dactyls, and so forth. Indeed, the long
note allotted in bar 34 to the last syllable (comprising long vowel and lingering
final consonant) of 'vykladam' (am I telling) can be justified. The orchestral part
in bars 34-5 is confined to two harmonised echoes of the voice's db -eb ascent
in bar 33. Stretching a point, we might propose that the deviations in bars 10-31
from our speech-melody model have been caused by an attempt at realistic depiction
of Kat'a's growing excitement. But once we examine the extract further a more
convincing interpretation emerges. Kat'a's shadowing of the uppermost instrumen-
tal line begins precisely when she describes the mysterious man taking hold of
her and leading her away - hence the texture in these bars is metaphorically
appropriate. In addition, Kat'a's lapse into a highly unrealistic mode of expression
and the absorption of her line into the orchestral fabric correspond to her loss
of self-control, as is evidenced by her words 'And I go, I go after him!' The
return in bars 32-7 to a voice-dominated texture and realistic word-setting coincides
with Kat'a's jolting herself out of her reverie.
The principal motif employed in the passage, 'x', is of instrumental, not vocal,
origin. Also, the variants of this motif in bars 28-31 bear a striking resemblance
to a motif used earlier in the opera: Kat'a's so-called 'entrance' motif (see Ex.
6a), first employed in the overture (VS 10-12) and reintroduced in Act I scene
1, when we learn that Boris is infatuated with Kat'a (VS 23-6). The 'entrance'
motif then appears in its 'prime form' (Ex. 6a) when Kat'a enters, under Boris's
gaze, in Act I scene 1 (VS 27). The second part of this prime form outlines the
pitches eb -c b -b k "-ak "-ek", a sequence that we find in bars 30-1 of Example 5
in exactly the same register and played by the same instrument: the flute. Through
its use of a motif already laden with referential associations, the orchestra reveals
the identity of the mysterious man: it is none other than Boris.
Interestingly, resonances with other parts of the opera are set up here. During
the later Act II scene 2 encounter between Kat'a and Boris (when the two are
alone together for the first time) Kat'a's line recalls the 'entrance' motif at the
exact point where she declares to Boris: 'It is your will that rules me' (VS 101-2).
Moreover, when Kat'a and Boris next meet, just before her suicide in Act III
scene 2, an untransposed variant of the motif is blasted out twice by the full
orchestra as Kat'a rushes sobbing into Boris's arms (VS 151). The ensuing orchestral
 Janacek's speech-melody theory 295

interlude, which accompanies their embrace, also concludes with two further recalls
(VS 152).
The extract from Kdt'a in Example 5 is by no means unique, as a brief examination
of the closing part of the opera (VS 162-6) demonstrates. That final section begins
just after Kat'a has thrown herself into the Volga. Kuligin, Dikoj, Glasa, Tichon
and a passer-by hear the splash and start to set a rescue attempt in motion. Tichon
is prevented from joining in by his mother, Kabanicha. As Kat'a's corpse is brought
in by Dikoj, Tichon finally confronts his mother, accusing her of causing Kat'a's
death. Weeping hysterically, he throws himself on to Kat'a's body, while Kabanicha
thanks everyone for their help. At the start of this passage (as far as three bars
after Fig. 37 - VS 163) the voice parts are - if a little exaggerated in terms of
range - predominantly realistic. The apparently excessive pitch variation may
reflect the fact that everyone is shouting. Alone among the six characters, Tichon
eschews all semblance of realism, uttering wild despairing outbursts (VS 162, bars
10-15, for example). This is important: thus far in the opera Tichon's unassertive
character has manifested itself through his habit of mimicking the vocal utterances
around him; now, as he finally faces up to his mother, he attains stylistic indepen-
dence.
At Figure 37 a motif bristling with accrued association thunders into the fray:
this is the so-called 'fate' motif (Ex. 6b), introduced originally in the overture
(VS 1, bars 5-6 etc.) and already recalled in Act I scene 2 when Tichon departs
for Moscow on business (VS 59 and 68-70) and in Act III scene 1 during the
thunderstorm (VS 132). The 'fate' motif is succeeded rapidly on VS 163 (bars
5-6) by its close relative, the 'departure/journey' motif (Ex. 6c), which has been
heard in the overture (VS 6-7) and Act I scene 2 (VS 62-3 and 68), and which
is here combined with Kat'a's 'suicide' motif (Ex. 6d), introduced previously on
VS 161. Janacek once more intervenes through the orchestra, on this occasion
to remind us that Tichon's departure was the catalyst for Kat'a's infidelity and
death. On the next page (VS 164, between Fig. 38 and Fig. 39), Kabanicha -
who has so far been singing in a dispassionate, realistic style - suffers an invasion
of her line by the 'departure/journey' motif, which distorts the rhythm and inflec-
tion of her closing words. Janacek is presumably as certain as Tichon of Kabanicha's
guilt. In the concluding bars of the opera, the 'departure/journey' motif undergoes
compression, diminution and double diminution (from Fig. 39 onwards), before
it is engulfed by the 'fate' motif in alliance with a wordless-chorus idea associated
with the river Volga (Ex. 6e). To summarise, in these final pages of Kdt'a the
orchestra begins by playing a secondary role to the voices, but then it swamps
the vocal lines. Indeed, from Figure 37 onwards the orchestral music drives towards
tonal closure by means of a continuous net of transformed and interrelated motifs,
which pursue their own sonorous logic and sweep aside the onstage vocal parts
at Figure 39. All the forces that have conspired to bring about Kat'a's downfall
are brought together in the orchestral fabric.
We have progressed a long way from Dahlhaus's rigorous objectivity and Tyr-
rell's mainly symbiotic texture modified in places for the purposes of characterisa-
tion and emotional impact. Kdt'a contains many styles of vocal setting. In Example
296 Paul Wingfield

Adagio J> = 58
Kat'a

Po-rad mne zni vu-chu, ta-ko-ve_

na-sep-ta-va-ni kdo - s i semnoutak las - ka - ve mlu - vi,

18

4 6b-ji-mal takvf-le, takvfe-le, ho-rou-cne jakby mne

J
ne-kamvedl a.

cresc. e a>:cel.

¥ I
Ex.5
Janacek's speech-melody theory 297

Piu mosso [suddenly remembering herself]

3
r—3 '

a-le nac to-be to vy-kladam?

[Kafa: Varja! I cannot sleep.

ContinuaOy I hear this whispering in my ear;
someone is talking to me so lovingly,
like a dove cooing,
as if he held me so warmly, so warmly,
so ardently, as if he were leading me somewhere, and.

Varvara: Well, and?

Kaia: And I go, I go - after him!

But what am I telling you this for? You're just a girl!]

Ex. 5 (cont.)
298 Paul Wingfield

Adagio j) = 66

(a)
PP dolcissimo

(Conmoto J = 80 )
IA I
—n* r**# ^ P-
r r

(Con moto j = 80)

(c)

(Conmoto J = 80)

Maestoso J = 69

(e)
r r Jr r
Ex. 6a-e

5 alone, the heroine employs four vocal styles that might be labelled respectively
'minimally stylised speech melody', 'heightened speech melody', 'moderately
unrealistic vocal writing' and 'maximally unrealistic vocal writing'. Moreover,
in both passages from the opera examined above, changes of style, along with
shifts of textural hierarchy, occur in accordance with developments in the drama.
Motivic and timbral recall are also employed to establish connections - backwards
and forwards - with other parts of the opera and to supply information not
afforded by the libretto.
Significantly, there is little evidence in these sections of Tyrrell's 'regular' orches-
tral phraseology. The instrumental fabric appears to be made up of an ever-changing
montage of units of constantly varying length: i.e., what Dahlhaus terms 'musical
prose'. This flexible mode of construction permits Janacek to respond directly
to rapid dramatic changes. On the evidence gathered so far, we might draw one
conclusion about Janacek's speech-melody theory. Tyrrell presents the composer's
theory as a catalyst for the freeing in the later operas of the voice parts, which
now 'move in a more "realistic" presentation of the text'.42 But there is another
way of looking at this: it was Janacek's gradual development and refinement of
musical prose in the years between Jenufa and Kdt'a that enabled him in his last
four operas to incorporate realistic styles of vocal writing within a larger system
of continually fluctuating textural and stylistic dialogue; instead of being con-
42
Turn of the Century Masters (see n. 1), 42.
 Janacek's speech-melody theory 299

strained by regular instrumental phraseology, Janacek could call on such periodicity

where required to advance the unfolding of the drama. In sum, by 1919 Janacek
seems to have established a flexible and multi-faceted operatic style that permitted
small-scale application of his speech-melody theory while at the same time under-
mining that theory's basic premisses.

In the two sections of Kdt'a analysed above, fluctuations of vocal style and texture
seem to highlight developments in the drama; hence words and music are at least
working together, even if not in the precise manner that Janacek stipulates (see
above). However, in all the last four operas there are many passages where such
fluctuations do not appear to be textually determined. A particularly extreme
example of this occurs towards the end of 'Marty's great final monologue in Makro-
pulos' (1923-5), to recall Tyrrell's description.43 In these final moments (VS 187,
bars 9-193), Marty at last has the document containing the formula for an elixir
that will allow her to live for another 300 years. But she realises that 'she has
already lived too long and too unhappily, and envies ordinary mortals their short
lives in which values and meaning are still possible'.44 She decides not to take
the potion; the document is burnt; she collapses, presumably dead. If we analyse
Marty's vocal line closely, we once again discover several changes of style. Before
Figure 122 (VS 188, bar 1) Marty sings realistically, except when she exclaims
'Jesus Christ!' (VS 188, bars 2-3). Her melodic contour is also independent of
the orchestra. At Figure 122 she suddenly begins to be ruled by the intervallic
content of the orchestral fabric. This change is appropriate dramatically: it occurs
as she says to Krista 'It's all in vain'. Marty's line continues to be governed by
the orchestra until Figure 125 (VS 191, bar 3). Here she reverts to a heightened
form of speech melody and regains textural independence, which she retains to
the very end. Although the textural shift occurs as she makes a firm decision
not to take the elixir, it seems to contradict the sense of hopelessness that has
brought about her decision. This non-congruence between words and music
becomes yet more obvious when one examines the content of the instrumental
lines.
As in the final bars of Kdt'a, the orchestra unfolds in this passage a process
of motivic integration. The monologue begins with the most resonant motif poss-
ible (Ex. 7a): a rising figure usually scored for the distinctive combination of
violins (playing harmonics) and children's drum, a strange timbre that renders
the motif unmissable every time it appears. This motif has already been deployed
at turning-points throughout Acts II and III, four times highlighting attempts
to discover Marty's true identity, and once (in Act II) accompanying Marty's
declaration that life has become futile.45 Its appearance in the final monologue
43
Turn of the Century Masters, 46.
44
John Tyrrell, disc notes to the Decca recording of The Makropulos Affair, conducted by
Charles Mackerras, 430372-2, p. 11.
45
Tyrrell, notes to Makropulos (see n. 44), 20-2.
300 Paul Wingfield

(Adagio)
(a)
pp subito

Piu mosso J- - 66

(Adagio)

Ex. 7a-c

in conjunction with Marty's admission 'But in me life has come to a halt' is

therefore richly referential.
In its prime form, the 'Makropulos' motif (Ex. 7a), as it is sometimes labelled,
seems to derive from the offstage brass fanfare first heard near the start of the
opera (VS 5, bars 12-15) - Example 7b. The fanfare itself rapidly acquires associa-
tions: in particular, it takes on the role of representing the world of Marty's
childhood, 'the distance of the instruments symbolising the distance in time' (i.e.,
more than 300 years).46 It is perhaps predictable that the next motif to be intro-
duced in Marty's monologue (Ex. 7c) - four bars after Figure 121 - begins by
outlining the closing minor third of the immediately preceding variant of the
'Makropulos' motif and as a whole has a similar contour to the brass fanfare.
This idea, which we might for the sake of convenience label 'closing motif, domi-
nates the remainder of the opera through constant recurrences in its original and
varied forms.
In the bar before Figure 124 (VS 190, bar 6), Gregor utters the name 'Makropulos',
its inflection twisted to accommodate the 'Makropulos' motif. After that (VS
191, bars 1-2), part of the brass fanfare proper returns as Marty reads from her
father's document. Then the first half of the closing motif is subjected to progressive
diminution. It is reduced to crotchets as the document is burnt (VS 193, bar
3 onwards) and is compressed further to triplet crotchets as the curtain falls (VS
193, bars 16-24). In the concluding bars the triplet crotchets are played by the
offstage brass band, while the main orchestra solemnly intones the second half
of the 'closing' motif (from Fig. 130 onwards). On the face of it, the meaning
of the extraordinary concluding orchestral peroration is clear: 'Marty's two worlds

Tyrrell, notes, 23.

 Janacek's speech-melody theory 301

are reconciled only in death'.47 But there is a problem: why does the orchestra
obliterate Marty's dying utterances? A possible answer to this is revealed through
closer consideration of the play on which the opera is based. Karel Capek's The
Makropulos Affair is billed as an 'optimistic comedy'. It embodies a sophisticated
debate about longevity. The ending is low-key. As Bernard Williams remarks,
Capek concludes that 'an eternal life would be unliveable'; thus Marty is choosing
the better of two unpleasant options by electing to die once she realises that
she has 'had altogether too much' of herself.48 In Capek's play Marty does not
even die on stage. Janacek's final peroration contradicts Capek's message. The
composer presents Marty's decision not as weary resignation, but as a triumph,
depicted through the metaphor of abstract musical logic's victory over explicit
referentialism. Janacek's method of conveying his own interpretation is all the
more striking because his apotheosis takes place ostensibly within an emotional
vacuum: as Marty herself comments, 'the soul has died within me'. Thus in these
closing stages of Makropulos words and music, far from working together, conflict
irrevocably.

10

Janacek's operatic practice inevitably transcends his austere theory. There is no

nested double tautology: the orchestra acts as much more than the stipulated
backdrop, and speech melody is only one component of a complex array of vocal
styles. At some turning-points the drama unfolds through a constantly evolving
dialogue between voices and orchestra, and between poetic and abstract musical
devices. At particularly solemn or critical moments, the musical fabric even reso-
nates with other parts of the opera, motifs weighed down by 'semiotic baggage'
insinuating themselves into the instrumental lines or crashing through the texture,
distorting then subsuming the voice parts. But at other points whatever meaning
the music may have seems to derive from either non-congruence or actual conflict
between text, word-setting and the orchestral lines. In other words, styles of vocal
writing and instrumental motifs move back and forth along a continuum, the
poles of which might be categorised as 'purely musical values' and 'specific associa-
tion'. The reader may have detected in this closing paragraph echoes of publications,
principally about Wagner, by Carolyn Abbate and Carl Dahlhaus.49 Might Janacek
have learnt more from his extensive study of Tristan, for example, than he was
prepared to acknowledge publicly?

Tyrrell, notes, 23.

Bernard Williams, 'The Makropulos Case: Reflections on the Tedium of Immortality', in
Problems ofthe Self'(Cambridge, 1973), 82-100 (p. 100).
In particular, see the following: Carolyn Abbate, 'Wagner, "On Modulation" and Tristan ,
this journal, 1 (1989), 33-58; Carl Dahlhaus, 'What is a Musical Drama', this journal, 1 (1989),
95-111; and Carolyn Abbate, 'Opera as Symphony, A Wagnerian Myth', in Carolyn Abbate
and Roger Parker, eds., Analyzing Opera: Verdi and Wagner (Berkeley, 1989), 92-124.