Jan Hanuš

Jan Hanuš. Photo sourced from operaplus.cz

Jan Hanuš (May 2, 1915 – July 30, 2004) was a prolific Czech composer of the 20th century. Almost every category of composition is represented among his works, many of which are overtly political, expressing anti-Nazi, anti-Fascist and anti-Communist sentiments.

Biography

Born in Prague in 1915, he came into a musical family where his mother had been a piano pupil of Zdenek Fibich and his grandfather was Frantisek Urbánek, the leading Czech music publisher of his day and personal friend of Dvorák, whose office next to the National Theatre was the meeting place for all leading Czech composers and musicians.

Jan Hanuš's early years from the age of seven were spent in the countryside around Jílové, south of Prague, where his only musical contacts were through amateur theatricals. After schooling he entered the Prague business academy from 1930 to 1934. On the recommendation of his piano teacher, he also began composition lessons with Otakar Jeremiás and entered the Prague Conservatory to study conducting under Pavel Dedecek.

He subsequently studied at a business school, and then worked both as editor and editor-in-chief of several major publishing houses, including F. A. Urbánek & Sons, and Panton (Müller 2001). As an editor he played an important role in overseeing the editions of the collected works of Antonín Dvořák and Zdeněk Fibich, both of whom he later emulated in his works, as well as the complete works of Leoš Janáček (Müller 2001).

Hanuš's career as a composer began in 1936 with a setting for men's chorus of Josef Sládek's Otci ("To Father") but his public recognition began with the performance in 1939 of his Meditace for piano, written in the previous year. During the years of occupation his writing developed and he produced a number of works which were essentially anti-Fascist in tone. Meditace dates from the time of the occupation of the Sudetenland but his Fantasie of 1939 was a direct response to the general invasion of the country on 15 March that year.

Hanuš's early works were principally aimed at the passionate, the philosophic, and the patriotic, as exhibited in his opera The Flames. His works in the first post-war decade saw lyricism near to national tradition, but in the late fifties a new tendency for dramaticism arose and a musically expressive innovation, reaching as far as the combination of traditional classics with electronics (as seen in the opera The Torch of Prometheus) was born. During the seventies and eighties, his work synthesized all of his preceding influences. Much of Hanuš's work is inspired by the work of Czech authors, most notably Jaroslav Seifert (Müller 2001).

The 1950s and 1960s saw substantial works flowing from his pen, including the next four symphonies, the important Concertante Symphony (1953-54) for organ, harp, timpani and strings, Symphonic Fantasy: Petr a Lucie (1955) and Prazská nokturna ("Prague Nocturnes") (1972-73), plus significant stage works such as the anti-Fascist opera Plameny ("The Flames", 1944), not performed until 1956, the ballets Sul nad zlato ("Salt above Gold", 1953) and Othello (1955-56) - for both of which he won the Gottwald State Prize in 1960 - and then eventually Labyrint (1980-82).

After the performances of this period, in which his symphonic works began to be taken up by conductors such as Jaroslav Krombholc, Karel Ancerl and Václav Neumann, came 1968 and the post-Dubcek era of further political oppression and Hanus's music was little heard for the next 10 years, except for some of his music for children. He was strongly anti-Communist and an openly practising Catholic, so public performance of his religious works had been discouraged.

He was spared further political persecution, it seems, by the intervention of the Minister of Education, Zdenek Nejedly, whose composer son Vít had been a friend of Hanus before the Second World War and who had died while serving with the Red Army. Hanus completed Vít Nejedly's unfinished opera as a gesture of friendship, which the father never forgot. Hanus's strong beliefs meant that he never ignored those who were Party members (unless overtly evil). Among his closest friends and a near neighbour was the Nobel prizewinning Jaroslav Seifert, some of whose texts he set to music, including Destník z Piccadilly ("The Umbrella of Piccadilly", 1983-84).

His loyalty to friends meant that he was prepared to take risks during the Communist years. Notably, after his friend Rudolf Margolius was among those executed at the time of the notorious Slánsky trials in 1952 and Heda Margolius was left very ill but deserted by friends and neighbours, the first person to come to her door offering friendship and help was Jan Hanuš - a story she vividly recounts in her autobiography Prague Farewell (1988). Again, when his composer friend Karel Husa decided to emigrate to America after 1968, he tells how, for a long time, Hanus was the only one to risk writing to him regularly from home.

After the Velvet revolution in 1989 Hanuš returned all the honours bestowed on him by the Communist regime. In 1999 Václav Havel rewarded Hanuš with a 'Za zásluhy' medal.

Selection of Works

Operas

• The Flames, Opera-rhapsody on the text by Hanuš and J. Pokorny, op. 14 (1944)
• Salt above Gold, Ballet in five pictures after the popular fairy-tale by Božena Němcová, op. 28 (1953)
• Othello, Dance drama in 7 pictures after Shakespeare, op. 36 (1955)
• The Servant of Two Masters, Opera in 5 pictures after the comedy by Goldoni, libretto J. Pokorny, op. 42 (1958)
• The Torch of Prometheus, Opera in 3 parts on the motifs of Aeschylus, libretto J. Pokorny, op. 54 (1961)
• The Fairy-tale of One Night, Opera on the motifs of a fairy-tale from A Thousand and one Nights, libretto J. Pokorny, op. 62 (1961)
• Labyrinth, Dance meditations on the motifs of Dante's Divine Comedy, op. 98 (1980)
• Contention over a Goddess, Opera burlesque in Prologue and three pictures after Aristophanes, libretto J. Hanuš, op. 105 (1983)

Symphonies

• Symphony No.1 in E major for large orchestra and alto solo, on the text of the sequence Stabat mater by Jacopon da Todi, op. 12 (1942)
• Symphony No.2 in G major, op. 26 (1951)
• Symphony No.3 in D minor (The World's Truth, dedicated to the memory of his friend Rudolf Margolius), op.38 (1956)
• Symphony No.4, op. 49 (1960)
• Symphony No.5, op. 58 (1964)
• Symphony No.6, op. 92 (1978)
• Symphony No.7, for orchestra, mixed choir, soprano and baritone solo on Latin sacred texts, op. 116 (1989)

Orchestral Works

• 1st Suite from the ballet Salt above Gold, for orchestra, op. 28a (1952)
• Concertante Symphony for organ, harp, timpani and strings, op. 31 (1953)
• Peter and Lucia, Symphonic fantasia after the story by Roland, op. 35 (1955)
• 1st Suite from the ballet Othello, op. 36a (1956)
• 2nd Suite from the ballet Othello, op.36b (1956)
• Galeria Goldoni, Partia buffa for small orchestra and prepared piano, op. 42a (1977)
• The Secret Trumpeter, Overture for trumpet solo and orchestra after the theme of Whitman, op. 53 (1961)
• Fragments from Prometheia, 1st Suite for symphonic orchestra and electronic sounds, op. 54a (1964)
• Concerto doppio for oboe, harp and orchestra, op.59 (1965)
• Concerto grosso for large brass orchestra, op. 71 (1971)
• Prague Nocturnes (Notturni di Praga) for chamber orchestra, op. 75 (1972)
• Three Essays, Symphonic triptych, op. 86 (1975)
• Three Dantesque Preludes from the ballet Labyrinth for orchestra, op. 98a (1983)
• Variations and Collages for orchestra, op. 99 (1982)
• Passacaglia concertante for two violoncellos, celesta and chamber strings, op. 102 (1984)
• Umbrella from Piccadilly songs for low male voice and orchestra, op. 103 (1984), dedicated to Heda Margolius Kovály
• Variations in the Manner of Aristophanes, for small orchestra and piano, op. 105a (1987)
• Towers of Babylon, symphonic parable about pride, fall and recognition for orchestra, op. 122 (1995)
• Eulogy, Idyll - one movement sinfonietta for orchestra and soprano solo to words by Ladislav Stehlik, op. 16 (1945)

Solo and Orchestral Works

• Concerto for violin and orchestra, op. 112 (1986)
• Concerto-fantasia for violoncello and orchestra, op. 117 (1990)

Chamber music

• Sonatina for viola and piano, Op.37 (1956)
• Diptych for cello or viola solo, Op.115 (1988–1989)

Literature

• Hanuš, Jan. 1996. Labyrint svět: svědectví z konce času. Prague: Odeon. ISBN 80-207-0525-2.

References

1. Müller, Harald. 2001. "Hanuš, Jan". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
2. Extended Biography and Full List of Works at the Wayback Machine (archived October 29, 2007)
3. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/jan-hanus-550226.html
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Hanu%C5%A1_(composer)