1 Music and avant-garde discourse in inter-war Czechoslovakia
Introduction
In order to help situate Haasâs work in the context of avant-garde movements in Czechoslovakia and beyond, this chapter contains a review of the discourse on avant-garde art and music conducted on Czech literary platforms (journals, pamphlets, books) in the inter-war period. The aesthetic landscape of the time is best described as a complex network of numerous interrelated and partially overlapping concepts (such as Poetism, Surrealism, Neoclassicism, Constructivism, and Purism), most of which are usually considered applicable to some art forms, but not to others. However, it will become apparent that the disciplinary boundaries are often elusive: music cannot be discussed separately from other art forms, aesthetics cannot be disentangled from politics and ideology, and trends in the Czech avant-garde discourse are intimately linked with concurrent developments in other countries.
Much of the discussion in this chapter revolves around the notions of Poetism and Neoclassicism. Poetism was the dominant tendency in Czech avant-garde art of the 1920s; although it is rarely associated with music (the term is most readily applicable to literature and visual arts), it will prove highly relevant to Haasâs works from this decade. Neoclassicism, on the other hand, is commonly regarded as one of the two dominant stylistic tendencies (the other being the Serialism of the Second Viennese School) in the development of European art music between the two world wars. While there are a number of Neoclassical features in Haasâs music (as will be demonstrated in Chapters 3 and 4), it may be problematic to speak of a clearly defined Neoclassical style.
Importantly, Poetism and Neoclassicism (like the other âisms mentioned above) are complex and problematic concepts, encompassing a number of constituent ideas (such as physiological art, everyday art, rational order, and free play of imagination), which often constitute points of overlap and create paradoxical alliances between seemingly distinct aesthetic tendencies. Therefore, the various âisms must be first âtaken apartâ, in order to specify which aspects are relevant to Haasâs work.
In search of the Czech musical avant-garde
This chapter is concerned selectively with a particular segment of inter-war Czechoslovak music, arts, and culture. Any attempt to sketch out the variety of the musical scene alone would result in a lengthy catalogue of names, groups, and institutions. The focus here, therefore, is specifically on the Czech musical avantgarde, which started to emerge in the mid-1920s around the left-wing avant-garde group known as DevÄtsil (established in 1920 in Prague).1
The members of DevÄtsil were mostly artists from the fields of literature, visual art, and theatre; music was somewhat marginal. Nonetheless, there were several composers among the early members of the group, namely Emil FrantiĆĄek Burian (1904â1959), IĆĄa KrejÄĂ (1904â1968), and Jaroslav JeĆŸek (1906â1942). Burian stood at the forefront of the short-lived group called Tam-tam (1925â26), the foundation of which may be regarded as an attempt to form a musical branch of DevÄtsil. The group, which published its own journal (Tam-tam: Gazette musicale ) between 1925 and 1926, also included the composers Jaroslav JeĆŸek, Erwin Schulhoff (1894â1942), JiĆĂ Svoboda (1900â1970), and the writer Ctibor BlattnĂœ (1897â1978). Several significant avant-garde projects in the genre of musical theatre also emerged from these circles, particularly Burianâs Divadlo Dada (Theatre Dada, 1927) and the so-called OsvobozenĂ© divadlo (Liberated Theatre, 1927), represented by the popular trio of JiĆĂ Voskovec, Jan Werich, and Jaroslav JeĆŸek.2
Some of the above-mentioned individuals later came together in the so-called Music Group of MĂĄnes (HudebnĂ skupina MĂĄnesa, established in Prague in 1932), which included the composers IĆĄa KrejÄĂ, Pavel BoĆkovec (1894â1972), Jaroslav JeĆŸek, and FrantiĆĄek BartoĆĄ (1905â1973), as well as the pianist and publicist VĂĄclav Holzknecht (1904â1988).3 This group pledged allegiance to the aesthetic tenets proclaimed by Jean Cocteau, Erik Satie, and the composers of Les Six.
A special position was occupied by Bohuslav MartinĆŻ (1890â1959), who left Czechoslovakia to study in Paris in 1923 and took permanent residence there in 1924. MartinĆŻ published articles in Czech journals, some of which will be cited below. Although he maintained professional contacts with some of the abovementioned groups and responded in his music to many of the tendencies that will be discussed here, he did not approve of the subversive and iconoclastic elements of the avant-garde agenda.
Haas himself, living in Brno, was necessarily somewhat removed from the epicentre of avant-garde activities, located in Prague. He was not officially a member of any of the relevant groups and did not contribute to any of the avantgarde journals such as PĂĄsmo, Tam-tam, and ReD (Revue of DevÄtsil). However, DevÄtsil expanded from Prague to Brno in 1923. Further evidence will be provided in Chapter 2 of Haasâs awareness of the activities of DevÄtsil in Brno, which included editing the journal PĂĄsmo (1924â26)4 and the organisation of art exhibitions, lectures, and social events.5
Poetism
The notion of Poetism was articulated by the avant-garde theorist Karel Teige (1900â51) and the poet VĂtÄzslav Nezval (1900â58), the leading figures of DevÄtsil. In the opening of his 1924 manifesto of Poetism, Teige announced (as avant-garde movements typically did) a breakup with the preceding artistic tradition and an assertion of ânewâ art. He argued that art must no longer be the dominion of professionals, tradesmen, intellectuals and academics. The new art, he believed, would be cultivated by âminds that are less well-read but all the more lively and cheerfulâ; it was intended to be âas natural, charming and accessible as sports, love, wine and all delicaciesâ, so that everyone could take part in it.6 Teigeâs critique of artistic âprofessionalismâ was essentially that of the gap between âartâ and âlifeâ, which Poetism sought to bridge, to achieve an interpenetration of the two. Teige was eager to make clear that Poetism was not intended to be just another artistic ââismâ, but a life perspective, a âmodus vivendiâ, âthe art of living, modern Epicureanismâ.7 Its artistic manifestations were supposed to offer noble amusement and sensual stimulation, âinvigoration of lifeâ and âspiritual and moral hygieneâ.8 Teige implied that art could help transform human life into the state of âpoiesisâ (âsupreme creationâ).9 Thus, all people would eventually become artists in the way they would âlive [their] âhuman poem[s]â â: âHappiness resides in creation. The philosophy of Poetism does not regard life and a work [of art] as two distinct things. The meaning of life is a happy creation: let us make our lives a work [of art, a creation], a poem well organised and lived through, which satisfies amply our need for happiness and poetry.â10
Teigeâs views on art were underpinned by Marxist materialism, which, however, is not entirely consistent with the emphasis on sensual pleasures, entertainment, and happiness. Teige tried to reconcile this opposition by proposing a dialectical relationship between âPoetismâ, representing imagination, irrationality, and playfulness, and âConstructivismâ, representing logic, rationality, and discipline.11 Teigeâs pair of Constructivism and Poetism is analogous to Marxâs pair of âbaseâ and âsuperstructureâ. Nonetheless, this theoretical model is not without problems; as Peter Zusi explained:
Teigeâs image compulsively reproduces the fate of Marxâs: it slips from an expression of dialectical unity to one of static dualism [. . .] of structure and ornament. Through such slippage, the second element (Poetism, or for Marx, the superstructure) appears not as the dialectical counterpart and completion of the first but rather as something supplemental, unnecessary, ...