Miloslav Istvan - Czech Contemporary Composer

The beginnings of Miloslav Istvan (2.9. 1928 Olomouc -26.1.1990 Brno) as a composer fall into the time of his studies at Janacek Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (1948-1952, research student 1953-1956), when in Brno it came to the appreciation of Janacek s creative heritage and when, at the same time, the attention of the youth was turned to the rich sources of folk music, which had kept its traditional continuity in Moravia.

From Janacek s uncompromising innovation there was only a stop for Istvan to Bartok s modal composition. From Moravian folklore the study took him later on to the Balkan, to Asian and to African folklores. Everything that was bringing about new views of music structure, new harmonic and sonic solutions avoiding contemporary schematization, Istvan absorbed with the eagerness of youth, but also with critical distance of an expanding opinion of his own.

At the turn of the fifties and the sixties when he was active at JAMU as a teacher of composition (since 1957 senior assistant, since 1976 reader), he concluded the years of seeking with a symphonic fresco Ballad on the South, which, in spite of the after-effects of Bartok and Shostakovich, is bearing individual features of his own: robust dramatic expression and non-sentimental, socially committed feeling. In the stage of the realization of basic ways out, Istvan is affected - quite belatedly - by the information on the development of the 2nd Viennese School and its post - Webernese disemboguement together with the influx of New Music incursions. The composer adopts the twelve-tone technique. His production, however, is overwhelmed by modal series connected with typical interval characteristics of the Moravian folk song. It is only in 1967 that he grasps a text that in the orchestral Exorcism of the Time he leaves in natural spoken form, and only a year later, in the chamber Old Testament cantata "I, Jacob", he puts Hebrew extracts of the Bible to music, but the text important for its meaning is left with the reciter. In these works whose philosophical meditation about the sense of human existence is filled with the tension of dramatic clashes, Istvan has reached his own way of cutting assembly, which in future will stay a decisive technical mark of his musical communication and a basis for poly-stylish solution of the composition. Istvan s assembly, applied both in music and in text, is based on the alteration of contrastive objects which in repeating are left essentially without change, only being in various ways combined, permeated, thickened, diluted. Even archaic signs of Renaissance and baroque music are getting in contrastive relation, as well as characteristic elements of contemporary beat and rock, which at the same time are receiving a function of a semantic symbol. From the point of the tectonic process of composition, but also with respect to the listener's reception, an important element of Istvan s compositions is the refrain, of course not a refrain in the traditional meaning, but as a short expressive model appearing repeatedly in crucial points and making the listener's orientation easier. The rhythmics which entered to the foreground of the composer's interest in the seventies by means of Afro-Asian foklore, enhanced the significance of the percussion, utilizing it at a greater measure not only in the orchestra but also in chamber compositions (Psalmus niger, Capriccio, Duo for double bass and percussion, Trio for clarinet, percussion and piano). Inventive instrumental combinations, putting into practice even historical and popular instruments as well as sources of non-musical emblems, underline the timbre component, which has always been substantial for strict formal structure of Istvan s work.

The eighties witnessed a number of mature compositions which are increasingly responding to the instigations of the actual world. The thematic complexes of his works were concentrated on a passionate apology of the right to the dignity of man /chamber cantata Hard blues - a protest song with American Negroes wording, Love, Defiance and Death - composition instigated by a realistic drama from Moravian life, the indignantly brutal Tempus irae, remotely inspired by Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath (and on meditations about the content of human life) the cantatas of the late sixties were joined by the seven-part cycle Games, and lyrically conceived and compositionally simplified Vocal Symphony, and the subjective testimony in the String Quartet No. 2/, Istvan emerges as a full-fledged personality of contemporary Czech music, always bringing new instigations to his work and taking credit of both domestic and foreign listeners.

SELECTION OF COMPOSTITIONS

Compositions for large orchestra
Concerto - Symphony for piano and orchestra (1958), Sovetskij Kompozitor Leningrad, CHF 16'
Ballad on the South. Three symphonic frescoes for orchestra (1960), SHV, r SU 20'
In memoriam Josef Berg (1972), CHF 8'
Games. 7 tableaux for symphonic orchestra (1977), CHF, r SU 18'
Tempus irae (At the instance of John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath, 1983) 21'
Compositions for smaller staffing of orchestra

Concertino for violin and chamber orchestra (1961 ), SHV 12'
Six Studies for chamber orchestra (1964), PA 11'
Dodekameron.12 compositions for 12 players (1964), PA 15'
Shakespearian Variations for wind and percussion instruments (1975), CHF 16'
Partita for 16 string instruments (1980), PA, r PA 13' Rhythms and Dances for Brno-Brass-Band (1984) 11'
Choruses without accompaniment

Hymn on the Sun. Small cantata for mixed choir on old-Sumerian text (1971 ) 7'
Highlanders Ballads for female choir on words of folk poetry (1971) 13'
Passionate Desires. Six madrigals on words by Simon Lomnick of Budec and Adam Michna of Otradovice (1974) 14'
Cor mio. Collage for mixed choir making use of the madrigal by Claudio Monteverdi (1979) 5' 6 Songs for female choir (1980) 11'
Vocal Music for other staffings

Exorcism of the Time. Compositon in four move- ments for symphonic orchestra and two reciters on words by Oldrich Mikulasek, an anonymous Czech baroque text and the Bible (1967), SU, r SU
I, Jacob. Chamber cantata for soprano, pop-tenor, a reciter, instrumental ensemble and magnetic tape on words from the Bible (1968), CHF 24'
Low Spirits. Five songs for alto piano and magnetic tape on words by Jan Skacel (1970) 11'
The Beauty and the Beast. Chamber oratorio for bari- tone two reciters and instrumental ensemble on words by Frantisek Hrubin (1974), CHF 16'
Jakha kale. Two ballads for tenor and piano on texts of gipsy poetry (1976), CHF 10'
Hard Blues. Chamber cantata on texts of popular Ne- gro poetry from the U.S.A., for pop-baritone, sop- rano a reciter and an instrumental ensemble ( 1980) 20'
Come at Daybreak. Songs for mezzo-soprano, clari- net and old wind instruments (1982)
The Bluish Land. Music form magnetic tape with the recitation of a poem by Sergej Jesenin (1982)
Love, Defiance and Death. Composition for mezzo- soprano and chamber ensemble at the instance of the play by Mrstik Brothers, Marysa (1984)
Vocal Symphony for soprano and bass solo, reciter and orchestra (1986) 22'
Variations on a Renaissance Theme. Composition for a female and a male voices and chamber orchestra (1988) 17'
Compositions for one instrument (one player)

lst Sonata for piano (1954) 15'
Impromptus for piano (1956), SNKLHU
2nd Sonata for piano (1959) 16'
Odyssey of a Child of Lidice for Piano (1963), SU, 5'
Musica aspera per organo (1964), PA 5'
Cinque fragmenti per salterio solo (1971 ), SU
Psalmus niger. 2 movements for percussion (1972), r PA 7'
3rd Sonata for Piano (1978) 9'
Canto No.1 for solo viola (1979)
Canto No.3 for solo tlute (1983) 6'
Compositions for two instruments

Rondos for viola and piano (1950), SNKLHU 16'
Sonata for clarinet and piano (1954), PA
Suite for French horn and piano (1955), CHF 14'
Sonata for violin and piano (1956), PA, r PA 10'
Rhapsody for violoncello and piano (1961 ) 7'
Sonata for violoncello and piano (1970), PA 11'
Variations on the key D Minor for two pianos (1972) 6'
Duo for double bass and percussion or trumpet and percussion (1975) 8'
Canto No.4 for saxophone (baritone or tenor) and percussion (1983) 8'
Chamber Compositions for larger staffings

Piano Trio (1958), PA, r SU 17'
lst String Quartet (1963), SU, r SU 16'
Refrains for string trio (1965), r PA 6'
Ritmi ed antiritmi for 2 pianos and 2 percussionists (1966), SU, r SU, PA 12'
Sonata for violin and chamber ensemble (1970)
Homaggio a J. S. Bach for wind quintet (1971) 7'
A Darkened Country, for string quartet (1975) 5'
Diptych Micro-Worlds: Summer Micro-Worlds for flute, harp. and harpsichord (1977) 14'
Micro-Worlds of My Town for 2 violas, oboe and clarinet (1977), 'HF 11'
Capriccio for vibraphone, marimba and percussion (1978) 8'
Diptych "Canti": Canto No.l for solo viola (1979) Canto No.2 for prepared violas and female voice (1980) 6'
Concertino for Baroque Jazz Quintet, for oboe, saxophone Es alto (alternated by bass clarinet), double bass, piano and percussion (1982) 12'
Canzona for alto flute, English horn, violoncello and Piano also a version with clarinet instead of flute (1985) 13'
2nd String Quartet (1986) 10'
Electroacoustics music

Isle of Toys (1968), r SU 10'
Avete morituri (1970) 7'
Theoretical Publications

The Method ot an Assembly of Isolated Elements in Music, Panton 1973
Structure and Shape of a Musical Object (1973). Script textbook of JAMU
Comments on Contemporary Musical Form and Rhythm (1976). Script textbook of JAMU
Unison in Contemporary Music (1988). Script textbook of JAMU