Leos Janacek: A Biography = Leoš Janáček, Život a Dílo. English

New York: W.W. Norton, 1981. 1st American ed. / rev. and edited by Karel Janovický. Hardcover. Nice tight clean near fine(+) copy in near fine(-) jacket; now housed in archival mylar./Very Good. Quarto in blakc pictorial jacket; 439 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates: illustrations, music, portraits ; 25 cm. Translation of: Leoš Janáček, život a dílo./ "Catalogue of works by Leoś Janáček": pages 397-415./ Includes indexes & bibliographical references (pages 417-421). Contents: Part one. 1854-1903. Family background -- The choirboy -- First choral works -- At the Prague organ school -- Back in Brno -- Studies in Leipzig and Vienna -- First years of married life -- Janacek's first opera -- Interest in folk music -- The 'Lachian dances' -- Suite for orchestra -- Occasional works -- Folk songs -- Journey to Russia -- Preludes to 'Jenufa' -- 'Jenufa' -- The first battle for 'Jenufa' -- Sacred music -- Part two. 1903-1918. Teacher and theoretician -- 'Destiny' -- Later folk songs -- Social motifs -- 'The fiddler's child' -- Intimate episodes -- 'Eternal gospel' -- The violin sonata -- Women's choruses -- 'Jenufa' victorious -- 'The excursions of Mr Broucek' -- 'Taras bulba' -- Part three. 1918-1928. Patriotic motifs -- 'The diary of the young man who disappeared' -- 'Katya Kabanova' -- 'Adventures of the vixen sharp ears' -- 'The wandering madman' -- 'The Danube' -- The first quartet -- Janacek at seventy -- 'The Makropoulos case' -- Carrying the banner -- 'Glagolitic mass' -- Defiance and humour -- 'The house of the dead' -- 'Intimate letters' -- At the height of fame -- Last holiday. ¶ 

"The author's masterly biography of Leos Janacek is the most authoritative guide to the music, career and personality of a composer who, despite a prolific working life spanning two centuries, has been recognized only since the 1960s as one of the first-rank operatic composers of the twentieth century. The new and eager world audience which now exists for Janacek's music has inspired the preparation for this book. As a conductor of Janacek's works himself, the author combined his own practical musical experience with a scholarly enthusiasm for the cultural, personal and political background from which the great Czech composer emerged. His vigorous and sympathetic text not only chronicles every work Janacek wrote from the tiniest folk song to the chamber music and operas, but discusses their often complex structure, their relationship with literature and the sympathies and preoccupations of a composer whose music derived much of its expressive quality and versatility from the traditional folk songs and dances of his Moravian homeland." -Publisher

Composers. Janáček, Leoš, 1854-1928. Janáček, Leoš, 1854-1928. Biography. Biographies. Biographies. Biographies. Geographic: Czechoslovakia.