Novák, Vítezslav

Preface

Novák, Vítezslav – The Corsair (1892), an overture in F minor after Byron

[baptismal name Viktor]
(5 December 1870, Kamenice nad Lipou, near Pelhřimov [Vysočina Highlands Region of Southern Bohemia] – 18 July 1949, Skuteč, near Chrudim [Pardubice Region, Eastern Bohemia])

Publication
Published with Czech and French titles as Korsár – Ouvertura/Le Corsaire.
Prague [Praha] Orbis, 1950 [engraved full score and handwritten parts].

Orchestration
2 flutes (1 doubling piccolo), 2 oboes (1 doubling English horn), 2 clarinets in B-flat, bass clarinet in B-flat, 2 bassoons, 4 French horns in F, 3 trumpets in F, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (side drum and gong), strings

Influence
Michael Beckerman, one of the leading English-language writers on Czech orchestral music, places composer Vítězslav Novák in the “all-purpose pantheon of Smetana, Dvořák, Fibich, Janáček, Suk, Foerster and Martinů.” Author and music critic Max Brod called his music “authentically spiritual,” and each of his life anniversaries were publicly celebrated. Antonín Dvořák, his master class professor at the Prague Conservatory from 1891-1892, encouraged him to explore Slovakia and its Wallachian (Moravian) border region. Novák had entered the conservatory in 1889, studying piano from 1889-1896 with Josef Jiránek (who taught piano there from 1891-1923) and counterpoint with Karel Stecker, who outlasted Dvořák at the Conservatory.

During his last year at the Conservatory, Novák composed a Violin Sonata (1891, premiered 8 July 1892) and a Piano Trio No. 1, op. 1 (1891). He wrote Corsair [Korsár], a fourteen-minute overture based on Byron’s long verse poem The Corsair (1814) when he was twenty-two years old (1892). The young Novák shared personal traits with Lord Byron, as both were arrogant and hubristic romantics who saw themselves as heroic artists. Bryon’s tale had inspired earlier French musicians such as Hector Berlioz (his op. 21 overture composed in 1844, then re-titled Le corsaire) and Adolphe Adam (Le Corsaire, a full-length 1856 Parisian ballet that was re-choreographed by Petipa, becoming a staple of Russian ballet). …

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