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Contents of Czech Music 2001 Issue No. 3

Hudbaby are coming - portrait of the group of women composers by Ivo Medek
The Iva Bittova Label - CD review by Wanda Dobrovska
A new double album from Robert Balzar Trio - CD review by Jaroslav Pasmik
We are guided by love and love is all... - Josef Bohuslav Foerster (1859 - 1951) anniversary portrait by Vlasta Reittererova
Miroslav Vitous and his castle experiment - interview with the jazz double bassist by Jaroslav Pasmik
The Brno multimedia scene in Nineties - study by Ivo Medek
Staging Opera Today - study by Petr Kofron
Melodrama in Czech musical culture - part 1 - by Vera Sustikova
Agon at Prague Spring 2001 - Festival concert review by Tereza Havelkova

HUDBABY are Coming...

"Hudba" is Czech for "music", and "baby" is Czech for "crones" Put the words together and you could get something like, "the Musicrones"! They're not a new band in our rock heaven (although most of them are conservatory graduates and with their musical skills they would have little trouble creating one), and they're not "music babes" of the pop scene (although they're young enough for that too). They're an association of young women composers of serious music, graduates and students of the Janacek Academy in Brno. The group was founded by Katerina Ruzickova and Barbara Skrlova in 1997 and now also includes Lenka Foltynova, Marcela Vocilkova-Trtkova, Katerina Straznicka and Marketa Dvorakova.

Why Hudbaby?

K. Ruzickova (K. R.): Our group came into existence completely spontaneously. One of the experiences behind the idea was a piece of homework I had to do on the subject of the Organisation and Structure of the Music Business. I had to think up a project that I would want to offer as a music manager. I abandoned the study of this particular subject, but the idea of creating Musicrones immediately appealed to Bara Skrlova and then to all the other women students we approached at the Janacek Academy. After the lean years there had been a striking increase in the number of women composers at JAMU, and so now there were enough for a group.
After several unsuccessful and complicated attempts, we managed to win the enthusiasm and support of Arskoncert, which included our first and so far our last concert in the Exposition of New Music 1998.

In translation the charm of the wordplay in your name is rather lost, although "baby" has an accidental resonance with "baby" in English, and in German you could try "hudeln". Do you have an official translation?

K. R: We don't have a translation, although we could try and think of one. The truth is that the name immediately enchanted our Internet manager Karla Hartl, a Czech living in Toronto. She has created web pages for us and takes care of publicity, and she's already had results. Music institutions in the USA, Italy, Holland, and Luxemberg have contacted us. Even without a translation.

Why is it a women only organisation? Do you have something against men? Do you plan to stay a "mono-sexual" organisation on principle?

K. R.: As I just said, the idea of forming a group was linked to the growing number of women composers at JAMU. I think these kinds of ideas for groups are a natural part of student life two years before another group called Bezmocna hrstka [Helpless Handful] was formed with the same sort of enthusiasm (Marcela Trtkova and I are members of that group too). But there had never been a group made up just of women composers here. We've got nothing against men in general, but if we accepted them in the group, it would lose its originality and character as a "first". Also I doubt if a male composer would want to be a "musicrone".

Do you feel discriminated against or at some some kind of disadvantage as women, in comparison to male composers?

K. R.: I haven't yet encountered any open attacks or ridicule, but the truth is that strange looks and incredulous sneers aren't exactly unknown. But this isn't just a problem for women composers. It's a problem in any other field or situation when someone comes up with something new and unusual. Suspicion and incredulity is part of the process, and any "pioneer" has to expect it. Today is not an easy time for anyone, male or female, to devote themselves to composing serious music. There's no money in it, and most people aren't interested in it. Women composers are probably taken less seriously, but of course they can also be a bit of an attraction. They are not expected to be breadwinners for their families, and so they can more easily waste time composing pieces that won't be commercial. On the negative side again, of course, one has to add that concert organisers and recording companies tend to prefer the "security" of composers in the traditional mould.

What is the aim of the association? Do you have a registered legal status or are you just a private group?

K. R.: We are not going to arrange to register as a civic association just for one concert. If our activities expand and multiply in the future, however, there will be some point in considering it. A good many associations start with a grand gesture and after a couple of years you never hear anything of them again. We don't want to be in that category, and we shall let things evolve naturally. Recently several Czech and foreign performers and ensembles have approached us with commissions for new pieces (Duo Goelan, Trio Variabilis, the Raduga Ensemble), and so time will tell how it will all develop.

Is your association open to any woman applicant, or do you have some criteria of selection?

We've not organised any entrance procedures. We know each other from the school, and we know each other's compositions from concerts. We certainly don't want to close the door to any would-be new members, since we've never made any collective promise to devote our lives to composing. At the moment we're about the right size. Recently we acquired a new member in the form of Marketa Dvorakova (a student at JAMU, inevitably).

In recent years women's movements in music composition have been very active. Do you have any links to European or world organisations?

K. R.: We're only now beginning to make contacts, and as I've said, Karla Hartl has been helping us a great deal with Internet publicity, and this has attracted interest from all kinds of organisations with an interest in music by women composers. There's been interest from radio stations in the USA and the Netherlands, for example, and from the Amsterdam women's orchestra the Raduga Ensemble and finally the Cidfemmes festival in Luxembourg.

Do you have joint or similar aesthetic ideals, approaches to composition or stylistic directions, or are you more a group of composers with very different individual orientations?

K. R.: What we have in common is chiefly the name and, so far, the enthusiasm of youth (all the members were born 1971-1979). Otherwise we're very much individuals, and our styles tend to be very different. Marcela, for example, is very involved with Moravian folklore; she plays the dulcimer and arranges folk music. In my view Bara inclines towards the spiritual and sacred dimension of music. Lenka most likes composing vocal pieces and is interested in the traditional music of other cultures. We each do what we want and we enjoy it.

Is there something specific about the female view of composition that makes it different from the male perspective?

K. R.: I've no idea. I've no way of comparing the two experiences.
L. Foltynova.: It's hard to say. Just as there is a physiological difference between a man and a woman, so there may exist some difference between male and female music, but personally I think it's absurd to distinguish between them. Women didn't write and didn't paint in past centuries because they were not allowed to. On the other hand to shout look how men have oppressed us and our talents is also pointless. I don't care in the least whether this or that was written or dreamed up by a woman or a man. The important thing is what it communicates, what it is really about. Too much of an emphasis on "masculinity" or "femininity" strikes me as suggesting a loss of faith in oneself. If a piece is written honestly, sincerely and truthfully, then it's irrelevant whether it was written by a man or woman. The absolute value of a work of art bears no relation to male and female categories.
M. Dvorakova.: If your question can be answered at all on a global level, then I could say that it seems to me that the female approach to creation is more intuitive and spontaneous than the male approach. This probably relates to male and female mentality in general. Men like everything to be fully thought out and planned in advance, while women don't keep a distance from their experiences and enjoy just being carried away by a situation.

Do you have some models among woman composers on the international level?

L. Foltynova: I immensely admire the work of Sofia Gubajdulina and Galina Ustvolska both of them by coincidence Russian composers, which confirms my "Eastern" orientation. I had the honour to meet Sofia Gubajdulina personally at the composers' courses in Cesky Krumlov, where both as a person and as a composer she completely "won me over". I encountered the work of Galina Ustvolska at one of the Exposition of New Music concerts and her music so enchanted me that I decided absolutely off my own bat - to go to Russia and trace her footsteps. Currently I'm just finishing my doctoral studies at the Philosophical Faculty of Masaryk University in Brno on the theme of Galina Ustvolska. So at the moment I'm not capable of talking about anything else. Why do these two composers so fascinate me? However much their music differs stylistically, it has one thing in common. Absolute truthfulness and great spiritual depth. Each uses different musical techniques to accomplish this, but after listening to their compositions I'm always in a trance. Unwillingness to compromise, sincerity, inner power and the courage to stand firm on one's ideas, artistic humility it's in this that I find a model. M. Dvorakova: I like the music of Sofia Gubajdulina, and at a concert by the pianist Patricia Goodson recently I was very taken by s composition by the American composer Vanesa Lann. And I could definitely think of others...

You're at the beginning of your careers. How do you rate the prospects of contemporary music in the commercial world of today?

L. Foltynova: Given that thanks to my current job I'm unwillingly supporting commercialism, I'm not sure I have the right to answer that question. What is called "serious" art, whether in literature, the fine arts or music has always had no more than a small percentage of supporters in the past, and today. It's easier to buy a ready-made meal and put in in the microwave than to spend half a day preparing food that will take an hour to eat. And it's the same with art. Why go to the cinema or a concert when you have a perfect Hi-Fi system at home and a recording by a world-famous conductor? But this attitude means the loss of humanity, contact with others, that indescribable atmosphere between the artist and the listener, that sense of shared experience and shared being...I hope that people will start to miss it when they become disillusioned with the continuous series of technical miracles that bring them closer together technically, but in human terms increase the distance between them. I think the percentage of enthusiasts seeking new roads forward in art is always the same, and I don't nurse any illusions that art can change the world. Its task is to reflect on the world, using the means provided by art, and to enrich it with elements that are not present in normal life, and are missing. And so in the battle against commercialisation I'll fight for art and specifically for contemporary music to my last drop of blood.
M. Dvorakova: You can't expect contemporary music to be able to compete with commercial music. After all, it makes certain demands not only only performers but also on listeners. On the other hand it probably won't disappear from the face of the earth even in the future. That would be quite a pity. I think it will continue to be sustained by its circle of enthusiasts and sympathisers, and I believe that there will always be a few lunatics around who will think it worthwhile to be involved in new music.

What interests you in music and outside music?

K. Ruzickova: I'm interested in everything, and that means music too.
L. Foltynova: In music what interests me, or rather fascinates me, is the way it can never be fully gasped. It's everywhere around me, not only in actual music played on the radio or at a concert, but in the sounds that surround me, and in the silence. What is music? I can give you neat definitions in terms of physiology, acoustics, or through the notes of a written score, but what about the element that I can't explain? For example, what does the genius of Bach's work consist of? For me music is something like faith. It's a gift I have to open myself up to, and accept with gratitude and humility.
Outside music I'm interested in travelling. I've often wondered which I would choose if I had to make the choice. Every year I can't wait for the summer. Basically I travel independently, without travel agencies, and to southern or eastern or best of all oriental countries. Travelling allows me to get to know other peoples and their traditions and customs; it's personal contact with new people. Often I get into various adventures and I always find them a great source of energy and new experience. Travel gives me freedom.
M. Dvorakova: Almost everything from lace making to tennis. In music what interests is mainly how to create it in a way that makes it worth it (and meaningful).

/Ivo Medek/

Gallery of Musicrones

Katerina Ruzickova

is a graduate of Masaryk University Brno in musicology and of the Janacek Academy in composition. She has composed a range of chamber, orchestral and electro-acoustic pieces. She has won a series of awards, including several first prizes in the Generace competition and a prize in the Musica Nova electronic music competition. She has taken part in a number of important international festivals, such as the Exposition of New Music, Synthese in Bourges, the Janacek May in Ostrava and the FORFEST in Kromeriz. Currently she is employed in the music department of Czech Television in Brno.

Barbara Skrlova

graduated in competition from the Janacek Academy last year. She is in the non-traditional profession of music therapist. She is the author of a series of chamber compositions and has also won various prizes in competitions. She has taken part in master courses in Reinchen in Austria and her pieces have been played at the Exposition of New Music and the Janacek May. She sees music as a world of colour in which every note and harmony has its own particular colour.

Lenka Foltynova

studied theatre and music at Masaryk University and composition at JAMU. Since 1997 she has been studying for a doctorate in musicology at Masaryk University. She has taken composition courses in Cesky Krumlov (Gubajdulina, Kopelent, Bosseur, de Pablo). She writes stage music in addition to her independent pieces.

Marcela Vocilkova-Trtkova

graduated in composition at JAMU in 1998. Her compositions are influenced by folklore and she herself is an excellent player on the dulcimer. She lives in an isolated spot "at the end of the world" near the frontier with Slovakia. When not on maternity leave, she also teaches piano and improvisation. Of her compositions, the Conflicts for Large Orchestra, her graduation piece for JAMU, has attracted particular attention.

Katerina Straznicka

is in her fourth year of composition studies at JAMU and teaches at a public school of arts. She has been specialising in chamber music, but is now composing her first orchestral work. She gives precedence to tradition over experiment. Her work has also been performed for an international audience at the Exposition of New Music in Brno.

Marketa Dvorakova

is the youngest member of Hudbaby. After graduating in composition at the Janacek Academy in Ostrav she is now studying in her 3rd year at JAMU: Despite her youth she has already won several awards and has even managed to "squeeze in" the writing of the first "Giraffe Opera" on a story by J. Prevert. In May she is going to Graz in Austria as a "composer in residence". She has taken part in international courses in Trstenice (Steinauer, Nebesnyi), Krumlov (Balakauskas, Globokar, Kopelent) and has presented her work at festivals in the Czech Republic and abroad.