Hábovo společenské angažmá : příspěvek ke skladatelově podílu na organizaci pražského festivalu Společnosti pro soudobou hudbu (1935)

Abstract

In the general perspective of music history, Alois Hába is usually characterised as one of the leading protagonists of the Central European inter-war avant-garde that moved between Vienna, Berlin and Prague. In the specific context of Czech music he likewise has the reputation of an exemplary innovator but is considered to have been strongly rooted in tradition as well. Hába is known primarily as a tireless propagator of microtonal and athematic music, for which his own term was "liberated music". In this music he added more subtle quarter-, fifth- and sixth-tone intervals to the semitone system and abandoned up traditional treatment of motifs. Hába’s dream of the unlimited possibilities of new music lasted roughly twenty years (1919 - 1939) and found expression in a series of pieces that oscillate between the diatonic and bichromatic system. He wanted to introduce the public to the new tonal systems by using newly constructed instruments, and we might see his progress in this respect as a step towards the institutionalisation of his own innovations as a composer. Finally, Hába was a tireless organiser who helped to ensure that works of new music were regularly presented in Prague concert halls. The paper deals with Hába's participation in interwar festivals of new music and studies in detail his contribution to organization of the 13th ISCM festival in September 1935 in Prague.