kapralova: her life and work

Vitezslava Kapralova was born in Brno on 24 January 1915 as the only child of composer Vaclav Kapral and singer Viktorie Kapralova, née Uhlirova. Guided by her father, she began to compose at the age of nine. Despite his objections, (her father did not believe that a woman could succeed in the male-dominated field of composition), she entered the Brno Conservatory at the age of fifteen. During the five years she spent there (1930-35), she studied composition with Vilem Petrzelka and conducting with Vilem Steinman and Zdenek Chalabala. Her award-winning graduation piece was a Piano Concerto, which she conducted herself. For the next two years (1935-37) she continued her music education at the Prague Conservatory, participating in the masterclasses of Vitezslav Novak and Vaclav Talich. She also learned much about orchestration from Theodor Schaefer. In October 1937, aided by a French government scholarship, she moved to study at Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris, where she became a pupil of Charles Munch (during 1937-39) and briefly also of Nadia Boulanger (spring 1940?). During this period (1937-39), she also studied composition privately with Bohuslav Martinu, whose Harpsichord Concerto she conducted in Paris in 1938. She produced a remarkable output of works. Her Military Sinfonietta, premiered in 1937 by the Czech Philharmonic and conducted by the author, was chosen for the opening of the ISCM Festival in London in 1938. Kapralova conducted the work there when it was performed by the BBC Orchestra. Following the German occupation of Czechoslovakia on 15 March 1939 she decided not to return to her homeland and became a refugee. In April 1940 she married the poet and writer Jiri Mucha, son of the art-nouveau painter Alphonse Mucha. Prior to the German invasion of Paris she was evacuated to Montpellier where she died, allegedly of miliary tuberculosis, on 16 June 1940.

[Text: Karla Hartl]

Kapralova's early compositions dating from her time in Brno Conservatory, especially Suite en Miniature, op. 1 (1931-1935), Two Songs, op. 4 (1932), Sonata Appassionata for Piano, op. 6 (1933), as well as the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, op. 7 (1934-1935), are all full of invention and well balanced in form, although as yet without the expressive individuality that was to come later. The characteristic traits had begun developing under the guidance of Novak. Even the preparatory sketches however contain the salient tonal qualities of the Moravian melodic and rhytmic idiom used with great versatility and so characteristic of her later work. During the time of her study with Novak the most prominent of these characteristics were established permanently in Kapralova's expression and in a sufficiently defined form. The process of Kapralova's musical ripening is best documented in the chamber music song cycle For Ever, op. 12 (1936-1937), with words by J. Carek and J. Seifert and in the two most important works of the 'Novak period', the orchestral Military Sinfonietta, op. 11 (1937), and the song Waving Farewell, op. 14, set to words of a poem of the same title by V. Nezval, (orchestrated in 1938 in Paris). These two compositions represent the two characteristic stylistic poles of Kapralova's work: the Military Sinfonietta emphasizes the compactness of form and 'Novakian' thematic solidity of composition, whereas Waving Farewell allows for a sensitive tonal interpretation of the lyrical content, the suggestive objectivity of mood, and exploits the fine nuance of voice and orchestral colour. In this sense Waving Farewell was a direct follow up to the piano cycle April Preludes (1937).

During her stay in Paris the most important influences on Kapralova's development were the music of Bartok and Stravinsky, the 'Paris Six', as well as the whole French ambience of the highly refined cult of form. A working relationship with Martinu which later developed into a strong friendship, enabled Kapralova to thoroughly assimilate his working methods and in part also his composition technique. Martinu also introduced Kapralova in a systematic way to the work of the great masters of the past. Their closest cooperation can be seen in the composition of Martinu's Tre Ricercari and Kapralova's Partita for Piano and a String Orchestra, op. 20 (1938-1939). The most characteristic work, Variations on the Theme of the Bells of Saint Etienne du Mont, op. 16 (1938), was also composed in Paris. This work completes Kapralova's deep creative re-orientation towards the principles of ornamental style associated with the music of French harpsichordists.

At the time when the occupation of France was drawing near and Kapralova's health began failing, her work is marked by feverish efforts towards an achievement of her own personal style which would combine psychologically effective modern expression and perfectly mastered composition structure. The two last finished works, Suita Rustica, op. 19 (1938) and the above mentioned Partita, op. 20 for strings and piano convincingly substantiate this effort. They embody the expression of a mature, highly individual talent, refined by the knowledge of a number of contemporary stylistic movements. Both works exploit the use of the characteristic movement of the short, melodically tightly formed rhytmic groups. The melody betrays its Moravian origins, the instrumentation bears signs of the profound knowledge of French music and the work of Igor Stravinsky. The two song cycles Sung into the Distance, op. 22 (1939) and Seconds, op. 18 (1936-1939), Deux Ritournelles pour Violoncello et Piano, op. 25 (1940), and a fragment of Concertino for Violin, Clarinet and Orchestra, op. 21 (1939) represent the culmination of the organic development of Kapralova towards a style rich in expression and at the same time rationally disciplined modern polyphony and structure. Although her work remains a mere torso of what it could have been, it forms a distinctive and progressive movement in the development of Czech music of the first half of the 20th century.