Czech contemporary music

The 20th century

In the course of the 1890s, new names began to enter the Czech musical scene: Leoš Janáček (1854-1928), Josef Bohuslav Foerster (1859-1951), Vitězslav Novák (1870-1949), Josef Suk (1874-1935), and Otakar Ostrčil (1879-1935). From the beginning of the 20th century, musical circles began to perceive them as exponents of so-called Czech musical modernism. The composers wanted to write for the modern man, whom they perceived as a strong and sensitive individual.

The establishment of the Czechoslovak state in 1918 gave rise to a lot of activity in the sphere of music. Professional musical education began to develop. In 1920, the Prague Conservatory’s Meisterschule was established (a college that was the forerunner of the Academy of Performing Arts). Czech music recording studios emerged and the gramophone industry developed. Music was broadcast on radio starting in 1923. New concert and opera theaters were established.

The profile of music in the 1920s and 1930s was shaped by new composers: Bohuslav Martinů (1890-1959), Alois Hába (1893-1973), Pavel Borkovec (1894-1972), Isa Krejčí (1904-1968), Jaroslav Ježek (1906-1942), Erwin Schulhoff (1894-1942) and others.

Under the Nazi occupation (1938-1945), against a backdrop of national tragedy, music became identified with a wide stratum of society. Performances of works of Smetana, Dvořák and Suk, and also Beethoven and Mozart, had a unique atmosphere and symbolic significance.

Music in concentration camps and Jewish ghettoes played an even more important role. Hans Krása’s children’s opera Brundibar was written in 1938. A production was held for the first time in Prague (1942) and in Terezín (1943-1944), where the opera quickly became very popular.

In practical terms, musical life stopped completely in the Czech lands in September 1944 after the declaration of war. Practicing all music was forbidden and brutally persecuted.

Musical life experienced an eruption of feverish activity after the war. Works written under the Protectorate without a hope of being published were performed to an enthusiastic response. For example, the performance of Kabelac’s cantata Neustupujme (Do Not Retreat, 1939) met with a rapturous response. The work impressed with its fighting spirit, immediacy and compositional perfection. It cited the Hussite chorale Kdož sú boží bojovníci (Ye Who Are Warriors of God). The opera Plameny (The Flames) by Jan Hanuš featured resistance themes.

The Academy of Performing Arts was established in Prague October 27, 1945. In 1946, the Syndicate of Czech Composers was established, which became a debating club on issues concerning the development of musical culture. In May 1946, the Prague Spring music festival was held for the first time, which remains successful to this day. Cultural life in the country developed very promisingly. The Janacek Academy of Music and Performing Arts was founded in Brno in 1947.

In February 1948, a political turnaround occurred, which completely changed the situation. Many composers were not allowed to perform. Absolute conformity was required in exchange for the opportunity to create and perform music.

Main exponents of the 20th century

• Leoš Janáček (1854-1928) - devoted a lot of attention to folk music. Nevertheless, he did not enjoy his first major success until 1913 during the production of Její pastorkyně (known as Jenůfa in English) at the National Theater. All of a sudden, he became a recognized composer, whose work was played very often. Janacek’s works number nine operas (most of which are composed to his own libretto). Besides Jenůfa, the most celebrated of these are Liška Bystrouška (The Cunning Little Vixen, inspired by nature, country life and above all the charming Moravian dialect), Věc Makropulos (The Makroupulos Affair, based on a drama by Karel Čapek), as well as KáŤa Kabanová, Z mrtvého domu (From the House of the Dead) and others. Janacek’s symphonic and oratorio work is no less extensive. The most pre-eminent is the symphonic rhapsody Taras Bulba (this was written at the end of the First World War based on the Gogol story of the same name).
  
• Josef Suk (1874-1935) - while still at the conservatory, the Bohemian Quartet (also known as the Czech Quartet) was founded in 1892, composed of Karel Hoffmann as first violin, Josef Suk as second violin, Oskar Nedbal on viola and Otto Berger on the cello. With regular concert activity at home and abroad as well as outstanding artistic expression, they instigated the creation of new compositions.
  
• Bohuslav Martinů (1890-1959) - first successes came after the presentation of the symphonic compositions Halftime (1924) and Vřava (La Bagarre, 1926). His Concerto grosso and Dvojkoncert pro 2 smyčcové orchestry a tympány (Double Concerto for Two String Orchestras and Timpani), both from 1938, are among the best works of dramatic symphonism from these years. His concertos rank among his most played works. These comprise four piano concertos, two cello concertos, violin, oboe, harpsichord concertos and others. Out of 10 ballets, the sung ballet Spalicek is the one that is put on most frequently.
  
• Alois Hába (1893-1973) - the first to experiment with microtones (i.e. intervals smaller than semi-tones such as quarter-tones, sixth-tones, etc).

Modern music

Alternative music

Alternative strands of modern music have enjoyed their own popularity and tradition since as far back as the dark days of socalism. At that time, the alternative scene (which mostly operated underground) was not just a musical approach, but also a political and personal conviction.

Avant-garde with a pure rock tone rooted in the 1970s and 1980s is best represented by the groups Už jsme doma, MCH Band and Psí vojáci.

Folk and country

Folk music has a firm place on the Czech music scene. Folk singers were always the figures who reacted most quickly to events in society, and who were the unofficial spokespersons for the public under socialist era.

To name at least a few poets among songwriters, we should mention Jaromír Nohavica, Karel Plíhal, the rising star Radůza, the underground free spirit Jiří Konvrzek and the elegant Eben brothers. Robert Křestaň and Druhá tráva are important bluegrass figures who have several U.S. tours to their credit. Spirituál Kvintet with Irena Budweiserová are a legendary outfit combining spirituals with the folk tradition, while Vaclav Koubek has tailored his informal songs for a barroom band. 

These folk singers are also flanked by artists and bands whose work borders on several genres. The group Jablkon links rock with classicizing avant-garde in its work. Oldřich Janota is known for his minimalist, introverted concept of the work he creates, while Dagmar Andrtová-Vonková manages to link the song-writing avant-garde with the Czech country genre.

Hip-hop

Hip-hop is the sub-genre that is developing most rapidly, and which has significant support among young people.  Gipsy.cz and Chaozz rates among favorite Czech hip-hop groups, particularly thanks to their posthumous Prago Union .

Veterans of Czech rap include Peneři strýčka Homeboye, who arrived in 2001 with their radical albumn Repertoar. Other important exponents include Brno’s Naše věc, Olomouc’s Respektive and the acoustic representatives of the Karlovy Vary scene Bow Wave.

Jazz and blues

Because of its non-political nature, jazz was practically the only form of progressive music in the 1950s and the first half of the 1960s that was tolerated by the regime.

The chief conductor and clarinetist Karel Krautgertner belongs among the most important figures, along with vibraphonist Karel Velebný and his SHQ ensemble, guitarist Rudolf Dašek, singer Vlasta Průchova and flautist Jan Konopásek.

The Gustav Brom Orchestra, the Studio 5 combo and the Czechoslovak Radio Orchestra can be classed as important music groups.

Pop

Some of the stars of the socialist era disappeared from sight after the Velvet Revolution, never to be seen again. Nevertheless, the most popular of these have continued to retain their place in the sun. Karel Gott has almost a cult status among the general public (not just in the Czech lands, but also in Germany), in the female category Helena Vondráčková and since the 1990s also Lucie Bílá.

The pop genre got its second wind with the arrival of a new generation of groups. The guru of Czech funk, Roman Holý, is the man behind two important groups: J.A.R., which was originally a hip-hop project, is now the most important funk ensemble, while Monkey Business flies the flag for pop mixed with disco and funk. Originally a gang of friends from primary school, Tata Bojs grew from being a school band into a serious project, which crosses pop with rock and electronica.

Rock

Rock music not only lacked a good position under the socialist regime but even openly combated it. For most of the socialist era, rock had an aura of forbidden fruit about it and of a certain personal resistance to the regime.

The Semafor Theater became its birthplace. This was where managers Jiří Suchý and Jiří Šlitr not only made room for rock music, but were themselves also able musicians and authors of the first Czech rock lyrics. Thanks to playing the song "Ondras podotyka” and performances by the popular group Olympic, Czech Big Beat music obtained a certain level of official acceptance in socialist Czechoslovakia. 

The era of “normalization” that arrived in the 1970s was a time of prohibition, which suppressed developments and saw a gradual decline in local rock music. And yet before this, Vladimír Mišík and his Flamengo band released the radical record Kuře v hodinkách (The Chicken in the Watch) in 1971.

An interesting alternative prospered on the unofficial – underground – level, which was based on examples set by the work of acts such as Frank Zappa and The Velvet Underground.

The turn of the 1970s and 1980s brought a further hardening of the regime’s stance against rock culture. Members of the group Plastic People of the Universe were put on trial. Previously respected musicians, primarily songwriters, found themselves marginalized (e.g. Vlasta Třešnák, Jaroslav Hutka, Sváťa Karásek and others). With few exceptions, they ended up being forced to emigrate.

In the mid-1980s, there was an upsurge in the number of musicians who wanted to do their own thing and who promoted styles that had been considered exotic in the Czech lands until then. The band Žlutý Pes attempted to play country rock inspired by the American South; reggae was introduced by Yo Yo Band and Babalet while hardcore was presented by Hubert Machane, Michael's Uncle and Insania.

After the Velvet Revolution, great interest developed in previously forbidden music. The underground groups Psí vojáci, MCH Band, Garar and Prazsky vyber rose to stardom.

The bands Lucie, Kabát and Chinaski are the stars of mainstream rock in the Czech Republic. Support Lesbiens, who come from a grunge background, and the pub-rock oriented Tři sestry have also become top-ranking acts in recent years.

High-quality hard rock is presented by the somber Kurtizány z 25. avenue, the virulently rocky Vypsaná fiXa and Divokej Bill, who have been inspired by Celtic music, as well as Wohnout, who are consummate rockers and jokers at the same time. The top female rock singer is Lenka Dusilová. The New Wave is spasmodically represented by Pražský výběr with Michael Kocáb, while Preissnitz are purveyors of pensive, song-based rock with gothic roots.

Dance music

During the socialist era it was practically impossible to import instruments that were suitable for developing this type of music. Despite this, in the course of a few years, a group formed in the country and significantly influenced the course of this genre. This primarily pertains to Jan P. Muchow's project The Ecstasy Of St. Theresa, which is one of the few acts in the Czech Republic to be given the honor of recording a prestigious Peel Session and which has become a genuine star on the British independent scene for several years.

Names on the Czech dance scene include the drum’n’bass project Ohm Square, the Skyline combo, whose sound flirts with pop, and the rising drum’n’bass star Juanita Juarez. The producer Ecson Waldez has given a good account of himself with an acclaimed record on the frontier of breakbeat and drum’n’bass. 

World music

The brightest star associated with Moravian folklore at present is probably the dulcimer group Hradišťan with first violinist Jiri Pavlica, which originally stems purely from traditional music, combining traditional folklore with African folklore, serious avant-garde classical music and independent rock.

By contrast, the group Čechomor has become famous by blending rock with Moravian traditional music and for its world tour in collaboration with Jaz Coleman of Killing Joke. Music is also similarly created by the groups Fleret,  Marcipan, Traband and the excellent singer and guitarist Vlasta Rédl.

The remarkable Roma minority has expressed itself very strongly in musical terms since the fall of communism. One of the biggest European music figures in the genre is Věra Bílá. We also can’t ignore the “Czech Gipsy Kings:” Terne Chave, Bengas and the funky Gulo Car.