The Paradox of the Culminating Period of Pavel Křížkovský Work

In 2010, 190 years will have passed since the birth of a major representative of Moravian music culture of the 19th century.1 Father Pavel Křížkovský, whose real fi rst name was Karel, is traditionally regarded by the musical historiographs as the most important representative of choir music before Bedřich Smetana (1824–1884). He is also mentioned in connection with the promotion of the goals and ideals of the Cecilian movement in Moravia (in the Czech Lands called Cyrillism), and, last but not least, his name is linked with Leoš Janáček (1854–1928), who was one of his favourite pupils in the monastic foundation in Brno. The career of this composer, choir master, regenschori, and organizer of music has been suffi ciently treated in literature. There are three monographs on Pavel Křížkovský, by Jindřich Geisler, Karel Eichler and Jan Racek, and innumerable studies and memoirs, which cover his life and work from various aspects.2 Still there are some unknown areas

in his professional career, in particular from the eleven-year-long Olomouc period, when he reformed the music in the cathedral of the archbishopric. Since this is a subject of my scholarly interest, let me share with you some facts obtained from the study of the personality and the work of Pavel Křížkovský.
The music career of Pavel Křížkovský started in the foundation established by the parish church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Opava (1832Opava ( -1835, where he came from his native village of Holasovice/Kreuzendorf to study the secondary school. This place was closely linked in particular with two Moravian centres: Brno, where in 1848-1885 he held the offi ce of the superior of the Brno convent foundation and choirmaster of the Augustinian church, and the Olomouc cathedral, where in 1872-1883 he conducted music. He was also intensively engaged in non-church music in these two Moravian cities. In the 1850s in the Brno Reduta hall he conducted a series of cantatas, including e.g. the Creation by Joseph Haydn (1852) and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's Antigone (1854), and for fi ve years (1852)(1853)(1854)(1855)(1856)(1857), with the support of Count Bokůvka, he was active as a violinist of the string quartet. The quality of these musicians was praised even by the French virtuoso Henry Vieuxtemps. In Brno he co-founded the Männergesangverein (1848) and after the establishment of the Beseda brněnská (1860) he was elected its fi rst choirmaster.
Soon after his arrival in Olomouc in 1872 he initiated the holding of patriotic musical, declamatory and dancing entertainment as part of the public programmes of the Slav Reading Club (in 1870 renamed Česká Beseda). Last but not least, he had a major share in the foundation of the fi rst Czech music society in Olomouc -Žerotín.
In the middle of the 19 th century he became also widely known as a composer. Although he had composed short church compositions already in Opava and similar works even as a student of theology in Brno, in the second half of the 1840s it was in particular secular choir music which brought Křížkovský to the centre of music in Bohemia and Moravia. Through the professor of theology and collector of folk poetry, František Sušil (1804-1868), he discovered the charm of Moravian folk songs." You must study our na tional songs, you must enter the spirit of your nation", Sušil said when the composer brought to him for assessment some of his works. 3 At that time Křížkovský began to com pose male choirs a cappella for four voices, originally intended for theology students in the seminary. He adopted tunes and texts from Sušil's collection Moravian National Songs, published in 1835, 1840, 1860. This was "the foundation and starting point for the realism in Moravian music in the middle of the 19 th century" as well as "the stylistic basis of Moravian modern music". 4 české kultury z ducha lidového. Katalog brněnské výstavy 1955Katalog brněnské výstavy /1956  His style of composition was based on the simple four-voice harmonization of the melody in the style of the German quartet for male voices (Liedertafel), the tradition of which continued in Czech music in the work of Alois Jelen (1801-1857), František Škroup (1801-1862), Hynek Vojáček (1825-1916), Arnošt Förchgott Tovačovský (1825-1874 and Josef Leopold Zvonař (1824-1865), but soon developed into an independent form, from which the direct line goes to the modern choirs by Bedřich Smetana, Antonín Dvo řák, as well as Leoš Janáček, Josef Bohuslav Foerster (1859-1951), Otakar Ostrčil (1879-1935) and Vítězslav Novák (1870-1949. In this connection B. Smetana is often quoted, who after listening to Křížkovský's choir Drowned Maiden in 1862 said: "Only when I heard Křížkovský's choir, I came to know what Czech music is." 5 J. B. Foerster, too, had words of praise for this choir: "With tears in my eyes I listened to the Drowned Maiden. Every tone touched my heart. From the very beginning up to the end it is the most precious lyric beauty, Mozartesque purity, music capturing each phrase of the poem up to the most delicate vibration, a music of the heart." 6 In his secular work and in organization of music Pavel Křížkovský gradually met the period ideal of a "national composer". For instance Humoristické listy edited in Prague by Jan Neruda called him in 1878 the forefather of Czech music. Many choral societies in Bohemia and Moravia, whose honorary member he was, proclaimed Křížkovský the founder of Czech music. When he thanked them for this honour he usually added to his signature the phrase "brother Slav". 7 The critical acclaim of Křížkovský in Bohemia and Moravia culminated in the early 1860s. One of the climaxes in his career was the year 1862, when he conducted an 800-people-strong choir during the performance of the Drowned Maiden at the May song festival in Prague and one year later, when at Velehrad he conducted 52 merged choral societies before an audience of 50,000 during the celebration of the 1000 th anniversary of the arrival of Saint Cyril and Methodius in Greater Moravia. On this occasion was for the fi rst time performed in churches his pilgrimage hymn Ejhle, oltář Hospodinův září [Behold, the Lord's Altar Shines] with the text by Jan Soukop. The composer's important position in the era of the constitution of Czech national music can be demonstrated by the numerous commissions he received in the 1860s and 1870s. For example, there was a public appeal to compose a Czech cantata for the 5 Karel Eichler, Životopis a skladby P. Křížkovského (Brno 1904) (1878), a celebratory hymn to the Czech nation, and an oratorio about St Procopius. None of these projects was materialized, however. There are several reasons for that, a major reason being the fact that Pavel Kříž kovský fell into disfavour with his clerical superiors. The fi rst incident took place as early as 1863. The success achieved by the composer in the celebrations of the Slav missionaries at Velehrad was probably the "last drop" for the church authorities watching with displeasure his secular and patriotic activities.
Archbishop Schaff gotsch next made Křížkovský abandon his public activities in music. This was fatefully refl ected in Křížkovský's composing. Over the next few years he composed only two new choirs, though on a spiritual theme (The Shepherd and the Pilgrims, 1866, God's Garden, 1867). Then the "Muse of secular music" became silent and Pavel Křížkovský completely turned to church music.
He started as choirmaster of the Augustinian church at the convent in Staré Brno in 1848. In the 1850 and 1860s he performed there, with orchestral accompaniment, the spiritual works of Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Joseph and Michael Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Luigi Cherubini, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Robert Führer and Johann Georg Albrechtsberger. He was a successful choirmaster, which is shown by the praise he received, even from papal authority.
A special and somewhat unexpected turning point in the music career of Křížkovský was the year 1869. The Augustinian monk joined the ranks of the most radical supporters of European cecilianism and together with Ferdinand Lehner (1837-1914) and Josef Förster (1833-1907 he began to lead the movement which in the Czech lands was known as cyrillism. The complexity of musical and ecclesiastical infl uences is shown by the fact that soon after his arrival in Olomouc, Pavel Křížkovský found himself once more in a controversy with his ecclesiastical superiors, which after several months, in 1873, resulted in his return to Brno. The main cause probably was the unwillingness of the clergy to give up the pomp and glamour of the fi gural music used previously. This can be seen from the opinion of the prelate and scholastic Arthur Königsbrunn, who pleaded with the new Kapellmeister to keep performing the intradas: "But I beg you, dear Father Křížkovský, to preserve at least the intradas. I am so fond of it that if it was possible I would fi re the canons during it." 9 In July 1873, however, Křížkovský returned to the Olomouc Cathedral in order to fi nish the work he had started. He described his return as "a return to exile". 10 However, his position became consolidated there -he was appointed the choir director -and within several years he became very fond of Olomouc; in his correspondence he more than once admitted that he had been held there in higher esteem than in Brno. Since Křížkovský in Olomouc did not give up completely his organizing ventures in the secular sphere, the disputes with the church hierarchy continued; this was confi rmed by the administrative director of the Žerotín society, Ferdinand Tomek. As if the Brno history was repeated. At the beginning of 1874, Křížkovský began to head the local Česká Beseda society in order to give programmes of music there. Soon he had to give up this activity. This happened when as the only clergyman at the Cathedral who refused to leave the society after the church regulations were broken during the Advent. Pavel Křížkovský struggled with his superiors all his life. This is also revealed in several of his letters in which he e.g. speaks of "persecution and insults" (1867), "some obstacles", and "obstinate enemies" (1973). 11 Nothing more can be learnt from the correspondence or other sources. Both Křížkovský and his biographers and authors of commemorative articles -among them were Jindřich Geisler, Karel Eichler, but also Josef Jeřábek, etc. -as clergymen probably did not want to reveal any information that might publicly discredit the Church. So their texts contain mainly allusions and general formulations.
From historical sources it is further known that Pavel Křížkovský, although described by his contemporaries as well as by the historians as a fairly shy, lonely and exceedingly modest person, had a very progressive spirit and pushed through his opinions systematically, with persistence and even in a stubborn way. For instance, in spite of the continuous pressure from his superiors he never gave up secular music. He could not resist new impulses coming in 1880, after the foundation of the Žerotín society. The male choir with professional ambition aroused in him a new appetite for secular music, and this resulted his composing two choirs -Vesna [Spring] and Jest jaro [Spring has come]. Křížkovský began to appear in the public again. He took part in all rehearsals and public performances of the society, which often put his work on its programme. The choir Drowned Maiden remained longest in the Žerotín repertoire. This intensive need for participation in public music activities is supported by an often repeated little story, connected with his visit to the recital of the violinist František Ondříček in Olomouc on 1 October 1882. At the subsequent dinner he made the following appeal to the world-renowned violinist: "Ondříček, let me have your violin so that me too can show them something." 12 The paradox is that Křížkovský's progressive views led in composition, because of the acceptance of the Cyrillian reform, to unequivocal regression. In the 1870s he composed several works in the reformist spirit, such as the Laurentanian Litany, Requiem, Te Deum, and parts of the mass propria, which in those days met with acclaim among the cyrillists, were published, and were adopted by many choirs but with the passage of time fell into oblivion and to this day have remained lifeless. Why was it so?
The reason is in his retreat from the music language he adopted in the early 1860s. In an eff ort at making declamation comprehensible and in order to achieve purity in quasi-Renaissance polyphony, the composer's style returned to Classicism in music. Unlike the secular choirs in which he ingeniously applied the technique of variation, made the content of the text clear, and did not hesitate using bold harmony (chromatics, modulation, diminished sevenths-chords), Křížkovský's church compositions completely resign dissonance, and modulation is allowed only up to the nearest key. The composer arrived at non-scale tones only through second dominants, the secondary sevenths-chords or passing tones.
It is possible to ask whether Křížkovský restrained the language of composition unhesitatingly and had an inner belief in his church compositions. Some of his contemporaries say that after his acceptance of the reform he completely forgot about his earlier secular compositions or denied his authorship. Could his proverbial self-criticism, his inclination to not believing in himself and underrating himself be the reason why he signed his compositions with a cipher, used a pseudonym, kept the identity of the composer secret, or even burnt his work? Was he subject to some pressure? Or should we believe that he had himself discarded all his pre-reform work?
The reverse is true. I dare to say that despite all his eff orts in the fi eld of church music, Pavel Křížkovský cared more for secular music. He composed music for the church out of duty and for practical purposes but secular choir music was the carrier of his ambition as composer. Evidence for this is found in the fact that in the early 1880s he returned to secular choir music and for instance in 1882 published his choir The Shepherd and the Pilgrims at his own cost.
The reception of Pavel Křížkovský by listeners supports this hypothesis. After the First World War his church compositions completely disappeared from the repertoire of choirs, though they may be awaiting their renaissance, but choirs with folk motives have been a permanent part of the repertoires to this day, e.g. of the Moravian Teachers' Choir, 12 Ferdinand Tomek, "Vztahy P. Pavla Křížkovského k olomouckému Žerotínu", in: Věstník pěvecký a hudební 39, 6 (1935) p. 88-89.
Choir Nešvera or the Academic Choir Moravan. Pavel Křížkovský, who called himself a "song-writer" and "average musician", would defi nitely be pleased by that. 13