Musicologica Olomucensia

Pavel Bořkovic (1894-1972) was for four decades one of the most prominent representatives of Czech music. He belonged to the vanguard of neoclassicism orientation between the First and Second world war. Since the thirties Bořkovec is characterized by an individual solution of the form, the constant feature of which is a fundamental coherence of all composition components, which in the course of the evolutional development again an unexpected emotional impact and gradually deeper and deeper lyrical expression. The ballet Krysař [The Pied Piper of Hamelin] (1939) belongs among Bořkovec´s main works. Namely here Bořkovec had found his unique language drawing from a special linear and chord character, motorics and an outstanding sense of sound sensuality. All these components are always a part of a consistent form built on the principle of the block polyphony and instrumentation. The old Saxon legend initiated a number of different performances in Czech lands. Bořkovec working on the theme had concentrated on the problem of the freedom of a human deed contrasted with the bonds of human existence. The premiere of the ballet was in the National Theatre on 8. 12. 1942. Further productions were in Prague (1949, 1952), Olomouc (1950), Plzeň (1955) and Ostrava (1966). Television had made its own recording (1959) of the ballet but it is so longer available.