sources - Nottingham eTheses - The University of Nottingham

notation of rhythmic irrationals is a characteristic of Janáček’s pre-première changes, and
he continued tinkering with the nuances of vocal rhythms in his later revisions.
Ex. 3.4
Ex. 3.5 shows the original notation (triplets throughout) of the Foreman’s ‘Vidíš,
Laco, to je mi podivné’ [You see, Laca, that’s what I find strange] in Act 1 Scene 2.
The pre-première revision of 1903 replaced these triplets with duple rhythms, whilst
the 1907/8 changes resulted in a mixture of the two (cf. Ex. 2.2):
Ex. 3.5
One of the most striking pre-première revisions occurs in Act 2 Scene 7, when
Jenůfa, after lamenting the death of her baby (‘Tož umřel’ [He died then]), asks the
Kostelnička: ‘A co Števa?’ [And what of Števa?] (fig. 103). In the versions of 1904
onwards, this is a moment of hiatus: as the timpani strokes die away, the
81