sources - Nottingham eTheses - The University of Nottingham

3.3.5 Vocal lines
Both Štědroň and Tyrrell have devoted a good deal of discussion to the reworking of
the opera’s vocal lines in 1908, 34 and particularly to those examples which were
simply erased (rather than pasted over) and are therefore still legible in varying
degrees to the naked eye or else were corrected at proof stage during the preparation
of KPU. In general, the evidence of the 1904 version confirms their observations,
rather than revealing any startling new findings.
Janáček appears to have been addressing three issues in particular in his
ongoing revisions to the vocal lines: achieving a greater consistency in text-setting
according to ‘standard’ Czech stress patterns (which usually place the stress on the
first syllable of a word); the removal or adjustment of many instances of word or
phrase repetition; and the freeing up of vocal phrases that, in their earlier form, were
more closely tied to what often appear to be instrumentally-conceived melodic ideas
in the orchestra. 35
(a) Word setting
Many of the examples of stress-pattern problems seem to have arisen from Janáček
initially trying to fit Preissová’s text — even where he had modified it prior to setting
— to regularised, pre-conceived melodic ideas. Ex. 3.34 as originally set by Janáček
contains both final- and penultimate-syllable mis-stress: ‘by ti od ně-ho u-leh-čil’. 36
At proof stage in the preparation of KPU Janáček reorganised the word order
34 See in particular ZGJ, 103–10, and CO, 283–92
35 The first two issues were among the most persistent criticisms of the opera from early on in its
reception.
36 Preissová’s text is slightly different, although the word order matches that of Janáček’s original
version: ‘[…] aby ti od něho raději odlehčil.’
123