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Ex. A6.2
The subsequent exchange between Kudrjáš and Varvara makes it clear that this is
meant to be an aural representation of the nightwatchman beating out the hour. 26
In Jenůfa, the consistent use of this (notated) tenor register as a xylophonic
‘drone’ raises the question of whether, as is usually assumed in his use of the
instrument, Janáček intended the notes to sound an octave higher according to
convention, or whether they were to sound as written. The latter would have been
unlikely in practice, both because the actual sounding range of the instrument precluded
it and because the manner of reproduction — on a flat surface, without the resonators of
the modern instrument, and played with the hard sticks customary of the period —
would in any case have tended to emphasise the upper partials. And Janáček’s request
to Kleiber, quoted above, that the instrument be placed ‘on the stage near the mill where
26 Another instance of a repeated xylophone monotone comes in the second moon scene of Výlety páně
Broučkovy (as well as in the original Epilogue to the self-standing Moon excursion, I/6), where it seems
to be associated with the mechanical act of chopping meat for sausages. Elsewhere in Brouček, the
xylophone appears to represent the clinking of glasses at the Vikárka inn. Other representational
writing for the instrument includes knocks at the door in both Act 3 of Věc Makropulos and the
pantomime scene in Act 2 of Z mrtvého domu.
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