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Exploring the cultural and political meanings of Má vlast in the First Czechoslovak Republic
Kodýtek, Pavel ; Havelková, Tereza (advisor) ; St Pierre, Kelly (referee)
3 Abstract Smetana's Má vlast (My Country) has long held a unique place in Czech national culture and is considered one of the constitutive elements of the Smetana myth in popular consciousness. Over forty years ago, in musicological discourse, Vladimír Lébl and Jitka Ludvová (1981) advocated for "removing the layers" of the Smetana myth, challenging the prevailing notion of Smetana as the sole genius by mapping the contemporary roots of Má vlast. Only recently, however, have musicologists begun to uncover the layers of the myth to a more serious degree, among them Brian S. Locke (2006), Christopher Campo-Bowen (2016), and Kelly St. Pierre (2017). This thesis contributes to this discussion by exploring the meanings of Má vlast and the Smetana myth in the context of the 1924 Smetana centenary celebrations. It reveals how the myth was repurposed by various stakeholders to justify diverse cultural policies and demonstrates that the different, overtly political interpretations were primarily a product of the ideologies and interests of these protagonists. The study also highlights the crucial role of the Czechoslovak government in enabling the celebrations and its use of them to achieve particular political objectives. Drawing on period sources, including archival materials, journal, and newspaper articles, as...
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Oral tradition of cantiones in Czech lands and its imprint in late medieval manuscripts
Kodýtek, Pavel ; Hlávková, Lenka (advisor) ; Baťa, Jan (referee)
Oral tradition of cantiones in Czech lands and its imprint in late medieval manuscripts Abstract The sources extant in the Czech lands transmit a vast body of cantiones, i.e., Latin spiritual monophonic or polyphonic songs that provide a rich basis for research into their tradition and transmission during the late Middle Ages. Though they have been subject of scholarly study for a century and a half, much of the literature is limited by the approach employed, be it the philological method, which saw a cantio's extant sources a tool for deriving its archetype and in its variants merely errors to be emended (Mužík, Černý), or a nationalistic bias (Nejedlý). In the case of chant, scholars have suggested that the tradition of medieval music was strongly impacted by oral transmission (Treitler, Hucke) and hence should be looked at from a different perspective, one close to that of ethnomusicology (Jeffery). Though some recent papers reflect this approach (Gancarczyk), it has not yet been tested on a larger body of songs, nor its implications systematically outlined. My study of several dozen songs recorded around 1410 in CZ-VB 42 that survived and thrived-as evidenced by a selection of sources-well into the following century demonstrates the diversity of the genre and the continuing dominance of monophonic...
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