070046 EX Field Trip - Czech Modernism und Leoš Janácek: An Excursion to Brno and Zlín (2024W)

Excursion:
Czech modernism and Leoš Janáček. Excursion to Brno and Zlín
Czech modernism is one of the most productive periods and artistic movements in the history of Central Europe from the fin de siècle to the interwar period. The excursion focuses on Leoš Janáček and the architecture and visual arts of his time. The work of the composer and his contemporaries stood under a tension between a national mission of artistic creation and a universal claim to culture, which writers (including in their Manifesto of Modernism), visual artists, architects and composers had been calling for since the turn of the century. In principle, Janáček belonged to an older generation and at the beginning of his career composed mainly nationally coded music. From the 1890s onwards, through his musical ethnography and his attempts to depict language through music, he developed his very own style, characterized by reduced harmonies and expressive rhythms.
As part of the excursion, we will visit the Janáček Museum in Brno, the most important buildings of Czech modernism and the exhibition grounds. We will start off by traveling to the industrial city of Zlín, which the factory owner Tomáš Batʼa expanded in the interwar period to meet the needs of his shoe company and has since been considered an icon of global capitalism and patriarchal entrepreneurship.
The highlight of the excursion will be a performance of Janáček's opera The Cunning Little Vixen on 10.11.2024. The Festival's ticket office has reserved 20 discounted tickets for this, so the number of participants is limited (the excursion will cost between 120 and 160 euros including travel expenses, accommodation, concert tickets and other admissions) and will take place on November 10 and 11 after intensive preparation in the previous weeks of the semester. A meeting and discussion with students from Masaryk University is also planned.
In the remaining time of the semester, the students should write academic essays (10-15 pages) on various aspects of Czech modernism and on Janáček's life and work (the focus can be on his social background, gender issues and his personal love relationships, his music theories, the speech melodies and individual compositions - literature and sources will be provided on Moodle) and thus deepen the content of the excursion.
Time: Thurs. 13:00-14:30 on 10, 17 and 24.10. as well as 7.11. and on 10 and 11.11. all day, possibly a further session to discuss the essays in November or December.
Location: Preparatory sessions in the lecture hall of the IOG, courtyard 3.2, UW campus, Brno, Zlín.