MS Mus. 1935

Autograph draft manuscript, first printed edition and English translation of ‘Triptychon’, an experimental text by the Czech composer Leoš Janáček (1854–1928). The work is a reflection on music and the art of musical composition, and in particular an exploration of the possibilities of what Janáček called ‘musical speech’: the use of music where dialogue occurs in prose narrative, or to emphasise a particular phrase.

The work itself has four chapters:

1. ‘Rytá Slova’ (‘Engraved words’), relating of a visit to the city of Brno by Tomás Garrigue Masaryk (1850–1937), first President of Czechoslovakia. Certain parts of the dialogue are replaced by a bar of notated music.

2. ‘Majstři Pĕvci’ (‘Maestro Singers’).

3. ‘Adolf Šrajbr’. A tribute to the composer Adolf Šrajbr or Schreiber (1881–1920), with reference to the composer Antonín Dvořák.

4. ‘Doslov’ (Epilogue).

According to the dealer’s catalogue, chapters 1 and 3 were originally published as articles in Brno’s Lidové noviny newspaper in early September 1921. ‘Triptychon’ as a whole was intended as an entry for a proposed National Encyclopedia, but after the latter project foundered the manuscript remained unpublished until 1948.

The collection comprises the following:

• Ff. 1–44. Janáček’s autograph manuscript of ‘Triptychon’, dated 26th September 1921. Some pages incorporate cuttings from Janáček’s previous articles for Lidové noviny.
• Ff. 45–62. A copy of the first printed edition, edited by Jan Racek (Prague: Hudební matice umělecké besedy, 1948).
• Ff. 63–87. An early twenty-first century (c. 2005) translation into English of the 1948 edition of ‘Triptychon’, including Racek’s foreword and end-notes: effectively a word-processed facsimile of that edition, printed out & soft-bound, but not formally published. (The original soft-binding was removed during cataloguing.) The translator’s identity is unknown.