Czech & Slovak National Identity & Pride Info Must Know Info ...! Musite Vedet Info ...!
Proud Czech Father in USA !
Dear friends, I am very proud to announce to all of you, that my son's book has been finally published. The title of the book is "The Long Escape", author Jan Rehacek. It is about our escape from communist Czechoslovakia. This book is available at following web sides and/or bookstores:
Tisková zpráva 16.6.2008
Senátor Martin Mejstřík obdržel Cenu Tomáše Garrigua Masaryka
Senátor Martin Mejstřík obdržel Masarykovu cenu udělovanou Českým a Slovenským sdružením v Kanadě, naším největším krajanským sdružením ve světě. Cena mu byla slavnostně předána v Calgary v sobotu 14. června 2008 na jubilejním šedesátém kongresu ČSSK.
Masarykova cena je nejvyšším uznáním a poctou Českého a Slovenského sdružení v Kanadě. Uděluje se od roku 1985 Kanaďanům českého či slovenského původu, kteří dosáhli významných úspěchů na některém úseku lidské činnosti, a osobám nebo organizacím jakéhokoliv původu, které se zasloužily o svobodné Československo nebo obohatily život Čechů a Slováků v Kanadě.
Mezi dosavadní laureáty Masarykovy ceny se řadí například průmyslník Tomáš Baťa, ekolog a odbojář prof. Vladimír Krajina, spisovatelka a vydavatelka Zdena Škvorecká, hudební skladatel Oskar Morawetz, spisovatel Josef Škvorecký, dramatik a president Václav Havel či signatářka Charty 77 Marta Kubišová. V roce 2005 se senátor Mejstřík spolu se senátní delegací zúčastnil předávání Masarykovy ceny ČSSK odbojové skupině bratří Mašínů.
..............
Text laudatia na senátora Martina Mejstříka při předání Masarykovy ceny ČSSK v Calgary 2008:
Martin Mejstřík 1962 -
Martin Mejstřík je vzácná osobnost české politické scény. Nikdy nebyl a není členem žádné politické strany, od mládí však ovlivňuje dění ve své zemi jako pravý Homo politicus, talentovaný a neohrožený společenský hybatel. Jeho velikou a dodnes řádně nedoceněnou zásluhou je výrazný podíl na porážce komunistické diktatury v Československu. Od roku 2002 pak pokračuje v této práci v roli senátora Parlamentu České republiky, kde se neúnavně zasazuje o důsledné vyrovnání se s komunistickou minulostí.
Martina Mejstříka od dětství formovalo jeho členství v ilegálním skautingu, vztah k přírodě, k historii naší země a víra v Boha. Velmi záhy narazil na totalitní moc. Komunisté mu nechtěli dovolit studovat. Musel strávit rok na lesnickém učilišti, pak až se dostal na gymnázium v pohraničí, kam byli po osmašedesátém roce posláni za trest různí „nespolehliví“ kantoři. Se spolužáky na střední a poté na vysoké škole hrál divadlo, vydával studentský časopis, organizoval výstavy. Chtěl se stát učitelem, jeho „nebezpečné“ aktivity však komunisty ohrožovaly natolik, že jej posléze vyhodili z pedagogické fakulty Karlovy univerzity. Přijala jej Divadelní fakulta Akademie múzických umění, kde s přáteli založil a od roku 1987 vydával významný studentský časopis - revue Kavárna A.F.F.A. Tato revue a činnosti s ní spojené vynesly Martina Mejstříka na politickou scénu. Komunisté jej donutili stát se funkcionářem jejich mládežnické organizace SSM, kterou zato Martin Mejstřík zevnitř rozkládá. Burcuje studenty a pracuje na obnovení nezávislého Vysokoškolského studentského svazu. To vše se odehrává v éře Gorbačova, na sklonku existence sovětského impéria a východního bloku v Evropě. Přichází listopad 1989.
Připomeňme, že to byli studenti, kteří spustili a pomohli prosadit definitivní pád komunismu v Československu. Světová veřejnost zná a pamatuje si Martina Mejstříka jako studentského vůdce „sametové revoluce“. Byl organizátorem studentské demonstrace 17. listopadu, která byla režimem brutálně zbita. Hned příští den vyhlašuje Martin Mejstřík v Praze na Václavském náměstí studentskou stávku, k níž se přidávají umělci a která je hybnou silou, jež pomůže porazit komunistickou moc. Je jedním z organizátorů studentského stávkového výboru, spoluzakládá Občanské fórum a je hlavním šéfem studentské stávky. Pamatujeme si jeho veřejná vystoupení z těch dní, kdy statisícům občanů na ulicích vléval energii do žil. Účastnil se prvních vyjednávání s odstupující komunistickou nomenklaturou. Je zásluhou jeho osobního nasazení, že studenti stávku udrželi až do doby, kdy byl po 41 letech komunistické diktatury zvolen československým prezidentem disident, spisovatel a dramatik Václav Havel. Jako studentský vůdce také doprovází prezidenta Havla a vládu na první oficiální cestě do USA.
Po prvních svobodných volbách je Martin Mejstřík vládním zmocněncem pro zestátnění majetku socialistického svazu mládeže. Po zjištění, že k této úloze chybí skutečná politická vůle, ze státní služby odchází. Podlehl možná iluzi studenta z té doby, že svou roli splnil, že správu věcí v zemi mají nyní v rukou „povolaní“. Vrátil se k psaní a vydávání společensko - kulturní revue Kavárna A.F.F.A., je šéfredaktorem Obecních novin na Praze 1, vede víkendovou přílohu v Českém deníku.
Jako Homo politicus nadaný neobvyklým citem pro spravedlnost a vnitřní potřebou měnit svět k lepšímu se Martin Mejstřík dále věnuje věcem veřejným. Vede Sdružení občanů a přátel Malé Strany a Hradčan. V roce 1998 kandiduje poprvé do obecního zastupitelstva v Praze 1, kde se angažuje proti korupci, za záchranu historické Prahy a za trvale udržitelné prostředí pro život občanů. Je zvolen opakovaně v letech 2002 a 2006.
Roku 1999, na desáté výročí „sametové revoluce“, jej veřejnost vítá jako spoluautora manifestu „Děkujeme, odejděte!“, který vyzývá k odchodu představitele vládnoucí garnitury v čele s Milošem Zemanem a Václavem Klausem. Petice se setkává s obrovským ohlasem, podepíše ji 250 000 lidí. Václav Klaus tehdy na manifest reagoval slovy: nebudeme se bavit s ulicí. V televizní krizi roku 2000 se Martin Mejstřík angažuje na straně vzbouřených redaktorů.
Důvěra, kterou v něj spoluobčané mají, jej konečně po zásluze vynáší do vysoké politiky. Roku 2002, ve svých 40 letech, je jako nezávislý kandidát zvolen nejmladším senátorem Parlamentu České republiky. Jeho volebním obvodem je historické centrum Prahy, takříkajíc samotné srdce země české. Martin Mejstřík se v Senátu stává místopředsedou Komise pro krajany žijící v zahraničí, členem Dočasné komise pro posouzení ústavnosti Komunistické strany Čech a Moravy a členem Výboru pro vzdělání, vědu, kulturu, lidská práva a petice.
Do Senátu vstoupil s politickým mottem: Buď bude platit zákon o protiprávnosti komunistického režimu a o odboji proti němu - zákon č. 198/1993 - nebo bude existovat Komunistická strana Čech a Moravy. Obojí není možné. Když začal hovořit o tom, že je nutné zakázat Komunistickou stranu Čech a Moravy (KSČM), komunisté se smáli. Dnes už je smích přešel.
Martin Mejstřík prosazuje odškodnění druhého a třetího odboje, zřízení Ústavu paměti národa po slovenském vzoru a očistu justice a policie od exponentů komunistického režimu, organizuje veřejná slyšení a konference na téma vyrovnání se s komunismem. Jeho úsilí nese ovoce. Byl prvním politikem, který navrhl státní vyznamenání pro odbojovou skupinu bratří Mašínů. Senát od té doby návrh opakovaně předkládá prezidentu republiky. Letos obdrželi Josef a Ctirad Mašínovi a Milan Paumer plaketu od předsedy vlády Mirka Topolánka. Senátor Mejstřík dohledal v archivech a zveřejnil dokumenty dokládající udavačskou činnost předsedy KSČM a místopředsedy Poslanecké sněmovny Vojtěcha Filipa pro komunistickou státní bezpečnost. Byl jedním z navrhovatelů zákona o Ústavu pro studium totalitních režimů. Byl mimo jiné spoluautorem petice „Zrušme komunisty!“, která dodnes nasbírala 76 000 podpisů. Senát v reakci na ni zřídil Dočasnou komisi pro posouzení ústavnosti KSČM, jíž se stal senátor Mejstřík členem. Spolu s kolegou senátorem Jaromírem Štětinou podal trestní oznámení na Komunistický svaz mládeže, organizaci úzce spjatou se stranou KSČM. Ministerstvo vnitra poté komsomolce rozpustilo; toto rozhodnutí mezitím potvrdil soud. Senátor Mejstřík také inicioval v České republice sbírku finančních prostředků na stavbu Památníku obětem komunismu ve Washingtonu, D.C.. Na jeho odhalení v loňském roce byl pozván jako jediný český politik.
Cesta, kterou senátor Mejstřík razí, je trnitá. Nesetkává se pouze s úspěchy. Parlament již dvakrát projednával jeho návrh zákazu komunistické strany. Poprvé, roku 2005, Senát návrh novely trestního zákona schválil; zastavila jej až Poslanecká sněmovna. Při dalším pokusu, kdy Martin Mejstřík s kolegy spolu se zákazem komunistické a nacistické propagandy navrhli zakázat i komunistické a nacistické symboly, v pravicovém Senátu roku 2008 bohužel nenašli potřebnou většinu. Mezi jeho další snahy o znovunastolení tradic zničených komunisty, které zatím nezískaly v Parlamentu většinu, patří zavedení Velkého pátku jako státního svátku a vyškrtnutí komunisty zneužitého Mezinárodního dne žen a zavedení Svátku matek jako významného dne v českém kalendáři.
Senátor Martin Mejstřík nachází další spolubojovníky v řadách parlamentářů. Zde je třeba znovu zmínit senátora Jaromíra Štětinu, ale zejména i místopředsedu Senátu Jiřího Lišku. Vyrovnání se s komunistickou minulostí pomalu začíná být společenským tématem.
Senátora Mejstříka charakterizuje v neposlední řadě jeho houževnatost. Nevzdává se, věren svému oblíbenému citátu „Nečiňme jim po vůli, nedejme se promrzeti!“ od Karla Havlíčka Borovského.
Zatím to vypadá, že práce ve vysoké politice na Martina Mejstříka čeká ještě hodně. Jeho cesta je správná a dříve nebo později na ní musí zvítězit.
Mgr. Martin Mejstřík
New Book about Czechs and Slovaks in America
Czechs and Slovaks in America. By Miloslav Rechcigl, Jt. Boulder, CO: East European Monographs, 2005. 317 p. Distributed by
On the occasion of his 75th birthday, the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU) has just published a volume of selected writings of Miloslav Rechcigl, Jr., who is the Society's current President. It comprises general surveys, essays, reflections and personal insights of the author relating to the history and the contributions of Czech and Slovak immigrants in America and their descendants.
The material covered is based on Rechcigl's extensive research, which he began soon after his arrival in the US in 1950. It encompasses a wealth of information about the Czech and Slovak immigrants in America, from the time of the first known Bohemian who put his foot on American soil toward the end of 16th century, some thirty-five years before the arrival of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, MA in 1620, to date. Dr. Rechcigl has always been very intrigued by the life and accomplishments of Augustine Herman, the first historically known Bohemian to permanently settle in America a - the eminent Maryland and Virginia pioneer map maker, the Bohemian Jesuit missionary work in Latin America in the late 17th century, the Moravian Brethren's Diaspora and their cultural contributions to America, and the immigration and the achievements of the Jewish pioneer settlers from the territory of the former Czechoslovakia, which is reflected in the monograph. Covered are also numerous contributions of Czech and Slovaks to the growth and development oil the United States, including science scholarship.
Apart from American ethnic history, Rechcigl has become an authority on the Czech American bibliography and genealogy which is the reason why the editors have also included his writings in this area. It complements the rest of the material remarkably well and enriches its contents and the utility of the volume as a documentary reference.The writings are based on the heretofore unpublished author's manuscripts, as well as on his selected periodical articles and book chapters that have been, for the most part, brought up to date. The volume is supplemented with Rechcigl's biographical sketch and his fascinating and provocative self-assessment "What makes him tick" from his yet unpublished Memoirs, and the listing of his writings relating to the subject of this monograph, as well as articles about him
The monograph is a tribute to Mila Rechcigl for all his work of almost fifty years which he has devoted to building SVU, an international society aimed at the advancement of the Czech and Slovak studies worldwide and the fostering of intellectual collaboration with the Czech and Slovak Republics, which extends to almost fifty fears of his professional life and to his extraordinary scholarship relating to the history and contributions of Czechs and Slovaks abroad.We highly recommend this timely and unique publication to anyone who is interested in the history and contributions of Czech and Slovak immigrants in America. The book is an important source of information much of which has not been generally known. SVU Press Release
Email Here: For the book Order Details ... click here .... !
.....We have found for your Information .... :-)
Long Text - Page 1 of 15 ... excerpt only here ...
The first inhabitants of the Czech lands were prehistoric fish. That's because the country, at the time, was covered by a prehistoric ocean - thanks to which it is possible to find some very nice fossils of
Today's Czech Republic was later populated by dinosaurs of all sorts, and later by neanderthals and even by mammoths. The prehistoric settlement of the present-day Czech Republic by people culminated
The Czech Celts were in part chased out of the region and in part assimilated by the next peoples to inhabit the area: the Germanic Marcomanni and Quadi tribes from the west and the Romans from the
This is the way that it all came to be - according to popular Czech legend: Once upon a time there were three brothers: Czech, Lech and Rus. One day, they decided to find a new place to live, and so they
http://archiv.radio.cz/history/history02.html
.....We have found for your Information .... :-)
History of Slovaks in America
CHRONOLOGY 1695 Isaac Ferdinand Sarosi (also spelled Sarissky, Scharossy, Saarossy, Sarossy, Saroschi, and Sarossi) arrived in the Pennsylvania religious colony of Germantown (originally Germanopolis), founded by Mennonite preacher Francis Daniel Pastorius, to serve as a teacher and a preacher. Sarosi returned to Europe after two years. 1754 Andrej Jelik fled Slovakia to escape military conscription. After much travel in Europe, he eventually reached American shores, via the West Indies, on a Dutch trading ship. 1775 After being proclaimed emperor in Madagascar, and bearing letters of recommendation from Benjamin Franklin and funds from a descendant of Ferdinand Magellan, (Matus) Moric Benovsky came to America and fought with American troops in the War for Independence. He joined a cavalry corps led by General Pulaski and fought in the siege of Savannah. He died in Madagascar in 1786, but his wife, Zuzana Honschova, spent the years from 1784 until her death in 1815 in the United States. 1780 Major Jan Polerecky, who trained at the French Royal Military Academy of St. Cyr, came to America from France to fight with George Washington's army in the War for Independence. He was in the company of the 300 "Blue Hussars" to whom the British formally surrendered their weapons after the defeat of Cornwallis at Yorktown. When the war was over, Polerecky settled in Dresden, Maine, where he served in a number of public positions. 1861 Geza Mihalotzy (Mihaloci), a former military officer of the Austro-Hungarian Empire who emigrated to Chicago, wrote to President Abraham Lincoln requesting his authorization to organize a military company named the "Lincoln Riflemen of Sclavonic Origin." Lincoln granted his approval, allowing this first volunteer unit from Chicago, which included many Slovaks, to fight in the Civil War. The unit was eventually incorporated into the 24th regiment of the Illinois infantry. 1868 (Frantisek) Samuel Figuli received his first papers for naturalization. Figuli fought in the Civil War, owned a plantation in Virginia, and later joined an exploratory expedition to the North Pole. 1873 A cholera epidemic and subsequent widespread crop failures set in motion large-scale emigration from the eastern regions of Slovakia. This wave of emigration was also fueled by hardships connected to the coming of industrialization, the scarcity of available land, and a campaign of forced magyarization. The immigrants were predominantly men coming to find work. 1877 Daniel Sustek, a world traveler, purchased some eighty acres of land in Iowa, where he hoped to develop a Slovak colony. 1879 Slovaks in Passaic, New Jersey, welcomed the first group of women who came to their community from Slovakia. When Hungarian authorities legislated that all men under the age of 50 must remain in the country to fulfill military service, the number of women emigrating increased markedly. 1883 The first Slovak beneficial society was formed in New York when a group of Slovaks, mostly from the eastern counties of Slovakia, met in a private home and organized The First Hungarian-Slovak Sick Benefit Society. The society's by-laws contained the provision that the eastern Slovak dialect be used as long as there were seven members in the society. Beneficial societies were formed as insurance societies and unions, but they also played cultural, social, and political roles. 1886 The first printed Slovak newspaper, the Amerikanszko-szlovenszke noviny (Amerikansko-slovenske noviny), was published by Jan Slovensky. Circulation reached 30,000 at the end of the century under editor Peter V. Rovnianek. This was a larger circulation than that of any other Slovak paper of the time, even in Slovakia. 1887 The First Coopers' Beneficial Society was founded in Bayonne, New Jersey. It was the first Slovak society to uphold the interests of workers and even negotiated with factory owners. Americky tlumac (American interpreter), the first Slovak-English dictionary serving the needs of the immigrants, was published by Jan Slovensky, in an eastern dialect. It readily became very popular because it aided the immigrants with their English language problems. Several other such works were published in subsequent years. 1889 Anton S. Ambrose (Ambrosi), a journalist who never completed his high school studies, founded the newspaper Slovak v Amerike, the oldest Slovak newspaper still in print in the United States. The first Slovak school in America was established by St. Stephen's Parish in Streator, Illinois. 1890 The First Catholic Slovak Union of America, Jednota, was founded in Cleveland, under a constitution drafted by the Reverend Stefan Furdek. The National Slovak Society (Narodny slovensky spolok) was founded in Pittsburgh by Peter V. Rovnianek. The society was the first supraregional, nondenominational association of Slovaks in the United States, and is still active today. 1891 About 18,000 Slovaks were among the miners who went on strike in the Connellsville, Pennsylvania, region, protesting exploitation and a cut in wages. 1894 The Slovak Colonization Society organized about 300 Slovaks to leave the labor-troubled region of Connellsville, Pennsylvania, and establish a Slovak colony in Arkansas, named Slovaktown. The society was organized by Peter V. Rovnianek and his associates. 1896 The Slovak Gymnastic Union "Sokol" was founded in Chicago, modeled after the Czech "Sokol" gymnastic movement begun in Europe in the 19th century. Reverend Jozef Murgas, born in Tajov, Slovakia, came to America. He was active in founding several Slovak groups and was a pioneer of radiotelegraphy as well as a scholar, artist, scientist, and writer. He held twelve U.S. patents and was a signatory of the 1918 Pittsburgh Agreement. 1899 - 1915 During this period, close to half a million Slovaks emigrated to the United States. 1901 Peter V. Rovnianek launched Slovensky dennik, the first Slovak daily newspaper outside Slovakia and Hungary. 1905 52,368 Slovak immigrants arrived in the United States, making this the peak year of Slovak immigration. 1907 The Slovak League of America was formed to help prepare Slovak immigrants for American citizenship and to promote the welfare of Slovaks in the United States. 1910 For the upcoming census, Slovak and other ethnic leaders in the United States sucessfully petitioned federal authorities to classify a person by his or her language rather than country of origin. On the president's orders, new forms replaced the old ones, and Slovaks were no longer classified as "Austrians" or "Hungarians" in the 1910 U.S. Census. 1914 Stefan Banic, a Slovak inventor, constructed and tested a prototype of a parachute in Washington, D.C., by jumping from a 41-floor building and subsequently from an airplane. His patented parachute became standard equipment for U.S. pilots during World War I. Banic worked in the United States from 1907 to 1920, with two interruptions. 1915 The leaders of the Czech National Alliance and the Slovak League of America signed the Cleveland Agreement, in which they pledged to cooperate for the common goal of independent statehood for the Czechs and Slovaks. The agreement's five articles laid out the basics of a future joint state for the two nationalities. Michal Bosak, once acclaimed as "the richest Slovak in America," founded the Bosak State Bank in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Bosak came to the U.S. in 1886 at age 16 and initially worked as a miner, going on to become a businessman whose ventures included the Bosak Manufacturing Company (a wine and liquor distribution business), the Bosak State Bank, a travel agency, and several financial institutions in northeastern Pennsylvania. Bosak was also a leader in the Slovak-American community, becoming a signatory to the Pittsburgh Agreement and the publisher of the weekly newspaper {Slovenska obrana}. All of Bosak's business and banking ventures ended during the Great Depression. 1918 The Pittsburgh Agreement was concluded by representatives of Czechs and Slovaks at a meeting of the American branch of the Narodni rada ceskoslovenska (Czechoslovak National Council) in Pittsburgh. The agreement endorsed a program for the struggle for a common state of Czecho-Slovakia and agreed that the new state would be a democratic republic in which Slovakia would have its own administration, legislature, and courts. 1923 Reverend Jaroslav Pelikan was born in Akron, Ohio. He is a Lutheran theologian and one of the leading church historians of the 20th century. 1933 Michael Novak, a prolific Roman Catholic theologian and political writer, was born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. In his works, he became a spokesman not only for Slovaks, but for all ethnic groups in the United States as well, in such works as Concepts of Ethnicity and Unmeltable Ethnics: Politics and Culture in American Life. 1941 Out of This Furnace, the story of three generations of Slovaks working in steel mills, was published by Thomas Bell (Belejcak), an American-born writer who depicted the lives of Slovak immigrants in many of his works. 1944 The U.S. Navy commissioned the USS Durik, a warship named in honor of Joseph Edward Durik, a Slovak serviceman from Southwest, Pennsylvania, who had died as a result of an accidental torpedo firing on the USS Meredith. 1945 Slovakia, which had been set up as an independent state by Nazi Germany, was reincorporated into Czechoslovakia. This led to an exodus of some 5,000 officials of the wartime Slovak Republic. 1948 The take-over of Czechoslovakia by the communists spurred another wave of emigration. Many of these emigres were members of the intelligentsia and post-war political figures. 1953 Jan Slezak, who had immigrated to the United States in 1914, was appointed Assistant Secretary of Defense. Slezak was trained as an engineer and spent much of his career in manufacturing, including the manufacture of armaments. His was the highest political position achieved by a Slovak outside of Slovakia. 1957 Historian Viktor Mamatey published The United States and East Central Europe, for which he won the George Louis Beer Prize. Mamatey's father was Albert Mamatey, a signer of the Pittsburgh Agreement. 1958 Two hundred intellectuals of Czech and Slovak origin founded the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences in America. 1961 The Chicago Blackhawks professional hockey team won the Stanley Cup with the help of star center Stan Mikita, born in Sokolce, Slovakia, in 1940. During his career, Mikita won the Art Ross Trophy, the Hart Memorial Trophy (twice), the Lady Byng Trophy, and the Lester Patrick Trophy. 1966 A Slovak room was established at the Immigration Archives of the University of Minnesota. 1968 Another wave of Slovak immigration was fueled by the Soviet Union's invasion of Czechoslovakia, the Soviet response to the cultural and political liberalization of the Prague Spring. Many members of this wave belonged to the intelligentsia. Unlike earlier immigrants, they generally did not seek out Slovak immigrant groups. 1969 Joseph M. Gaydos, born in Braddock, Pennsylvania, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served for 24 years. He was the first Slovak-American to serve in the U. S. Congress. 1970 The Slovak World Congress was founded in New York. It became the leading organization of Slovaks living abroad, and represented associations, institutions, and individuals. 1972 Astronaut Eugene A. Cernan was commander of the Apollo 17 lunar mission and the eleventh man to walk on the moon. Cernan was born in Chicago, in 1934, to a Czech mother and a Slovak father. After the end of the manned lunar missions, he acted as senior U.S. negotiator in discussions with the Soviet Union on the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. 1976 D. (Daniel) Carleton Gajdusek, born in 1923, in Yonkers, of a Slovak father and a Hungarian mother, won the Noble Prize for Physiology or Medicine together with Baruch S. Blumberg. The prize recognized his work on the causal agents of various degenerative neurological disorders. 1991 A total of 1.8 million people identified themselves as being of Slovak ancestry in the 1990 U.S. Census. After Slovakia, this is the world's second largest concentration of people who are Slovak or of Slovak descent.
Source:
.....We have found for your Information .... :-)
Czechs and Slovaks in Canada
The former Czechoslovakia was comprised of two major national groups—the Czechs and the Slovaks. They formed politically distinct Czech and Slovak Republics after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the tear-down of the Berlin Wall in the early 1990s. The two groups speak closely related languages and share a common ancestry rooted in the Great Moravian Kingdom of the 9th century, but since the beginning of the 10th century, the Czechs and the Slovaks have followed different paths in their historical and cultural development. Profile provided courtesy of the 1984 Alberta People Kit
Vltava (Moldau)
Bedrich Smetana Czech National Composer
Antonin Dvorak Czech National Composer
Dvor??k wrote nine symphonies, of which the best known must be the Symphony No. 9, From the New World, written in 1893 and first performed in New York in the same year. This New World Symphony derived some inspiration from a Czech translation of Longfellow's poem Hiawatha. Works for solo instrument and orchestra by Dvor??k include an important Cello Concerto, a Violin Concerto and a slightly less well known Piano Concerto. The Romance for solo violin and orchestra, and Silent Woods for cello and orchestra, make interesting and attractive additions to solo repertoire for both instruments. Other orchestral works include two sets of Slavonic Dances, arrangements of works originally designed for piano duet, and three Slavonic Rhapsodies. Overtures include My Home, In Nature's Realm, Othello, Hussite and Carnival. To this one may add the Scherzo capriccioso of 1883, a Polonaise, written four years before, and the splendid Serenade for Strings of 1875. The Symphonic Variations meet the challenge of an apparently intractable theme and the ten Legends were orchestrated by the composer from his original piano duet version. To this may be added the symphonic poems The Noonday Witch, The Golden Spinning-Wheel and The Wild Dove, works that seem to explore new ground, with their narrative content. text courtesy of http://www.naxos.com
Leos Janacek Czech National Composer
(born Hukvaldy, 3 July 1854; died Moravsk?? Ostrava, 12 August 1928). He was a chorister at the Augustinian 'Queen's' Monastery in Old Brno, where the choirmaster Pavel Krizkovsk?? took a keen interest in his musical education. After completing his basic schooling he trained as a teacher and, except for a period at the Prague Organ School, he spent 1872-9 largely as a schoolteacher and choral conductor in Brno. In 1879 he enrolled at the Leipzig Conservatory, where he developed his interest in composition under the strict and systematic supervision of Leo Grill. After a month in Vienna he returned to Brno in May 1880; there he became engaged to one of his pupils, Zdenka Schulzov??, whom he married in July 1881. In Brno, Janacek took up his former activities, and he also founded and directed an organ school and edited a new musical journal, Hudebn? listy. After composing his first opera, S??rka, he immersed himself in collecting and studying Moravian folk music, which bore fruit in a series of orchestral suites and dances and in a one-act opera, The Beginning of a Romance. This was favourably received in 1894, but Janacek withdrew it after six performances and set to work on Jenufa. During the long period of composition of Jenufa (1894-1903), Janacek rethought his approach to opera and to composition in general. He largely abandoned the number opera, integrated folksong firmly into his music and formulated a theory of 'speech-melody', based on the natural rhythms and the rise and fall of the Czech language, which was to influence all his ensuing works and give them a particular colour through their jagged rhythms and lines. Jenufa was soon followed by other operatic ventures, but his reputation in Brno was as a composer of instrumental and choral music and as director of the Organ School. Outside Moravia he was almost unknown until the Prague premiere of Jenufa in 1916. The creative upsurge of a man well into his 60s is explained partly by the success of Jenufa in Prague and abroad, partly by his patriotic pride in the newly acquired independence of his country, and perhaps most of all by his passionate, though generally distant, attachment to Kamila St?¶sslov??, the young wife of an antique dealer in Pisek, Bohemia. Between 1919 and 1925 Janacek composed three of his finest operas, all on subjects with special resonances for him: Katya Kabanova with its neglected wife who takes a lover, The Cunning Little Vixen with its sympathetic portrayal of animals (and particularly the female fox), and The Makropoulos Affair with the 'ageless' woman who fascinates all men. Each was given first in Brno and soon after in Prague. His 70th birthday was marked by a doctorate from the Masaryk University in Brno. Early in 1926 he wrote the Sinfonietta for orchestra, characteristic in its blocks of sound and its forceful repetitions, and later that year his most important choral work, the Glagolitic Mass. While performance of his music carried his fame abroad, he started work on his last opera, From the House of the Dead, which he did not live to see performed. It received its premiere in April 1930 in a version prepared by his pupils Bretislav Bakala and Osvald Chlubna. Janacek's reputation outside Czechoslovakia and German-speaking countries was first made as an instrumental composer. He has since come to be regarded not only as a Czech composer worthy to be ranked with Smetana and Dvorak, but also as one of the most substantial and original opera composers of the 20th century. Extracted with permission from
  All Information contained on the web site and any links is believed to be accurate,
but should not be relied upon without verification. All properties are subject to prior sale, change or withdrawal.
Neither broker(s), agent(s) nor csplanet.com shall be responsible for any typographical errors, misinformation or misprints, and shall be held totally harmless. Accuracy of square footage, lot size, and other information is not guaranteed. © 2005 by csplanet.com |
|
