Karel Husa: Music for Prague 1968 (1968)

Karel Husa (1921-2016): Music for Prague 1968 (1968) -- The Louisville Orchestra diretta da Jorge Mester --
I. Introduction and Fanfare
II. Aria [5:56]
III. Interlude [12:16]
IV. Toccata and Chorale [16:15]
- photo by Josef Kudelka (Soviet Army in Prague 1968) ---
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[@jamesmarra7043]

I studied musical composition with Karel Husa during the mid-1970's while a graduate student at Cornell University. During that time, I enjoyed the great pleasure of counting Chris Rouse and Steve Stucky as student colleagues. The high quality of their music and their subsequent professional successes speak volumes about Husa's musical mentoring and his ongoing influence on contemporary music. Music for Prague has continued, since my first encounter with it in 1968, to touch me deeply. I find that its message of hope and its celebration of the dignity of human kind continues to resonate in today's troubled and violent world. RIP dear teacher.

[@jaycurlee]

I played this. I believe it was my freshman year of college in a concert band, conducted by Maestro Husa. Unforgettable music.

[@kerrichristopher740]

I played the orchestral arrangement, which I prefer, under Husa many years ago. An amazing experience working with the master. A remarkable score, as contemporary and relevant today as when it was written. A work that deserves great respect and reverence from anyone who programs and performs it.

[@doromidi]

We love the music of Karl Husa. As a teenager in Ithaca, New York, Prof. Husa was a neighbor along with his wife and children. This is beautiful and one can realize how and why he won the Pulitzer Prize for music!

[@doromidi]

A wonderful and gifted former conductor of the Cornell Orchestra and neighbor of ours in Ithaca, New York.

[@ericnk58]

The chorale at the end, the Hussite hymn, "All ye who are God's warriors," is so splendid. It is heard in Tabor and Blanik from Smetana's Ma Vlast and from Janáček's The Excursions of Mr. Brouček (Part II, Mr. Brouček's Journey to the 15th Century). Husa was such a genius.

[@ivankovar9548]

oh dear ... i cried ... a helpless conscript in the czechoslovak army at that time. for the non-czechs - the closing choral is "kdoz su bozi bojovnici" from the hussite wars of the 15th century. the wheel of history wheel grinds on ...

[@robertbyrnes6947]

Mr. Husa was my composition teacher at the time, and I played this at Ithaca College (this orchestral version) in 1972, I believe. It was just so cool. I've been looking for a recording of the orchestral version of the piece, so I was thrilled to find this. It's incredibly powerful music - moving and wonderfully composed. It's hard to choose, but I think the 2nd and 4th movements are my favorites, although it was really cool to just sit there onstage and watch all the percussion instruments go at it in the 3rd movement.

[@jesstiger81]

When you know and understand the inspiration for this piece, it is incredibly moving. Wow.

[@violafury6258]

I first heard this in 1970, when the California Honor Band played it. I was in the Honor Orchestra and we played "Adagio for Strings" and Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony. A good friend and Bass player and teacher and I have been having this discussion regarding "why is there so very little good band music written?", stating the obvious of course, that there are many more working and community orchestras than concert bands, but it got me to reminiscing about this remarkable work and what an impression it made on a 14-year old kid, who was just coming out of the 1st, 3rd and "emergency" positions on the viola! I also remember the year of 1968 being one of horror, from the Tet offensive to the Invasion of Prague, plus the assassinations of RFK and MLK, and the Chicago Dems Convention. A violent year all around, and Prague just was the last straw. Living in a very politically aware household didn't help; but hearing Mr. Husa's "Music for Prague" is akin to playing a Shostakovich String Quartet. You feel the agony of the people involved and are so moved and shocked. Music does many, many things (I did read the comments and cannot quarrel with anything anyone said) but depicting the feelings of a nation in strife, at war, under siege, or beleaguered by dictatorial governments, is something music does better than any prose, poetry or other art can possibly make us feel.

[@davidbeatty3540]

I see that I 'thumbed you up' before -- and when I cannot remember. Simply to add something new (it seems time, high time... ) on the verge of Russia - Ukraine (in 2022), it seemed time to add a comment in February 22, to something that is out of fashion now, perhaps to bring it to new ears that you and I apparently may remember. Perhaps a lot of other people will not know, or remember...

[@KahluaBomb]

I love the aria, that saxophone part is just amazingly fun to play. Thanks for uploading this, i've been wanting to hear a good version of this and this definitely fits the bill.

[@geoffharvard8722]

In high school one of my hobbies was short wave radio listening. Following the news of the Praque Spring, one night Iin August 1968 I was sitting in my bed in the sanctuary of my room with my German Shepherd up in bed with me listening to the English language service of Radio Prague. At some point the program went silent. Not even dead carrier, but all the way out. I knew immediately what had happened. My adolescent mind believed at the time that we should have moved American armor permissively from Bavaria into Czechoslavakia and dared the Soviets to attack American troops, but Lyndon Johnson was not that kind of guy. We played this piece in college band, and it was very challenging and satisfying.

[@cademan1able]

My high school band is playing this piece this year. Our director told us the story behind the piece and it amazes me how Husa used the different instruments to symbolize the many different things and how expressive this piece is. I'm looking forward to performing the third movement (since I am a percussionist) and this being one of the last pieces I play for my high school career (since I am a senior)

[@abelsantos76]

For those of you that may be interested, the La Phil did a couple of concert series, called “Thr Shadow of Stalin”, with music that was either inspired by or written bc of the Cold War or the then current outlook or experience of what it was like living under the umbrella of a stalinistic umbrella. Music for Prague is in this series. I was there at the performance of the orchestral version. Not as profound and thought provoking as some of the experiences the people of these comments can and have experienced with direct experience with the composer, but it was my 1st experience listening to the orchestral version. It definitely elevated what I thought about this piece already, having playing 1st horn on the wind band version of it before hearing it with the Phil. And in LA with Salonen, his attention to detail was superb and that much more understood as to why this piece was written, and still is (in my opinion) one of the most influential historic pieces of the 20th century for the wind band idiom, and certainly underrated orchestral version.

[@NeonKatt13]

I. 0:00 II. 5:56 III. 12:16 IV. 16:02

[@walterhorn1111]

Karel Husa was my composition teacher at I.C. He called me "Lazy Liadov."

[@garyscheele5118]

A wonderful recording ... Thank you.

[@davidhudzinski5023]

Our High School Wind Ensemble(Haverling Central School, Bath NY) conducted by Karl Husa performed Music for Prague, in 1969...

[@chrismontoya7831]

Best part is from 0:00 to 23:18. Thank me later.

[@davidbeatty3540]

ah, but the hair stood up on my arms at 3:08 with the cresc. into the trumpets. Played this in college band about 2 years after 1968...

[@kuang-licheng402]

of course this is a better version than the other one on KZbin

[@d.thomasgochenour8531]

The photo accompanying this moving piece of music is of Budapest and the 1956 invasion of Soviet forces, 12 years earlier than Prague '68.

[@ropynka]

Believe it or not, the photo is from Prague, Revolucni street. No Budapest.

[@ericnk58]

And the sad thing is, after being invaded by the Soviets in 1956, the Hungarians sent a force of their own to Czechoslovakia alongside that of the Soviets, the Poles and the Bulgarians in 1968.

[@375GTB]

Ferguson, Missouri, 2014! Welcome to Kent State, O.H.I.O. May 5th, 1970...

[@Psalm51V15]

Yeah, I remember the foreign tanks invading Ferguson.

[@padraicfanning7055]

Psalm51V15 You joke, but there’s a chance that Trump might actually do something to that effect.

[@AjiSabaki]

The original version of this was for concert band. I heard Dr. Revelli conduct the University of Michigan Symphonic Band in the accustically wonderful Hill Auditorium in 1969 with Karel Husa in the audience.

[@sgsmozart]

I heard the Michigan Symphony Band under Revelli play this piece in 1969 at Foothill College. CA....when they were on tour.

[@AjiSabaki]

@@sgsmozart The work was composed to commemorate the invasion of Prague in the summer of 1968 by the Soviet Union. During the summer of 1970, my family took a road trip through Eastern Bloc countries. Intourist did not allow the leg of our trip to Crimea. My Father's Father was close personal friends with Kliment Voroshilov at the locomotive factory where they both worked prior to immigrating to Detroit in 1910 where Grampa worked as a toolmaker for Fisher Body. We drove through Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. The only place with modern toilet paper on a roll was in Leningrad, as it was called then. The Soviet Union also lacked phonebooks. While driving home from Mich. State U. I stopped by Ford Auditorium to purchase tickets for a future concert of the Detroit Sym. Orch. Eugene Ormandy was scheduled to guest conduct that night but he got ill and Maxim Shostakovich filled in. That was about 2 months after he defected to W. Germany. I met both Maxim and his son Dmitri backstage after the concert. Feel free to email me at [e-mail] Check out my animation: kzbin.info/www/bejne/o6SweWqLgqaAiZI

[@havokmusicinc]

Having played the concert arrangement, I believe I prefer this orchestral version.

[@liamdysoco4832]

Gotta play the toccata for an audition. Pray for me

[@MrInterestingthings]

What's to understand ? The last 60 years of film music has been quoting Husa,Ligeti,Penderski,Bartok Druckman etc and u get it when u feel it and no one turns your attention to it. This is descriptive, frightening sometmes harrowing experience. U know what it is -it's an emotional crisis . Unsure of what discomfort is comig next. 20th century music needs little exploration it's in your bones. Hadyn and order and symmetry need an explanation. Imagine crawling in the sewers ...

[@silkcitymusicfactory]

The balance of the orchestral arrangement sounds weird after playing it in a symphonic band. I wish the brass was louder. The trumpets are not as loud as the vibraphone... that's not right.

[@kobasian]

*7.8.1921 - †14.12.2016

[@joepangelo]

Well, that could just be because of who mic placement during recording. Just saying. I agree, though. More brass!

[@justsomerandom4583]

Played dem PHAT timpani beatz yo

[@brcic5409]

i wished I would know all these commenters in real life .. that would be wonderful.

[@해찬아우리집주소는]

16:15

[@Ota_ku69]

Shame this only 18,477 view while dumb "shake it off is taking over the internet. I'm afraid future generations specifically in America may never understand what real music is.

[@jimy199]

There is no such thing as a concept of what music is "supposed" to be or what makes music "real". It's more relative than definite. To different people, like a kid in Los Angeles might be rap music, to John Cage it's silence and the sound that people create during silence, and to me it's everything since I'm an aspiring musicologist. Shake It Off is just as much music as Karel Husa's Music for Prague is music. Is Music for Prague more intellectual than Shake It Off? Of course it is. Music is for everyone's enjoyment. You may want to listen to Prague, but people today are more likely to listen Shake It Off. It's just how the times are. If you want to be musically accurate, modern bands and musicians are literally like "classical" chamber groups. If you want to educate people on classical music, you should first stop being rude about people's taste in music.