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LAWRENCE \u2014 Martin Nedbal says the new book he helped to write and edit is not only the first English-language survey of music in the Czech Republic but the first to provide a modern analysis of the subject in the polyglot state.<\/p>\n
Nedbal, a professor in the University of Kansas School of Music, co-wrote and co-edited \u201cA History of Music in the Czech Lands\u201d<\/a> (Cambridge University Press) with Kelly St. Pierre of Wichita State University and Hana Vlhov\u00e1-W\u00f6rner of the University of Basel and Masaryk Institute, Prague.<\/p>\n Nedbal said the book takes a contemporary approach to the multilayered and tangled ethnolinguistic history of the country. Even the book\u2019s title, \u201cthe Czech Lands,\u201d reflects that.<\/p>\n The Czech native translated half of the book\u2019s 32 chapters that were originally written in the Czech language, editing them with an eye toward the overall project as he went.<\/p>\n \u201cSome of the Czech authors, when they heard it was to be a history book, imagined it would be an objective narrative \u2014 an encyclopedic approach,\u201d Nedbal said. \u201cBut … we realized that that’s not how people approach historical writing these days. History cannot be presented in a supposedly objective narrative because everyone has their own version of history. So rather than pretending to be objective, it’s better to just present case studies with specific narratives and specific viewpoints.\u201d<\/p>\n Thus, in addition to chapters on various forms of historically Czech music \u2014 starting with 11th <\/sup>century sacred Latin chant and continuing through anti-communist rock \u2014 there are chapters on Romani, Jewish and Slovak styles. And despite their roles as the undisputed top two composers in Czech history, Dvo\u0159\u00e1k<\/a> and Smetana<\/a> don\u2019t get their own chapters. Only Leo\u0161 Jan\u00e1\u010dek<\/a>, who remains one of the world\u2019s most performed opera composers nearly a century after his death, does.<\/p>\n