Prague, 2017 —

With cutting-edge contemporary idioms, Czech-American composer Karel Husa’s music expresses superbly the drama and beauty of Czech culture and history. I first became aware of his music when I heard the University of Michigan Symphony Band premiere his powerful piece, Hudba pro Prahu 1968, commemorating the 1968 Soviet military occupation of Czechoslovakia.

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Twenty-some years later, I met him in 1992 in Brno while performing again at the International Music Festival. He was the more celebrated guest, coming home for the first time since the Czech revolution opened the country after 40 years of Soviet oppression.

A Peaceful Place

Elizabeth and I first visited the Czech village of Lidice on our visit to Prague in the fall of 2017. The phrase, “a peaceful place,” is from the poem, “The Murder of Lidice” by Edna St. Vincent Millay.

A charming Czech village, Lidice was brutally destroyed by the Gestapo in 1942. On June 10, all the village men were shot, the children taken away to orphanages or gas chambers, the women sent to concentration camps, and the entire village was razed.

For history, photos, and insights into the Lidice atrocity, go to Elizabeth Cernota Clark’s blog, Lidice Lives.

My music expresses the dark brutality of the atrocity.

Rainbow

Though horrible tragedy struck this place, now the sloping lawn and babbling creek are a safe haven to peaceful spirits. Looking for the Rainbow, a sequel to Lidice Remembered, continues in complex rhythmic counterpoint of darker sonorities, evoking a restless spirit of searching, anticipating. Written during the COVID pandemic for Karla Hamelin and her Texas State cello students, Looking for the Rainbow expresses both the uncertainty and hopefulness in our collective struggle to survive the storms of disease and violence. A beautiful memorial rose garden in Lidice celebrates the transformative power of hope.

Where My Home Is

“Kde domov můj“

national anthem of the Czech Republic

After the war, concerned British citizens led by Sir Barnett Stross convinced the world that the village should be rebuilt. The women of Lidice were able to return and were given beautiful new Czech-style homes in a planned village next to the Memorial Gardens.

Another piece celebrates this hopeful outcome of the story. A New Lidice is scored for SSAA treble choir and string trio. Lyrics are taken in part from a stirring Stross speech, but the voices are those of the women who bravely rebuilt their community.

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