Nabokov, Nicolas [Nikolay]

Neruda, Alois

(b Kostelec nad Labem, 20 June 1837; d Prague, 25 Jan 1899). Czech cellist. He was the son of the teacher and composer Josef Neruda (b Svémyslice, nr Čelákovice, 14 Nov 1804; d Vodolka, 8 April 1876) – not to be confused with the organist Josef Neruda (1807–75) – who after studying at Prague taught at Všetaty (1822–4), Kostelec nad Labem (1824–38) and Vodolka (1838–73), and whose outstanding pupils were the opera singers Teresa Stolz and her sister Ludmila Ricci-Stolz; he was also one of the earliest composers of polkas. Alois studied from 1849 to 1855 at the Prague Conservatory, where he was a pupil of Goltermann, and afterwards played in the theatre orchestra at Temesvár (1855–8). Following military service, in 1866 he became principal cellist of the Provisional Theatre, Prague, and continued in a similar position at the National Theatre from its inauguration in 1881 until 1892. He became well known as a chamber music player, and took part in the first performances of several of Dvořák's works and Smetana's string quartet From my Life. After a brief period in Budapest, in 1892 he moved to Vienna, where he remained for six years and was active among the Czech community. He published a concise cello tutor (Prague, 1886) in collaboration with Josef Srb-Debrnov. His brother Josef was a choirmaster at Kostelec nad Labem, and his sister Marie was a singer.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ČSHS

J. Srb-Debrnov: Slovník hudebních umělců slovanských [Dictionary of Slavonic composers] (MS, CZ-Pnm)

Obituary, Dalibor, xxi (1899), 67

Z. Nejedlý: Bedřich Smetana, ii (Prague, 1925, 2/1950–54), 328

B. Urie: Čeští violoncellisté [Czech cellists] (Prague, 1946), 74

I. Měrka: Violoncello: dějiny, literatura, osobnosti [The cello: its history, literature and personalities] (Ostrava, 1995), 58

JOHN CLAPHAM

Neruda, Johann Baptist Georg [Jan Křtitel Jiří]

(b ?Rosice, c1711; d Dresden, 11 Oct 1776). Czech composer, active in Germany. He trained as a violinist and cellist, and was for several years a member of a theatre orchestra in Prague. In 1741 or 1742 he entered the service of Count Rutowski in Dresden, and by 1750 he was a violinist in the court orchestra. He remained in Dresden until his death.

Neruda is known to have composed at least 97 works, although many are now lost. In the 18th century copies of his works were disseminated throughout Bohemia, Germany and Sweden; the Breitkopf catalogue advertised 68 works between 1762 and 1771. His music shows clear signs of Italian influence, although in his use of dynamics he was evidently also influenced by the Mannheim School. The melodic style harks back to the Baroque principle of Fortspinnung, though this is modified by the use of regular phrase lengths. The textures are mostly homophonic, often with figured bass. The violin works make great demands on the performer.

Neruda was also active as a teacher; two of his sons, Ludwig (Ludvík) and Anton Friedrich (Antonín Bedřich), became accomplished violinists and were members of the Dresden court orchestra. According to Dlabač, Neruda was a brother of Jan Chryzostomus Neruda (b Rosice, 1 Dec 1705; d Prague, 2 Dec 1763), who after a short period as a violinist at a Prague theatre entered the Premonstratensian monastery of Strahov in 1726, becoming succentor in 1733 and cantor and choirmaster ten years later.

WORKS

thematic catalogue in Pilková (1990)

Vocal: Les troqueurs (op), lost; 2 sacred works

Orch: 36 syms., incl. 1, A, ed. in The Symphony 1720–1840, ser. C, x (New York, 1984); 10 vn concs.; Bn Conc.; Hn Conc., E, ed. M. Sommerhalder (Edinburgh, 1992)

Chbr: 33 trio sonatas, most for 2 vn, bc, 6 pubd (Leipzig, 1764); Sonata, a, vn, bc, ed. S. Gerlach and Z. Pilková, Böhmische Violinsonaten, i (Munich, 1982); dances

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ČSHS

DlabacžKL

EitnerQ

Cyril, li (1925), 72

Z. Pilková: ‘Jan Jiří Neruda (c.1711–1776)’, HV, xxvii (1990), 99–126 [incl. Eng. summary]

Z. Pilková: ‘Jan Jiří (Johann Georg) Neruda (1711–1776)’, Beiträge zur Musikgeschichte Ostmittel-, Ost- und Südosteuropas, ed. H. Unverricht (Sinzig, 1999)

ZDEŇKA PILKOVÁ

Nerval, Gérard de [Labrunie, Gérard]

(b Paris, 22 May 1808; d Paris, 26 Jan 1855). French poet, writer and occasional librettist and music critic. He was perhaps the most musically orientated of the Romantic circle. In writings that are halfway to autobiography, he describes the place of music in his childhood: the songs his father sang to him are connected with the tragedy of his mother's early death (Promenades et souvenirs), and when he lived with his uncle Antoine Boucher the house was ‘full of melodious voices’ (Chansons et légendes du Valois). His taste for Renaissance poetry (Choix de poésies de Ronsard, Du Bellay, Baïf, 1830) led him to conceive of a close link existing between music and poetry. His career as a journalist and theatrical critic also allowed him to attend performances of opera, especially when he fell in love with Jenny Colon, a singer at the Opéra-Comique. It was at this time that he began to work with Dumas; they had a unique arrangement where each alternately claimed authorship of a libretto written in collaboration. In this way their first opera, Piquillo, appeared over Dumas' signature although it was Nerval who prepared the text. Nerval also collaborated with the Marquis de St Georges on La reine de Saba. In all, Nerval produced ten librettos between 1835 and 1850, for Elie Elwart and Limnander as well as Monpou. Berlioz used Nerval's 1827 translation of Goethe's Faust in parts of La damnation de Faust, which led Nerval to express rare displeasure: ‘Had he applied to me in 1846 I would have prepared verses which were more suitable to lyrical setting; however he preferred to solve the problem in the usual way, setting anything, something like the Gazette de Hollande, to music’.

Nerval's music criticism was also largely collaborative. He worked mostly with Théophile Gautier on La presse and it is possible that the articles signed ‘G’ were by Gérard rather than Gautier, particularly those on German music; he also contributed articles on music to Le messager and L'artiste. His music criticism is of value as he was one of the few Romantic writers on the subject who remained within the confines of music. He was perceptive in anticipating musical trends: ten years before Baudelaire's championship of Tannhäuser he gave a glowing review of Lohengrin at the Weimar Festival of 1850 and wrote a classic essay in music appreciation; he was the first to focus attention in France on Liszt's prowess as a composer at a time when the latter was world famous as a virtuoso pianist; and the first to introduce ballet as an integral part of the dramatic action, in L'imagier de Harlem (1851) with music by de Groot. In addition he was an innovator in making a serious attempt to collect the folksongs of France, particularly those of the Valois which he remembered from his childhood, in Chansons et légendes du Valois; these were published under various titles, Vieilles ballades françaises, Vieilles légendes etc., and in several newspapers between 1842 and 1852. Songs were also integrated with their texts in Sylvie, in Angélique, and finally in the ‘Mémorables’ which conclude Aurélia. Prose and verse merge in a subtle harmony of a kind seldom achieved, while music gives a depth of rhythm to the text.

Nerval was unfortunate in the fruitlessness of his collaborations with the leading composers of the day. La reine de Saba, now lost, was supposed to have been set by Meyerbeer; Liszt was to write the music for Les deux Faust, which never materialized; and Berlioz was reluctant to acknowledge Nerval as the official librettist for La damnation de Faust. The only operas to survive more than one performance, Piquillo (Monpou, 1837) and Les monténégrins (Limnander, 1849), were failures.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

J. Tiersot: La chanson populaire et les écrivains romantiques (Paris, 1931), 49–139

L. Guichard: ‘Un poète: Gérard de Nerval’, La musique et les lettres au temps du romantisme (Paris, 1955), 330–54

P. Bénichou: Nerval et la chanson folklorique (Paris, 1970)

A. Coeuroy: ‘Gérard de Nerval, critique musicale’, Ecrits de Paris, no.309 (1971), 109–17

E.F. Jensen: ‘Liszt, Nerval and Faust’, 19CM, v/2 (1981), 151–8

J. Bem: ‘L'autre de la chanson dans le texte nervalien’, Nerval: une poétique du rêve: Basle, Mulhouse, Fribourg 1986, ed. J. Huré, J. Jurt and R. Kopp (Paris, 1989)

G. de Nerval: Oeuvres complètes, ed. J. Guillaume and C. Pichois (Paris, 1989–93)

F. Claudon: La musique des romantiques (Paris, 1992)

A. RICHARD OLIVER/BÉATRICE DIDIER