Master of Fine Arts Jaroslav Šaroun
* 1943 †︎ 2021
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“Jaroslav Mihule, who is a specialist on Martinů, was to compose the music for them but he refused, probably because he did not have time. Time was running out and they did not have a composer who would create the music for them. They mentioned this to a woman who took care of them in that recreational facility and she thus sent them to us. (the composition’s choreographers Mr. Appelt, Mr. Libra and Mr. Svatoň). When they came to me they found me digging a hole in the ground, because we were installing a septic tank. They told me why they came and I invited them to come upstairs and I let them listen to the recording of my symphony so that they would know what they were buying and what kind of music I composed. They came with an idea that the male element should be somewhat more symphonic, and my composition thus suited them well. They had already prepared a concept, with the number of parts and their beginnings and a description of what would be performed during them. One of them even sang the initial tune to me. I actually later used it in the final composition. I completed four parts in several days, and then I struggled with the last one for several months. Afterwards I recorded it on the piano and they eventually synchronized it with the exercise. Half a year later it was performed in the Sokol gym in Újezd. Two groups rehearsed this performance and it got into the final stage where it awaited the decision whether it would be accepted or not”
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“Then there was the second hockey game in the World Championship in March 1969 when they succeeded. I was in Disk in Karlova Street at the time: we had a great opera studio in the Unitaria building and we performed The Marriage of Figaro there. I remember that as we were in the middle of the play, a cardboard sign appeared somewhere in the back of the audience and it announced the score. This happened several times and the score was getting better and better and it was always followed by great cheering. When the performance was over, I left the theatre and I walked over Charles Bridge and up Nerudova Street to the Army Artistic Ensemble in Pohořelec. When I crossed the tram tracks in front of Charles Bridge, I could see many people in the streets. It was already getting dark. Cars had their lights on and they were honking the horns. All the people hurriedly headed in one direction, as if it had been organized, but there were no mobile phones or internet at that time. Praguers spontaneously rushed to the statue of St Wenceslav to celebrate our hockey team and to alleviate their own pain at least a bit. There were great crowds rushing against me on Charles Bridge, and it seemed strange. There were hundreds of people, and only several people, including me, walked in the opposite direction.”
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“We were to come back to Prague in four days. We were in good mood, because we expected that we would return to our regular work in the Army Artistic Ensemble in Pohořelec. Instead, we saw other units digging their trenches there, and another part of the unit was scattered in the forest and they had to do some tasks there. We, army musicians, were supposed to – let’s say – create peaceful life in the barracks. All of them, however, shared the same attitude. When we returned and we saw our barracks with signs painted on the walls which expressed the nation’s reaction, it felt better and we began to see Prague as you know it from he documentaries. There were signs everywhere on the walls, and therefore I could understand that the other soldiers who came from Russia saw what they had been told, whereas the first wave of Russian soldiers only saw a peaceful country.”
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Celé nahrávky
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Praha, 13.05.2014
(audio)
délka: 03:09:50
Celé nahrávky jsou k dispozici pouze pro přihlášené uživatele.
Something good should remain after us
Jaroslav Šaroun was born July 22, 1943 in Dobruška, where the Šaroun family has lived for many generations. His father was a photographer by trade, but at the same time he was also an active beekeeper. After the war he became the chairman of the municipal administration office in Dobruška, and he also established a company for fruit processing and conservation in the town. Thanks to his excellent management skills he was appointed to the ministry of industry and later he became the managing director of the state-owned company Distilleries and Canning Factories. He also assisted with the formation of the state-owned company Benzina. Jaroslav has been interested in music since he was a little boy. At first he studied piano under Václav Drnec. In 1957 he was admitted to the State Conservatoire, where he studied in the class of Mil. Kabeláč. He followed with his studies at the Music and Dance Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (HAMU) under Prof. E. Hlobil and he completed his studies in 1966 in the class of V. Dobiáš. Jaroslav did his military service in the Army Artistic Ensemble (AUS) in Prague, where he stayed until 1970. He served as an accompanist in the ballet department, and at the same time he already assisted as an accompanist at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (AMU) and later at the State Conservatoire. From 1976 he was an extern in the keyboard instruments department in the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, and in 1990 he became a full-time member. Regarding his activity as a composer, his best-known work is the music composed for the men‘s choreography for the 1980 Spartakiada sports rally titled ‘Blue Track Suit and White T-shirts.‘ He received a state award for this work. Jaroslav Šaroun died on 25 March 2021.
