In January 1897 Janáček was asked by schoolmaster Josef Vávra to contribute some pieces to a publication of harmonized Slavonic folk melodies for harmonium, an organlike instrument fashionable in Moravia at the time. Eventually, in October 1900, he contributed three pieces (Nos. 1, 2, and 10 of the present work), but by this time he had gone beyond simple folk arrangements into the realm of character pieces. After those three appeared in 1901, two more (Nos. 4 and 7) were published in the series the following year.

Then in 1908, when Prague critic Jan Branberger expressed interest in publishing some of his pieces, Janáček sent him these, transcribed for piano, as well as some newly composed pieces. Branberger wrote back enthusiastically asking about the “poetic content” of the as yet untitled pieces. The composer obliged with brief individual descriptions containing musical examples, saying: “The little pieces On an Overgrown Path contain distant reminiscences. . . . Whenever I have a moment to indulge myself undisturbed in these recollections, then I find another such little piece comes to mind. It is on an overgrown path.”

When negotiations with Branberger became unsettled, Janáček sent the pieces along with some added pieces to Brno publisher Arnošt Piša, who complained that they were too difficult but finally issued a set of ten—with poetic titles—in 1911. (Three of the newer pieces and two unpublished ones from the first years of the project were published after Janáček’s death as Series II without programmatic titles.) The success of On an Overgrown Path was a new experience for Janáček, who had won local recognition but had yet to experience the international acclaim that his opera Jenůfa would bring in 1916.

Though Janáček was nearing fifty when he began composing On an Overgrown Path, it is considered an early work because his great late flowering was yet to come. He had taken a hiatus from working on his opera Jenůfa, during which time he was developing his “speech melody” technique (related to inflections of spoken Czech) that would permeate his later compositions. On an Overgrown Path was one of the first works to show this new direction, which coincided with a deeper personal resonance in his music. His comments to Branberger emphasize just how autobiographical the work is. In particular, his grief at the death of his beloved twenty-year-old daughter Olga in 1903 cast its unmistakable shadow over the later pieces in the work. In the following brief descriptions of this afternoon’s selections, the quoted phrases are Janáček’s:

Our Evenings—The title (from the 1911 publication and so presumably approved by Janáček) gives the only clue to its tender, sometimes nostalgic content. Scholars relate its violent central outburst to verbal fighting with his wife, with whom he had a difficult relationship.

Words Fail!—“The bitterness of disappointment,” wrote Janáček about this beautiful lament full of inner unrest.

Good Night!—“Perhaps you’ll hear parting in the piece based on [here he gave a musical example] to which the words ‘good night’ are suited.”

—©Jane Vial Jaffe