Let us sing together, but let us sing properly and without mistakes. If Brno and Moravia owes someone for its choir tradition and reputation, then it is Ferdinand Vach.
Pěvecké sdružení moravských učitelů (The Singers’ Association of Moravian Teachers) is a name that sounds like a parody today and it would raise at least one silly reaction even at the period of its activity between the World Wars. This age was not only constitutionally aware, building and elegant, but also futuristic, poetic, surrealistic and dadaistic. A serious and honored institution like Vach’s choir of teachers probably did not initiated the actual founding of the Singers’ Association of Kocourkov Teachers, but it, without a doubt, influenced its´name. It is not in any case to make light of Vach´s work, but the reminder of the popular choir, which was founded in Kroměříž at the beginning of twentieth century. It must be mentioned that even though “Kocouři” (Tomcats) were an ironic and parody group, they sang perfectly and they would agree with the requirements and results of Ferdinand Vach.
“Ferdinand Vach, conductor. Oh, why did I even touch the baton during the Amarus premiere in Kroměříž! I regret it even today. Amarus “floated”. Butterflies near the orchestra flew in panic. I will offer him not one, but all my choirs.” This brief note was written by Leoš Janáček only a year after presenting his cantata Amarus, which he conducted in 1900 in Kroměříž, at that time with the choir of the singers’ association Moravan1. Its choir master was Ferdinand Vach, who came to Kroměříž in 1886 as principal of a musical school, which was associated with Moravan. In 1903 he founded his own ensemble, which performed for the first time under the name Učitelský dorost kroměřížského pedagogia (Teacher Youth of the Kroměříž Pedagogium) and it became the basis for Pěvecké sdružení moravských učitelů (The Singers’ Association of Moravian Teachers), which still exists today. Also Vachův sbor moravských učitelek (The Vach´s Moravian Choir of Women Teachers) is active till today, but it has only been called like that since 1956. Ferdinand Vach founded the Moravský smíšený sbor učitelek (Moravian Mixed Choir of Women Teachers) in 1912, but he did not name it after himself.
Ferdinand Vach (25 February 1860, Jažlovice – 16 February 1939, Brno) was born into a family of village teacher, which also meant that his father was an active musician during that period. As a child he was a vocalist in Strahov Monastery and he sang in the choir of Žofín Academy; later he began to study at the Organ School in Prague, he worked as a teacher in schools in Central Bohemia and he also stood in for his brother as choir master in Banat. After graduating from the Organ School he worked in Prague, in itinerant companies and he was conductor of Brno National Theatre (although in that period even this theatre was itinerant). The peak of his career, which made Ferdinand Vach famous throughout the world, began ironically when he moved to a small town. Kroměříž, Moravan, Pěvecké sdružení moravských učitelů, Moravský smíšený sbor učitelek... yes, it might sound silly today.
Pěvecké sdružení moravských učitelů is closely connected to Leoš Janáček, they performed his choirs and they were extraordinarily successful with those choirs. Janáček sent Vach‘s choirs Dež víš a Klekánica in 1904, but the true test of the choir‘s qualities was the difficult Maryčka Magdónova. The successful study was the basis for other Bezruč choirs Kantor Halfar and 70 000, next was Česká legie (Czech Legion) and the choral drama Potulný šílenec (Wandering Madman) using the text of Rabindranáth Thákur. The association’s cooperation with Janáček was mutually beneficial: Janáček’s top choral works were actually performed and the choir received extreme tasks, which did not let them fade away on the part of quality.
In the first decade of their existence the choir performed approximately 200 concerts, mostly in Moravia, in Bohemia and within Austria-Hungary. But they also performed in Paris, in Germany, and Switzerland, also their success in Russia was spectacular, whose Orthodoxy tradition is not easy to compete with. Members of the choir did not come from one place, they were summoned by letter to intensive training sessions and the number of performances exceeded the number of rehearsals (it is not ironic, as it might seem; to speak simply and understandably by today’s standards they rehearsed a programme and went on tour). Ferdinand Vach also conducted the orchestra of Beseda brněnská besides his PSMU, he was a professor of choral singing and choir management at Brno conservatoire.
If we want to speak about Brno as a choral city, it is thanks to Ferdinand Vach, who was at the birth of the elite interpretation tradition. It was no longer only about patriotic singing and the actual fact that the choir even assembled, they were technically and expressively perfect and refined performances. This was also aided by the choice of repertoire. Leoš Janáček and Vítězslav Novák are today irrefutable classics, but at that time they were contemporaries. The endurance of the foundations which Vach created is supported by the fact that the majority of the mentioned ensembles are still functional and alive. And we are still not talking about choirs which grew up on this tradition and which are still being established. Brno Madrigalists, Brno Academic Choir, Lumír, Vox Iuvenalis, Láska opravdivá (True Love), Foerster and Amititia, whose merging created the Brno Czech Philharmonic Choir, the offshoot of this tradition is also the extra quality choir of Brno opera… we apologize to those we have not mentioned. I do not want to analyse who is closer to the tradition and who is developing it further. The figure of Ferdinand Vach still lives in it, even though his name has vanished from general memory. Shared accommodation, offices, services and space has not yet steamrollered over the shared singing.
Today it is 155 years since Ferdinand Vach’s birth. Besides spectacular choirmaster and teacher activities he was also a composer. Understandably he wrote choral pieces of all kinds, but also orchestral and chamber compositions and he even composed one opera.
His decorations and honours (Wikipedia source)
Order of the Crown of Italy (1923)
Order of St. Sava (1928)
Order of Isabella of Castile (1932)
State Award of Czechoslovakia (1927)
Chairman of the Moravian Composer’s Club (1929)
Member of the Czech Academy of Science and Art (1933)
Honourable mention of the Faculty of Arts of Charles University (1930)
Honorary member of Morava, Beseda brněnská and of both choirs he founded.
Since 1992 there has been the Ferdinand Vach Award. It is awarded to choir masters of adult choirs and is awarded by the Czech Choir Association, Choir Conductor Association of AHUV and the Czech Musical Foundation.
