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发表于 2004-2-23 00:39:00
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人物传记：
There is no "definitive" version of Štepán Rak's biography and to construct the account below I have relied on the limited (and incomplete) published biographical information provided by Bosman (1985); Ophee (1988); Duarte (1988; 1988a; 1990); Wade (1989); Summerfield (1991); and Cooper (1996), unpublished information (Train, 1993), and information provided by a number of electronic mail correspondents (see references below). As such, this account should be considered incomplete and subject to revision.
The various published sources generally agree that Štepán Rak was born in a small village in the Ukraine during the final stages of the Second World War. Cooper (1996) identifies the village Chust in the Ukraine as the place where the newborn infant, who was later christened as "Štepán Rak", was found by Soviet soldiers in a bomb-wrecked house (Ophee, 1988; Cooper, 1996). This view is however disputed by Jan-Matej Rak (Personal Communication, 1998) who contends that Štepán Rak's place of birth is unknown. That is, while Rak was found somewhere in the Ukraine the exact place is unknown. Although Rak's precise date of birth is unclear (Rak quoted by Ophee, 1988; Summerfield, 1991), the official date provided by Bosman (1985) and Duarte (1988) - and on occasion by Rak himself (e.g., Bosman, 1985) - is 8 August 1945: two days after the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and one day before the second atom bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. The acceptance of the above date as his official birthdate notwithstanding, it appears that Rak has given a "romantic spin" to his early origins. According to Ophee (1988) and Duarte (1990), Rak feels strongly that he was born two days earlier, i.e., on the day the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, and that the "synchronicity" of the two events was the inspiration for his famous piece, Hiroshima, which he describes as "...a thanksgiving ..." (Duarte, 1988) "...[for] my ascent into life at the same time as many thousands died in a different place on earth." (Rak quoted by Bosman, 1985) [Note 5] From the accounts provided by Ophee (1988), Summerfield (1991), and Cooper (1996) it appears that the orphaned newborn baby discovered by the Soviet soldiers was transported in a tank to Prague, Czechoslovakia (now The Czech Republic) where he was first placed in the care of a Russian doctor, then cared for by an old gypsy woman, and, eventually, adopted by the Rak family. This sequence of events is not mentioned by Duarte (1990) who suggests that the infant was discovered by gypsies who took him to Prague where they registered his birth officially. The latter account is not supported by any other sources and I am therefore more inclined to accept the sequence of events related by Ophee (1988), Summerfield (1991) and Cooper (1996). According to Ophee (1988), Rak spent a large part of his childhood with gypsies [Note 6] on the banks of the Berounka River where he gained a knowledge of the language, culture and music of the gypsies (Ophee, 1988). This experience, according to Ophee (1988), had a profound effect on the young Rak and became an integral element of the music he later (and I would add, continues) to produce (Ophee, 1988). The "gypsy connection" commonly accepted in these accounts is, however, not supported by Jan-Matej Rak (Personal Communication, 1998) who contends that Štepán Rak did not spend his early life with gypsies and is in fact unable to understand a single word of their language. According to Jan-Matej Rak, his father became acquainted with gypsy music quite late in his life (i.e., after completing his conservatory studies) when he played with a gypsy group for a while. The Rak family who adopted the infant "...had nothing to do with music..." (Rak quoted by Cooper, 1996, p. 11) but appears to have provided the growing child with the opportunities to pursue his various artistic inclinations (ibid.). According to Wade (1989), Rak aspired to become a painter and to this end he enrolled at the Fine Arts School in Prague (Summerfield, 1991) in 1960 where he studied graphic art and painting for four years (Bosman, 1985; Wade, 1989; Cooper, 1996; Pölkki (Personal Communication, 1997). Little, if anything is known about Rak's artistic productions during this period and among the various writers only Cooper (1996) and Pölkki (Personal Communication, October 1997) mentions the fact that Rak had some success in the area of photography. According to Pölkki (ibid.), Rak began to establish himself as a (self-taught) photographer of some note during the period of his residence in Finland (see below) where he won prizes in various competitions and even had his own photographic exhibitions! Though "limited", this exposure to graphic art and painting also left a deep impression on Rak as can be seen in the interview with Bosman (1985) where he remarked: "Everything I do in music is affected by my years of painting studies, before I took up the guitar." (p. 12) During his final year at the Fine Arts School (i.e., at approximately age 18 or 19) Rak taught himself basic-chord guitar playing (using a plectrum) and attained a sufficient level of proficiency to perform in bars and restaurants. (Bosman, 1985; Jan-Matej Rak, 1998). Quite interestingly his primary instrument at this time was not the guitar but the double bass and the tuba, and it was only later, at approximately age 21 or 22, that he developed an interest in classical music and the classical guitar in specific. The initial years of his musical career was spent playing "beat music" [Note 7] in pop, rock and jazz bands (Train, 1993; Petr Semenec, creator of alternate Štepán Rak website) as well as writing and recording (fairly popular) pop songs and musical improvisations for films (Jan-Matej Rak, 1998) [Note 8] . In 1965 Rak entered the Prague Conservatory (Wade, 1989; Summerfield, 1991) where, for the next five years [Note 9], he studied the classical guitar and composition for the guitar with the teacher-composer, Štepán Urban (Wade, 1989; Duarte, 1990; Summerfield, 1991; Cooper 1996; Pölkki, 1997), and general composition with Zdenék Hùla (Bosman, 1985; Pölkki, 1997). It was Štepán Urban who first recognised and encouraged Rak's potential as a composer and performer. More specifically, according to Rak (in Wade, 1992), Urban instilled two enduring values in him, viz., "...that the guitar is an instrument like all other instruments and should be just the means of your expression. You should develop this expresssion through that particular instrument, but as it were, forget that it is a guitar", and "...that whenever you touch your guitar, not only with your hands but in your imagination, try to believe you are seated in a great theatre of the world, and what happens there concerns you and all of us." (p. 5) During his student days (1965-1970) at the Prague Conservatory it appears that Rak became involved in a number of activities (Cooper, 1996). According to Pölkki (1997), Rak played double bass in the orchestra of the conservatory and was also a tenor in the conservatory's mixed choir. Train (1993) further states that Rak also attained the position of Joint Authorship of Music for musicals and radio programmes for children during this period. Train's latter claims are however not supported by any evidence (nor by any of the author's used to compile the present account) and I am therefore unsure about the veracity of his assertions. "Contradicting" this "incorporation" of Rak into the mainstream of the cultural life of Prague at this historical juncture, Jan-Matej Rak (Personal Communication, 1998; see also Cooper, 1996) contends that during this time Rak performed and collaborated with the protest singers Vladimir Merta, Jaroslav Hutka, Jiri Lutka, Pepa Nos and Vlasta Tresnak who were "...not approved of..." (Rak's words) by the existing regime and thus we can reasonably infer that he would not have been "allowed" freely to participate in the more public dimensions of the cultural life of Prague. The duration of Rak's apparent status as "persona non grata" (from the perspective of the regime) is unclear but it is generally accepted (e.g., Summerfield, 1991) that it was during the period 1970-1975 that Rak established himself as a composer-performer. He played in concerts in Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union, Poland and West Germany (Pölkki, 1997) but we do not know how he was received as a concert artist at that time. He did, however, begin to make his mark as a composer. In 1973 his symphonic composition Hiroshima won second prize, i.e., a silver medal, in the Czechoslovakian National Competition for Young Composers (Duarte, 1988; Summerfield, 1991). In the following year his composition, Until which was based on Sloky o Praze (Poem of Prague)(Summerfield, 1991) written by the Czech poet Vítìzslav Nezval [Note 10] , and which was later recorded as Remembering Prague (Duarte, 1988), was placed among the winning compositions at the same competition (Summerfield, 1991). In 1975 Rak entered the Prague Music Academy to continue his studies on composition (Summerfield, 1991). His teachers at the academy were Jirí Dvorácek (general composition) (Duarte, 1988 & 1990; Wade, 1989, Pölkki, 1997), Vaclav Kucera (composition in the modern style), and Karel Janacek (music analysis) (Pölkki, 1997). After the completion of his diploma which he received on 5 September 1975 for, amongst others, a piece of work entitled, "Guitar Techniques in Contemporary Music and their Ways of Expression" (Jan-Matej Rak, Personal Communication, 1998), Rak was invited to take up a teaching post in the Finnish town of Jyväskylä at the Jyväskylä Conservatory where he remained until 1980 (Wade, 1989; Summerfield, 1991; Pölkki (Personal Communication, 1997)). In 1980 Rak returned to Prague where according to Duarte (1988), his numerous activities included, performing (and recording) with the Prague Marimba Trio and playing with the Chamber Ensemble of Czech Television. Adding to this list of activities, Rak also became a member of the Union of Czechoslovakian Composers and Concert Artists and the Czechoslovakian Jury for International Guitar Competitions (Train, 1993; Jan-Matej Rak, 1998). Besides these activities Rak also established guitar studies (which was previously taught only at the Prague Conservatory) at the Academy of Fine Arts where, together with his colleagues Martin Myslivecek (now Professor of Guitar at Graz) and Milan Zelenka (whom Rak describes as "...a legend of the guitar in our country" (Wade, 1992, p. 5)), he has been teaching ever since. In 1991 the Academy awarded Rak the honour of docent (which is similar to a doctorate in other countries) - a singular honour which has never been bestowed on a guitarist (Wade, 1992). Rak's first appearance in Britain was in 1984 at John W Duarte's Summer School in Cannington (Bosman, 1985; Duarte, 1990) and from the accounts of this appearance it appears that Rak's original compositions and masterful technique was received very favourably by his English audience. This favourable reception has since developed into a more general "fascination" for Rak by the British (Ophee, 1988) and he in turn has reciprocated by dedicating a number of his compositions to his "English Friends" (cf. Štepán Rak, Dedications, 1990). I have not been able to establish the date of Rak's first appearance in America and according to Luciano Suarez (Personal Communication, 1997) it was Matanya Ophee who was responsible for bringing Rak to America where, it seems, he has also received a lot of favourable press. Since then Rak has toured many countries, made numerous recordings (see below) while continuing his activities as a teacher, composer, and concert performer.
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发表于 2004-2-23 00:24:00
发表于 2004-2-23 10:24:00