In the Mist

The four pieces of Janacek’s In the Mist have much in common with those of his earlier cycle of piano recollections, On an Overgrown Path. But, whereas On an Overgrown Path is a miscellaneous collection with no clearly defined overall shape to it, In the Mist is as disciplined as a well designed sonata. It is as though he was setting out, under a similarly suggestive title - indicating scenes or memories perceived through the obfuscation of time perhaps - to make something more coherent of the kind of inspiration that had proliferated in the earlier work. Even so, the last piece - which ends in a bleak D minor and casts a retrospective shadow of the whole cycle - is so free in construction that it is almost an improvisation.

The four pieces of Janacek’s In the Mist have much in common with those of his earlier cycle of piano recollections, On an Overgrown Path. But, whereas On an Overgrown Path is a miscellaneous collection with no clearly defined overall shape to it, In the Mist is as disciplined as a well designed sonata. It is as though he was setting out, under a similarly suggestive title – indicating scenes or memories perceived through the obfuscation of time? – to make something more coherent of the kind of inspiration that had proliferated in On an Overgrown Path. Anyway, while On an Overgrown Path had to wait until 1925 for publication, In the Mists was issued within a year of its completion in 1912.

Like most of the pieces in On an Overgrown Path, the first movement of In the Mist is in ternary form: wistfully modal outer sections in D flat enclose a more overtly expressive middle section where a roundly harmonised chorale fragment alternates and eventually combines with a cascade of linear figuration; the chorale and the cascade are briefly recalled before the D flat major ending. The second piece, which is also in D flat, is rather more complex in construction. It is based on the melody which is introduced with drooping nostalgia in the opening bars but which is also compressed into two vigorous, almost fugal Presto passages. An enigmatic Grave episode in the middle reappears in varied form at the end.

The Andantino third piece is another ternary construction, the simple folksong melody of the G flat major outer sections being subject to painfully passionate treatment in B minor in the middle. The last piece is so free in construction that it is almost an improvisation, an impression suggested from the beginning by the fantasia-like figuration of the main theme. It is not, however, as innocently spontaneous as it seems. Forcefully expressive echoes of the middle section of the preceding piece not only prepare for the bleak ending in D flat minor but also cast a retrospective shadow over the whole cycle.

Gerald Larner ©2006

One reason why Janacek did not finish the projected Second Set of On an Overgrown Path in 1911 could be that he was already involved in the new cycle of piano pieces, In the Mist , which he completed in April 1912. The four pieces of In the Mist have much in common with those of On an Overgrown Path but, whereas the earlier cycle is a miscellaneous collection with no clearly defined overall shape to it, the later one is as disciplined as a well designed sonata. It is as though he was setting out, under a similarly suggestive title - indicating scenes or memories perceived through the obfuscation of time? - to make something more coherent of the kind of inspiration that had proliferated in On an Overgrown Path. Anyway, while On an Overgrown Path had to wait until 1925 for publication, In the Mists was issued without delay in 1913.

Like most of the pieces in On an Overgrown Path, the first movement of In the Mists is in ternary form: wistfully modal outer sections in D flat enclose a more overtly expressive middle section where a roundly harmonised chorale fragment alternates and eventually combines with a cascade of linear figuration; the chorale and the cascade are briefly recalled before the D flat major ending. The second piece, which is also in D flat, is rather more complex in construction. It is based on the melody which is introduced with drooping nostalgia in the opening bars but which is also compressed into two vigorous, almost fugal Presto passages. An enigmatic Grave episode in the middle reappears in varied form at the end. The Andantino third piece is another ternary construction, the simple folksong melody of the G flat major outer sections being subject to painfully passionate treatment in B minor in the middle. The last piece is so free in construction that it is almost an improvisation, an impression suggested from the beginning by the fantasia-like figuration of the main theme. It is not, however, as innocently spontaneous as it seems. Forcefully expressive echoes of the middle section of the preceding piece not only prepare for the bleak ending in D flat minor but also cast a retrospective shadow over the whole cycle.