Adam Václav Michna: Loutna česká

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Perhaps the best known Czech baroque collection is the set of songs entitled Loutna česká (The Czech Lute) dating from 1653. Its author was Adam Václav Michna of Otradovice, composer, poet and musician who lived all his life in Jindřichův Hradec in Southern Bohemia. The set contains 13 songs linked by a common thread – like a song cycle. It was probably meant for domestic music making, although its content is clearly sacred in nature. The songs describe the marriage of a human soul in three stages: courtship, engagement and wedding celebration. Just like the pieces in Czech baroque kancionály (song-books), the songs in the Loutna are strophic. Each one is set to verses in characteristic Czech, full of folk expressions, sayings and turns of phrase, metaphors and Biblical quotations, telling the story and implications of a spiritual marriage. Historically the set is remarkable and significant both from the musical and the literary angle. It is also exceptional as to its contents, since its texts are imbued with a strange erotic mysticism mixed with folk-like elements. Because of its use of the vernacular language the Loutna is also an important part of the Czech baroque literary heritage. Its theme is linked to the Marian cult – a leading type of baroque worship – even though it also draws on Terezian mysticism popular at the time, the Song of Songs and various stories from Classical times, as well as motives from nature and human life in general. Songs from 'Loutna česká' have been a living part of Czech musical culture for centuries, incorporated in many editions of popular song-books by Václav Holan Rovenský and Matěj Václav Šteyer. They have also been much copied and thus spread among the population. They continue to be used by singers and musicians, often without awareness of their original purpose.