As noted in the prior post, a house becomes a home when it is endowed with the values of the inhabitants. This will be the second post on making a house a home. Long winter nights can take the joy out of much activity, but today most homes in the developed world which are distant from the equator have electric lights and central heating to assist in making the long hours of darkness more enjoyable. However, houses in 17th to 19th century Bohemia lacked these amenities, candles or oil lamps would have been the main source of light, and heat was from the open kitchen fire, or a fireplace, and in the 19th century a wood stove. In one of the earlier posts I discussed the tales told by members of the often inter-generational households. This post will focus on a two areas in which Bohemian and Czech households, nobility and peasants, thrived--literature and music.
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| Growth of Hapburg Dominion Source: John Rice |
We know that Empress Maria Theresia (who reigned from 1740-1780) in 1777 mandated six grades of education for all persons between 6 and 12 years of age. However, that does not mean that the serfs until that time were uneducated. Historian and genealogist Eliska Schoenfeld says that "Education was valued and from the 1400's, many Bohemians could read." They were generally taught their native tongue, Czech, by the mothers. My 7th great grandfather, Georg born about 1630 would have grown up using Czech as it became the official language of Bohemia in 1627. Although his father Jakub, also likely spoke Czech. Oldest records of the Czech language go back to the 12th century. However, as the Austro-Hungarian Empire advanced and took more and more control of Bohemia the Czech language was outlawed. The schooling implemented by Maria Theresia would have been taught in German.
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| Kutna Hora, its original wealth came from Mining |
Our ancestors were probably bilingual, speaking both Czech and German in the old country, and some of course would learn to speak English with their arrival in the US. While German became the common language of the elite and well educated, many Czech mothers still would teach their children the native language even after it was banned. I suspect the Czech language was strongest in the rural villages where there was less governmental oversight. While the Bohemian settlers in the United States formed clubs to assist with cultural continuance and gradual assimilation, and to offset loneliness, many communities in the old country had clubs where they studied poetry and would read newspapers from major European cities. Although like others, Schoenfeld says that they tended to dislike people not like themselves, including other Slavic countries like Poland, and Hungarians, not to mention Austrians, the English and Jews. Given how often Germany invaded Bohemia and Czechia it would not be surprising that their was angst against Germans too. However, this may have been muted by the number of German settlers in northern and probably parts of western Bohemia. Think of the Sudetenland made famous by Hitler and English Chancellor Chamberlain before the outbreak of WWII, or the Landskroner Germans (probably the Duschecks). The persons in the rural villages would have seen language as part of their cultural continuity. One only need to look at varied maps of Europe over the centuries to realize the fluidity of borders and cultures.
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| Rudy Hovel Violin Photo by Greg Hovel |
While my ancestors lived closer to the German border, and my DNA ancestry is small in Eastern European lines, Bohemia would have some ties due to German migration and intermarriage which would have occurred over centuries. My surname, Havel (Americanized as Hovel), however, is definitely Czech as it uses the Czech word for St Gall, one the companions of St Columbanus who brought letters and learning back to Europe following the Vandal and Goth destruction after the end of the Roman Empire. I suspect the Czech language was passed down generation to generation. I can picture one of my distant great something grandmothers telling a family tale in Czech to a grandchild by candle light during the long dark nights of Europe. Ratiborova Lhota and Dolni Chrastany both sit above 49 degrees north latitude which puts them further north than Thunder Bay, Ontario. That means a lot of dark nights. Given the darkness and little light for months they kept their time occupied by stories, and by poetry. What better to break up the dreary nights than a good story, poem, and music?
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| Rudy, Ed and Joe Hovel Ed played the fiddle and Rudy the Guitar |
While poetry was important there was another aspect for which Czechs and Bohemians became known and that was music. John Rice, an expert in 18th and 19th century music says that in the 18th century there were "two centers of musical ferment in the 18th century" of which Bohemia was one and the other Minas Gerais in Brazil the other. This post will focus on music in Bohemia, but what is interesting is that the Minas Gerais music development is related to the Austro-Hungarian Empire when Maria Leopoldina went to Brazil to marry the son of the ruler of Portugal. Hence, the two centers of musical development in the 18th century are both related to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. To partly understand why this occurred we need to examine an item one would not think at all related to music--mining. Both in Brazil and Bohemia, mining was an important activity--diamonds in the former, and silver in the latter. Silver mines were nearing depletion in Bohemia as they moved through the 18th century, but mines produced at least some local wealth that led to the creation of some elegant cities, one in Bohemia is highly thought of today, Kutna Hora, which was the center of the mining district. These mining centers had the wealth to produce centers of learning, and this learning dispersed to the other areas of the empire. Kutna Hora was about 84 miles north northeast of Ratiborva Lhota. The spread of knowledge and skills gets to the wonder and growth of cities and the specialization of labor that occurred.
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| Ed Hovel, a musician himself, and whose sons would start the Hovel Brother's Band in the Manly, IA area |
However, mining was difficult work, and particularly in Bohemia where they often lacked the proper tools to advance the means and methods for a more efficient removal of the deposit. After the Austro-Hungarian Empire won the battle of White Mountain in the early 17th century, the Emperor invited the Jesuits into Bohemia. It was the Jesuits, as part of the counter-reformation, that led to the spread of musical learning to Bohemia. But, the learning was not just for nobility but for serfs as well. They also educated both sexes equally, so boys and girls became proficient in learning and in music. One Commentator, Charles Burney, on visiting Bohemia in the later part of the 18th century, thought that "Bohemians were the most musical people of Germany, and perhaps all of Europe." He first thought the Bohemians had an innate musical ability or talent, but later realized it was the education and hard work of both Jesuit teachers and their pupils that allowed for the creativity and advancement of music in Bohemia. Quoting Burney from the work of Rice: " I went into the school, which was full of little children of both sexes, from six to ten or eleven years old, who were reading, writing, playing on violins, hautbois, bassoons, and other instruments. The organist had in a small room of his house four clavichords, with little boys practicing on them all: his son of nine years old, was a very good performer." The organists son would turn out to be one of Europe's greatest composers, "Jan Ladislav Dussek, would become one of Europe’s greatest pianists." Interesting is that his last name is similar to the Dusek, often Dussek last name of my ancestor Josef Dusek (Duscheck in the US). This is quite a compliment to Bohemians, often thought of as cultural backwater, in an era of Baroque development in music and the arts. The era of many of the great composers.
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| Hovel Brother's Band |
As more and more serfs became proficient in music they were offered service to the lords of varied domains. This part time work also allowed them to further develop their musical talent. They offered service as livery boys, or maids, but they also played for the varied guests and at dinners the lord held, probably serving the wild game killed on their estate. Some of the Bohemian artists were so good that they were allowed to tour, others would skip town to focus on their musical talents elsewhere, but many would turn back home to further develop the musical appreciation in others of their homeland.
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| Manly Memories Article on the Hovel's and Music |
Of course, I am not aware of the musical capabilities of my ancestors, but I do know that my grandfather, whose father was born in Bohemia and arrived in the US at age 17 would have completed his compulsory education in Bohemia. My father's cousin's started the Hovel Brother's Band that played in the Manly, Iowa area for decades. I blogged about the Hovel Brother's Band in Dec 2019. In Wisconsin, the Schauer Brass Band was organized near Manitowoc in 1890; this band went through different iterations over the years as members changed. Musical capability of the Bohemian settlers is laid out not only in "Manly Memories," which in part discussed the Hovel family and other Bohemian settlers and their musical ability, but also in "Early Bohemian Immigration" a monograph by the Manitowoc County Historical Society. The article mentions Frank Schleis, Sr as one of the first members of the band in 1890, my wife's Great Grandfather was Frank Schleis, but he would have been age 15 at the time of the band organization, so I am not sure if it would be him.
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| Schauer Brass Band Early Bohemian Immigration Source: Manitowoc Co Historical Society |
The poetry of Bohemia also likely benefited their musical capabilities. The arts and letters were important to my ancestors, and I can picture some of my ancestors playing some instruments, perhaps crude, for the family gathering at night, to be followed off by a rendition of poetry, or a short story. Perhaps the day ended with a tale from the grandparents, while all enjoyed a home made Czech dessert. They made a domov, by their values and actions which spanned a birth of capability and knowledge. Life may have been different from today, but they had the ability to make life pleasant.
Sources:
https://sites.google.com/site/johnaricecv/bohemia-and-minas-gerais
Eliska Schoenfeld, 1990 Sept. Presentation, Czech workshop in St. Paul, Minnesota. Found at: http://www.oxfordjctgenealogy.com/main/?page_id=208
Juchniewich, Dan, 1979 "Early Bohemian Immigration" Manitowoc County Historical Society, Occupational Monograph #38.
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