The woodwind sextet Youth (Czech: MládÃÂ), (1924) is a chamber composition by Czech composer Leoà ¡ JanáÃÂek. It was composed for flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon and bass clarinet.
The first impulse to compose a woodwind sextet came into JanáÃÂek's mind during his visit of the festival of the International Society of Contemporary Music in Salzburg in August 1923. Albert Rousselôs Divertimento for Wind Quintet and Piano was performed here, and it is possible that this composition motivated JanáÃÂek's interest to create a similar work. Another important impulse came to JanáÃÂek with a short piece called March of the Blue-Boys for piccolo, bells and tambourine (or piano). It was written in May 1924 as a reminiscence of JanáÃÂek's youth in the Old Brno Monastery. He had probably already decided to write a more extensive work. The composition was created during JanáÃÂek's three weeks stay in Hukvaldy in July, 1924. At the beginning of the autumn 1924, during the rehearsals, JanáÃÂek made a number of changes to the score.
The premiere took place on October 21, 1924, in Besednàdà ¯m in Brno. The players consisted of the Brno Conservatory teachers Josef Bok (flute and piccolo), MatÃÂj Wagner (oboe), Stanislav KrtiÃÂka (clarinet), Frantià ¡ek Janský (horn), and the members of the Brno National Theatre Orchestra Frantià ¡ek Bà ÂÃÂza (bassoon) and Karel Pavelka (bass clarinet). Unfortunately, the performance wasn't very successful. The oboist finally managed to repair a defect of his instrument, but the clarinettist, because of a broken key spring only pretended to be playing. JanáÃÂek was very angry. However, the work was performed in Prague on November 25, 1924, this time with members of the Czech Philharmonic, and the performance was received with great success. A pocket score, parts and piano arrangement by Bà Âetislav Bakala were published in January 1925 by Hudebnàmatice.
Youth in 1925 was awarded the Prize of the Czech Academy of Sciences.
The composition consists of four movements:
A considerable part of JanáÃÂek's chamber music was created in his later years and is considered as an outgrowth of his "youthful mood". The work is example of virtuoso use of a woodwind instrumental ensemble, but it was not only a "technical task" for JanáÃÂek. It also contains interesting musical ideas, characteristic of the composer's later style.
JanáÃÂek used the main theme from the March of the Blue-Boys in the third movement.