Even it is a legend that the Prague-born composer Jaromir Weinberger
committed suicide in American exile because he had not succeeded for decades in
following up his opera Schwanda the Bagpiper with any of his later works.
Nevertheless, the legend contains a grain of truth. It shows a 71-year-old
composer far away from his beloved homeland, which he had had to leave in the
course of its occupation by the Nazis and which was meanwhile ruled by the
Communists under Soviet influence.
But in general, Weinberger was just as little
able to integrate in North American music life as he managed to draw on his
earlier time in Europe after 1945.
A consideration of many works by Weinberger
today will have to take events of the time into account, but at the same time we
will hardly be able to avoid seeing direct or indirect references to his one big
success Schwanda the Bagpiper in many works.