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Showing posts with label Czech Composers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Czech Composers. Show all posts
Classical Music / Composer's Datebook: September 8
Brief biography of Czech composer Antonin Dvorák, most internationally celebrated composer of 19th century Bohemia, now Czech republic. He is best known for Symphony No.9, "From the New World" and his nationalistic outlook by using folklore and traditional legends.
Antonín (Leopold) Dvořák, Czech composer with the widest
international renown due to his masterpiece Symphony No.9, 'From the New World,'is equally known for incorporating folk music
into his classical works by using Bohemian and Slavonic folk songs and dances.
Dvorák was born in Nelahozeves, Czech Republic
on September 8, 1841, Following the family tradition, he was trained as a
butcher, something that did not suit well with him, but he finally convinced
his father to allow him to pursue music especially singing, violin, piano and
organ. He studied with Antonin Liehmann, then at the Prague Organ
School. Only 16 years
old, he played viola in cafes and the organ in a mental asylum in order to earn
monies. A capable viola player, he joined the band that became the nucleus of
the new Provisional Theatre orchestra. Antonin Dvorák was an amiable family man and
lived a happy life.
Bohemian composer Josef Mysliveček, was born on 9 March 1737, in Ober-Sarka, Prague. He was one of identical twin brothers, the other was Jachym. He was a friend of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Josef Mysliveček showed more interest in music, although he became a miller first. He left the calling to his twin brother Jachym to follow in the footsteps of their miller father.
Josef began composing in about 1760. He became an important symphonist, producing numerous pieces. His vivacious personality endeared him to the Mozart family when they met in Bologna in 1770. "He exudes fire, spirit and life", wrote the youthful Wolfgang.
Johann Wenzel Kalliwoda (Jan Křtitel Václav Kalivoda) was a prolific composer. His works are numerous, of which there are about 250 works or sets of works, opus-numbered.
Bohemian composer, violinist and conductor Johann Wenzel Kalliwoda was born on February 21, 1801, in Prague. His compositions included operas and symphonies. One of his concert overtures was commissioned was used to open the first concert in 1842, of the New York Philharmonic.
Franz Krommer (František Krommer: born 27 November 1759 – died 8 January 1831), was a Czech composer of classical music and violinist. A contemporary of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, his 71-year life span began half a year after the death of G. F. Handel and ended nearly four years after that of Beethoven. He died in Vienna.
His life highlights include the following: From 1773 to 1776, he studied violin and organ with his uncle, Antonín Mattias Kramár. In Turany, he became organist along with his uncle in 1777. In 1785 he was in Vienna as violinist in the orchestra of the duke of Styria (now in Simontornya in Hungary.) In 1790, he was named Maestro di Cappella at the Cathedral of Pecs, Hungary. He returned again to Vienna in 1795, becoming Maestro di Cappella for Duke Ignaz Fuchs in 1798. From 1813, until his death, Krommer succeeded Leopold Kozeluch as composer for the Imperial Court of Austria.
Krommer's output was prolific, with at least three hundred published compositions in at least 110 opus numbers including at least 9 symphonies, seventy string quartets and many others for winds and strings, with about 15 string quintets. Today, he is best known for his powerful wind ensemble music.
Czech composer, harpist and pianist: Johann "Jan" Ladislaus Dussek
Jan Ladislav Dussek (more known as Václav Jan Dusík) (Feb 12, 1760 - Mar 20, 1812) was a Czech composer and pianist. He was born at Caslav, Bohemia (now Czech Republic).
The Dussek family has a long history as professional musicians, starting from Jan Ladislav's grandfather, and lasting into the 1970s. Jan Ladislav is often known as "Dussek the Great". His mother was a harpist, and therefore not surprisingly he composed much music for the harp as well as for the piano.
After early studies, Dussek traveled to the Netherlands and Germany, where he may have studied with C.P.E. Bach. From there, he moved to St. Petersburg in Russia, where he was a favourite of Catherine the Great for a time. However, he fled St. Petersburg just ahead of Catherine's secret police, who accused him of involvement in a plot to assassinate Catherine. Given Dussek's lifelong royalist sympathies, his well-attested personal good looks, and Catherine's proclivity for beautiful young men, a different explanation seems more probable.
Czech Composer Leo Janacek. Conductor, Teacher, Natural Successor to Smetana
Leo Janácek's biography – his life and major works. A late-bloomer, recognized and became famous only after the performance of his opera Jenufa in Prague.
Earlier works influenced by 19th-century Dvorák and Smetana; he also was interested in and highly influenced by Moravian folk music. While his early musical output was influenced by contemporaries such as
Antonín Dvořák, his later, mature works incorporate his earlier studies
of national folk music in a modern, highly original synthesis, first
evident in the
opera Jenůfa, which was premiered in 1904 in Brno. The success of Jenůfa (often called the "Moravian national opera") at Prague in 1916 gave Janáček access to the world's great opera stages.
Leos Janácek was a Czech composer, conductor, teacher and musical administrator. His successes came very late. He only became famous after his opera Jenufa was performed in Prague; he was past 50 years old. His operas Osud and Mr. Broucek's Excursion to the Moon were also written about that time. His best known Sinfonietta for orchestra, dedicated to the Czech Armed Forces that was performed for an open-air public occasion, was written when he was over 70 years old.
Early Years
Born on July 3, 1854 in Hukvaldy, Moravia (now Czech Republic), Janácek was the ninth of fourteen children. His father was a village schoolmaster. He attended a monastery school in Brno and at 14 entered the Imperial and Royal Teachers' Training Institute on a state scholarship, where he stayed for three years.
Training. Marriage. Career Beginnings.
Janácek studied at the Leipzig Conservatory where he developed interest in composition under the strict supervision of Leo Grill. He also studied in Vienna. He returned to Brno and became engaged to one of his pupils, 15-year old Zdenka Schulzova whom he married. At the same time, he also founded an organ school. In 1919, he became director of the Conservatoire at Brno and professor at the Prague Conservatoire the following year.
Janácek's Works (excepting operas)
1. Folk songs arrangements
2. Suite for strings
3. Symphonic poem
4. Violin sonata
5. Ballet
6. Orchestral Rhapsody for Orchestra Taras Bulba, 1918
7. Orchestral Sinfonietta, 1926
8. Choral Msa Glagolskja (Glagolitic Mass), 1926
9. String Quartet No.2, ‘Intimate Letters’
Featured video. Janáček's Jenufa (The Royal Opera)
The later compositions of Leos Janacek, in particular, Katya Kabanova based on the play Goza (The
Storm), 1921, and String Quartet No.2, ‘Intimate Letters’, were inspired by his unrequited love for Kamila Stosslova, 38 years his junior.
Janácek's music is highly influenced by Moravian folk music. He worked in different musical styles: from established romantic techniques to dissonant combinations, and influences: from western European music to Czech and Moravian folk songs.
Janácek's reputation outside Czechoslovakia and German-speaking countries was first made as an instrumental composer. He has since been regarded not only as a Czech composer worthy to be ranked with Smetana and Dvorak, but also as one of the most original and influential opera composers of the 20th-century.
Leos Janacek died in Moravska Ostrava, 12 August 1928, at 74 years old.
Leo Jánacek's Legacies are his Operas
1. Jenufa, began 1896 and staged in Brno in 1904
2. Osud (Fate) 1904
3. Mr. Broucek's Excursion to the Moon, satirical opera, 1920
4. Katya Kabanova based on the play Goza (The Storm), 1921,
5. The Cunning Little Vixen (Prihody lisky bystriusky), 1923
6. The Makropoulos Affair, 1926
7. From the House of the Dead, 927
Recommended Work
Sinfonietta, Deutsche Grammophon
Credit Image
Leos Janacek. Karadar / Public Domain.
Resources
John Stanley Classical Music, Mitchell Beasley (1994)
The Hamlyn Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music, edited by A. Isaacs and E. Martin (1990)
The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music, edited by Stanley Sadie, New Updated Edition. Macmilla Publishers. 1994.
(c) July 2009. Updated July 3, 2024. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.
Georg Benda, Czech composer was baptized on June 30, 1722, in Stare Benatky.
Benda was a member of a prominent Czech musical family. With his brothers Franz, Johann and Joseph, he was violinist in the Prussian court orchestra. He also became Kapellmeister at the Gotha court, writing sacred cantatas, instrumental music and an Italian opera.
He wrote church music, cantatas, chamber music, and stage works, particularly melodramas, i.e., works combining spoken text and music. First successful ones were Ariadne auf Naxos and Medea. He also wrote Singspiels Walder and Romeo und Julie.
BedřichSmetana (1824-1884), was born at a time when the Czech language was regarded as the language of peasants. No educated person would be seen dead speaking Czech or Slovak, although many musicians in Vienna were of Czech and Slovak origin. The music of these peasants was regarded as barbaric and no compositions were written in that genre. In 1824 Beethoven and Schubert reigned in Vienna and their music was performed in all centres of the Austrian Empire. In Prague, only Germanic music could be heard with a sprinkling of Italian operas. Bedrich Smetana himself learned to read and write Czech only at a mature age and was never proficient in the Czech language. Yet, he was the first composer to bring forth the music of the Czechs with great grandeur and is today honoured as the “Father of Czech Music”.
Although the disdain for Czech music and language reigned supreme during the above mentioned period, the Czechs benefited from the reforms of Emperor Joseph II (1780-1790). These reforms introduced the era of Enlightenment into the backward provinces of the Austrian Empire. Native Czechs gained easier access to higher education and started their Czech National Revival at the beginning of the 19th century. While the early impulse of the Czech National Revival was Rationalist, it soon gained a Romanticist orientation. They enthused over what they saw as a glorious Czech past, were vocal in their desire to resurrect the dormant Czech civilisation and proclaimed a brotherhood with all suppressed Slavonic peoples. This earned them nothing but stricter police oppression and the leaders of the nationalistic trend were imprisoned or exiled.
