In the Shadow of the Conservatoire: the Prague Organists College (1830–1889/1890)

• Authors: Michaela Freemanová
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

In the early decades of the 19th century, three important music institutions were founded in Prague – the Tonkünstler Wittwen-und-Waisen Societät, the Conservatoire and the Organists College, opened in 1830 by the Verein der Kunstfreunde für Kirchenmusik in Böhmen (the Society for Sacred Music in Bohemia, founded in 1826). The aim of the Society was to awaken an interest among the wider public in sacred music which, at that time, was neglected and in decline. The Organists College offered tuition to members of the Christian churches as well as to Jewish communities. During the one-year course, later extended to two, and subsequently to three years, the organists, and later also choirmasters, acquired a knowledge of harmony, counterpoint, figured bass, improvisation and composition, and also learnt how to perform sacred music. The school was attended by numerous outstanding musicians, from home and abroad, among them Antonín Dvořák and Leoš Janáček; in 1890, it merged with the Prague Conservatoire.

Keywords

EN

music; musicology

Discipline

• ARTS_&_ARCHITECTURE: ARTS & ARCHITECTURE

• Publisher: Institute of Ethnology, Czech Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Hudební věda (Musicology)
• Year: 2011
• Volume: 48
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 369-392

Contributors

author

Michaela Freemanová

• Hudební věda, redakce, Etnologický ústav AV ČR, v.v.i., Puškinovo nám. 9, 160 00 Praha 6, Czech Republic