A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Kauka, Johann von

KAUKA, Johann Von, Dr. juris, born at Prague Nov. 10, 1772, is named here not for his music, though he published a Pianoforte Concerto, a Cantata, and compositions to Collin's War Songs, but for his warm attachment to Beethoven and for the eminent service he rendered him, since it was chiefly through his means that the dispute with the Kinsky family was abandoned and an advantageous compromise effected. Kauka's father was, like himself, at once an eminent lawyer and a thorough musician, and his grandfather had been equally eminent as an architect. The family lived in Prague, and Beethoven was intimate with them in the early days of his residence in Austria. Kauka the younger wrote and edited books on Austrian and Bohemian law, which were much esteemed by his profession (Thayer, ii. 9; iii. 299). He was Dean (1815) and Rector (1829) of the University, and died full of years and honours, April 15, 1865.

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