The Bohemian music
at Louňovice in 1679, who studied in Vienna and Venice, became court composer to the Prince Elector of Saxony and died in Dresden, December 23, 1745; Bohuslav Černohorský, a contrapuntist of the first rank, born at Nymburk in 1684, who became choirmaster in Padua, Italy, later in Prague, and died there July 1, 1742; Jan Zach, born at Čelakovice in 1699, archiepiscopal conductor in Mainz, Germany, where he died in a lunatic asylum in 1773; František Tůma, born at Kostelec upon Orlice, October 2, 1704, who also lost his reason, like many eminent composers, and died in Vienna in 1774; František Habermann, born at Kynžvart in 1706, who was choirmaster in Italy, France and Spain, died in Cheb, Bohemia, April 7, 1783 (some of his themes were adopted by Handel).
To the end of the eighteenth century and the early part of the nineteenth, the leadership in all that pertained to the art was acknowledged by the musical world to be in the masterly hands of Mozart and Beethoven. After the first performance of Mozart’s opera “Le Nozze di Figaro” (The Marriage of Figaro) in Vienna on the first of May, 1786, everything that could be done by jealous plotters of Vienna to mar the composer’s success was done, and that so effectively that Mozart declared he would never bring out another opera in the city which treated him so meanly. Then “Figaro” had a brilliant success in Prague. The enthusiasm was immense, especially for the air “Non piú andrai” which was sung in streets and inns and played by aristocratic orchestras as well as by strolling harpers. Mozart became at once the idol of all musicians of Prague. Here he conducted his opera personally, and that day of January 20, 1787, was one of the greatest triumphs of his life. He received a commission to write an opera for the next season, with a fee of 100 ducats. On the 29th of October, 1787, the new opera, the immortal “Don Giovanni” (Don Juan) was produced in Prague with extraordinary effect, and from this moment Prague belonged to Mozart for half a century. Numbered in the ranks of his enthusiastic followers were the leading national composers, such as the refined and poetic pianist Jan Lad. Dusík and the greatest master of music in Bohemia in the first half of the nineteenth century, Václav Jan Tomášek.
