The Bohemian music
Jan Ladislav Dusík (in English encyclopaedias incorrectly Johann Ludwig Dussek) was the greatest Bohemian genius of piano-forte in the eighteenth century. Born at Čáslav on the 9th of February 1761, where his father, a musician of high reputation, was organist and choir-master in the collegiate church, he appeared (just like Smetana seventy years later) in public as a pianist at the age of six. In 1783 he visited Hamburg, and placed himself under the instruction of Philip Emmanuel Bach. After spending two years in Lithuania in the service of Prince Radziwill, he went in 1786 to Paris, where he remained, with the exception of a short period spent in Milan, Italy, until the outbreak of the revolution, enjoying the special patronage of Marie Antoinette and great popularity with the public. He returned to Paris in 1809 to become musician in the household of Prince Talleyrand, which place he held until his death, March 20, 1812. Dusík had an important influence on the development of piano-forte music. As a performer he was distinguished by the purity of his tone, the combined power and delicacy of his touch, and the facility of his execution. As a composer he wrote some sonatas which contain movements that have scarcely been surpassed for solemnity and beauty of ideas. His works “The Invocation”, “The Farewell” and “The Harmonic Elegy”, belong to the really immortal compositions. Václav Jan Tomášek, born at Skuteč, April 17, 1774, came to Prague in 1790, and from 1806, when he became musician in the household of Count George Bouquoi, his word was decisive in music matters in Prague till his death, April 3, 1850.
Of other composers we will mention only the name of František Škroup (1801–1862) who wrote the first opera in Bohemian language, “Dráteník” (The Tinker, first performance February 2, 1826), and composed for a play by Josef Kajetán Tyl a touching song of “Kde domov můj” (“Where is my home”, words by Tyl) which soon became the anthem of the Bohemian nation.
The eminent composer of the transition period, preceding the birth of the modern Bohemian music, is Pavel Křížkovský (1820–1885) whom the earnest study of the beauties of folk songs led to produce some splendid
