Ludvík Celanský
Encyclopedia
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
– October 27, 1931 in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
) was a Czech
Czech people
Czechs, or Czech people are a western Slavic people of Central Europe, living predominantly in the Czech Republic. Small populations of Czechs also live in Slovakia, Austria, the United States, the United Kingdom, Chile, Argentina, Canada, Germany, Russia and other countries...
conductor and composer. He was founder and first principal conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
The Česká filharmonie is a symphony orchestra based in Prague and is the best-known and most respected orchestra in the Czech Republic.- History :...
.
Biography
Jan Čelanský, Ludvík's father, worked as a kapellmeisterKapellmeister
Kapellmeister is a German word designating a person in charge of music-making. The word is a compound, consisting of the roots Kapelle and Meister . The words Kapelle and Meister derive from the Latin: capella and magister...
in Horní Krupá (Havlíčkův Brod
Havlíckuv Brod
Havlíčkův Brod , Německý Brod until 1945 is a town in the Vysočina Region of the Czech Republic. It is also the capital of the Havlíčkův Brod district. It is located on the Sázava River in the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands and has a population of 24,321 as of 2003...
district). Ludvík studied at the gymnasium
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
in Havlíčkův Brod, and from 1887 to 1891 at the teaching institute in Kutná Hora
Kutná Hora
Kutná Hora is a city in Bohemia, now the Czech Republic in the Central Bohemian Region.-History:The town began in 1142 with the settlement of the first Cistercian Monastery in Bohemia, Kloster Sedlitz, brought from the Imperial immediate Cistercian Waldsassen Abbey...
. He worked as a teacher in Dolní Krupá for one year before devoting himself exclusively to music. From 1892 to 1894 he studied composition with K. Stecker at the Prague Conservatory
Prague Conservatory
Prague Conservatory, sometimes also Prague Conservatoire, in Czech Pražská konzervatoř, is a Czech secondary school in Prague dedicated to teaching the arts of music and theater acting.- Instruction :...
, then at the dramatic school of the National Theatre
National Theatre (Prague)
The National Theatre in Prague is known as the Alma Mater of Czech opera, and as the national monument of Czech history and art.The National Theatre belongs to the most important Czech cultural institutions, with a rich artistic tradition which was created and maintained by the most distinguished...
and at Pivoda Operatic School. Čelanský was engaged as a kapellmeister at the opera house
Opera house
An opera house is a theatre building used for opera performances that consists of a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and set building...
in Plzeň until 1895, in Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
from 1898 to 1899, and then as the third kapellmeister of the National Theatre Orchestra. He was forced to withdraw in 1900 when Karel Kovařovic
Karel Kovarovic
Karel Kovařovic was a Czech composer and conductor.-Life:From 1873 to 1879 he studied clarinet, harp and piano at the Prague Conservatory. He began his career as a harpist...
took the administration of the theatre.
Čelanský left for Lviv
Lviv
Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...
, where he established the opera house. Following his return, in 1901, he founded the Czech Philharmonic with striking members of the National Theatre Orchestra. However, he yielded the administration of the orchestra to Oskar Nedbal
Oskar Nedbal
Oskar Nedbal was a Czech violist, composer, and conductor of classical music.-Life:Nedbal was born in Tábor, in southern Bohemia. He studied the violin at the Prague Conservatory under Antonín Bennewitz...
and returned to Lviv where he founded another institution - the Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra (1902 - 1904). He simultaneously led the opera stages in Kraków
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
and in Łódź and was engaged as a director of the Philharmonic Orchestra in Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
(from 1904 to 1905) and Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
(from 1905 to 1906). In 1907 Čelanský established an opera house in the Vinohrady
Vinohrady
Vinohrady is a cadastral district in Prague. It is so named because the area was once covered in vineyards dating from the 14th century...
district of Prague. Later he became the director of the Apollo Theatre in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
(from 1909). In recognition of his performances of the works of Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
, Čelanský was appointed an officer of L'Académie française
Académie française
L'Académie française , also called the French Academy, is the pre-eminent French learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. The Académie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII. Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution,...
. During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, he refused the post of director at the comic opera in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. Following the Czechoslovak
Czechoslovak Republic (1918–1938)
The First Czechoslovak Republic , refers to the first Czechoslovak state that existed from 1918 to 1938. The state was commonly called Czechoslovakia . It was composed of Bohemia, Moravia, Czech Silesia, Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia...
proclamation of independence in 1918, Čelanský became the director of the Czech Philharmonic again, but was soon replaced by Václav Talich
Václav Talich
Václav Talich was a Czech conductor, violinist and pedagogue.- Life :Born in Kroměříž, Moravia, he started his musical career in a student orchestra in Klatovy. From 1897 to 1903 he studied at the conservatory in Prague with Otakar Ševčík...
. Čelanský spent his later years in Prague, where he worked as a music teacher. During these years he recorded two of Dvořák's Slavonic Dances for HMV with a group of musicians from the National Theatre.
Legacy
Čelanský concentrated his interest mainly on Slavic composers of Romantic musicRomantic music
Romantic music or music in the Romantic Period is a musicological and artistic term referring to a particular period, theory, compositional practice, and canon in Western music history, from 1810 to 1900....
. He was particularly renowned as a conductor of Smetana's
Bedrich Smetana
Bedřich Smetana was a Czech composer who pioneered the development of a musical style which became closely identified with his country's aspirations to independent statehood. He is thus widely regarded in his homeland as the father of Czech music...
symphonic cycle Má vlast (My Country)
Má vlast
Má vlast is a set of six symphonic poems composed between 1874 and 1879 by the Czech composer Bedřich Smetana. While it is often presented as a single work in six movements and – with the exception of Vltava– is almost always recorded that way, the six pieces were conceived as individual works...
, Dvořák's
Antonín Dvorák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...
Slavonic Dances
Slavonic Dances
The Slavonic Dances are a series of 16 orchestral pieces composed by Antonín Dvořák in 1878 and 1886 and published in two sets as Opus 46 and Opus 72 respectively. Originally written for piano four hands, the Slavonic Dances were inspired by Johannes Brahms's own Hungarian Dances and were...
and the works of Zdeněk Fibich
Zdenek Fibich
Zdeněk Fibich was a Czech composer of classical music. Among his compositions are chamber works , symphonic poems, three symphonies, at least seven operas , melodramas including the substantial trilogy Hippodamia,...
. Čelanský was a talented opera conductor, but his potential, however, was not fully realized. He contributed to the Czech and international musical culture as an organizer and founder of orchestras and music institutions.
Compositions
The compositions of Ludvík Čelanský are deeply influenced by Romantic music. He wrote concertant melodramaMelodrama
The term melodrama refers to a dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions. It may also refer to the genre which includes such works, or to language, behavior, or events which resemble them...
s in the style of Zdeněk Fibich. His only opera, Kamilla, represents an attempt to unite melodrama and singspiel
Singspiel
A Singspiel is a form of German-language music drama, now regarded as a genre of opera...
. During his time in Paris, his music was influenced by French impressionism
Impressionist music
Impressionism in music was a tendency in European classical music, mainly in France, which appeared in the late nineteenth century and continued into the middle of the twentieth century. Similarly to its precursor in the visual arts, musical impressionism focuses on a suggestion and an atmosphere...
. His compositions from this period are quite colourful. Some of his scores (e.g. Symphony "From My Life") remained in Kiev and in Paris. Čelanský also experimented with film music
Film score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
in his later years.
Opera
- Kamilla (published 1897); in 1 act with libretto by the composer
Orchestra
- Premiéra na vsi (Premiere in the Countryside), Overture (1900)
- Vzkříšení Polsky (Resurrection of Poland), Overture (1904)
- Symphony "From My Life" in five movements
- Duchovní vývoj člověka dle starého zákona (The Spiritual Evolution of Man According to Ancient Law), Symphonic Trilogy (1915–1918)
-
- Adam
- Noe (Noah)
- Mojžíš (Moses)
- Hymnus slunci (Hymn to the Sun), Symphonic Poem (1919)
Songs
- Nálady (Moods) (1895); words by the composer
- Melancholické písně (Melancholic Songs) (1895); words by Jaroslav KvapilJaroslav KvapilJaroslav Kvapil was a Czech poet, playwright, and librettist. From 1900 he was a director and Dramaturg at the National Theatre in Prague, where he introduced plays by Anton Chekhov, Henrik Ibsen and Maxim Gorky into the repertory. Later he was a director at the Vinohrady Theatre...
- Ten Songs on Words of Josef Václav Sládek and Karel Želenský (1896)
- Twelve Songs on Words of František Serafínský Procházka (1902)
- Ukolébavka (Lullaby) for Voice and Orchestra (1904)
- Píseň o matičce (A Song about Mother)
Chorus
- Vlast (Homeland)
- Srbské kolo (Serbian Round Dance)
Melodramas
- Žebrák (The Beggar) (1894)
- Země (Earth) (1894)
- Balada o duši Jana Nerudy (Ballad on the Soul of Jan NerudaJan NerudaJan Nepomuk Neruda was a Czech journalist, writer and poet, one of the most prominent representatives of Czech Realism and a member of "the May school".-Early life:...
) (1895) - Česká píseň (Czech Song) (1902)
- Bratři (Brothers) (1903)
- Zvony (Bells) (1903); words by Edgar Allan PoeEdgar Allan PoeEdgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
Sacred
- Pět duchovních písní (Five Sacred Songs, 1916)
- Te Deum (1916)