Oskar Nedbal was a Czech violist

Violist

-Notable violists:A* Julia Rebekka Adler * Sir Hugh Allen , conductor* Kris Allen * Johann Andreas Amon * Paul Angerer , composer* Steven Ansell * Atar Arad * Cecil Aronowitz...

, composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

, and conductor

Conducting

Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...

 of classical music.

Life

Nedbal was born in Tábor

Tábor

Tábor is a city of the Czech Republic, in the South Bohemian Region. It is named after Mount Tabor, which is believed by many to be the place of the Transfiguration of Christ; however, the name became popular and nowadays translates to "camp" or "encampment" in the Czech language.The town was...

, in southern Bohemia

Bohemia

Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...

. He studied the violin 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 :...

 under Antonín Bennewitz

Antonín Bennewitz

Antonín Bennewitz was a Czech violinist, conductor and teacher. He was in a line of violinists that extended back to Giovanni Battista Viotti, and forward to Jan Kubelík and Wolfgang Schneiderhan....

. He was principal conductor

Conducting

Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...

 with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra from 1896 to 1906 and was a founder member of the Bohemian String Quartet

Bohemian Quartet

The Bohemian Quartet were a Czech string quartet of international repute that was founded in 1891 and disbanded in 1934.- Origins :The Quartet was founded in Budapest by three pupils of Antonín Bennewitz and a pupil of Hanuš Wihan ; Bennewitz and Wihan were both teachers at the Prague Conservatory...

.

Although a great admirer of his teacher Antonín Dvořák

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...

, Nedbal paid homage to other composers. For example in his 1910 composition, Romantic Piece, Op. 18 for cello

Cello

The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...

 and piano

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

, Nedbal cleverly inserts a theme usually associated with Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...

, Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

"Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" is a popular English nursery rhyme. The lyrics are from an early nineteenth-century English poem, "The Star" by Jane Taylor. The poem, which is in couplet form, was first published in 1806 in Rhymes for the Nursery, a collection of poems by Taylor and her sister Ann...

. The waltz from his ballet Lazy Hans (Der faule Hans) is played on the piano at a key moment by one of the characters in Heimito von Doderer

Heimito von Doderer

Heimito von Doderer was a famous Austrian writer.- Life and work :...

's great novel of the inter-war years in Vienna, The Demons (Die Dämonen) (1956).

His works include one (unsuccessful) opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

, Jakob the Peasant (1919–1920), and the operetta

Operetta

Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...

s Chaste Barbara (1910), Polish Blood (1913), The Vineyard Bride (1916), and Beautiful Saskia (1917).

Because of mounting personal debts, Nedbal committed suicide by jumping out of a window of the Zagreb Opera House on 24 December 1930.

Selected works

Opera

• Sedlák Jakub (Jakub the Peasant; Le paysan Jakob) (1919–1920, revised 1928); libretto by L. Novák after Lope de Vega
  Lope de Vega
  Félix Arturo Lope de Vega y Carpio was a Spanish playwright and poet. He was one of the key figures in the Spanish Golden Century Baroque literature...
  
  ; premiere performance 13 October 1922 in Brno
  Brno
  Brno by population and area is the second largest city in the Czech Republic, the largest Moravian city, and the historical capital city of the Margraviate of Moravia. Brno is the administrative centre of the South Moravian Region where it forms a separate district Brno-City District...
  
  

Operettas

• Cudná Barbora (Chaste Barbara; Barbara the Chaste; Die keusche Barbara), Operetta in 3 acts (1910); libretto by R. Bernauer, L. Jacobson and V. Stech; premiere performance 14 September 1910, Vinohrady Theatre
  Vinohrady Theatre
  Vinohrady Theatre is a theatre in Vinohrady, Prague.Construction began on February 27, 1905. It served as the Theatre of the Czechoslovak Army from autumn 1950 to January 1966). It contains a curtain painted by Vladimír Županský depicting a naked muse....
  
  , Prague
• Polská krev (Polish Blood; Polenblut), Operetta in 3 acts (1913); libretto by Leo Stein
  Leo Stein (writer)
  Leo Stein, born Leo Rosenstein was a playwright and librettist of operettas in the latter part of the 19th and early 20th centuries, including works adapted for a number of Broadway productions....
  
  ; premiere performance 25 October 1913, Carltheater
  Carltheater
  The Carltheater was a theatre in Vienna. It was in the suburbs in Leopoldstadt at Praterstraße 31 .It was the successor to the Leopoldstädter Theater. After a series of financial difficulties, that theater had been sold in 1838 to the director, Carl Carl, who continued to run it in parallel to his...
  
  , Vienna
• Vinobraní (The Vineyard Bride; Die Winzerbraut), Operetta in 3 acts (1916); libretto by Leo Stein
  Leo Stein (writer)
  Leo Stein, born Leo Rosenstein was a playwright and librettist of operettas in the latter part of the 19th and early 20th centuries, including works adapted for a number of Broadway productions....
  
   and J. Wilhelm; premiere performance 11 February 1916, Theater an der Wien
  Theater an der Wien
  The Theater an der Wien is a historic theatre on the Left Wienzeile in the Mariahilf district of Vienna. Completed in 1801, it has seen the premieres of many celebrated works of theatre, opera, and symphonic music...
  
  , Vienna
• Krásná Saskia (Beautiful Saskia; Die schöne Saskia), Operetta in 3 acts (1917); libretto by A. M. Willner
  A. M. Willner
  Alfred Maria Willner was an Austrian writer, philosopher, musicologist, composer and librettist. He began composing mostly music for the piano before making a career writing librettos for ballets, operas and operettas...
  
   and Heinz Reichert; premiere performance 16 November 1917, Carltheater, Vienna
• Eriwan, Operetta in 3 acts (1918); libretto by Felix Dörmann; premiere performance 29 November 1918, Komödienhaus (Colosseum), Vienna
• Mamselle Napoleon, Operetta in 1 act (1918, revised 1928); libretto by Emil Gölz and Arnold Gölz; premiere performance 21 January 1919, Die Hölle, Vienna
• Donna Gloria, Operetta in 3 acts (1925); libretto by Viktor Léon
  Viktor Léon
  Victor Léon, also Viktor Léon was a well-known Jewish Hungarian-Austrian librettist...
  
   and Heinz Reichert; premiere performance 30 December 1925, Carltheater, Vienna
• Das Dorf ohne Männer, Operetta in 1 act (manuscript)
• Die Erntebraut; revision of Polská krev with a German libretto by Hermann Hermecke; premiere performance 1942, Admiralspalast
  Admiralspalast
  The Admiralspalast is a theatre in the Mitte district of Berlin, Germany, located on Friedrichstraße No. 101. Opened in 1910, it is one of the few preserved variety venues of the pre-World War II era in the city....
  
  , Berlin
• Podzimní píseň (Autumn Song; Le Chant d'automne); revision of Vinobraní with Czech libretto by Václav Špilar and Václav Mírovský; premiere performance 24 October 1930, Velká opereta
  Divadlo v Dlouhé
  Divadlo v Dlouhé is a repertoire theatre with a permanent group of actors established in 1996 as a set financed by the Municipality of Prague. The group of actors comprises graduates of the Theatre Academy of Musical Arts, part of the actors have studied in the Department of Alternative and...
  
  , Prague

Ballets

• Pohádka o Honzovi (The Tale of Honza; Tale of Simple Johnny; Jean le paresseux; Der faule Hans), Ballet-Pantomime in 5 scenes (1901–1902); libretto by František Karel Hejda; premiere performance 24 January 1902, 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...
  
  , Prague
• Z pohádky do pohádky (From Fairy Tale to Fairy Tale; De conte en conte; Großmütterchens Märchenschätze) (1907); libretto by Ladislav Novák; premiere performance 25 January 1908, National Theatre, Prague
• Princezna Hyacinta (Princess Hyacinth) (1910); libretto by Ladislav Novák; premiere performance 1 September 1911, National Theatre, Prague
• Čertova babička (The Devil's Grandmother; Des Teufels Großmutter), Ballet-Pantomime in 3 scenes (1912); libretto by Karl van Zeska and Gertrude Stöhr; premiere performance 20 April 1912, Wiener Hofoper
  Vienna State Opera
  The Vienna State Opera is an opera house – and opera company – with a history dating back to the mid-19th century. It is located in the centre of Vienna, Austria. It was originally called the Vienna Court Opera . In 1920, with the replacement of the Habsburg Monarchy by the First Austrian...
  
  , Vienna
• Andersen, Fairy Tale Ballet in 7 scenes, a prologue and an epilogue (1912); libretto by Ladislav Novák and Jaroslav Kvapil
  Jaroslav Kvapil
  Jaroslav 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...
  
  ; premiere performance 1 March 1914, Ronacher, Vienna
• Pevec lásky (Le Minnesänger) (1921); libretto by Ladislav Novák; premiere performance 9 April 1921 in Vienna (manuscript)
• Cikánské kouzlo (La magicien tzigane); libretto by V. Stech (manuscript, incomplete)
• Tajna; libretto by C. Sylva (manuscript, incomplete)

Incidental music

• Die Hermannsschlacht, Music for the play by Heinrich von Kleist
  Heinrich von Kleist
  Bernd Heinrich Wilhelm von Kleist was a poet, dramatist, novelist and short story writer. The Kleist Prize, a prestigious prize for German literature, is named after him.- Life :...
  
   (1914); premiere performance 10 December 1914, Burgtheater, Vienna

Orchestral

• Slavnostní pochod (Festival March; Festmarsch), Op. 3 (premiere 1894)
• Scherzo caprice (Scherzo capriccioso) in G major, Op. 5 (1892)
• Suite mignonne; orchestration (1920–1923) of the piano work Aus dem Kinderleben, Op. 15
• Unie (Union), Festival March (1928)
• Česká polka (Czech Polka) for string orchestra

Concertante

• Romance et sérénade for violin and piano (or orchestra), Op. 6 (1893)
• Romance for cello and orchestra

Chamber music

• Romance et sérénade for violin and piano (or orchestra), Op. 6 (1893)
• Sonata in B minor for violin and piano, Op. 9 (published 1896)
• Dvě skladby (2 Pieces) for cello and piano (or orchestra), Op. 12 (1899)

1. Romance in F major
2. Capriccio in F major
   • Valse triste in G minor for string quartet (1907); from the ballet Pohádka o Honzovi
   • Romantický kus (Pièce romantique) in D major for cello and piano, Op. 18 (1910)
   • Sonata in D major for violin and piano (manuscript)
   • Fugue in D major for string quartet
   • Prosba for 3 violins
   • Romance for clarinet (manuscript)

Piano

• Variace na thema Antonína Dvořáka (Variations of a Theme of Dvořák), Op. 1
• Lettres intimes, 3 Pieces, Op. 7 (1894)
• Čtyři kusy (4 Pièces), Op. 8 (1894)

1. Barcarola
2. Valse petite
3. Impromptu
4. Valse caprice
   • Silhouette, Op. 10 (1895)
   • Humoreska in G major (1896)
   • Aus vergangenen Zeiten, Op. 13 (1897); An orchestral version also exists in manuscript form.
   • Aus dem Kinderleben, Op. 15; orchestrated as Suite mignonne (1920–1923)
   • Pohádka o smuku a štěstí (Fairy Tale of Grief and Joy; In Leid und Lust), Op. 16 (1905)
   • Valses silhouettes, Op. 17 (1907)
   • Sonata in D major (manuscript)
   • Humoreske en do majeur sur un thème de Dvořák (manuscript)
   • Reisebildchen (manuscript)
   • Weihnachtsstimmung (published 1908)

Vocal

• 4 písně (4 Songs) for voice and piano, Op. 2 (published 1896)

1. Za svitu luny
2. Anděl strážce
3. Dívčí popěvek
4. Píseň v národním tónu
   • 4 písně (4 Songs) for voice and piano, Op. 4 (1892)
   • 4 písně (4 Songs) for voice and piano, Op. 11 (1896); words by Josef Václav Sládek
5. Sen
6. Oči
7. Dudák
8. Co na nebi je hvězdiček
   • Píseň pro nová srdce (Chant pour les nouveaux cœurs) (manuscript)
   • Militär und Volkslieder; words by Karel Dostál-Lutinov and Hornoff (manuscript)

Film scores

• Svatý Václav (Saint Wenceslas) (1929); directed by Jan Stanislav Kolár

External links