Osvald Chlubna was a prominent 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...

 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...

. Intending originally to study engineering, Chlubna switched his major and from 1914 to 1924, he studied composition with Leoš Janáček

Leoš Janácek

Leoš Janáček was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and all Slavic folk music to create an original, modern musical style. Until 1895 he devoted himself mainly to folkloristic research and his early musical output was influenced by...

. Until 1953, he worked as a clerk. Later, he taught at the Organ School 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...

 for many years. He worked in many art organisations in Brno. Chlubna's works can be defined by three distinct periods: Romanticism

Romanticism

Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...

, Impressionism

Impressionism

Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s...

, all the way to the Modern Constructivism

Constructivism (art)

Constructivism was an artistic and architectural philosophy that originated in Russia beginning in 1919, which was a rejection of the idea of autonomous art. The movement was in favour of art as a practice for social purposes. Constructivism had a great effect on modern art movements of the 20th...

. He delved into Symbolism

Symbolism (arts)

Symbolism was a late nineteenth-century art movement of French, Russian and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts. In literature, the style had its beginnings with the publication Les Fleurs du mal by Charles Baudelaire...

 as well. He used the texts of symbolic Czech poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

s, such as Otakar Březina, Jaroslav Vrchlický

Jaroslav Vrchlický

Jaroslav Vrchlický was one of the greatest Czech lyrical poets. He was born Emil Frida, Vrchlický being a pseudonym.He also wrote epic poetry, plays, prose and literary essays and translated widely from various languages, introducing e.g. Dante, Goethe, Shelley, Baudelaire, Poe, and Whitman to...

, Jaroslav Durych

Jaroslav Durych

Jaroslav Durych was a Czech prose writer, poet, playwright, journalist, and military surgeon.Durych was born in Hradec Králové...

 and others. He wrote several cycles of compositions for piano and organ, as well as instrumental concerts, symphonies, ouvertures and cantatas. He wrote many operas, often using his own librettos, such as The Revenge of Catullus based on the work of Vrchlický

Jaroslav Vrchlický

Jaroslav Vrchlický was one of the greatest Czech lyrical poets. He was born Emil Frida, Vrchlický being a pseudonym.He also wrote epic poetry, plays, prose and literary essays and translated widely from various languages, introducing e.g. Dante, Goethe, Shelley, Baudelaire, Poe, and Whitman to...

 (1917), Alladina and Palomid (based on the work of Maeterlinck, 1925), Ňura (1932), How the Death came in the World (1936), Jiří from Kunštát and Poděbrady (based on the work of Alois Jirásek

Alois Jirásek

Alois Jirásek was a Czech writer, author of historical novels and plays. Jirásek was a secondary-school teacher until his retirement in 1909. He wrote a series of historical novels imbued with faith in his nation and in progress toward freedom and justice...

, 1941), Cradle (composed on the work of Jirásek, 1951), Eupyros (1960). He also wrote texts and articles primarily about Janáček.

Selected works

Opera

• Pomsta Catullova (The Revenge of Catullus), 1 Act (1917); libretto by the composer based on the work of Jaroslav Vrchlický
  Jaroslav Vrchlický
  Jaroslav Vrchlický was one of the greatest Czech lyrical poets. He was born Emil Frida, Vrchlický being a pseudonym.He also wrote epic poetry, plays, prose and literary essays and translated widely from various languages, introducing e.g. Dante, Goethe, Shelley, Baudelaire, Poe, and Whitman to...
  
  
• Alladina a Palomid (Alladina and Palomid), 3 Acts (1922); libretto by the composer based on the work of Maurice Maeterlinck
  Maurice Maeterlinck
  Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck, also called Comte Maeterlinck from 1932, was a Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist who wrote in French. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911. The main themes in his work are death and the meaning of life...
  
  
• Ňura, 2 Acts (1930); libretto by O. Dymov
• Jak smrt přišla do světa (How Death Came into the World) (1936); libretto by the composer
• Freje pána z Heslova (The Friar of Heslov), 4 Acts (1939–1940); libretto by F. L. Stroupežnichký
• Jiří z Kunštátu a Poděbrad (Jiří from Kunštát and Poděbrady), 3 Acts (1941–1942); libretto by the composer based on the work of Alois Jirásek
  Alois Jirásek
  Alois Jirásek was a Czech writer, author of historical novels and plays. Jirásek was a secondary-school teacher until his retirement in 1909. He wrote a series of historical novels imbued with faith in his nation and in progress toward freedom and justice...
  
  
• Kolébka (The Cradle), 3 Acts (1951–1952); libretto by the composer based on the work of Alois Jirásek
  Alois Jirásek
  Alois Jirásek was a Czech writer, author of historical novels and plays. Jirásek was a secondary-school teacher until his retirement in 1909. He wrote a series of historical novels imbued with faith in his nation and in progress toward freedom and justice...
  
  
• Eupyros, 3 Acts (1960–1962); libretto by the composer

Ballet

• Hrátky na drátkách (1955); libretto by the composer

Orchestra

• Karneval podzimu (Winter Carneval), Op.82
• Portály a fresky brněnské
• Symphony No.3 "Osudová" (1960)
• To je má zem (This is My Country), Cycle of Symphonic Poems for Orchestra

Brněnské kašny a fontány, Op.86 (1963)

Propast Macocha, Op.87

Hrad Pernštejn, Op.88

Ej chlapci, hore!, Op.90

• Veseloherní předehra (Comedy Overture)

Band

• Pochod sportovců

Concertante

• Andante for Violin and Small Orchestra
• Fantasie in C Minor for Viola and Orchestra, Op.44 (1936)
• Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Op.75

Chamber

• Elegie ztracených lidí (Elegy of Lost Peoples) for Cello and Piano (1924)
• Fantasie for violin and viola, Op.71 (1949)
• Invence (Invention) for Viola Solo (1962)
• Sonata for Violin and Cello, Op.22 (1925)
• Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op.66 (1948)
• Sonatina for Viola and Piano, Op.119
• String Quartet in C Major, Op.26
• String Quartet No.3 in E, Op.35 (1933)
• String Quartet No.5, Op.114
• Suita instruktivní for Violin and Piano

Piano

• Nokturna (Nocturnes), Cycle of Moods, Op.36 (1933)
• Preludium, toccata a fuga, Op.37
• Sonáta-fantazie, Op.93

Organ

• Allegro feroce
• Passacaglia, Op.41

Choral

• Já, potulný šumař, Cantata
• Je krásná země má, Lyric Cantata for Chorus and Orchestra; text by F. Halas, A. Sova
• Ve jménu života, Cantata for Chorus and Orchestra, Op.94

Vocal

• Melancholické serenády o lásce (Melancholic Serenades of Love) for Voice and Piano, Op.62