Václav Trojan was a Czech composer of classical music

Classical music

Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...

 best known for his film scores. Trojan studied composition 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 Jaroslav Křička

Jaroslav Kricka

Jaroslav Křička was a Czech composer.He was born in Kelč and died in Prague.In 1936 he won a bronze medal in the art competitions of the Olympic Games for his "Mountain Suite".-External links:*...

 and Otakar Ostrčil

Otakar Ostrcil

Otakar Ostrčil was a Czech composer and conductor. He is noted for symphonic works Impromptu, Suite in C Minor, and Symfonietta, and in his opera compositions Poupě and Honzovo království.-Compositional career:Ostrčil was born in Prague, where he spent his entire life, as it was the center of the...

 from 1923 to 1927. He continued his studies in the composition masterclasses of Alois Hába

Alois Hába

Alois Hába was a Czech composer, musical theorist and teacher. He is primarily known for his microtonal compositions, especially using the quarter tone scale, though he used others such as sixth-tones and twelfth-tones....

, Josef Suk

Josef Suk (composer)

Josef Suk was a Czech composer and violinist.- Life :Suk was born in Křečovice. He studied at Prague Conservatory from 1885 to 1892, where he was a pupil of Antonín Dvořák and Antonín Bennewitz. In 1898, he married Dvořák's eldest daughter, Otilie Dvořáková , affectionately known as Otilka...

 and Vítězslav Novák

Vítezslav Novák

Vítězslav Novák was one of the most well-respected Czech composers and pedagogues, almost singlehandedly founding a mid-century Czech school of composition...

 until 1929. A composer and arranger of dance and jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 music in the 1930s, he was a music director for Radio Prague

Radio Prague

Radio Prague is the official international broadcasting station of the Czech Republic.Radio Prague broadcasts in six languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Czech and Russian. It broadcasts programmes about the Czech Republic on shortwave, satellite and on the Internet...

 from 1937 to 1945. After the end of World War II, Trojan composed most frequently for film, stage and radio, and developed a close association with director Jiří Trnka

Jirí Trnka

Jiří Trnka was a Czech puppet maker, illustrator, motion-picture animator and film director. In addition to his extensive career as an illustrator, especially of children's books, he is best known for his work in animation with puppets, which began in 1946...

, earning international fame for his music for Trnka's popular animated puppet films. Trojan's music is mostly written in a neo-classical

Neoclassicism (music)

Neoclassicism in music was a twentieth-century trend, particularly current in the period between the two World Wars, in which composers sought to return to aesthetic precepts associated with the broadly defined concept of "classicism", namely order, balance, clarity, economy, and emotional restraint...

 style, and he often drew inspiration from the traditions of Czech folk music. In 1940 he was given the Czech National Prize for his remarkable children’s 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...

 Kolotoč (‘The Merry-Go-Round’), and in 1960 the K. Gottwald State Prize for his music for Sen noci svatojanské (‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’).

Works

Orchestral Compositions

• Merry-go-round. Suite from an opera (1940) 24'
• Tarantella for symphonic orchestra (1940), CHF, r SU 5'
• Fairy-tale for symphonic orchestra (1946), CR 5'
• The Emperor's Nightingale. Suite from a film (1950), CHF, PA 33'
• A Procession through Antique Prague, for brasses and timpani (1956-57)
• Tarantella di Taranto, for symphonic orchestra (1957), CHF 3,5'
• Fairy-tales for accordion and orchestra (1959), SU, r SU, CRo 22'
• Sinfonietta armoniosa for chamber orchestra (1970), PA, o PA 16,5'
• Humorous Variations on the theme of the Spring Song by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1936, revised 1971 ), CHF, PA 34'
• Poetic Suite (1972), CHF 28'
• Shakespeare' s Smile. Six scenes inspired by Shakespeare's comedies for large orchestra (1972), CHF 24'
• Four Caricatures (with one added) for wind orchestra, percussion instruments and piano (1974), CHF 13'
• Concertino for solo trumpet and small orchestra (1977), CHF 12'
• A Midsummer Night' s Dream. Suite from a ballet pantomime (1982)

Chamber Compositions

• Passionato for two violins, viola and 2 violoncellos (1927), CHF 15'
• Wind Quintet on the subjects of folk songs (1937), SU, r SU 20'
• Variations form string quartet "The Famous Mono- logues by Mosna" (1944)
• The Ruined Cathedral, for solo accordion (1958), SU, r SU 5'
• The Chicken Polka for accordion (1960), SU 5'
• Tarantella in the arrangement for 2 accordions (1965), PA 5'
• Prince Bayaya. Fairy-tale suite for violin, guitar and accordion (1967), CHF 22'
• The Emperor' s Nightingale. Suite from the film of the same name for violin,guitar and accordion (1969), PA 22'
• Folk Songs from Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia for violin, guitar and accordion (1970)
• Nightingale and the Death (from the film music of The Emperor's Nightingale) for violin and piano (1970), PA
• Folk Songs and Carols for accordion (1973), PA
• Divertimento for wind quintet (1977), CHF, SU, r SU 12'
• Nonetto favoloso, for flute, clarinet, French horn, violin, viola, violoncello and double-bass "On the Gallant Knight Bayaya" (1977), CHF 17'

Vocal Arrangements and Stylizations of Folk Songs

• Children' s Games. Suite for children' s choir and or chestra (1936), CR 15'
• Our Country in Song and Dance. Cantata for solos, mixed choir and orchestra (1936) 45'
• Humour in Folk Song. Cantata for tenor, baritone. children' s choir and orchestra (1938)
• From Bohemia to Moravia, for solos, mixed choir and orchestra (1940) 20'
• Christmas Songs for solos, mixed choir, orchestra and organ (1940) 40'
• Folk Songs from Plzeň Region for tenor and wind quintet (1942), CHF, r SU 20'
• Folk Songs from the Region below the Giant Mountains, for solos, mixed choir and orchestra (1946), CR 20'
• Czech Pastorales for children' s (or female) choir and solos, with the accompaniment of 2 accordions and percussion instruments (ad lib.) or piano (1966), CHF, PA 9'
• Czech and Slovak Folk Songs for voice and piano (1967) CHF, PA, r PA (selection entitled "I Am Your Song") 104'
• Folk Songs from Czechoslovakia for male choir (1978)

• Three Czech and Four Moravian Songs for female and male chamber choir, with the accompaniment of flute, triangle and tambourine (1978), CHF 8,5'
• Silesian Ditties for female choir and piano (1978)

Other Vocal Compositions

• Špalíček. Suite for children' s choir and piano from the puppet film of the same name, in the arrangement of Milan Solc (1968), SU 45'
• Military Song. Small cantata on the words of Ladislav Dvorsky for children' s choir, solos and chamber orchestra (1971), Czechoslovak Television Ostrava 7'
• Frivolous Alphabet. Songs for children' s choir and piano, to the texts by Vaclav Fischer (1976), PA 50'

Stage Works

• Merry-go-round. A whole-evening opera for both little and big children in six pictures on the libretto by M. Charousova-Gardavska (1936-39), DILIA, r SU (stage sets)
• The Golden Gate. A whole-evening scenic poem for solos, ensembles and orchestra after popular motifs on the libretto by Karel Plicka (1971-73), SU (two parts), r SU
• A Midsummer Night' s dream. Ballet pantomime (1982), DILIA
• Prince Bayaya. Fairytale Ballet (finished by Jan Klusák
  Jan Klusák
  Jan Klusák is a contemporary Czech composer, author of film, television and incidental music.- Life :...
  
  , 1986), DILIA

Film music

• Prince Bajaja (1951) - in 1980 Trojan rearranged the original score of Bajaja for acoustic and electrophonic accordion.
• Staré pověsti české (1954)
• Osudy dobrého vojáka Švejka (1954)
• Špalíček (1948)
• Zasadil dědek řepu (1945) - his first cooperation with Jiří Trnka
• Vodníkův mlýn
• Císařův slavík (1948)
• Žabák

Literature on Václav Trojan

• Vladimír Bor - Štěpán Lucký: Trojan. Film music, KLHU 1958
• Jan Vičar: Vaclav Trojan, PA 1989
• Jiří Pilka - Antonín Matzner: Česká filmová hudba (Czech Film Music), Dauphin 2002

Sources

• Milan Kuna. The New Grove Dictionary of Opera
  New Grove Dictionary of Opera
  The New Grove Dictionary of Opera is an encyclopedia of opera, considered to be one of the best general reference sources on the subject. It is the largest work on opera in English, and in its printed form, amounts to 5,448 pages in four volumes....
  
  , edited by Stanley Sadie (1992). ISBN 0-333-73432-7 and ISBN 1-56159-228-5