Matjaž Barbo: František Josef Benedikt Dusík. The biography of an eighteenth-century composer, Wien: Hollitzer Verlag, 2011 (Specula Spectacula 2), 152 pages, 24 x 17 cm, softcover
ISBN 978-3-99012-002-6 (pb) € 24,90
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František Josef Benedikt Dusík. The biography of an eighteenth-century composer
The book discusses the life of the Czech composer František Josef Benedikt Dusík. Dusík was born into a musical family in Cáslav (Bohemia, today Czech Republic). After studying in Prague he went to northern Italy. In the last decade of the eighteenth century he stayed in Ljubljana where he married and became one of the most important musical figures. He appeared as a musician in several famous Italian musical theatres of that time, from La Scala in Milan to San Benedetto in Venice. In Ljubljana he regularly appeared in musical theatre, he was employed as an organist and regens chori in the cathedral and played a leading role in the Philharmonic Society. He wrote operas, church compositions, instrumental pieces, and foremost, symphonies, which represent the first Slovene works of that genre. The biography introduces readers to an almost forgotten musician, whose fortune led him to be a bandmaster of various Austrian infantry regiments, and at almost the same time a composer who praised Napoleon.
CONTENTS
Preface
Parents and Home
Dusík's Youth
Arrival in Ljubljana
Collaboration with the Philharmonic Society
Collaboration with Theatre Companies
Departure from Ljubljana
Travelling Theatre in the Time of the Maelstrom of War
Dusík's Works
Dusík and Slovene Music? (In Place of a Conclusion)
Appendix