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Václav Kučera

From Unearthing The Music

Václav Kučera. Photo sourced from Discogs

Václav Kučera (born 29 April 1929 in Prague) is a Czech composer and musicologist.

Biography

Václav Kučera studied musicology, aesthetics and philology at the Charles University in Prague (1948-51), before continuing his studies in Moscow at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory (1951-56), studying composition with Vissarion Shebalin and musicology with L.A. Maazel, V.A. Zuckerman, N.V. Tumanina et al. His graduation works was the dance drama The Brigands’ Fire and a dissertation about Leos Janacek.

Returning to Prague, he worked at the Czech Radio (1956–59). After serving as head of contemporary musical studies for the Union of Czech Composers (1959–62), he was head of studies in music aesthetics for the Inst. of Musicology (1962–69). From 1969 to 1983 he served as general secretary of the Union of Czech Composers and Concert Artists.

In 1972 he joined the faculty of the Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts as a teacher of contemporary composition, and later was prof, of composition there from 1988. From 1988 to 1990 he was president of the “Prague Spring” International Music Festival. In 1972 he received the Prix d’Italia for his Lidice and in 1983 received the prize of the Union of Czech Composers and Concert Artists for his String Quartet, Consciousness of Continuities. In 1986 he was made a Merited Artist by the Czech government.

Works

As a composer, Kučera's starting point has often been his admiration for Janacek, Stravinsky and Prokofiev and his own efforts to express the character of Czech and Moravian melodiousness towards a modern musical idiom and individual style synthesising expressiveness with New Music compositional technology.

After following the precepts of socialist realism in his scores during his early career, he developed an advanced compositional style in which he sometimes utilized electronics. Among his books are a study of Mussorgsky (1959) and a theoretical vol. on creative experiments in music (1973).

Kučera’s entire work includes more than 150 titles of music in different genres including electronics.

References

  1. Lenka Dohnalová, "Estetické modely evropské elektroakustické hudby a elektroakustická hudba v ČR", Prague, 2001. (Czech)
  2. Katalog české elektroakustické artificiální hudby, Prague, 2001. CD-ROM.
  3. Monoskop profile
  4. https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/kucera-vaclav