Václav Horák

Václav Wenzel Emanuel Horák (Lobeč, near Mělník, 1 January 1800 – Prague, 3 September 1871) was one of the most representative musical figures in Bohemia of his time, both for his sacred music and for his work as a teacher and conductor. He is associated with the revival of Czech music in the nineteenth century, when national identity was also expressed through song and choral music.

As a boy he received his first lessons from Josef Schubert and, in 1813, moved to Prague to study at the Gymnasium and then philosophy and law. His musical training was largely self-taught, supplemented by lessons from Jan Kuchař (1829) and Tomášek (around 1831). He gave private lessons and distinguished himself as an organist and improviser. From 1828 he devoted himself entirely to music: he became a singing teacher at the Prague Organ School around 1834 and later taught harmony (1837–1838); he also taught singing at the teacher-training institute between 1838 and 1855. His most prominent post was the directorship of the Žofín Academy, which had a Mozartian orientation, from 1851 to 1853.

For much of his career he was regarded as the leading native composer of religious music in the Czech lands. He wrote eleven masses, three requiems, two Te Deums, settings of the Passion and other Latin texts. His works, published mainly in Prague, Breslau and Vienna, were valued for their simple lyricism, moderate counterpoint and direct expression. His style derives from classical models, above all Mozart, but also connects with the early Romantics. He also composed songs and numerous secular choral works in German and Czech, which were much loved during the national revival of the late 1850s and 1860s. His only known instrumental work is a string quartet.

After his death his music was eclipsed as Czech tastes changed; only a few choral works and the popular Missa pastoralis (Prague, c. 1858) remained in the repertoire. As a writer he left a treatise on the ambiguity of chords (Prague, 1846), two singing methods and a manuscript Harmonielehre, of which only a part was published in 1872 under the title 'O kvintách a oktávách'.