Through his activities, Bedřich Smetana fundamentally influenced the formation of modern Czech musical life. The exceptional nature of his position lies in the breadth and versatility of his activities. As a composer, he founded modern Czech music and he asserted himself as a pianist, conductor, choirmaster, music teacher, and music critic. For eight years he was at the helm of the Czech opera of the Provisional Theatre and participated significantly in the establishment and activities of some of Prague’s cultural institutions. Smetana’s public endeavours and artistic efforts were closely related to societal events, especially from the 1860s onwards, and this linkage between artistic intentions and societal demand is reflected in his production in terms of the range and choice of themes and genres. To some extent, Smetana subordinated his personal life to his public activities and artistic vocation, and his financial situation also reflected this decision.

During recent decades historians and musicologists have devoted major attention to the harsh judgments of Zdeněk Nejedlý regarding Antonín Dvořák, devoting even one whole book to this topic. They have engaged in speculations about the causes of these judgments in the aesthetic, social, and political context of the time. It seems, however, that one of these causes, evidently the original cause and perhaps the main cause, has not yet been identified as such. To recognize it we must be aware that although Nejedlý's best-known condemnations of Dvořák come from the time of the "Battles over Dvořák" that broke out in 1912, his positions in this matter were essentially fully developed already much earlier, at the very beginning of his career. For example, in 1903 he wrote: "Dvořák lacked the artistic intelligence to create new forms." Critical is the fact that Nejedlý denigrated Dvořák even earlier, in his book about Zdeněk Fibich published in 1901, where many passages surprise us with assertions that in harmony, in subtle rhythms, in polyphony, in melody, in "musical technique," and in orchestration, inferior to Fibich was not only Dvořák but also the composer best known as Nejedlý's hero: Smetana. Nejedlý had published part of this book in advance in instalments in a periodical, late in 1900 shortly after Fibich's death, with an introduction that makes even clearer his adoration of this composer not only as an artist (with whom he himself had studied composition) but as a human being, and his bitter conviction that Fibich had not received the recognition he deserved. Later in the book he attempts to explain Dvořák's greater career success by the assertion that his music is "much simpler" and that England, which conferred such glory on him, was an "unmusical" country. From these observations and others we may conclude that Nejedlý felt the need to criticize Dvořák as the one who had received recognition that rightly belonged to Fibich. And in part Nejedlý was correct: even if we perhaps think Dvořák was a greater composer, it is indisputable that at the end of the nineteenth century his fame unjustly left Fibich in the shadow-which today is even more the case than then.

From the perspective of the number of Dittersdorf's compositions preserved, the Schwarzenberg music collection is a relatively small, but very valuable one, particularly in the field of orchestral music. Some of the copies preserved here could be considered unique with regard to the present state of investigation (although their authorship is therefore questionable). Despite this fact, this source of information on Ditters' music presently remains rather unknown, and for instance in the RISM catalogue it is recorded only partially. The aim of this study is therefore to create a more detailed overview of the identified Dittersiana, as well as to reflect on the role of these compositions in the music activities of the Schwarzenberg princes and their employees.

The contribution of Czech composers to the development of the Polish national music begins in the era of the activity of Jan Stefani, the composer of musical set to Cracovians and Highlanders by Wojciech Bogusławski, considered the first Polish national opera. Further on are the achievements of Wilem Würffel as the creator of polonaises and fantasies based on Polish national melodies. Although after the anti-Russian uprising (1831), many Czech musicians still worked in Poland as music teachers, members of orchestras or choir directors, their participation in shaping the formation of Polish national music was rather niche. It was influenced by political reality, which was not favorable to the development of Polish-Czech contacts, especially in the part of the country under Russian rule (here Czechs were seen as Russophiles). The impulse that increased interest in Czech music in Poland in the last decades of the 19th century was the awareness of its high position in Europe. The successes of Smetana and Dvořák's works discussed in foreign music press, prompted several Polish music activists to attempts to introduce them to national stages. However, it was only the beginning of the twientieth century when Czech national music was properly assessed by Polish composers. And here political factors played also a role - the "Czech Renaissance" in Polish musical thought was largely inspired by the events of the Prague Neo-Slav rally of 1908.

The new Czech choral book must be considered as a publication that fundamentally influenced the form of the spiritual song in Silesia. It is a modern work that reflects the current needs of individual Christian congregations. The time range among the included songs is almost 650 years, drawing not only from the songs of churches registered in the Czech Republic, but also folk tunes, traditionals, etc. Its concept influences the form of the spiritual song especially by the thought that every melody is supposed to be processed in such a way so that it describes the essence of the text's composition and message. With its creation, it not only imprinted a new form of spiritual song, but also influenced which songs will be performed in Christian congregations in the times to come.

Anton Neumann (1721-1776) was a composer, violinist and Kapellmeister whose numerous original compositions are preserved in domestic as well as foreign music collections. The aim of the study is to introduce new findings on Neumann's life and point out the importance of his preserved works, many of which manifest features of the "Sturm und Drang" style. Thanks to their characteristic composition style, Neumann's works even enable us to determine the authorship for materials where the first name is missing. An extensive research project has demonstrated that his works are included in collections in Central, and partly also Western, Northern and Southern Europe. The paper discusses the importance of the fundamental collection of Neumann's compositions in the property of Benedictine monks from Lambach and a determination of the links to the composer's activity in Kroměříž. The crucial new findings involve a specification of Neumann's date of birth, and proof of his identification with the personality of a Brno tower apprentice Johann Heinrich Neumann.

James MacMillan is one of the few internationally renowned composers who embraced the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council with its key concept of participatio actuosa and wrote music involving the congregation. With regard to these works, the following questions are discussed and answered: In what way did he compose for untrained singers so that they are able to sing his compositions? Which stylistic compromises did he accept and how are they artistically justifiable? How does his liturgical music involving the congregation relate to liturgical theological concepts?

Originally a Silesian musician, Johann Georg Orsler (or Orschler) was active in many places that are important for the music history of the Czech Lands: he was sent by the Count of Zerotin to study music at Rosetter and Fux in Vienna; in 1720s his activities are documented in Prague, followed by Moravia and Vienna in the service of Johann Matthias of Thurn and Valsassina, Count Franz Anton von Rottal, Count Joseph Johann Adam of Liechtenstein, or Count Thomas Vinciguerra of Collalto. The study summarizes the currently known biographic facts, and searches for the answer to the question of which of the prevalently instrumental compositions preserved under this particular surname were composed by the father, and which have to be attributed to his son Josef, a cellist of the Viennese court music ensemble.

The author of the paper searches for the answer as to what Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf's personality was like. In the case of this composer, we not only have his own biography, but also numerous archive evidence preserved in this country. The answer to such a question needs to be sought already in his childhood. His father was not only a theatre tailor, as stated in the existing domestic literary sources, but the imperial and theatre embroider. The contacts of his father in theatre circles and the nobility apparently influenced Dittersdorf's future life, among other things his interest in opera. The author also observes how Dittersdorf's personality and character developed, as well as his behaviour towards the nobility and common people. Attention is paid to his trouble with superiors, especially with Baron Kaschnitz. The paper documents Dittersdorf's entrepreneurial spirit, his relationship to property and to his wife. One aspect of Dittersdorf's life which is presently little known is his religious tolerance. The text deals in detail with his relationship with Mozart as a critical reaction to the most recent publication by Ian Woodfield Cabals and Satires. Based on this, the text also deals with the topic of the Brno premiere of Dittersdorf's opera Die Hochzeit des Figaro [The Marriage of Figaro].

Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf was one of the most productive composers of 1700s, which is also reflected by several hundred records in the central evidence of music resources in the Czech Republic, the Union Catalogue of Music (SHK) of the National Library of the Czech Republic. Coincidentally, the catalogue was established by the musicologist Oldřich Pulkert (1929-2016), who devoted many years to Ditters' works. His last, unfortunately unfinished, project was a thematic catalogue of Dittersdorf's works that were found in Pulkert's estate. The paper informs about the representation of Dittersiana in SHK and the form of Pulkert's catalogue, and proposes options for their further research utilization.

The study focuses on the relationship between Carl Ditters and Olomouc, particularly to the music ensembles of Olomouc bishops, which has not yet been the subject of targeted research interest. The contribution documents Ditters' compositions in the repertoire of Olomouc churches with a particular focus on the St. Wenceslas Cathedral whose music ensemble was led by Josef Puschmann, and the pilgrimage church at Svatý Kopeček [the Holy Hill] near Olomouc, where the oldest copy of Ditters' Missa solemnis in C (Krebs 327) from the year 1770 is preserved. The study also investigates Ditters' works in the archbishop's library in Kroměříž, acquired partially via Franz Götz. Particular attention is paid to Ditters' oratorio Il Davide nella valle di Terebintho and its staging at the Kroměříž Piarists.

The study deals with the creative and pedagogical journey of pianist Ivan Klánský. The introductory part describes the study of I. Klánský's piano interpretation; the personalities of all his piano educators are gradually introduced. The beginnings of the pedagogical work of I. Klánský as well as the development of his personal methodology is discussed. The study also describes the activities of I. Klánský as a lecturer of piano seminars for piano educators and as a leader of Master Classes for piano students.

The subject of this analysis is the musical material of the progressive rock area, specifically the Take a Pebble song by the British band Emerson, Lake & Palmer (1970). The analysis focuses on motivic and thematic coherence and the overall musical form, but also deals with substantial correlations in the field of instrumentation, harmony, rhythm, melody as well as dynamic aspect, the program content of the composition (the lyrics), interpretation style and other contexts.

The study deals with the aesthetics of singer-songwriters, namely the aesthetic category of authenticity. The aim of the text is to introduce a discussion of "authenticity" with regard to the worldwide singer-songwriters movement, especially its top female representatives (namely Carole King from the first phase in the sixties and seventies). The theoretical treatise is complemented by model analyzes of selected musical and extra-musical (textual, dance, etc.) elements that constitute what music critics call "authentic expression" - what they traditionally understand as a key criterion of musical/artistic quality (beauty, value) and on what they eventually build the canon of popular and rock music history.

At the time of B. Smetana's stay in Sweden (1856-1861), Göteborg was a rather small city and also the residence of several very wealthy families. The city a had good institutional basis for the development of music life. The standard for the audience as well as the level of musicians was influenced in particular by the experience with classicist musical works only sporadically influenced by new styles of the first half of the nineteenth century. With his intensive involvement in the organization of a musical life, and also as a teacher, piano virtuoso and a composer, Smetana gave Göteborg incentives that brought fruits already during his stay and were apparent even after his departure and deep into the nineteenth century. The inspiration was, however, mutual: the environment of Göteborg influenced Smetana and provided him with a wealth of rare life and artistic experience.

The study deals with the progress of the works by Josef Suk the composer (1874-1935) and its context with Czech and European modern music of the time. The goal is to show the dynamics of Suk's compositional progress, his creative struggles, stylistic means, and their significance for Czech music. The study is an attempt to answer the question, whether - or how - was Suk a representative of artistic modernity of his time, or stayed in tradition.

The first part of the journal is devoted to a prominent researcher and pedagogue of the Department of Musicology of the Palacký University, Prof Alena Burešová, PhD (1947) to her life jubilee. The readers are offered a selection from the rich publishing activities of the author from the 1970s to the present, whether it is academic studies on domestic and international topics, reviews, or other texts of scientific and popularizing nature. One of the chapters presents also an unpublished selected bibliography focused on children's choirs from the 1970s, partly the early 1980s.

Our paper investigates the emergence of pop music in Romania against the background of the demise of state socialism and the implementation of neoliberal policies after 1989.
Romanian pop music is the most listened to genre among young people nationwide in Romania. The paper traces the evolution of the Romanian musical industry from a single state-owned label, Electrecord, during the socialist period, to the private initiatives, large or small, of post-socialism. We argue that the development of the Romanian pop music industry is tightly linked with particular processes of Romanian post-socialism. Hence, analysing this development enables us to shed light upon the specificities of post-socialism in Romania (but also in the broader Eastern European context). Furthermore, the paper delineates the relationship between pop music in Romania after 1989, post-socialism and global neoliberalism as a hegemonic discourse.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Romanian pop music meant private enterprises promoting teen stars playing simple compositions and improvised music videos produced on a low budget, dedicated exclusively to a Romanian audience, whereas more recently pop songs by Romanian stars have gained international recognition, and entered the international charts. Thus, Romanian pop music seems to portray the ethos of neoliberalism as described by Comaroff & Comaroff, with wealth being attained almost miraculously.

This paper concerns the issue of music in two well-known twentieth-century series - Czechoslovakian Krtek (aired between 1957 and 2002) and Polish Reksio (1967-1990). My aim was to present the wealth of composer's ideas - how they provided the films not only with illustrative fragments and interesting stylizations, but even with autonomous musical images. Soundtracks reveal excellent workshop of their authors, their originality and sense of humor. Sometimes we hear classical like music, another time it is even avant-garde. To show the similiarities and differences between artistic strategies (not only strictly musical) I chose three pairs of cartoons (from both series) which action takes place in the similar surroundings or which refer to the suchlike questions. The article presents the conclusions from audiovisual analysis and therefore the description of music is inseparable from the plot. In the case of Krtek I present films with music of two composers - Miloš Vacek (1928-2012) and Vadim Petrov (1932), in case of Reksio it is one composer - Zenon Kowalowski (1939).

The article is devoted to the presentation and interpretation of critical-musical works of Max Brod, Czech-born German-Israeli writer, composer and librettist, best known as a monographer of Franz Kafka. On the basis of the press articles (published, inter alia, in German-speaking daily "Prager Tagblatt"), the author analyzes and systematizes Brod's views on musical art. Significantly, in the center of the critic's interest were found to be such composers as Leoš Janáček, Gustav Mahler and Arnold Schönberg. The press articles concerning Jewish music, more specifically - the "Jewish element" ("Jewishness") in music are discussed in detail. The author also attempts to answer whether the Zionist element of Max Brod's worldview could have affected his professional evaluation of musical pieces. At the end of the article critical-musical skills of Max Brod are subjected to the technical analysis, and his artistic views (particularly on Neue Musik) are placed in a wider context of the thought of the era.

The new Municipal Theater in Pressburg (today's Historical building of the Slovak National Theater in Bratislava) was opened in 1886, and until the year 1920, the city rented it to German and Hungarian directors. The first German tenant was Max Kmentt. He worked in the Municipal Theater in the years 1886/1887 and 1889/1890. His repertoire consisted mainly of entertainment pieces (German and French comedies, Austrian farce and operettas). An analysis of the repertoire brings up the question about the meaning of the Municipal Theater, which had long been influenced by the Viennese cultural environment. The members of Kmentt's artistic ensemble were mostly 'multitalented' artists, who were capable of acting in comedies, singing operettas and entertaining Pressburg's audience with their singing, acting and dancing in farce performances. Guests from the Viennese Court Theater and the Opera House established a high cultural environment; their presence being understood as proof of the education and culture of the inhabitants of Pressburg.

This study addresses the music-related aspects of the works of Claude Lévi-Strauss within the context of musicology and with a specific focus placed on his Mythologiques tetralogy. The aim is to define thematic categories for the individual theses within which they are further contextually understood. Selected references to music from Lévi-Strauss's work were analysed, compared, and interpreted, taking into consideration the theories of structural linguistics and anthropology. The topics chosen for the investigation include the system of relationships between language, mythology, and music, the analysis of myths using musical scores, the thesis that both music and myth are instruments that suppress time, the mythical nature of musical forms, and an analysis of Maurice Ravel's Bolero. The study takes into account current musicological applications that use the structural analysis of myths, and also critical reflections regarding Lévi-Strauss's theories. The individual categories were defined as structural homologies of myth and music, methodological tools of a metaphorical type to analyse myths using music, and the area commenting on the principles governing the styles and forms in the development of European art music and composed poetry.

The technologies of the 20th century represent an important milestone for the concept of musical work in history that concerns not only music composition itself but also its conservation and transmission.
It might have been in the field of music composition that these tendencies have become apparent first - in the construction of first electronic musical instruments; the integration of civilization, primarily non-musical sounds into classical music compositions; and after World War II, also in the new composition methods that record media started employing (e.g. magnetic tapes used for sound collage or phase shifts); furthermore, in the algorithmic composition mathematical formulae and computers applied (as digital support for the restoration of music scores or even as the proper creator of the composition that the computer either reproduces or conveys its graphical notation) or so-called live electronic music (in the sense of the flexibility of technical operations during live performances - reproductions of the work). However, computer music has also brought up new questions on the conception of the work of art and the scope and definition of music itself. These specific traits of so-called new music from the point of view of copyright are the subject of the Appraisal of the Institute of Copyright, Industrial Property and Competition Law of the Faculty of Law of Charles University (abbreviated Appraisal UPAPP) that reflects on the works of electronic and experimental music.
The study also touches on the possibilities of mass distribution of works, mainly related to the Internet and the development of new digital media with which can help to preserve (or fixate) and distribute recordings. These relatively new digital platforms and formats are on the one hand a way to liberalise and shift the distribution of music. On the other hand, they mean some flattening of the quality (technical and content) and a corresponding sharp increase in the quantity of recorded music. These aspects are also reflected in copyright law, where they have caused an increase of the specific problems related mainly to illegal distribution of musical works. Copyright law already regulates so-called indirect means of copyright protection (e.g. § 43). In the future, today's strategy of no responsibility for what content customers are offered on the side of website operators is threatened, since the advocates of stricter protection promote new harsher laws, for example liability of owners and operators of Websites for their content and trying to de facto introduce some form of Internet censorship.

Hans Mersmann presented his concept of musical structure in the 1920s and developed it mainly as a system of form types describing the classical music repertoire. In addition to this, he formulated a set of procedures to be used in the analysis of music. However, with the withdrawal of tonality in twentieth-century music, the significance of his framework for music analysis lessened. Moreover, even within the context of tonal music his approach has not become widely applied. On the contrary, David Lewin's model, developed within phenomenological reasoning sixty years later, despite being a model of musical perception, has turned into an influential theoretical stance with appealing analytical potential. The present paper discusses both approaches against the background of musical temporality and compares their explicative power while considering the advantages of Lewin's model.

Although composers and music pedagogues in Western Europe and the United States have been dealing with the topic of creativity and classroom composing within music education for almost half a century, the Different Hearing programme is the first to strive to include and develop these principles within the Czech education system (or indeed the former Czechoslovakian one). The Different Hearing programme originates from the cooperation of teachers and artists of two universities (Palacký University in Olomouc and Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno), and since 2001 it is the first project in the Czech Republic focused on making contemporary music accessible to children via the so-called method of elementary composition. Its authors were inspired by similar projects which had been taking place in the United States, Great Britain and Germany since the mid-1960s. The programme works primarily with the basic elements used in the process of composition, and it includes the use of non-traditional sounds, non-traditional musical instruments and graphic notation.
This paper focuses on the different ways and approaches to work with listening and perception in the framework of the Different Hearing programme, and their relation to contemporary music. It is based on the description and analysis of selected games and exercises that are used to initiate the compositional process. Experiences from the Different Hearing programme demonstrate that the intensive concentration on silence, sound or "soundscape" can be a suitable starting point for compositional activities in the classroom, as well as a way to the music of the 20th century. The paper draws conclusions in relation to compositional and pedagogical practices in the context of music education in the Czech Republic.

This article sheds new light on Georg Friedrich Haas's borrowing methods through an analysis of Tria ex Uno, which paraphrases a piece published half a millennium earlier: the Agnus Dei II from Josquin des Prez's Missa "L'homme armé" super voces musicales, which employs borrowing techniques itself. I demonstrate the transformation from the Agnus Dei II to Tria ex Uno by revealing Haas's specific spectral paradigms and techniques within a framework of Peter Burkholder's and Richard Beaudoin's work on musical borrowing. My study thus provides a means to understand the spectral treatment of existing music within the discourse on musical borrowing.

With the current worldwide trend of inclusive education, music education needs to face the challenge that more and more students with special needs have joint music classes. Through literature review, this article discusses the music education in inclusive classroom and music teacher education. Above all, although inclusive education practice was not easy to implement, it is exactly the reality and the future of education. Music education should be prepared to play an important role in inclusive education.

Even though the Communist Party bodies in charge of governmental cultural policy in the period of so-called normalization restricted and liquidated rock music systematically, rock music life did not fully cease to exist. This in substantiated by the history of the WSS music band (Water-Supply Spectres) from Olomouc which succeeded in surviving for nearly nine years in the 1970s, the most critical period of the repressions enforced. The music band was established in December 1970. It broke up based on an intervention by State Security at the promoter of the band, which was the Socialist Youth Organization, basic unit 27, at the beginning of the year 1979. The artistic development of the band, in which Emil Pospíšil, an republic-wide known rock and folk guitar player, or Petr Večeřa, a member of the important Moravian jazz band Free Jazz Trio, started their careers, can be divided into two stages. In the first stage of its existence, the band performed at dance parties around Olomouc, playing the repertoire with musical pieces by geniuses of world hard rock, such as Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, or Black Sabbath. Around 1975, WSS focused on jazz rock represented worldwide by the ensembles of Mahavishnu Orchestra type. WSS went down to the cultural history of Olomouc not only by their music activity, but also by their relation to Czech non-official culture and underground.

The article describes all activities which conductor and composer Iša Krejčí undertook during his time in Olomouc (1945-1958). The paper tries to evaluate what importance this composer played in the cultural progress of Olomouc. The article also includes a brief study of the most important principles of his musical style. The study focuses on dramaturgy, composing, pedagogical and journalistic activities of Iša Krejčí.

Shortly after the Czech professional theatre in Olomouc was founded, a group of young dancers led by a so-called principal dancer was established in 1920, in addition to the opera and the operetta ensembles. At that time, the group did not constitute an independent ensemble - that came into being only after the World War II. In the beginning, the ballet took part in preparations of opera and operetta performances; only in some seasons, a pure ballet performance was staged. In 1945, the ballet company became independent. It was gradually changed into a fully professional body. Soloists with good technical and artistic qualification came to Olomouc; the company developed, grew, and staged one all-evening ballet performance every year. In the second half of the 20th century, several excellent choreographers worked at the Olomouc theatre; Josef Škoda or Robert Balogh rank among them doubtlessly. A ballet academy began working as a part of the theatre and in 2008, a new festival called Ballet Days Olomouc came into being.