Scan 78
Groves Dictionary Of Music And Musicians,vol.3, 1907
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1pantomime, 'Der Schneemann,' was given at the Hofoper in Vienna. Two piano sonatas, an elaborate Lustspiel Ouvertüre for a large orchestra, and a Sinfonietta for orchestra and some chamber music followed in quick succession. His first opera was 'Der Ring des Polycrates'; two later operas, 'Violanta' (Vienna and Munich, 1916) and 'Die tote Stadt' (Hamburg, 1920), have been much acclaimed and frequently given. (Riemann.) C.
3KOTO, see JAPANESE MUSIC.
5KOTTER, HANS (b. Strassburg, c. 1485; d. Berne, between 1541–43), organist at Freiburg from c. 1504. As a Protestant he was imprisoned, tortured and exiled in 1522. At the instance of the Strassburg council he obtained his freedom in 1531 (?) and went to Berne c. 1532; but, as the Reformation had banished all church organs, the only employment he could find was that of a schoolmaster. He remained at Berne except for a few fruitless journeys to obtain a more suitable position. The organ-book in tablature written by him for Bonifazius Amerbach in 1513, now in the University library, Basle, is one of the oldest monuments of the German school of organ-playing. He wrote also a second organ book without name of author, and a Salve Regina a 3 v. for organ (in the same library) (Riemann, Q.-L.).
7KOTZWARA (Koczwara), FRANZ (b. Prague; d. London, Sept. 2, 1791), published six songs in London in 1785, was in Ireland in 1788, and was engaged in 1790 as tenor player in Gallini's orchestra at the King's Theatre. He returned to London in the latter year, and in 1791 he hanged himself in a house of ill-fame in Vine Street, St. Martin's. He had been one of the band at the Handel Commemoration in the preceding May. Kotzwara was the author of the 'Battle of Prague,' a piece for PF. with violin, violoncello and drum ad libitum, long a favourite in London. A copy of John Lee's edition of this piece exists, bearing the MS. date 1788, so that it must have been published before the date usually given, 1789. He also wrote sonatas, serenades, and other pieces. G.; addn. W. H. G. F.
9KOVAŘOVIC, KAREL (b. Prague, Dec. 9, 1862; d. there, Dec. 9, 1920), for twenty years (1900–20) chief conductor of the National Opera (Národní Divadlo) in PRAGUE (q.v.), and the composer of two very popular operas founded on national subjects: 'Psohlavci' (The Peasants' Charter) and 'Na starém Bělidle' (At the Old Bleaching House).
11On leaving the Prague Conservatoire, where he had made the clarinet and the harp his special studies, Kovařovic joined the orchestra of the National Opera as harpist until 1885. He then studied theory with Fibich. Being also an excellent pianist, he was engaged as accompanist by the violinist Fr. Ondříček, and toured with him from 1886–88. During the next few years he was employed as conductor to several provincial societies, until in 1895 Prof. Hostinsky commissioned him to organise and direct an orchestra for the Ethnographical Exhibition in Prague. This brought his remarkable gifts as a conductor into prominence, and it was realised that he was the very man to be placed at the head of the National Opera. It was not without some opposition and delay that he was actually appointed conductor-in-chief, in 1900. His drastic methods raised the entire standard of performance, but naturally aroused some hostility in his professional surroundings. A stern disciplinarian with his personnel, he took also a very decided view as to the works suitable for production at the National Opera, and set his face against indiscriminate experimentalism. He was, however, an eclectic in his views, and his performances of Mozart were as carefully thought out and as exquisite in detail as were his famous revivals of Smetana's operas, which he popularised until they became a really vital part of the musical life of his people. Kovařovic put the National Opera in Prague on a level with the best continental opera houses, having regard to the size and resources of the city. As regards the appreciation and assimilation of very modern music he had his limitations, but made on the whole very few mistakes. His life and health were given ungrudgingly to the maintenance of first-rate opera, of which the Czechs were justly proud.
13As a composer, Kovařovic appeared at first to be merely versatile and superficially gifted. As a young man he wrote several comic operas: 'Ženichove' (The Bridegrooms) (1884), 'Cesta Oknem' (The Way through the Window) (1886), and 'Noč Šimon a Judy' (The Night of Simon and Jude) (1892), besides a picturesque ballet, influenced by Delibes, 'Haschish' (1881), and 'Pohádka o nalezeném štěstí' (A Tale of Luck Found) (1886). A sense for the stage and a certain musical wit assured some success for these works, and also for a burlesque operetta on 'Œdipus Rex,' and the incidental music which he furnished for Tyl's Wood Nymph and The Excursions of Mr. Brouček. But none suspected that his talent, hitherto somewhat unworthily employed, was maturing and aspiring in secret until, in 1898, it manifested itself in a serious opera, written in honour of the Jubilee of the Association of the Národní Divadlo. 'Psohlavci,' translated into German as 'Bauernrecht' (The Peasants' Charter,) but meaning literally 'the Dog-heads,' is based on a tale by the popular historical novelist, Jirásek. The Chods, a small group of loyal peasants dwelling in the south-west of Bohemia, had proved such trusty guardians of the frontier that they were recompensed by various princes of Bohemia with unusual favours, amongst them the right to bear on their banners the
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