Involuntary Hero: Otakar Ostrcil and his Biographer Zdene;k Nejedlý

• Published in: The Journal of musicological research Vol. 38; no. 3-4; p. 253
• Main Author: Kratochvílová, Markéta
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Philadelphia Taylor & Francis Ltd 01.01.2019
• Subjects: Careers; Composers; Musicians & conductors; Musicology; Writers
• ISSN: 0141-1896; 1547-7304
• DOI: 10.1080/01411896.2019.1649576

The principal biographer of the Czech composer and conductor Otakar Ostrcil (1879-1935) was Zdene;k Nejedlý (1878-1962), an influential musicologist and a politician who held many state offices after World War II, including serving as a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party in the position of Minister of Culture and Education. Two trends in Nejedlý's writing about Ostrcil can be observed. The first one, summarized in Nejedlý's book on Ostrcil, focused on the composer's place in the development of Czech music as an heir of Smetana. The second, formulated in numerous articles and gaining strength after Ostrcil's death, pointed out connections between the composer's work and a communist or socialist worldview. In both cases, Nejedlý was creating links between purely musical aspects of Ostrcil's music and more general issues: for example, Nejedlý saw Ostrcil's last opera, Johnny's Kingdom (1934), as a model for the future structure of society. The relation between these two viewpoints presents a striking case of a biographer using his subject as a vehicle for his own ideas.