August Wilhelm Ambros (17 November 181628 June 1876) Blom, Eric (2005) ''Everyman's Dictionary of Music'', Kessinger Publishing. p. 15. . was an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n composer and music historian of

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places *Czech, ...

descent.

Life

He was born in

Mýto Mýto (; german: Mauth) is a town in Rokycany District in the Plzeň Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 1,500 inhabitants. Etymology The town's name literally means "toll". It refers to its history and location on an important trade route ...

Rokycany District Rokycany (; german: Rokitzan) is a town in the Plzeň Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 14,000 inhabitants. The town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument zone. Administrative parts Rokycany is made up o ...

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...

. His father was a cultured man, and his mother was the sister of Raphael Georg Kiesewetter (1773–1850), the musical archaeologist and collector. Ambros studied at the University of Prague and was well-educated in music and the arts, which were his abiding passion. He was, however, destined for the law and an official career in the Austrian civil service, and from 1839 he occupied various important posts under the ministry of justice, music being an

avocation An avocation is an activity that someone engages in as a hobby outside their main occupation. There are many examples of people whose professions were the ways that they made their livings, but for whom their activities outside their workplaces w ...

. From 1850 onwards, he became well known as a critic and essay-writer, and in 1860 he began working on his magnum opus, his ''History of Music'', which was published at intervals from 1862 in five volumes, the last two (1878, 1882) being edited and completed by Otto Kade and Wilhelm Langhans. Ambros was a professor of the history of music at

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

from 1869 to 1871.Meinong, Alexius & Adler, Guido (1995) ''Eine Freundschaft in Briefen Alexius'', Rodopi. p. 8. . Also in Prague, he sat on the board of governors in the Prague Royal Conservatory. By 1872, he was living in Vienna and was employed by the Department of Justice as an officer and by Prince Rudolf's family as his tutor. Through his work in Vienna, he was given a leave of absence for half the year in order to let him travel the world to collect musical information to include in his ''History of Music'' book. He was an excellent pianist, and the author of numerous compositions reminiscent of

Felix Mendelssohn Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include sy ...

. Ambros died at

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, Austria at the age of 59.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ambros, August Wilhelm 1816 births 1876 deaths People from Mýto People from the Kingdom of Bohemia 19th-century Austrian musicians 19th-century Austrian male musicians 19th-century classical composers 19th-century Czech musicians Austrian classical composers Austrian male classical composers Austrian people of German Bohemian descent Charles University alumni Czech male classical composers German Bohemian people Czech Romantic composers Josquin scholars 19th-century musicologists