František Jiránek (24 July 1698 – 1778) was a

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, ...

( Bohemian) Baroque composer, musician and very likely a student of Antonio Vivaldi.

Life

Jiránek was born on 24 July 1698 in

Lomnice nad Popelkou Lomnice nad Popelkou (german: Lomnitz an der Popelka) is a town in Semily District in the Liberec Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 5,600 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monumen ...

(Northern Bohemia, present-day

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

). His parents were servants of the Counts of Morzin; František also started to work for them as a musician. Count Václav Morzin sent him to

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

in 1724 to improve his musical abilities. His teacher was probably Antonio Vivaldi himself. Count Václav Morzin was a very important supporter of Vivaldi (Vivaldi dedicated to him his famous '' Four Seasons''). In 1726 Jiránek came back to

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

and worked as a

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

ist in the Prague ensemble of Václav Morzin. In this ensemble worked also Antonín Reichenauer and Johann Friedrich Fasch. After the death of Václav Morzin in 1737 Jiránek left Prague and was employed by the Prime Minister of

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...

Heinrich von Brühl Heinrich, count von Brühl ( pl, Henryk Brühl, 13 August 170028 October 1763), was a Polish-Saxon statesman at the court of Saxony and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and a member of the powerful German von Brühl family. The incumbency of ...

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

. In Dresden his work was informed by the coming Classical music. After the death of Heinrich Brühl in 1763 he retired and died in 1778 in

Works

Only Jiránek's instrumental works have been preserved (e.g.

violin concerto A violin concerto is a concerto for solo violin (occasionally, two or more violins) and instrumental ensemble (customarily orchestra). Such works have been written since the Baroque period, when the solo concerto form was first developed, up thro ...

s, symphonies or concertos). His work was strongly influenced by Vivaldi's musical style, although it has also many original distinctive elements. In fact their styles are so similar that Jiránek's works have occasionally been misattributed to Vivaldi. See, for example, the Violin Concerto in D major RV Anh. 8, which is now known to have been a Jiránek composition, catalogued as Jk Ap. 1.

Discography

* In 2010

Supraphon Supraphon Music Publishing is a Czech record label, oriented mainly towards publishing classical music and popular music, with an emphasis on Czech and Slovak composers. History The Supraphon name was first registered as a trademark in 1932. ...

issued the CD ''František Jiránek / "Concertos & Sinfonias"'' with recordings by ''Collegium Marianum''. * In 2016 Supraphon issued a second CD ''František Jiránek / "Concertos"'' with ''Collegium Marianum''.

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jiranek, Frantisek 1698 births 1778 deaths 18th-century classical composers 18th-century male musicians 18th-century Bohemian musicians Czech Baroque composers Czech Classical-period composers Czech male classical composers People from Lomnice nad Popelkou