Friederike Schwarz (15 January 1910,

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 ...

– 5 May 1945) was a Czech composer, educator, pianist and writer. She, together with her sister, committed suicide during the

Prague uprising The Prague uprising ( cs, Pražské povstání) was a partially successful attempt by the Czech resistance movement to liberate the city of Prague from German occupation in May 1945, during the end of World War II. The preceding six years of o ...

. She sometimes published under the pseudonym rz.

Biography

Schwarz was born in

to a family of modest means. Her musical talent came to the attention of composer Fidelio Finke, director of the German Academy of Music and Performing Arts, who helped Schwarz get scholarships to study piano and composition at the Academy. She graduated in 1931 and began writing for the music journal ''Der Auftakt'', the official publication of the Musikpädagogischer Verband (Music Education Association) in Prague. She wrote about activities at the German Academy and other facets of German musical life in Prague, under her own name and under the pseudonym rz. Schwarz was mentored by Erich Steinhard, the editor of ''Der Auftakt'', who favorably reviewed her compositions. During the 1930s, she succeeded him as the Prague correspondent for the Berlin publication ''

Die Musik ''Die Musik'' was a German music magazine established in 1901 by Bernhard Schuster (1870–1934). It was published semimonthly by Schuster & Loeffler from Berlin and Leipzig. Schuster was its editor-in-chief from inception until July 1933, when th ...

''. Schwarz's ''Concerto for Piano and Chamber Orchestra'' won a prize from the Prague Literary-Artistic Society. Her chamber music compositions were favorably reviewed in the ''

Prager Tagblatt The ''Prager Tagblatt'' was a German language newspaper published in Prague from 1876 to 1939. Considered to be the most influential liberal-democratic German newspaper in Bohemia, it stopped publication after the German occupation of Czechos ...

''. She continued to write and teach piano and music theory until her death.

Work

Schwarz's music is published by Laurentius Musikverlag. Her compositions include: ;Chamber *''Quintet'' (string quartet and clarinet) *''Sonata'' (violin and piano) *''Three Pieces'' (cello and piano) ;Orchestra *Concerto for Piano and Chamber Orchestra ;Piano *''Perpetuum Mobile'' *''Piano Trio'' (probably violin, cello and piano) *''Sonata'' *''Suite'' ;Vocal *songs

Biography

Work

References

Further reading