Karel Komzák I (4 November 182319 March 1893) was a Bohemian composer, organist, bandmaster and conductor. He was the father of

Karel Komzák II Karel Komzák II (8 November 1850 – 23 April 1905) was a Bohemian-born Viennese composer famous for his dances and marches. He composed the '' Erzherzog-Albrecht-Marsch''. Komzák was born in Prague in 1850. After training under his father ...

and the grandfather of Karel Komzák III.

Biography

Karel Komzák was born in 1823 in Netěchovice, near Týn nad Vltavou, now in the České Budějovice District of the Czech Republic. A memorial plaque now commemorates his birthplace. He learned the violin from his father, a blacksmith but also a popular folk singer and acclaimed violinist,zuskomzaka
and studied with Moritz Mildner and

Antonín Bennewitz Antonín Bennewitz (also Anton Bennewitz; 26 March 1833 – 29 May 1926) was a Bohemian violinist, conductor and teacher. He was in a line of violinists that extended back to Giovanni Battista Viotti, and forward to Jan Kubelík and Wolfgang Schne ...

at the Prague Conservatory. allmusic
/ref> He studied at the School for Organists and became a village teacher. Later he was an organist at a lunatic asylum, the National Institute for the Mentally Ill, where he worked for 19 years. He was also a bandmaster of the Rifle Corps in PragueGrove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th ed (1954), Vol. IV, p. 818 and a theatre conductor in Linz. He moved around frequently, staying longest at Vienna and Baden. He formed a well-respected orchestra for opera performances at the Czech Provisional Theatre. In 1862 it was permanently attached to the Theatre. Among its players were

Antonín Dvořák Antonín Leopold Dvořák ( ; ; 8 September 1841 – 1 May 1904) was a Czechs, Czech composer. Dvořák frequently employed rhythms and other aspects of the folk music of Moravian traditional music, Moravia and his native Bohemia, following t ...

(viola) and the composer's own son Karel Komzák II (violin). He was succeeded in this post by Bedřich Smetana.Verlag Dohr
/ref> In 1865 Komzák was appointed bandmaster in the 11th Infantry Regiment of the Austro-Hungarian Army in

Innsbruck Innsbruck (; bar, Innschbruck, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian ) is the capital of Tyrol (state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the ...

. He served in this post for the next 15 years in a variety of locations. In 1876 he declined an offer to conduct at the World Exhibition in Chicago, followed by a concert tour of Boston, Washington and New York. In 1880 he moved to the 74th Infantry Regiment. Up until this time, he had warmed the hearts of his listeners by regularly including Czech folk songs in his concert programs, but from 1880 this music was forbidden. He retired in 1881, but only a year later was persuaded to join the newly formed 88th Infantry Regiment in Prague as a bandmaster. He retired in April 1888 to his birthplace, where he died in 1893, aged 69. He wrote more than 200 popular marches, waltzes, mazurkas, polkas, galops, quadrilles and other dances.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Komzak, Karel 1823 births 1893 deaths Czech male composers Czech composers Czech organists Male organists Organists from Austria-Hungary Czech conductors (music) Male conductors (music) Czech bandleaders 19th-century composers 19th-century conductors (music) 19th-century organists Prague Conservatory alumni