Otakar Hostinský (2 January 1847, Martiněves (near

Litoměřice Litoměřice (; german: Leitmeritz) is a town in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 23,000 inhabitants. The town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument reservation. The town is the seat ...

) – 19 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 ...

) 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, ...

historian,

musicologist Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some mu ...

, and professor of

musical aesthetics Aesthetics of music () is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of art, beauty and taste in music, and with the creation or appreciation of beauty in music. In the pre-modern tradition, the aesthetics of music or musical aesthetics exp ...

. He is known primarily for his support of

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

Bedřich Smetana Bedřich Smetana ( , ; 2 March 1824 – 12 May 1884) was a Czech composer who pioneered the development of a musical style that became closely identified with his people's aspirations to a cultural and political "revival." He has been regarded i ...

and his contributions to Czech aesthetic theory, which influenced many cultural figures in early twentieth-century Prague, including

Zdeněk Nejedlý Zdeněk Nejedlý (10 February 1878 – 9 March 1962) was a Czech musicologist, historian, music critic, author, and politician whose ideas dominated the cultural life of what is now the Czech Republic for most of the twentieth century. Although ...

Otakar Zich Otakar Zich (25 March 1879, Městec Králové – 9 July 1934 Ouběnice u Benešova) was a distinguished Czech composer and aesthetician. Biography In his music education he studied as a self-taught man. Years later, he became a pupil of the p ...

, and Vladimír Helfert. He also wrote the

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

libretto A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...

s to

Zdeněk Fibich Zdeněk Fibich (, 21 December 1850 in Loket (Benešov District), Všebořice – 15 October 1900 in Prague) was a List of Czech composers, Czech composer of european classical music, classical music. Among his compositions are chamber works (incl ...

's masterpiece, ''

The Bride of Messina ''The Bride of Messina'' (german: Die Braut von Messina, ) is a tragedy by Friedrich Schiller; it premiered on 19 March 1803 in Weimar. It is one of the most controversial works by Schiller, due to his use of elements from Greek tragedies (which ...

'', and

Josef Rozkošný Josef may refer to *Josef (given name) *Josef (surname) * ''Josef'' (film), a 2011 Croatian war film *Musik Josef Musik Josef is a Japanese manufacturer of musical instruments. It was founded by Yukio Nakamura, and is the only company in Japan spe ...

's ''Cinderella''.

Biography

Selected writings

(German titles given in the original; Czech titles translated into English) * ''Art and Nationality'', 1869 * ''Wagnerianism and Czech National Identity'', 1870 * ''On "Program" Music'', 1873
''Das Musikalisch-Schöne und das Gesammtkunstwerk vom Standpuncte der formalen Aesthetik''
1877
''Die Lehre von den musikalischen Klängen''
1879 * ''On the Contemporary State and Direction of Czech Music'', 1880 * ''On Czech Musical Declamation'', 1882 * ''On Melodrama'', 1885 * ''A Brief Overview of the History of Music'', 1885 * ''On Artistic Realism'', 1890
''Herbarts Ästhetik''
1891 * ''Volkslied und Tanz der Slaven'', 1893 * ''On Progress in Art'', 1894 * ''On Folksong'', 1897 * ''On Experimental Aesthetics'', 1900 * ''B. Smetana and his Struggle for Modern Czech Music'', 1901 * ''On the Socialization of Art'', 1903 * ''Art and Society'', 1907 * ''Czech Music, 1864-1904'', 1909

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hostinsky, Otakar 1847 births 1910 deaths People from Litoměřice District Czech musicologists Czech opera librettists Czech male writers 20th-century Czech historians Czech philosophers 19th-century Czech historians