On Mon 18th July 1949

Death of Vitezslav Novak, Neo-Romantic Composer

Vítězslav Novák (December 5, 1870 – July 18, 1949) was one of the most well-respected Czech composers and pedagogues. He was a leading figure in the Neo-Romanticism movement. He was born in Kamenice nad Lípou. He studied music at the conservatory in Prague, and attended Antonín Dvořák's masterclasses where his fellow students included Josef Suk. From 1909 to 1920, Novák taught at the Prague Conservatory himself, and this occupied him to a greater degree than composing. He subsequently gave masterclasses, and composed somewhat more until his death. He died in Skuteč.

Novák's music remained in a late-Romantic style until his death. His work shows some influence from the Moravian and Slovak folk music which he began to collect and study in the late 1890s. His works, the earliest of which to receive an opus number was a piano trio in G minor (but preceded, in order of composition, by several works including an unpublished serenade in B minor for piano dating from 1886-7), include a number of tone poems, among them Pan (1910, originally for piano, later orchestrated), a piano concerto (in E minor, from 1893), chamber music including three string quartets, a piano quintet (1896, opus 12) and piano quartet (1899, opus 7), two piano trios and sonatas for violin and cello, and the cantata The Storm (1910). He also composed several operas.