Bedrich Smetana

Name: Bedrich Smetana
Price: 149.76 AUD
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ISBN: 9781648251214

A Study of His Life and Work

Jan Löwenbach, Professor Martin Martin Nedbal (Customer), Dr Marek Pechač , Ruth Martin

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Hardback

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Czech

University of Rochester Press
17 March 2026

Music; Theory of music & musicology; Individual composers & musicians, bands & groups; History: specific events & topics; National liberation & independence, post-colonialism

Series: Eastman Studies in Music

An insightful and engaging biography of Czech composer Bedřich Smetana, originally written in the 1940s and meticulously reconstructed and updated for twenty-first-century readers.

Czech-Jewish lawyer and music historian Jan Löwenbach (1880–1972) wrote this biography of nineteenth-century Czech composer Bedřich Smetana (1824–1884) while living in New York in the 1940s, after fleeing the Nazi occupation of his homeland. Intended to highlight Czech cultural achievements and promote national independence, the book remained unpublished following the 1948 Communist coup in Czechoslovakia. Unlike later English-language biographies of Smetana, Löwenbach's work explicitly engages major early twentieth-century Czech scholarship on the composer and offers a uniquely informed perspective. As a ""native informant,"" Löwenbach dispels long-standing nationalistic myths, while providing insightful commentary on Smetana's complete oeuvre, an engaging narrative of his life, and a thoughtful account of the broader social and cultural context. This edition, based on several Czech and English typescripts preserved at San Diego State University, presents a meticulous reconstruction and new translation of Löwenbach's text. With added references to recent scholarship, it stands as both an essential primary document and a rich resource for anyone interested in Czech music—scholars and general readers alike.

By: Jan Löwenbach
Edited by: Professor Martin Martin Nedbal (Customer), Dr Marek Pechač
Translated by: Ruth Martin, Vilma Löwenbach
Imprint: University of Rochester Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
ISBN: 9781648251214
ISBN 10: 1648251218
Series: Eastman Studies in Music
Pages: 340
Publication Date: 17 March 2026
Audience: College/higher education , Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

List of Figures List of Musical Examples Acknowledgements Introduction: Jan Löwenbach's Smetana Biography by Martin Nedbal and Marek Pechač Dedication of Jan Löwenbach Chapter 1: 1824-40 Chapter 2: 1840-48 Chapter 3: 1843-48 Chapter 4: 1848-56 Chapter 5: 1856-59 Chapter 6: 1859-60 Chapter 7: 1861-62 Chapter 8: 1862 Chapter 9: 1863-65 Chapter 10: 1865-66 Chapter 11: 1866-69 Chapter 12: 1870-74-Aesthetic and Political Controversies Chapter 13: 1870-74-Personal Life and Operatic Works Chapter 14: 1875-78 Chapter 15: 1878-79 Chapter 16: 1880-82 Chapter 17: 1883-84 Epilogue by Jan Löwenbach: Smetana's Personality Bibliography Index

JAN LÖWENBACH (1880-1972) was a lawyer involved in the establishment of Czechoslovak copyright law as well as a music critic and writer and a translator of Rilke's works into Czech and Dvorak's songs into German. MARTIN NEDBAL is Professor of Musicology at the University of Kansas. MAREK PECHAČis a musicologist on the staff of the Bohuslav Martinů Institute in Prague. RUTH MARTIN is a freelance German-to-English book translator. She has a PhD in German from Birbeck, University of London.