Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Bedrich Smetana: A Study of His Life and Work

Bedrich Smetana: A Study of His Life and Work

Löwenbach, Jan
Martin Nedbal, Martin
Pechač, Marek

Hardcover

MusiciansEastern European HistoryGeneral Music

ISBN10: 1648251218
ISBN13: 9781648251214
Publisher: University of Rochester Press
Published: Mar 17 2026
Pages: 340
Weight: 1.37
Height: 0.81 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
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 Intended to highlight Czech cultural achievements and promote national independence, the book remained unpublished following the 1948 Communist coup in Czechoslovakia.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.

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