Polívka, Vladimír
Polívka, Vladimír
Polívka, Vladimír , Czech pianist and composer; b. Prague, July 6, 1896; d. there, May 11, 1948. He studied piano at the Prague Cons., and took lessons in composition from Vítězslav Novák at the Master School there (1912–18). He traveled in Europe, America, and Japan with the violinist Jaroslav Kocián; from 1923 to 1930, taught piano in Chicago. In 1938 he returned to Prague and taught at the Cons.; was chairman of Pritomnost, an association for contemporary music. He publ. several collections of children’s pieces, collaborated on a book about Smetana (Prague, 1941), and wrote a book of travels, describing his world tour (Prague, 1941).
Works
DRAMATIC: Polobůh (The Demigod), opera (1930); A Ballad of a Deaf-Mute, melodrama (1936); incidental music. ORCH .: Jaro (Spring), symphonic poem (1918); Little Symphony (1921); Suite for Viola and Small Orch. (1934); Concerto for Piano and Small Orch. (1934); Overture (1942). CHAMBER : 2 violin sonatas (1918, 1919); Suite for Viola and Wind Quintet (1934); String Quartet (1937); Divertimento for Wind Quintet (1939); Giacona for Viola and Piano (1944); Viola Sonata (1945). Piano : Dni v Chicagu (Days in Chicago; 1926); 3 Impromptus (1930); Merry Music (1932–33); Krajiny z let okupace (Landscapes in the Years of Occupation), suite (1941). VOCAL : Choruses; songs.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire