Racek, Jan

Racek, Jan , Czech musicologist; b. Bučovice, June 1, 1905; d. Brno, Dec. 5, 1979. He studied with Helfert at the Univ. of Brno (Ph.D., 1929, with the diss. Idea vlasti, národa a slávy v due B. Smetany[The Idea of the Fatherland, Nation, and Glory in the Works of B. Smetana]; publ. in Brno, 1933; 2^nd ed., aug., 1947); later received a D.Sc. degree (1957). He was director of the music archives of the Moravian Regional Museum (1930–48), and also was a lecturer at the Univ. of Brno (from 1939) and prof. and director of the Brno dept. of ethnography and folk music of the Czech Academy of Sciences (1948–70). He served as ed. of the journal Musikologie and as general ed. of Musica Antiqua Bohemica.

Writings

Leoš Janášek (Olomouc, 1938); Slohové problémy italské monodie (Problems of Style in Italian Monody; Prague and Brno, 1938; Ger. tr., 1965); ed. with L. Firkušný, Janáčkovy feuilletony z Lidové Noviny (Janáček’s Feuilletons in the Lidové Noviny; Brno, 1938; 2^nd ed., rev., 1958, as Leoš Janáček: Fejetony z Lidových Noviny Ger. tr., 1962); Leoš Janáček a současni moravšti skladatelé (Leoš Janáček and Contemporary Moravian Composers; Brno, 1940); Česká hudba od nejstaršich dob do poičátku 19. stoleti (Czech Music from the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the 19^th Century; Prague, 1949; 2^nd ed., aug., 1958); Ruská hudba: Od nejstaršich dob az po velkou řijnovou revoluci (Russian Music from the Earliest Times up to the Great Revolution; Prague, 1953); Beethoven a české země (Beethoven in Bohemia and Moravia; Brno, 1964).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire