Volek, Jaroslav

Volek, Jaroslav, prominent Czech musicologist and aesthetician; b. Trencin, July 15, 1923; d. Prague, Feb. 22, 1989. He studied composition at the Prague Cons. (1941-46) and then attended the master classes of Sin, Haba, and fodky there (1946-48). He took courses in musicology and aesthetics at the Univ. of Bratislava (Ph.D., 1952, with the diss. Teoretické základy harmonie z hladiska vedeckej filozófie[The Theoretical Bases of Harmony from the Viewpoint of Scientific Philosophy]; publ. in Bratislava, 1954) and at the Univ. of Prague (C.Sc, 1958, with the diss. O specifiönosti pfedrnëtu umëleckého odrazu skuteönosti[Specific Quality in the Artistic Reflection of Reality]; publ. in L. Tondi et al., Otázky teorie poznáni,Prague, 1957; D.Sc, 1968, with the diss. Základy obecné teorie umëni[The Bases of General Art Theory]; publ. in Prague, 1968). He was a lecturer (1952-57), reader (1957-68), and prof, (from 1968) at the Univ. of Prague, and he was also active as a music critic and served as ed. of the journal Estetika (1969-71). He played a significant role in the development of Marxist music criticism.

Writings

(all publ. in Prague): Novodobé harmonické systémy (Contemporary Harmonic Systems; 1961); Kotázkám pfedmëtu a metod estetiky a obecné teori umëni (The Subject and Methods of Aesthetics and the General Theory of Art; 1963); Die Frage der Zahl der Funktion in der traditionellen Harmonik (1968); Kapitoly z dëjin estetiky (Chapters from the History of Aesthetics; 1969); K antropologické problematice estetiky a obecné teorie umëni (Anthropological Problems in the Aesthetics and General History of Art; 1970).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire