František Martin Pecháček, also ''Francis Martin Pechatschek, Pechaczek, Behatschek'' (10 November 1763 in

Ústí nad Orlicí Ústí nad Orlicí (; ) is a town in the Pardubice Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 14,000 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected as an Cultural monument (Czech Republic)#Monument zones, urban monument z ...

- 26 September 1816 in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

) was a

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

ist, pedagog,

arranger In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestrat ...

and diligent

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

. His son Franz Pecháček became known as a

virtuoso A virtuoso (from Italian ''virtuoso'', or ; Late Latin ''virtuosus''; Latin ''virtus''; 'virtue', 'excellence' or 'skill') is an individual who possesses outstanding talent and technical ability in a particular art or field such as fine arts, ...

violinist and

. The collections of the Municipal Museum in Usti nad Orlici contain two of his compositions, a piece for violin and orchestra entitled ''Rondeau brilliant'' and a concert duo for two violins, ''Polonaise.''

Early life

František Pecháček was born in the back of a low category restaurant in

(Wildenschwert), later known as hotel Friml Orličan (today a marketplace in the suburbs). He received his first grammar and music lessons in Usti, and then went to

Litomyšl Litomyšl (; ) is a town in Svitavy District in the Pardubice Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 10,000 inhabitants. It is a former bishopric and Latin Catholic titular see. Litomyšl is known for the château-type castle complex of the Lit ...

where he studied under the guidance of

choir A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words ...

director and pianist P. Lambert. Later he went to study philosophy and also acquire further musical training as a violinist from

Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf (2 November 1739 – 24 October 1799) was an Austrian composer and violinist. He was a friend of both Haydn and Mozart. (webpage has a translation button) His best-known works include the German singspiel '' Doktor un ...

Weißwasser Weißwasser (, ; ) is a town in Upper Lusatia in eastern Saxony, Germany. Weißwasser is the third largest town in the Görlitz (district), Görlitz district after Görlitz and Zittau. The town's landmark is its water tower. The town is part o ...

, then part of

Austrian Silesia Austrian Silesia, officially the Duchy of Upper and Lower Silesia, was an autonomous region of the Kingdom of Bohemia and the Habsburg monarchy (from 1804 the Austrian Empire, and from 1867 the Cisleithanian portion of Austria-Hungary). It is la ...

Musical career

Pecháček moved to Vienna when he was twenty years old, where in 1790 he began acting as

conductor Conductor or conduction may refer to: Biology and medicine * Bone conduction, the conduction of sound to the inner ear * Conduction aphasia, a language disorder Mathematics * Conductor (ring theory) * Conductor of an abelian variety * Cond ...

of the ''Landstraßer Theaters'' and the

Theater am Kärntnertor or (Duchy of Carinthia, Carinthian Gate Theatre) was a prestigious theatre in Vienna during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Its official title was (Imperial and Royal Court Theatre of Vienna). History The theatre was built in 170 ...

. Pecháček composed two large and ten small

comic opera Comic opera, sometimes known as light opera, is a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending and often including spoken dialogue. Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a ne ...

s, twelve

symphonies A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning c ...

, thirty

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

s, several

mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

es and various

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

and

church music Church music is a genre of Christian music written for performance in church, or any musical setting of ecclesiastical liturgy, or music set to words expressing propositions of a sacred nature, such as a hymn. History Early Christian musi ...

works, totaling over 100 opuses. On the occasion of the visit of King of Naples Ferdinand I in Vienna in 1801 was conducted with great success of his ballet "Forest Nymph". The main focus of his compositional activity consisted in the creation of

dance music Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded dance musi ...

, such as laendler,

waltz The waltz ( , meaning "to roll or revolve") is a ballroom dance, ballroom and folk dance, in triple (3/4 time, time), performed primarily in closed position. Along with the ländler and allemande, the waltz was sometimes referred to by the ...

es, and

minuet A minuet (; also spelled menuet) is a social dance of French origin for two people, usually written in time. The English word was adapted from the Italian ''minuetto'' and the French ''menuet''. The term also describes the musical form tha ...

s. In this field he gained such popularity, later only enjoyed by

Joseph Lanner Joseph Lanner (12 April 1801 – 14 April 1843) was an Austrian dance music composer and dance orchestra conductor. He is best remembered as one of the earliest Viennese composers to reform the waltz from a simple peasant dance to something th ...

and

Johann Strauss Johann Baptist Strauss II (; ; 25 October 1825 – 3 June 1899), also known as Johann Strauss Jr., the Younger or the Son (), was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas as well as a violinist. He compose ...

, of whom he is considered a forerunner.

Death

He died from exhaustion on the 26 September 1816 in Vienna, Esterházovském street, house No. 419, and was then buried at the now defunct Matzleinsdorf Protestant Cemetery. Unfortunately after his death, all his works fell completely into oblivion.

References

;Attribution *''This article is based on the translation of the corresponding article on the German Wikipedia. A list of contributors can be found there at the'
History
''section.''

External links

* Czech Wikisource has original text related to this article: František Martin Pecháček {{DEFAULTSORT:Pechacek, Frantisek Martin 1763 births 1816 deaths People from Ústí nad Orlicí Austrian classical composers Austrian classical violinists Czech male classical composers Austrian male classical composers Czech classical violinists Male classical violinists Czech Romantic composers 19th-century classical composers 19th-century Czech male musicians Composers from the Austrian Empire 18th-century composers from the Holy Roman Empire