Involuntary Hero: Otakar Ostrčil and his Biographer Zdeněk Nejedlý

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe principal biographer of the Czech composer and conductor Otakar Ostrčil (1879–1935) was Zdeněk Nejedlý (1878–1962), an influential musicologist and a politician who held many state offices after World War II, including serving as a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party in the position of Minister of Culture and Education. Two trends in Nejedlý’s writing about Ostrčil can be observed. The first one, summarized in Nejedlý’s book on Ostrčil, focused on the composer’s place in the development of Czech music as an heir of Smetana. The second, formulated in numerous articles and gaining strength after Ostrčil’s death, pointed out connections between the composer’s work and a communist or socialist worldview. In both cases, Nejedlý was creating links between purely musical aspects of Ostrčil’s music and more general issues: for example, Nejedlý saw Ostrčil’s last opera, Johnny’s Kingdom (1934), as a model for the future structure of society. The relation between these two viewpoints presents a striking case of a biographer using his subject as a vehicle for his own ideas.