Karel Bendl

Karel Bendl, or Template:Langx, pseudonym: Podskalský (16 April 1838, Prague, Bohemia, Austrian Empire Template:Ndash 20 September 1897, Prague) was a Czech composer.

File:Karel Bendl 01.jpg

(1897)

File:Praha, Bubenec - Karel Bendl.jpg

A monument in Bubeneč, work by Stanislav Sucharda

Life

Bendl was born and died in Prague. He studied at the organ school, where he met and befriended Antonín Dvořák one year before graduating with honors in 1858. By then he had already composed a number of small choral works. In 1861 his Poletuje holubice won a prize and at once became a favorite with the local choral societies. In 1864, Bendl went to Brussels, where for a short time he held the post of second conductor of the opera. In Paris, he became influenced by the stage works of Charles Gounod and Ambroise Thomas and especially by Giacomo Meyerbeer.

By 1865, he was back in Prague where he was appointed conductor of the choral society known as Template:Interlanguage link, and he held the post until 1879, when Russian Template:Interlanguage link (originally from Hamburg), includes Template:Interlanguage link engaged his services for his private band.

Bendl's first opera Lejla was successfully produced in 1868. It was followed by Břetislav a Jitka (1870), Starý ženich, a comic opera (1883), Karel Škréta (1883), Dítě Tábora, a prize opera (1892), and Máti Míla (1891). Other operas by Bendl are Indická princezna, Černohorci, a prize opera, and the two operas Čarovný květ and Gina. His ballad Švanda dudák acquired much popularity; he published a mass in D minor for male voices and another mass for a mixed choir; two songs to "Ave Maria"; a violin sonata and a string quartet Op.119 in F Major; and a quantity of songs and choruses, many of which have come to be regarded as national possessions of Bohemia.

References

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: 

External links

• Karel Bendl String Quartet in F, Op.119
• Twelve Gipsy songs. 1st and 2nd series. With pianoforte accompaniment (From the Sibley Music Library Digital Score Collection)
• Quartet, strings, op. 119, F major (From the Sibley Music Library Digital Score Collection)
• Free scores by Karel Bendl at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
• Detailed biography Template:In lang

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