Jan Klusák

Jan Klusák (born April 18, 1934 in Prague as Jan Porges) is a contemporary Czech composer, author of film, television and incidental music.

Life

Klusák was born to a Czech-jewish family, who owned the farm in Prague (Prosek). After he graduated from the gymnasium, he pursued his studies at the Prague Music Academy as a pupil of Jaroslav Řídký and Pavel Bořkovec (in 1953-57Vysloužil, p. 256] ). Later he concentrated solely on composing.

He has never worked directly with music groups or schools, although his style was temporarily influenced by the music of Sergei Prokofiev and Igor Stravinsky, and later by the Second Viennese School, especially by Alban Berg and Serialism. Since 1959 he cooperated closely with Czech conductor Libor Pešek and with "Chamber Philharmony". In the 1960s he occasionaly acted in films, in addition to composing the music. However, after the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968, Klusák was condemned as a "politically undesirable" person (he composed music for prohibited films). During the normalization Klusák was engaged in the Jára Cimrman Theatre, but he was forced to leave in 1975. Following the Velvet Revolution in 1989, he began to participate in public life again, and worked as a member and director of various cultural institutions in the Czech republic. He was awarded a "Classic 1995" Award for his compositions and for his "String Quartet No. 5" in particular [ [http://www.musica.cz/klusak/#Jan_Klusák_ Jan Klusák English ] ] .

Selected works

*"Osm invencí" (Eight Inventions for Various Instrumental Arrangement) (1961-73) - his key work
*"Čtyři malá hlasová cvičení na slova F. Kafky" (Four Little Voice Excercises to the Words of Franz Kafka) (1960)
*"Obrazy pro 12 dechových nástrojů" (Images for 12 Wind Instruments) (1962)
*"Variace na téma Gustava Mahlera" (Variations on the Theme of Gustav Mahler) (1962)
*"Smyčcový kvartet č. 2" (String Quartet No. 2.) (1962)
*"Sonáta pro smyčcové a dechové nástroje" (Sonata for String and Wind Instruments) (1965)
*"Rondo pro piano" (Rondeau for Piano) (1967)
*"Duet pro flétnu a piano" (Duet for Flute and Piano) (1977)

In the 1980s Klusák focused more on vocal compositions. He began to compose song cycles, cantatas, and wrote an opera [Vysloužil, p. 257] .

*"Cokoli chcete" (Whatever you want) (1986) - opera

Klusák is also the composer of the music to the popular Czech television series Hospital at the End of the City.

Footnotes

References

*cite book |title=Hudební slovník pro každého II. |last=Vysloužil |first=Jiří |authorlink= |coauthors= |year=2001 |publisher=Lípa |location=Vizovice |isbn=80-86093-23-9 |pages= |url=

External links

* [http://www.sweb.cz/cinemania/klusak.htm Czech info]
* [http://www.musica.cz/klusak/#Jan_Klusák_ English info, works, bibliography]