Jan Antonín Losy

Jan Antonín Losy, also spelled Logy, Losi, or Lozi (c.1643-1721), ("Earl Of Losyntahl","Losimthal"), was a Bohemian Baroque lute player and composer from Prague. He propagated the so-called "French style" (stile brisee) of playing in combination with Italian cantabile style. Such fusion of French and Italian style was one of the crucial subjects of baroque music.

Losy originated from Piuro in Val Chiavenna (Northern Central Alps region of Italy), then under Swiss rule. He was the fifth child of a secretary of Bohemian State Affairs who held the post of Inspector of Wine, Beer and Salt Taxes. His date of birth is estimated somewhere between 1643 and 1647.

After a landslide in 1618 engulfed the whole city his surviving family (grandfather, father and uncle) moved to Prague, and he was born in the summer castle at Steken. He graduated in philosophy on Charles University in Prague, and became a high clerk of Austrian Empire. According to sources, he played violin and lute and there is no evidence he played other instruments, although there is rather rich source of transcriptions of his lute compositions for other instruments available (baroque guitar, keyboard, angélique, mandora, violin).

As it was usual in his times, he composed mostly dance suites, but sometimes attempted more major works, such as the three-part Overture according to Lully. Inspiration by French and Italian composers of his times, he studied and enjoyed while playing their music on violin with harpsichord accompaniment, together with well mastered French lute style, his musical studies performed during his European travels, his intelligence, noblesse, bright spirit and big love of the lute.

In 1770 the French lutenist, Jacques de St-Luc visited Losy in Prague. Spending some considerable time there, he founded an academy of music with Losy and other Czech lutenists.

In spite of Losy's outstanding reputation as a player and improviser on the lute, only one of his works was published in his own lifetime. This was the "Courante Extra-ordinaire", which was part of the collection "Cabinet der Lauten", published in 1695 by Philippe Franz Lasage de Richée. His works are widely spread all over European manuscripts; however, the identification and verification of some Losy's works is a complicated issue. A list of his works has been issued by Prague lute player Emil Vogl, extended and critically corrected or commented by further discoveries of Losy's works and concordances by Tim Crawford. Even though, it is not an end of the story, because new concordances and likely pieces are newly in place. There are also several editions of Losy music, none of them critical complete editions in CNRS style.

After Losy's death in Prague in 1721, the great German lutenist Silvius Leopold Weiss paid tribute to his colleague by dedicating to his memory the work "Tombeau sur la mort de Monseigneur Comte de Logi".

Losy's extensive and highly creative works are scattered through various archives in Bohemia, France, Germany and Austria. There exists a French manuscript, a collection of pieces written for the 5-string guitarwhich is housed in Prague's National and University Library.