DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

596 KOTO KEAFT
Cantata ' Don Jnan.' op. 5,
' Armenian Songs,' opp. 8, 13.
Voca! and Orchestral.
' Prologue ' for the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Moscow Conservatoire,
op. 9.
Georgian Songs,' op. 27c.
3Ii3cdlaiicoti.^.
Choruses, opp. 16, 29. 32, 37.
80 Songs, opp. 2, 2fi, '28, 31, 35, 36.
Pianoforte pieces, opp. 1, 3 (Concert Fantasia with orchestra), 19,
22, 30, 33.
String quartet, op. 2.5.
Melody for violin and piano, op. 4.
Do, for violoncello and piano, op. ^ "R N
KOTO. See Japanese Music.
KOTZWARA (properly KOCZWARA),
Franz, born at Prague, published six songs in
London in 1785, ivas in Ireland in 1788, and
"was engaged in 1790 as tenor player in Gallini's
orchestra at the King's Theatre. He returned
to London in the latter year, and on Sept. 2,
1791 he hanged himself in a house of ill-fame
in Vine Street, St. Martin's. He had been
one of the band at the Handel Commemoration
in the preceding May. Kotzwara was the author
of the ' Battle of Prague,' a piece for pf. -^vith
"violin, violoncello, and drum axl libiUiin, long
a favourite in London. [A copy of John Lee's
edition of this piece exists, bearing the MS.
date 1788, so that it must have been published
before the date usually given, 1789. (See
Battle of Prague.) Information from W. H.
Grattan Flood, Esq.] He also wrote sonatas,
serenades, and other pieces, some of them bearing
as high an opus number as 36, if Fetis may
be believed. He was a clever vagabond, and a
dissipated creature. G.
KOZELXJOH (German Kotzeluch), Johann
Anton, Bohemian musician, born Dec. 13,
1738, at Welwarn ; was choirmaster first at
Rakonitz and then at Welwarn. Desirous
of further instruction he went to Prague and
Vienna, where he was kindly received by Gluck
and Gassmann, was appointed choirmaster of
the Kreuzherrn church, Prague ; and on March
13, 1784, capellmeister to the Cathedral, "\vhich
he retained till his death on Feb. 3, 1814. He
composed church-music, operas, and oratorios,
of which very little was published. [The
Qiielhn- Lexilcon gives a cantata for soprano,
op. 7, as published by Artaria of Vienna, and
contains a list of MS. works.] Of much greater
importance is his cousin and pupil,
Leopold, born also in Welwarn in 1754, or,
according to some, 1748. In 1765 he went to
Prague lor his education, and there composed
a ballet, performed at the national theatre in
1771, with so much success that it was followed
in the course of the next si.x years by twentyfour
ballets and three pantomimes. In 1778
he went to Vienna, and became the pianoforte
master of the Archduchess Elizabeth, and favourite
teacher of the aristocracy. When Mozart
resigned his past at Salzburg (1781) the Archbishop
at once offered it with a rise of salary
to Kozeluch, who declined it on the ground
that he was doing better in Vienna. To his
friends, however, he held different language
' The Archbishop's conduct towards Mozart deterred
me more than anything, for if he could
let such a man as that leave him, what treatment
should I have been likely to meet with ?
The respect here expressed was strangely at
variance with his subsequent spiteful behaviour
towards Mozart, the original cause of which is
said to have been Mozart's reply to his remark
on a passage in a new quartet of Haydn's—
' I
should not have written that so. '
' Neither
should I : but do you know why ? because the
idea would never have occurred to either of us,'
See Jahn's iIo:art, Engl, trans., ii. 347. This
reproof Kozeluch never forgot. He used to say
that the overture to ' Don Giovanni ' was no
doubt fine, but that it was full of faults ; and
of that to 'Die Zauberflote, ' 'Well ! for once
our good Mozart has tried to write like a learned
man.' At the coronation of the Emperor
Leopold II. at Prague (1791) even his own
countrymen, the Bohemians, were disgusted
with his behaviour to Mozart, who was in
attendance as court composer. He neverthe-
less succeeded him in his office (1792), with a
salary of 1500 gulden, and retained the post
till his death on May 7, 1818 (not 1814), As
to the date of death the authorities are at variance,
the date 1814 being supported by Dlabacz
and Wurzbach, as well as by the less trustworthy
evidence of Fetis and Mendel. The
testimony of the first is especially weighty,
since his dictionary was begun in 1815, when
the date of so important a musician's death
must have been well known. Almost all the
authorities give May 8 as the day : Dlabacz's
May 3 is probably a misprint for 8. His numerous
compositions include two grand operas,
'Judith' and 'Debora und Sisara' ; an oratorio,
' Moses in -Sgypten ' ; many ballets, cantatas,
about thirty symphonies, and much pianoforte
music, at one time well kno"vvn in England, but
all now forgotten. [See the list in the QuelUn-
Lexikon.'\ His chief interest for us lies in his
association with Jlozart and Haydn. It should
be added that he arranged some Scotch songs
for Thomson of Edinburgh, in allusion to which,
Beethoven, in a letter of Feb. 29, 1812 (Thayer,
iii. 449), whether inspired with disgust at Koze-
luch's underselling him, or with a genuine contempt
for his music, says, ' Moi je m'estime
encore une fois plus superieur en ce genre que
Monsieur Kozeluch (miserabilis). ' He again calls
him 'miserabilis' (Thayer, iii. 200). f. g.
KRAFT, Anton, distiugaiished violoncellist,
born Dec. 30, 1752, ' at Rokitzan near Pilsen in
Bohemia, son of a brewer and amateur, who had
his son early taught music, especially the violoncello.
He studied law at Prague, "where he had
finishing lessons from Werner, and at Vienna,
where Haydn secured him for the chapel of
Prince Esterhazy, which he entered on Jan. 1,
1 This is the date in the baptismal register, but 1751, or 1749, are
usually given.