Josef Leopold Zvonař was a Czech composer, pedagogue, and music critic.

Zvonař was born in Kublov

Kublov

Kublov is a municipality and village in Beroun District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. -References:*This article was initially translated from the Czech Wikipedia....

, studied at the organ school in Prague with Pitsch, and worked as an assistant teacher and organist there; he was briefly the school's director. In 1860 he became director of Žofín Academy, a woman's music school. He died in Prague

Prague

Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...

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Some of his early music is set to German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 texts, but after 1848 he aligned himself with Czech nationalism. His reviews of music appeared in Dalibor and Slavoj. He was a co-founder of the Hlahol choral society and the Umělecká Beseda, an artists' union. He may have taught Antonín Dvořák

Antonín Dvorák

Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...

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Zvonař composed overtures, chamber music, cantatas, an opera entitled Záboj, a requiem, and piano works, and his manuscripts are held at the National Museum in Prague. His songs were popular in his lifetime. However, he his best remembered as an educator; he was the author of the first history of Czech music, Dějiny české hudby (1860), as well as the first Czech language

Czech language

Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...

 harmony treatise, Navedení k snadnému potřebných kadencí skládání (1859). His papers on Czech folk music were among the earliest founding documents of study in the field.

Selected works

Theory and pedagogy:

• Varhanictví, umění učitelské (Organology, the Art of Teaching) (1858)
• Navedení k snadnému potřebných kadencí skládání (Instructions to the Easy Composing of Needed Cadenzas) (1859)
• Návod zpěvu, ohledem na národní školy (Instruction of Singing with Respect to the National Schools) (1860)
• Základy harmonie a zpěvu s příslušným navedením pro učitele hudby vůbec a národních kol zvláště (1861)
• Listy ředitelům zpěváckých sborů (1862-1863)
• Slovo o příčině nedostatku hudebně vzdělaných mladých učitelů (1863)
• Hudební vychovávání (Musical Education) (1863-1864)
• Příspěvky k vědomostem varhanickým (1864)
• Slovo hudebním učňům... (1865)
• Příruční knížka při vyučování zpěvu pro I. tř. městské dívčí školy (1866, 1870)

Folk songs:

• České národní písně (Czech National Folk Songs) (1859)
• Slovo o českých národních písních (A Word about Czech National Folk Songs) (1860)
• Zkumné příspěvky ku poznání povahy a ducha české hudby, čerpané z českých nár. písní duchovních i světských (Explorational Contributions to the Cognition of the Character and Spirit of the Czech Music, Acquired From the Czech Sacred and Secular National Folk Songs) (1863)

History:

• Dějiny české hudby (History of the Czech Music) (1862)
• Jan Křtitel Vaňhal (1859)
• Slovo o mších Tůmových (A Word about the Masses by Tůma)
• Hlídka po táboru hudby v Čechách (1861)
• Listy z dějin české hudby: I. Jan Trojan (1862)
• Václav Karel Holan Rovenský (1862)

Selected compositions:
Piano

• Bei Sonnenuntergang, Op. 2 (1854)
• Lorelei, Op. 3
• Sonata in F minor, Op. 10 (1849)
• Grande Suite, Op. 15 (1852, 1861)
• Primula veris, Op. 27 (1857)
• Tonstück für Pf. in G major, Op. 40 (1861)

Organ

• Šestero předeher (Six Preludes), Op. 12 (1858)
• Sedmero skladeb (Seven Organ Compositions), Op. 14
• Slavnostní předehra (Festive Overture), Op. 18
• Album pro varhaníky (Album for Organists)

Chamber

• Piano Trio in Es major, Op. 22 (1854)
• Piano Quintet, Op. 24 (1855)
• String Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 31 (1857)

Orchestral

• Overture in C minor, Op. 9 (1848)
• Overture in D major, Op. 23 (1855)
• Overture in C minor, Op. 37 (1860)
• Overture in B-flat major

Vocal

• Varyto a lyra (1856)
• Zpěvy pro čtyři, tři i dva hlasy (Songs for Four, Three and Two Voices) (1862)
• Jaro lásky (Spring of Love)
• Mladý cikán (Young Gypsy)
• Kukačky (Cuckoos) (1858)
• Věneček rozmarýnový z ohlasů písní národních (1858)
• Vocal Mass in B minor, Op. 49
• Animas fidelium

Cantata

• Der Ritter zum Elfenstein, Op. 26 (1857)

Opera

• Záboj (1859-1862)
• Lesní kaple (Forrest Chapel)