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Julius Fucík (composer)
Encyclopedia
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
and conductor of military bands.
Fučík spent most of his life as the leader of military brass band
Brass band
A brass band is a musical ensemble generally consisting entirely of brass instruments, most often with a percussion section. Ensembles that include brass and woodwind instruments can in certain traditions also be termed brass bands , but are usually more correctly termed military bands, concert...
s. He became a prolific composer, with over 300 march
March (music)
A march, as a musical genre, is a piece of music with a strong regular rhythm which in origin was expressly written for marching to and most frequently performed by a military band. In mood, marches range from the moving death march in Wagner's Götterdämmerung to the brisk military marches of John...
es, polka
Polka
The polka is a Central European dance and also a genre of dance music familiar throughout Europe and the Americas. It originated in the middle of the 19th century in Bohemia...
s, and waltz
Waltz
The waltz is a ballroom and folk dance in time, performed primarily in closed position.- History :There are several references to a sliding or gliding dance,- a waltz, from the 16th century including the representations of the printer H.S. Beheim...
es to his name. As most of his work was for military bands, he is sometimes known as the "Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
n Sousa
John Philip Sousa
John Philip Sousa was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era, known particularly for American military and patriotic marches. Because of his mastery of march composition, he is known as "The March King" or the "American March King" due to his British counterpart Kenneth J....
".
Today his marches are still played as patriotic music in the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
. However, his worldwide reputation rests on one work: his Opus 68 march, the Entrance of the Gladiators
Entrance of the Gladiators
"Entrance of the Gladiators" or "Entry of the Gladiators" is a military march composed in 1897 by the Czech composer Julius Fučík...
(Vjezd gladiátorů), which is universally recognized, often under the title Thunder and Blazes, as one of the most popular theme tunes for circus clowns
Clown
Clowns are comic performers stereotypically characterized by the grotesque image of the circus clown's colored wigs, stylistic makeup, outlandish costumes, unusually large footwear, and red nose, which evolved to project their actions to large audiences. Other less grotesque styles have also...
.
Another composition, The Florentiner March, composed as a grand march for an opera never completed, is not as popular as Entrance of the Gladiators, but it is regularly performed and recorded by wind ensembles.
Fučík was the uncle of the journalist Julius Fučík, executed by the Nazi regime
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
.
Biography
Fučík was born in PraguePrague
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...
on 18 July 1872 when Prague was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. As a student, he learned to play the bassoon
Bassoon
The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band and chamber music literature...
with Ludwig Milde
Ludwig Milde
Ludwig Milde is known primarily as a composer of music for the bassoon. In particular, his 25 Studies in Scales and Chords and his 50 Concert Studies are widely played to this day.-Biography:...
, violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
with Antonín Bennewitz
Antonín Bennewitz
Antonín Bennewitz was a Czech violinist, conductor and teacher. He was in a line of violinists that extended back to Giovanni Battista Viotti, and forward to Jan Kubelík and Wolfgang Schneiderhan....
, and various percussion instruments, later studying composition under 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...
.
In 1891, he joined the 49th Austro-Hungarian Regiment as a military musician. He initially played in Krems by the Danube under Josef Wagner
Josef Wagner (composer)
Josef Franz Wagner was an Austrian military bandmaster and composer. He is sometimes known by the sobriquet 'The Austrian March King'....
and later joined Karl Komzak's military band in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
. In 1895 Fučík left the army to take up a position as second bassoonist at the German Theatre
Prague State Opera
The Prague State Opera , is an opera and ballet company in Prague, Czech Republic. The theatre was originally founded in 1888 as the New German Theatre and from 1949 to 1989 it was known as the Smetana Theatre....
in Prague. A year later he became the principal conductor of the Prague City Orchestra as well as the conductor of the Danica Choir in the Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
n city of Sisak
Sisak
Sisak is a city in central Croatia. The city's population in 2011 was 33,049, with a total of 49,699 in the administrative region and it is also the administrative centre of the Sisak-Moslavina county...
. During this time, Fučík wrote a number of chamber music pieces, mostly for clarinet and bassoon.
In 1897, he rejoined the army as the bandmaster for the 86th Infantry Regiment based in Sarajevo
Sarajevo
Sarajevo |Bosnia]], surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans....
. Shortly after, he wrote his most famous piece, the Einzug der Gladiatoren or Entrance of the Gladiators
Entrance of the Gladiators
"Entrance of the Gladiators" or "Entry of the Gladiators" is a military march composed in 1897 by the Czech composer Julius Fučík...
. Fučík's interest in Roman history led him to name the march as he did. The tune is now universally associated with the appearance of the clown
Clown
Clowns are comic performers stereotypically characterized by the grotesque image of the circus clown's colored wigs, stylistic makeup, outlandish costumes, unusually large footwear, and red nose, which evolved to project their actions to large audiences. Other less grotesque styles have also...
s in a circus performance. In its circus context, the tune is also known by the title Thunder and Blazes.
In 1900, Fučík's band was moved to Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
where Fučík found there were nine regimental bands ready to play his compositions, but he also faced more competition to get noticed. Having more musicians at his disposal, Fučík began to experiment with transcriptions of orchestral works.
In 1909, Fučík moved again, returning to Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
where he became the bandmaster of the 92nd Infantry Regiment in Theresienstadt
Terezín
Terezín is the name of a former military fortress and adjacent walled garrison town in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic.-Early history:...
. At the time, the band was one of the finest in the Austro-Hungarian empire, and Fučík toured with them giving concerts 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...
and Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
to audiences of over 10,000 people.
In 1913, Fučík married and settled in Berlin where he started his own band, the Prager Tonkünstler-Orchester, and a music publishing company, Apollo Verlag, to market his compositions. His fortunes began to wane with the outbreak of the First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. Under the privations of the war, Fučík's business failed and his health suffered. On 15 September 1916, Julius Fučík died near Berlin at the age of 44. He is buried in Prague.
Selected works
Marches- Vjezd gladiátorůEntrance of the Gladiators"Entrance of the Gladiators" or "Entry of the Gladiators" is a military march composed in 1897 by the Czech composer Julius Fučík...
(1899) - Florentinský pochod (Florentiner March) (1907)
- Boží bojovníci (1911)
- Danubia (1899)
- Fantastický pochod (Marche fantastique) (1904)
- Hercegovac (1908)
- (The) Mississippi River (1902)
- Pod admirálskou vlajkou (1901)
- Salve Imperator (1898)
- Stále vpřed (Sempre avanti) (1904)
- Stráž Slovanstva (1907)
- Triglav (1900)
- Vítězný meč
- Veselí venkovští kováři
- Zvuky fanfár
Waltzes and polkas
- Virtuoso polka for fagot Starý bručoun (1907)
- Ideály snů - waltz
- Od břehu Dunaje - waltz
- Dunajské pohádky - waltz
- Zimní bouře - waltz
- Baletky - waltz
- Escarpolette - waltz
- Concertant overtures Marinarella (1907) and Miramare
- Symphonic suite Život (Life) (1907)
- Chamber compositions for clarinet a bassoon
- The Grumbly Old Bear for Bassoon and band accompaniment
External links
- Midi file of the introduction to Entry of the Gladiators also known as Thunder and Blazes.
- Partial catalogue of compositions
- This version of his most famous march has words: Big Red Noses