Zdeněk Fibich

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Zdeněk Fibich

Zdeněk Fibich (IPA: [ˈzdɛɲɛk ˈfibix]) (December 21, 1850 – October 15, 1900) was a Czech composer of classical music, including chamber works (including two string quartets, a piano trio, piano quartet and a quintet for piano, strings and winds), symphonic poems, three symphonies, at least seven operas, the most famous probably The Bride of Messina; melodramas including the substantial trilogy Hippodamia, liturgical music including a mass - a missa brevis; and a large cycle (almost 400 pieces, from the 1890s) of piano works called Moods, Impressions and Reminiscences among other works. The piano cycle served as a diary of sorts of his love for a piano pupil.

He was born in Vseborice (Seborice) near Caslav ([1]). He studied in Prague, in Leipzig with Ignaz Moscheles, Karl Richter and Salomon Jadassohn and in Paris). In Paris in 1868–9 he taught piano, later moving back to Prague and working as a theater conductor, composing prodigiously.

Fibich married Ruzena Hanusova in 1873. After her death, he married her sister Betty Hanusova in 1875. He left Betty for his student Anežka Schulzová, who also wrote the libretto for his opera Šárka. Fibich died in 1900 in Prague.

There is a Fibich Society which has organized projects such as Hudec's Thematic Catalog below, and much else.

[edit] Bibliography

Hudec, Vladimír. Zdenek Fibich. Praha, SPN, t. MTZ, Olomouc, 1971.
Hudec, Vladimír. Zdenek Fibich. Tematicky katalog Thematisches Verzeichnis. Praha, Editio Bärenreiter, 2002. ISBN 80-86385-10-8. 850 S. Text in Tschechisch, Deutsch und Engl.
Jiránek, Jaroslav. Zdenek Fibich. Praha : Státní hudební vydavatelství, 1963.
Some of this information is paraphrased from the Fibich entry in the Oxford Concise Dictionary of Music (Michael Kennedy, ed., 4th ed., 1996, revised 2004. ISBN 0-19-860884-5. Oxford, New York, Oxford University Press) and from reviews of recordings of the works listed in music journals (especially the Moods, Impressions and Reminiscences cycle.)