Frantisek Kotzwara

František Kočvara, known later in England as Frantisek Kotzwara (1730 – September 2, 1791), was a Czech violist,[1] virtuoso double bassist[2] and composer. He is perhaps more famous for the notorious nature of his death.[2]

Life and music

Kotzwara was born in Prague, Bohemia and was something of a nomad. He travelled around Europe and performed with various orchestras. His mature career was based in England, where his compositions were published from 1775 onwards. These include string quartets, serenades and string trios. In London he played in the Concerts of Antient Music, in the Handel Commemoration of 1791 and in the orchestra of the King's Theatre.

Cover of Battle of Prague, (Boston: Gottlieb Graupner, early 19th century)

The only piece of his to have achieved renown is The Battle of Prague, a composition based on the 1757 Battle of Prague, in which the Kingdom of Prussia fought the Habsburg Monarchy. The Battle of Prague was a popular piece of music during the late 18th and 19th centuries, with Mark Twain mentioning the piece in his books Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and A Tramp Abroad.[3] A similar piece, The Siege of Quebec, often attributed to Kotzwara, is probably an arrangement by de Krift using assorted materials of Kotzwara.

Death

On September 2, 1791 while he was in London, Kotzwara visited a prostitute named Susannah Hill in Vine Street, Westminster. After dinner with her in her lodgings, Kotzwara paid her two shillings and requested that she cut off his testicles. Hill refused to do so. Kotzwara then tied a ligature around the doorknob, the other end fastened around his neck, and proceeded to have sexual intercourse with Hill. After it was over, Kotzwara was dead. His is one of the first recorded deaths from erotic asphyxiation.[2][4]

Susannah Hill was tried on September 16 for Kotzwara's murder at the Old Bailey but was acquitted. The jury chose to believe her testimony about the nature of Kotzwara's death. The court records of the case were supposedly destroyed in order to avoid a public scandal, though it is likely that some kind of copy was made by an individual. It is believed that this copy was used to produce a pamphlet about the incident, including Hill's account of the event.[5] A 2005 radio competition organised by the Radio Prague station led a listener to reveal that these court records had in fact not been destroyed, and somehow found their way to the Francis Countway Library of Medicine in Boston.

In 1984 a paper about Kotzwara's death was published in the American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, entitled "The sticky end of Frantisek Koczwara, composer of The Battle of Prague".[6] A pamphlet, Modern Propensities, with details of the trial and an article about auto-erotic asphyxiation was published in London about 1797.

Works

Notes

  1. ^ Some sources give Kotzwara's year of birth as 1750 or 1740.
  2. ^ Some sources give Kotzwara's year of death as 1793.
  3. ^ Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians 1980, gives the date of death as 2 September 1791, with the date of the subsequent trial of Susan Hill on 16 September 1791.
  4. ^ Finding an article telling the story of the Hill/Kotzwara debacle during a shift at the Emory University medical library, the perfect moniker for an Atlanta-based alternative rock band was purloined by a young Emory student, and Hanging Francis (1988-2002) was founded. This band toured the east and west coasts, released several independent records, signed to Hip hop producer Dallas Austin's Rowdy Crash Records for a brief period, and had a song go to #1 (the track Glamorous off the album Changes) in Madrid, Spain around Thanksgiving of 2000. The group toured in support of national touring acts such as Smashing Pumpkins, Hoodoo Gurus from Australia, and Juliana Hatfield to name but a few. The group was often compared In the press to "Paul Westerberg fronting a '77 era Clash." The name was much maligned and often misprinted in the press, most often misnamed as "Banging Nancies." The group was known to cover various eclectic pieces of music to open their sets, including Beethoven's "Ode to Joy," the Zombies "Time of the Season", and the theme song from the Charlie Brown television cartoon, along with various pieces of current female-fronted rock hits of the time. They went on to create The Gazpacho-Masada Codebook, which was a multifarious, occult guide to help young touring acts conduct themselves properly on the road, and included such sub-theorems as "the more well-endowed sister of a pair of twins shall be the less bossy."

References

  1. ↑ Štědroň, Bohumír (1963). Československý hudební slovník I. A-L. (Czechoslovak Music Dictionary Volume I, A~L). Státní hudební vydavatelství. p. 260.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "NNDB". Retrieved 2006-09-07.
  3. ↑ Chang, Ching (2001-11-08). "sfgate.com". The San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2006-09-07.
  4. ↑ "crimelibrary.com". Retrieved 2006-09-07.
  5. ↑ "Fiddler's companion". Retrieved 2006-09-07.
  6. ↑ Ober, WB. (1984). "The sticky end of Frantisek Koczwara, composer of "The Battle of Prague". Am J Forensic Med Pathol 5 (2): 145–9. doi:10.1097/00000433-198406000-00008. PMID 6375351.

Bibliography

External links