About František Škroup
curriculum vitae
- Born on 3 June 1801 in Osice, died on 7 February 1862 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
- He was born to father Dominik Škroup and mother Anna, née Langrová.
- His father worked as a teacher and composed church hymns. He wrote about twenty masses and many other church songs. He was known far and wide as a powerful musician. He played many musical instruments, his best and favorite being the organ. Because of his merits, he was sent as a very good teacher to teach in the best school in Pardubice, in Osice. (In contemporary materials the place is often referred to as Wosice or Velké Wosice.) The Osice school then became the seat of the Škroup family, and František was also born in Osice.
- František's father Dominik Škroup worked in the local parish church Na nebevzetí virny Marie (the church is originally Gothic, inside it is Baroque) and after him also Fratišek's brother Ignác. The Škroup family took care of the church for 70 years, until 1871.
- When Dominik Škroup came to Osice with his family, he already had a son Václav and three daughters. A year after his arrival in Osice, his fifth child, his son František Škroup, was born.
- Ten years later, Dominik's last child, son Jan Nepomuk, František's younger brother, was born. He later became second chaplain of the Prague theatre, church composer and director of the St. Vitus Choir in Hradčany.
- In total, František Škroup had eight siblings, including five sisters and three brothers.
- František's favourite musical instrument was the flute, and he performed on it publicly at an early age.
- František was very talented, so the family decided that he would go to Prague to study. He was then eleven years old.
- Through connections (arranged by the dean of Osice, Ignác Kuchynka), František was given the opportunity to work as a vocalist in the Týn Cathedral. He earned money for his studies, because his father would not have been able to support him otherwise.
- The Týn Cathedral also dressed its vocalists modestly and provided them with modest accommodation.
- At Týn Cathedral he was strongly influenced by Francis X. Partsch (later spelled Parč) and František Škroup had a great role model in him. Parč composed both sacred and secular music and wrote one rather successful opera. He had a strong relationship with the Prague theatre, which influenced little František a lot. At the time when František Škroup worked for him as a vocalist, Parč was at the peak of his career. Later, František Škroup seems to have followed in his footsteps. He was similarly influenced by other vocalists with whom František was in Týn. One of them was his peer Alois Jelen (born 11 May 1801). The two boys shared a room together and very probably became friends. Alois Jelen later became a composer and archivist and was a Czech patriot.
- Unfortunately, the reason for this is unknown, but František Škroup left Týn after one year and continued as a vocalist in the Capuchin choir in Prague's Loreto. František came to Loreto in 1813.
- Here too he had a great boss, namely František Strobach (who was the son of the first Prague conductor of the Marriage of Figaro). František thus came into closer contact with the Prague Mozart community. František Strobach's father, Jan Josef Strobach, brought Mozart to Prague. Thanks to František Strobach, the young František Škroup became acquainted with the works of Mozart.
- In 1814, František's main financial supporter and patron, the dean of Osice, Kuchynka, died and František had to abandon his studies after two years. The family did not have enough money to pay for his studies, so František had to return home to Osice for a while. There he worked as a teacher's assistant to his father and in the autumn of 1816, he entered the grammar school in Hradec Králové. It was a grammar school of Jesuit origin, where German was taught and Latin in the upper grades.
- There František found very good musical guidance in the person of the director of music in the cathedral church of the Holy Spirit, František Volkert. He was František Škroup's last teacher of music and music theory. From him František took his knowledge of harmony, modulation, or counterpoint. Volkert composed mainly eclectic church compositions and probably had a share in Škroup's eclecticism (eclecticism = a kind of creative writing when there is inspiration from foreign models and a certain imitation of them).
- The fact that he found himself in Hradec Králové, which was then the centre of the national revival, played an important role in František Škroup's life. It is not without interest that Josef Kajetán Tyl, then a student at the Prague grammar school, also came here for a year. He wanted to get to know the life of awakening in Hradec Králové. It so happened that Škroup, Josef Kajetán Tyl, Karel Jaromír Erben and Josef Jaroslav Langr (prominent figures of the Czech National Revival and Czech culture) attended the same grammar school in Hradec Králové and all had the same headmaster, Bedřich Sokol. František Škroup studied with honours or very well and received a scholarship, first thirty and later forty gold coins.
- Music was highly encouraged at the Hradec Králové Grammar School, with the best musicians and singers receiving scholarships. František Škroup soon became a leader in the activities of the Hradec grammar school students. He earned the nickname "master of music".
- However, Hradec Králové was also a centre of theatrical life. The Klicpera Theatre was located there and Václav Kliment Klicpera taught František Škroup.
- František Škroup attended the first Czech theatre performance in Hradec Králové on 9 May 1819. He participated as a student and his role was that of a reciter, reciting the opening verse speech. For František Škroup, participation in this performance was of crucial importance.
- Subsequently, he went to Prague for university studies, studying philosophy and law. While studying, he devoted himself to music (which largely fed him), tried to participate in the life of the revival, was active around the Czech theatre, etc. In order to support himself, he taught piano and singing, and composed songs, dances and other compositions according to what was commissioned from him. He also earned extra money as a baritone in the choir of the Stavovské Theatre. Compositions from this period can be found in the collections of the National Museum in Prague.
- During his studies he lived with the family of Siegel, a wealthy Prague merchant, who supported him in this way. Škroup later put this experience to good use when writing his first Czech opera, "Dráteník", where he brilliantly portrayed a middle-class Prague family (he celebrates his breadwinner in the opera).
- When the first opera in Czech was being prepared in Prague (it was an opera by the Austrian composer Joseph Weigl, The Swiss Family), František Škroup was asked by the bandmaster of the Triebensee if he could help with the staging. He put him in charge of working with the amateur singers, and Škroup and the singers dutifully rehearsed the opera. He even interrupted his university studies for a while at this time. Škroup himself sang the role of Pavlík in the opera. Despite the fact that the entire performance was performed and sung by amateur actors and music enthusiasts, it was a huge success and contributed significantly to the fact that the Stavovské Theatre was no longer open to the idea of organizing theatre and opera performances in the Czech language.
- Škroup did not complete his university studies, as his musical and theatrical interests took precedence.
- Influenced by the success of the Swiss Family and also seeing that no one was up to the task of writing the first truly Czech opera, Škroup did it himself. He composed the first Czech opera, "Dráteník", to a libretto by his friend J. K. Chmelenský. The opera was performed with great success at the Stavovské Theatre on 2 February 1826 (in 2026 we will celebrate 200 years of the first Czech opera).
- Encouraged by the success, he composed another opera to Chmelensky's Czech texts – "Oldřich and Božena", "Libuše's Marriage".
- In 1827 he was appointed second Kapellmeister of the Stavovské Theatre, and in 1837 he became its first Kapellmeister. He worked at the Stavovské Theatre for 30 years, until 1857, when he was dismissed on political orders and because of disagreements with the then director of the theatre, Stögr. The reason for his dismissal was not the failure of his operas, as had long been claimed.
- Škroup was an excellent conductor of European level, admired throughout the whole of neighbouring Europe.
- He is best known to today's generations as the composer of the music for Tyl's farce "Fidlovačka", in which the song "Kde domov můj", which later became the Czech national anthem, was first performed on the boards of the Stavovské Theatre.
- The premiere of "Fidlovačka" took place on 21 December 1834, and this year (2024) we will celebrate the 190th anniversary of the first public performance of the song "Kde domov můj".
- František Škroup, however, not only composed the first Czech opera and the music of our national anthem, but also many other compositions, overtures, operas, violin quartets, church compositions, wrote Czech songs and choirs, worked as an organist, etc.
- After the expulsion of the Stavovské Theatre, his times were very bad. There were no other job opportunities for a conductor in Prague. First, he opened a music school (1857 - 1859), but he did not have enough pupils to support himself. For one year he worked as director of the Žofín Academy.
- In 1860, he accepted an offer from the Netherlands and went to direct the German Opera in Rotterdam (Markéta Dočekalová's book, based on research and traced facts, tells about this period).
- In Rotterdam František Škroup achieved great success, was celebrated and highly valued there. He became the first conductor of the German Rotterdam Opera and thus laid the foundations of opera in the Netherlands. His name was transliterated in the Netherlands and listed on posters as Franz Scraup.
- He achieved significant success in the Netherlands, especially with his opera from Dutch history, Meergeuse. When he brought the opera to the world in Prague (1851), he could hardly have imagined that exactly ten years later he would end up in the country that the opera was set in. It was as if he had predestined his future with this work. The opera became a real hit in Holland.
- Scraup's first season in Rotterdam was a great success professionally, even though he languished in the Netherlands because he missed his wife, children and homeland. He looked up to the promise that his family would be able to move to him in March 1862 and they would all live together again as a family.
- At the end of the first season, he returned home to Prague for four months. Unfortunately, his health was failing, and his illness flared up in Prague. According to traced medical records, it was probably pleurisy. He was unable to carry out his plans to write an opera for the opening of the Prozatímní Theatre in Prague. Instead, he fell ill and eventually spent most of his time in the Břevnov monastery, which provided him with a refuge so that he could rehabilitate and recover in its gardens. He also briefly visited the spa at Teplice, but for financial reasons he was unable to stay there long enough for it to have a major effect on his health.
- At the end of August 1861, he returned to Rotterdam untreated, which subsequently played a significant role in his future fate.
- Scraup returned to his second season excited because he left at the end of the first season celebrated and also because his greatest and most difficult work was already behind him. The opera was stabilized, the singers and musicians were already a cohesive team. Unfortunately, when he returned to Rotterdam, everything was different. The opera management found that the first season was not profitable enough and started to tighten their belts. Many singers and musicians left the opera, and Franz Scraup was able to start his work practically from scratch again. Instead of giving Scraup and the others a raise, the management began to cut the salaries of musicians and singers, and they refused to increase Scraup's salary by any amount. Moreover, the opera management came up with a scandalous measure against female singers, who from the second season onwards were allowed to marry only with the permission of the opera management. The atmosphere in the opera was not good and Franz Scraup returned to a completely different situation than the one he left at the end of the first season. Nevertheless, he did not give up and worked even harder than in the first season. Unfortunately, he did not get enough rest and his health deteriorated slowly but steadily.
- The last performance that Scraup personally directed was "The Magic Flute" on 5 February 1862. During this performance he probably collapsed (some sources say it was during one of the rehearsals a day later, on 6 February) and subsequently died on 7 February 1862 in his apartment in Rotterdam, in the presence of his son Alfred.
- He was buried in a mass grave in the Catholic corner of the Protestant Crosswijk cemetery in Rotterdam. The grave was intended for indigent artists and theatre workers in Rotterdam. The funeral took place on 11 February 1862 and Franz Scraup was accompanied on his last journey by a large procession of his colleagues and fans. The procession started from his Rottedam residence and ended at the cemetery at the mass grave. Only his son Alfred Scraup attended the funeral on behalf of his family. His wife Karolina and none of his other children attended the last farewell because the family did not have the funds to do so.
- Today, the grave has a memorial plaque and a monument. Anyone can visit it during the opening hours of the cemetery.
About his family
- First Marriage: František Škroup first married Vilemína Koudelková, a singer from Prague, on October 2, 1831. They had two daughters, Josefina and Johanka. Johanka sadly passed away at the age of ten months.
- His first wife Vilemína passed away on January 7, 1838.
- Second Marriage and Children: On August 3, 1840, Škroup married Karolina Kleinwächterová, also from Prague. They had a total of seven children: three sons and four daughters. However, only four children reached adulthood; two sons and one daughter died in childhood.
- In total, František Škroup had ten grandchildren from his children.
- The last of Škroup's children to pass away was his daughter Božena, who died on December 4, 1928.