KKK

Karel Patka

(1780 - 1857) Musician

Karel Patka was a versatile personality. In 1812 he became the director of the town\'s music school and established a music club of which he was director. The members of this club played free of charge on Sundays and holidays in the church and theatre, and they had exclusive rights to play for a fee at the balls, marriages, parties and festivals that were organised in the town and its suburbs. A collection of over four hundred music pages of sheet music from 1824 to 1843 has been preserved in Trnava that contains not only church music but also many pieces of secular music such as symphonies, concerts, potpourris and especially many preludes, many of which were arranged by Patka himself (for instance Auber, Cherubini, Mayerbeer, Méhul, Rossini etc.). This collection is unique evidence of the musical life in Český Krumlov in the first half of the 19th century. Some other sheets of Patka´s music hae been preserved in the choir collection of the St. Vitus church in Český Krumlov.

(mh)