Frantisek Skraup

Biography

František Jan Škroup (Czech pronunciation: [ˈfrancɪʃɛk jan ˈʃkroup]; 3 June 1801 – 7 February 1862) was a Czech composer and conductor. His brother Jan Nepomuk Škroup was also a successful composer and his father, Dominik Škroup, and other brother Ignác Škroup were lesser known composers. He is the author of the melody for the Czech national anthem "Kde domov můj?".

Biography

Škroup was born on 3 June 1801 in Osice near Hradec Králové in Bohemia. At the age of eleven he moved to Prague where he supported himself as a choir boy and flautist. He continued his schooling at one of the most important Czech national revival movement centres, Hradec Králové, where he was a choirboy at the cathedral. While there he studied with the local choirmaster and composer Franz Volkert. He later moved back to Prague to study at the university. He became a fairly successful opera and singspiel composer producing more than a dozen stage works. Among Škroup's part-time jobs was organist at the "Temple of the Israelite Society for Regulated Worship," known since the late nineteen-forties as the "Spanish synagogue." His last position was as the musical director of the German opera in Dutch Rotterdam. He died in Rotterdam on 7 February 18 and, as a person without means, was buried in a mass grave. He also produced an oratorio, a mass, and a few other sacred works. He is best remembered today as the author of the melody for the Czech national anthem "Kde domov můj?".