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Alphonse Mucha is most remembered for his contributions to the French Art Nouveau movement at the turn of the century. Art nouveau is remembered as a decorative art movement. It started in Western Europe and lasted for about forty years, from the 1880s to World War I. Characterized by a richly ornamental, asymmetrical style of whiplash linearity, and reminiscent of twining plant tendrils, art nouveau was found in furniture, jewelry, posters, particularly movie posters, book design and illustration. Its themes were symbolic. Alphonse Mucha was born Moravia in what is now the Czech Republic in 1860. He childhood drawings showed great talent at a very early age. He showed an early interest in a career as a history painter and painted traditional religious and historical subjects. For some time, Mucha had sponsors; however, when these were lost, he found it necessary to paint minor commissions and had to illustrate books, magazines, and calendars. In 1894, a rush order came in from Sarah Bernhardt for a picture to promote her role in the play "Gismonda". Mucha was the only artist available. The picture by Mucha was not conventional, but Miss Bernhardt loved it. Mucha gained immediate fame. Because his style was so revolutionary, his art became widely known in Europe as "le style Mucha."

Job Titles:

• Professor of Composition at the Prague Conservatoire

Antonin Dvorak is a great example of a great symphonic composer who was not above writing little pieces of a popular kind. He arguably wrote the most popular kind of all this type of work. Dvorak was born in a small village on the banks of the Vltava River, about forty-five miles north of Prague. He went to school until the age of eleven. At this age, he dropped out to become an apprentice butcher, and the next year went on to study German in Zlonce. In Zlonce most of Dvorak's time was spent on music lessons, learning to play many instruments such as violin, organ, and piano. He also learned basic composition. With these classes his interest in music only grew. With many misgivings, Dvorak's father enrolled him in the Prague Organ School. At this specialized school, Dvorak received strict training in church music. Though Dvorak enjoyed this training, he enjoyed even more attending the concerts gives by contemporary composers such as Wagner and Schumann. After graduation from the Prague Organ School in 1859, Dvorak joined the Provisional Theatre Orchestra as the head violinist. Though this was a steady job Dvorak needed more income. So Dvorak took up teaching which left him with limited free time. This limited free time did not make Dvorak happy so in 1871 he gave up the orchestra to compose full time. With this extra time, Dvorak found time to date and marry Anna Cermakova in 1873. The next year in 1874, Dvorak entered no fewer than fifteen works including his Third Symphony into the Austrian National Prize. Dvorak won and received a much needed cash prize, but more importantly he won the respect of Brahms who was one of the judges for the contest. With this new found friendship, Dvorak was put in touch with Brahms' publisher Simrock. Simrock commissioned the first set of Slavonic Dances in 1878. These melodies would be played for years to come across the world. From these tunes, Dvorak's fame escalated. In 1884 Dvorak began to travel widely. In 1884 he took his first of nine visits to London. Many of what are considered his greatest works, such as his Seventh and Eighth Symphonies were composed in London. Dvorak's Seventh Symphony, often regarded as his best, powerfully tells of a mood of tragedy overlaid with ominous and foreboding overtones. The Eighth Symphony is a great contrast to the Seventh, using folk melodies and colorful orchestration. In 1891, Dvorak was appointed professor of composition at the Prague Conservatoire. He soon left this position to take up the offer of the position of Directorship of the National Conservatory of Music in New York. He stayed there three years, spending all holidays in Spillville, a Czech-speaking community in Iowa. This period in America brought inspiration to write some of this best loved music Symphony Number Nine From the New World and American String Quartet. Both of these works made use of themes influenced by American Indian folk melodies and Negro Spirituals. Dvorak would later admit that he chose to be influenced because of his homesickness in America. Though homesick, in 1895 just before leaving America, he produced his most remarkable symphonic work Cello Concerto. Returning to Prague with great relief, Dvorak resumed his position at the Prague Conservatoire, and in 1901 became the director. For three years he devoted his creative energies to working on symphonic poems and operas. Dvorak died from a short illness in 1904 at the age of sixty-two. He is buried in Prague at the beautifully manicured cemetery at Vysehrad. What made Dvorak so special is that he was able to take folk tradition that people see everyday yet do not notice and turn it into music that people would listen to and enjoy. This was a difficult task considering the music of the time was classical and not all the folk traditions he borrowed from readily lent themselves to that. The effort that it took to accomplish this is what has helped his music stand the test of time.

One of the first nationalistic composers Bedrich Smetana was born on March 2, 1824. He was born in Litomysl, Bohemia. When he was young he was taught music by his father who was a talented violinist. When he was a teenager, he went to the Academic Gymnasium in Prague, but often times he would skip school to attend concerts and to write concert music. In Smetana's time, Bohemia was ruled by the Austrian and Hungarian empire. Smetana, upset at having to grow up under a foreign power, joined a group of rebellious buddies who tried to create an independent Bohemian state. After their group failed, he went over to Sweden for a while and the came back to Prague. Because of what he had done and the amount of school that he had missed, his father sent him to the Permonstraterian Gymnasium at Plzen. After he has finished school, he tried to earn a living as a school teacher in Prague. In January 1844, he was appointed resident piano teacher to the Count Leopold Thun's family. This job gave him the opportunity to study counterpoint and composition harmony with Josef Proksch. In 1847, he planned to become a concert pianist but he failed. So with the help of a Hungarian composer friend and Franz Liszt, a pianist he knew, he was able to start a music school in Prague in 1848. Along with teaching at his school, he was able to earn a little money by teaching private music lessons and by playing often to the deposed Emperor Ferdinand. In addition to all of the things that were happening to him he married Katerina Kalarova whom he had known when he had lived in Plzen. Over the years, Smetana's problem with money improved very little, and things actually got worse for him. Between 1854 and 1856 three of his four daughters died which left him very sad. When he was told by a friend that there was an opening for a piano teacher, he went for it. This job lasted from 1856 to 1861. This job was being a conductor in Sweden. While he was in Sweden his luck began to change, and he was wanted by many as a pianist, a teacher, and a conductor. He also turned to writing symphonic poems during this time. This was because of the influence of his friends Berlioz and Liszt. Inspired by Liszt's example, he decided to compose his first symphonic poems. His wife's health was not good so he was forced to take her back home to Bohemia in 1859. She died in Dresden not too long after. After two years of being alone he found his second wife, Bettina Ferdinandova. Smetana was upset when he return to Prague because he was not anymore successful than he had been before. It was not until his first opera, The Brandenburgers in Bohemiz, was performed in 1866 that people started to notice him. His second opera, The Bartered Bride, was put in production and liked by many people. This opera is the best known of all the operas written by Smetana. The overture makes a brilliant opening to many orchestra concert programs. As the main conductor of the Provisional Theatre from 1866-1874, Smetana added 43 operas to his list of achievements. Smetana fashioned most of his music after the melodic style of his home country. Two of Smetana's most nationalistic operas are Dalibor, which had a heroic national theme, and Libuse, which was performed at the opening of the National Theater in Prague in 1881. Ma Vlast or My Country was written between 1874 and 1879. This is a symphonic poem in a cycle of six poems which included The Maldau, the one that is his most popular. The Maldau is one of the most successful pieces of descriptive music ever written. People who have heard it often think of the rushing waters of the Moldau river. Smetana attached a description to score of The Maldau the started out saying: "Two springs gush forth in the shade of the Bohemian forest, the one warm and sprouting, the other cold and tranquil. Their ripples, gaily flowing over rocky beds, unite and glisten in the morning sun. The forest brook, rushing on, becomes the River Vlatara (Moldau), which hurrying through Bohemia's valleys, grows into a mighty stream. It flows through dense woods, where the joyous noise of the hunt and the tones of the hunter's horns resound nearer and nearer." The river also flows past a wedding being held on the shore of the river. Two popular works from the six symphonic poems My Country and From the Fields and Groves of Bohemia, are often performed as two separate pieces or played as all the six pieces together. Vltava or River Moldau is the best known of Smetana's orchestral works of Ma Vlast. Smetana wrote seven other operas, which included The Brandenburgers in Bohemia , Dalibor, Two Windows, The Kiss, and The Secret . Some of his symphonic poems in the style of Liszt, include Richard III, Hakon Jarl, and Libused. In addition to the operas that Smetana has written he composed the Piano Trio in G Minor, two string quartets in E minor and C minor, and many other piano compositions, songs, and choruses. In 1873, Antonin Dvorak realized that he could be a great composer because of Smetana's inspiration. Dvorak began to capture the spirit of his land. Both Smetana and Dvorak were well trained in their traditional methods of music. The style of Smetana's was that of Liszt's, and the style of Dvorak's was that of Brahm's. In 1874 Smetana discovered the first signs of the syphilis that was later the cause of his going deaf. The String Quartet performed From My Life suggests in the last movement that piercing whistling haunted Smetana's every evening, making work for him almost impossible. He somehow, however, was able to complete two more operas, a second string quartet and several other works before his mental equilibrium was seriously damaged in 1883. In April 1884 he was taken to the Prague lunatic asylum where later that month he died. Smetana was the first major nationalist composer of Bohemia. Through his lifetime, he gave his people a new musical identity and self- confidence by his technique and originality in handling national subjects. In most of the operas and symphonic poems written by Smetana, he drew on his country's legends, history, characters, scenery and ideas. He presented these ideas with a freshness and color which owe little to indigenous folksong but much to a highly original and essentially dramatic musical style.

Jan Zizka, born in 1370, was the commander of the Bohemian military and the head of the anti Hussite forces during the anti-crusades of Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund. Zizka served under numerous lords before the uprise of the Hussite Wars. In 1410, he fought on the Polish side in the battle of Tannenburg and was on the winning side, as evidenced by the defeat of the Teutonic Knights there. It wasn't until during the Hussite Wars until he truly got the opportunity to hone his tactical genius. The Hussites, named after their leader Jan Hus, continued to be a powerhouse in Bohemia and Moravia even after the chilling death of their leader. He was burned at the stake in 1415 for preaching against the beliefs of the Catholic Church and the sale of indulgences. This single event fueled the fire to start decades of religious warfare. The Hussite Wars began in 1419, splitting the general Hussite movement into numerous groups. The moderate group was called the Utraquists and consisted of the lesser nobility and the bourgeoiseie. They basically agreed with the Roman Catholic Church. The most radical division of the Hussites was the Taborites, named after their religious center and stronghold at Tabor, which was founded by their credible leader, Jan Zizka. They accepted the doctrines of John Wyclif. This group consisted mainly of peasants and expressed the messianic hopes of the oppressed. Another significant leader that emerged from this class besides Zizka was Procopius the Great. The Hussite movement ultimately failed, but many aspects of it have become of permanent historical significance. It was the first noteworthy attack on the two strongholds of medieval society, feudalism and the Roman Catholic Church. Not only did it help blaze the path for both the Protestant Reformation and the rise of modern nationalism, but it also brought about new military innovations at the hands of the military mastermind, Jan Zizka. When the Hussite Wars ignited in 1420, Zizka was nearly sixty years old and already blind in one eye. Soon after joining the Taborites, he made Tabor in Bohemia into a fortress that was nearly impossible to bring down. In July of 1420, he led the Taborite troops in their startling victory over Sigismund at Vysehrad, now a part of Prague. Sigismund was the pro-Catholic king of Hungary and successor to the Bohemian throne after the King of Wenceslas in1419. He failed miserably in repeated attempts to gain control of the Hussite kingdom. He was even was aided by the Hungarian and German armies. Overseen by the Czech yeoman Zizka, riots broke out and led to the invasion and overhaul of the Hussite kingdom. Zizka's armies then spread over the countryside, storming monastaries and innocent villages. In the following years, Zizka courageously withstood the force of the anti-Hussite crusades and continued to dominate one Catholic stronghold after another. He stubbornly kept commanding in person, even though he had become completely blind by 1421. Zizka's views and the extreme religious views of the Taborites began to clash, so he formed his own Hussite wing in 1423. Even though it might seem like he distanced himself from his former colleagues, he still remained in close alliance with the Taborites. In that same year, the tension between the extreme Taborites and the conservative Utraquists, whose main-grounds were at Prague, escalated into a full-blown battle. Late in 1424, Zizka led his faithful army against Prague in order to intimidate and influence the people of that city to adhere to his unparalleled anti-Catholic beliefs. A truce between the two Hussite parties shot a much needed blow into the possibility of a civil war. The two factions then decided to partake in a joint expedition into Moravia under Zizka's command. Suddenly during the campaign, Zizka suffered an untimely death. Even though he's not one of the most popular of historical commanders, he is definitely one of the greatest military innovators of all time. Peasants and townspeople, very inexperienced in arms, comprised the brunt of his army. Zizka didn't dwell on trying to force them to conform to conventional armament and tactics of that time. Instead, he let them make use of crude weapons such as iron-tipped flails and armored farm wagons, which were mounted with small howitzer type cannons. When used for offense, his armored wagons broke through enemy lines with the greatest of ease. The wagons were constantly firing as they advanced, enabling the soldiers to slice through superior forces as only a wolverine could do. The wagons were arranged into an inpenetratable barrier surrounding the foot soldiers when used for defense. They were also used to transport his men. This illustrates how much Zizka played in the anticipation of the principles of modern tank warfare. A huge monument was erected in Prague to honor Jan Zizka. The statue, which stands on top of a hill in Prague, has Zizka sitting on the largest horse statue in the world. The statue is 9 meters tall or over 27 feet tall! Jan Zizka is the epitome of the word commander. Being blind in both eyes would discourage the common man to continue on, but to Zizka this was a minor set back. While leading his troops, he continued to fight and endless battle for what he believed and in the end paid the ultimate price.

Job Titles:

• Ing.

Job Titles:

• First President of the Czechoslovak Republic

Job Titles:

• President
• President of the Czech Republic
• Representative of the Czechoslovak Intellectual Opposition

Vaclav Havel is one of the best known citizens of the Czech Republic. He became famous as a representative of the Czechoslovak intellectual opposition, he was one of the leaders in the so called Velvet Revolution, and in December 1989 he was elected President of the Czechoslovakia and later on of the Czech Republic. He was awarded numerous international prizes and honorary doctorates. Vaclav Havel was born in Prague on October 5, 1936. In 1951 he completed his compulsory schooling. Being the offspring of a prominent Praguebusinessmen's family, he was barred from pursuing regular studies afterwards. For fouryears, while taking an apprenticeship as a chemical laboratory technician, he was attendingevening classes at a grammar school. It was at the age of nineteen that he started publishing studies and articles in literary and theater magazines. Family tradition hasled him toward embracing the humanist values of Czech culture that were suppressed or destroyedin the 1950s. As he was not allowed, due to his family background, to study humanities,he went on to a Technical University where he spent two years. After completing his military service, he worked as a stagehandat the ABC Theater and later, from 1960, in the Theater on the Balustrade. The lattertheater produced his first plays, most importantly The Garden Party (1963), a piece representing in an outstanding manner the strong regeneration tendencies prevailing in Czech culture and Czech society in the 1960s which culminated in the so-called Prague Spring of 1968. At that time Vaclav Havel was taking part in public and cultural life as one of the standard-bearersof the democratic concepts of Czech culture and society. In thesecond half of the 1960s his next plays, The Memorandum (1965) and The Increased Difficulty of Concentration (1968), were performed. After the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Soviet troops, which put an end to the Prague Spring regeneration process, Vaclav Havel did not abandon his convictions. Consequently, a lasting ban was imposed on publicationof his plays in Czechoslovakia. (In 1974 he even worked as a laborer in a brewery.) It was then that Vaclav Havel began to be known by the international public as a representative of the Czechoslovak intellectual opposition. As a citizen he protested against the extensive oppression marking the years of the so-callednormalization. His open letter to Dr. Gustav Husak (the then President of Czechoslovakia)of 1975 in which he pointed out the critical condition of the society and the responsibility of the then ruling regime for that condition became widely known. In 1977he became one of the co-founders of, and one of the first three spokesmen for, the Charter77 initiative. He was also a member of the Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Prosecuted which was founded by a group of Charter 77 signatories. His activity brought him to prison three times; altogether he spent in prison nearly five years. Of extraordinary importance at that time was his essay The Power of the Powerless (1978) in which he analyzed the essence of Communist totalitarian oppression and described the means andmechanisms used by the Communist regime in its effort to create a powerless, resigned society consisting of timid and morally corrupt individuals. Against the background of that analysis, he demonstrated the strength of moral resistance - of life in truth.The impact of the essayreached beyond the scope of the Czechoslovak dissent, influencingalso the opposition movements in other then "socialist" countries. In December 1989 Vaclav Havel was elected President of Czechoslovakia for a term ending after parliamentary elections were held in the country. The freely elected Parliament re-elected him to the presidency in July 1990 for a term of two years. As President of the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic, he met nearly all European Heads of State, as well as the Presidents of the United States,the Soviet Union and a number of other countries. His activity in the area of foreign policy has laid the foundations of Czechoslovakia's new external relations. In domestic policy Vaclav Havel has been a leading initiator of democratic changes in the administrationof the country and of the advancement of democracy in society. He has been respectedas a nonpartisan President and as an essential integrating authority on the political scene and also inmatters relating to the Czecho-Slovak relationship. From the position of President of the Czechoslovak Republic VaclavHavel resigned on July 20, at 6 pm. On July 17 he accounted for the abdication by explaining that he could no longer fulfill commitments necessitated by the oath of allegiance to the Czech and Slovac Republic in a way that would harmonize with his convictions,dispositions and consciousness. After his resignation he left public life for 2 months. In September 1992 he agreed with goverment's suggestion that first, President is to be elected by both chambers of Parliament, second, President cannot be recalled by Parliamentand third, the President has right to dissolve Parliament. Moreover, he agreed with so-called right of suspensive veto (it is the right of President to return laws to Parliament). On January 1993 Vaclav Havel was elected the first President of the Czech Republic. During Vaclav Havel's presidency two more books have come in to being - Projevy (only in Czech, 1990) and Letni premitani (1991). Vaclav Havel is also a holder of honorary doctorates of the following universities:

In November 1989 Vaclav Havel was one of the leading initiators of the founding of the Civic Forum, an association uniting opposition civic movementsand democratic initiatives. Since the very first days of its existence he wasthe head of the Civic Forum, becoming a key figure of the "Velvet Revolution".