Richard Batka


Richard Batka was an Austrian musicologist, music critic and librettist. Educated at German Charles-Ferdinand University in his native city of Prague, he began his career as a lecturing academic at that institution in 1900; leaving that post in 1906 to teach on the faculty of the Prague Conservatory. In 1908 he moved to Vienna where he taught courses in the history of opera at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna from 1909 to 1914.
Batka worked as an editor, music critic, and writer on music for several publications in Prague and Vienna during his lifetime. The author of numerous popular music-historical and aesthetic writings, he was one of the first German language writers to write on the Music of the Czech Republic. His Aus der Opernwelt: Prager Kritiken und Skizzen was the first book in the German language about Czech opera. He also penned his own opera libretti for composers like Eugen d’Albert, Leo Blech, and Richard Stöhr. Also notable among his writings was his three volume discourse on the history of music Allgemeine Geschichte der Musik which was published in Stuttgart between the years 1909 and 1915.

Life

Born in Prague on December 14, 1862, Batka was the nephew of music critic and archivist Ján Nepomuk Batka. He studied the German language and literature with August Sauer and musicology with Guido Adler at German Charles-Ferdinand University in his native city. He received his doctorate from that institution in 1893 and received his habilitation at the university in 1900; the same year he was appointed lecturer at that institution. From 1896 to 1898 he published the Neue musikalische Rundschau together with Hermann Teibler in Prague, from 1897 he worked among other things as an editor for the magazines Neue Revue and ' as well as for the Prager Tagblatt. In 1903 he founded the Austrian Section of the Dürerbundes Prague, which he also headed. He taught on the faculty of the Prague Conservatory in 1906–1907.
In 1908 Batka moved to Vienna, where he was a music critic and writer on music for the daily Vienna newspaper ' from 1908 to 1919. Together with Richard Specht he was also editor of the journal Der Merker, which was founded in 1909. From 1909 to 1914 Batka taught courses on the history of opera at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.
As a writer, Batka wrote numerous popular music-historical and aesthetic writings. He was one of the first German speaking writers to examine Czech music; and he translated several Czech operas and other Czech literary texts into German. His book Aus der Opernwelt: Prager Kritiken und Skizzen was the first book in the German language about Czech opera. He also translated several Polish, Italian and French operas into German, and penned several of his own opera libretti. One of his more important publications, was his three volume discourse on the history of music Allgemeine Geschichte der Musik.
Batka died in Vienna on April 24, 1922, at the age of.

Work

Publications

  • Schumann. Reclam. Leipzig 1891, series Musiker-Biographien, vol. 13.
  • J. S. Bach. Reclam, Leipzig 1892, series Musiker-Biographien, vol. 15.
  • Musikalische Streifzüge. Diedrichs, Florence 1899.
  • Kranz. Gesammelte Blätter über Musik. Lauterbach & Kuhn, Leipzig 1903.
  • Denkmäler deutscher Musik in Böhmen. Prague 1905.
  • Geschichte der Musik in Böhmen. Vol. 1: Böhmen unter deutschem Einfluß. 900–1333. Dürerverlag, Prague 1906.
  • Die Musik in Böhmen. Bard, Marquardt & Co., Berlin circa 1906, series: Die Musik, vol. 18.
  • Aus der Opernwelt. Prager Kritiken und Skizzen. Callwey, Munich 1907.
  • Richard Strauss. Virgil Verlag, Charlottenburg 1908.
  • Allgemeine Geschichte der Musik. Three volumes. Grüninger, Stuttgart 1909, 1912 and 1915.
  • Richard Wagner. Schlesische Verlagsanstalt, Berlin 1912, series Berühmte Musiker, vol. 20.
  • Richard Batka and Aloys Obrist: Klavierspielapparate. Munich, Callwey; Leipzig, Schlüter & Co.: 1914.

    Libretti

  • Der Zerrissene. Comic opera in three acts after the eponymous play by Johann Nestroy, music by Bretislav Emil Lvovsky, circa 1900.
  • Der polnische Jude. Volksoper in two acts after Erckmann-Chatrian by Victor Léon and Richard Batka, music by Karl Weis, 1901.
  • . Village idyll after Johann Hutt. Music by Leo Blech, 1902.
  • Alpenkönig und Menschenfeind, after the eponymous work by Ferdinand Raimund, music by Leo Blech, 1903.
The Berlin version of Alpenkönig und Menschenfeind was published under the title Rappelkopf, 1917.