Václav Dobiáš

Václav Dobiáš’ family was active in the folk music scene of Northern Bohemia. At age 10 he started studying violin with the Czech virtuoso Josef Muzika. He soon started composing and took up studies at a teachers’ institute. Since 1928, he worked as a teacher in Mukachevo (now in Ukraine), before he was called to the military service. In 1930, he started to study composition, first privately and later at the Praha Conservatory. Working with Czech composer Alois Hába he got influenced by his microtonal music.

After World War II, Dobiáš bowed to the official musical aesthetics and was appointed head of the music department of the Ministry of Information and professor at the Academy of Music in Praha. The latter position he held until the end of his life. In 1953-63 he was chairman of the Union of Czechoslovak composers. In the late 1950s and 1960s, he filled high positions in the Communist Party and the legislature. In 1960 he became a member of the National Assembly. During the time of the Prague Spring, he resigned from the Union of Czechoslovak Composers. In 1970, he was appointed chairman of the Prague Spring Festival. Václav Dobiáš and his compositions were awarded many prizes, mainly in the Eastern bloc. In 1976, he was appointed national artist. Composers Dmitry Shostakovich and Arthur Honegger were counted among his friends.

Dobiáš composed works for orchestra, chamber music and for solo piano, vocal music for choirs and songs, but also propaganda songs, jingles and theme songs. His 1948 entry, probably in the orchestra category, was Pochod a cvičení pro středoškolskou mládež při sletových hrách 1947 (March and Exercises for High School Youth at the Games of 1947). He composed the music for the 1947 High School Games.