• private choir of J.L. Lukes: participating ensemble, vv
• musicians of St Peter and St Paul church: participating ensemble, vv
• LUKES, Jan Ludevít: director of ensemble

The funeral of Hanka (b.1791), Czech writer and the ‘discoverer’ of the infamous Královédvorský rukopis (Queen’s Court Manuscript) represented an important Czech national occasion. According to the Dalibor 20/1/1861 report, the funeral procession numbered almost 500 people. These included local nobility, Count Forgách, Prince Schwarzenberg, Count Clam-Martinic, the Counts Chotek, Prince Rudolf von Thurn und Taxis, and Baron Hildebrand, as well as leading Czech literary and political figures, most notably František Palacký and F.L. Rieger. The musical content of the funeral was noted by Dalibor to have included a performance of a specially composed Funeral ode (text by E. Tonner) by J.L. Procházka, performed by a choir of 70 singers while Hanka’s body was lying in state. The nucleus of this choir comprised members of the private choir of J.L. Lukes, the choir that formed the basis of the first Prague Czech singing society Hlahol, established in 1862. The funeral service itself took place in the church of St Peter and St Paul on Vyšehrad. Bradský’s chorus Otče náš (Our Father) was sung here by the resident church choir, and Horák’s Salve Regina was sung at the graveside in the Vyšehrad cemetery.

Extended descriptions of the procedings on the day of the funeral were published in a dedicated article in the main section of the newspaper Národní listy 16/1/1861. Mention in this text of the musical content of the funeral was however scant, which may have been the reason for the periodical including more detailed, although still brief, information in the following day's edition. This noted Procházka’s composition of the dedicated funeral ode and its performance by Lukes’ singing society.