• Prague Organ School: pupil(s) of institute, org

The Czech-language newspaper Čas 30/7/1861 published details of the content of these annual examinations for both years of the Prague Organ School taking place on 1st August in the Organ School itself in the first floor of the Konvikt building on Bartoloměkská ulice from 9am to 1pm. The occasion was divided into three parts. Firstly the pupils of the first year were to be examined in the fundamentals of harmony, followed by performances of the listed figured bass church music with organ accompaniments. In the second part the second-year pupils were examined in the principles of modulation, then counterpoint, chorales, playing of chorales, imitation and fugue. Finally, the third part of the examinations comprised the second-year students playing their own composed preludes and fugues followed by performances of classical works of church music.

In advance of the examinations Prager Zeitung 30/7/1861 announced simply that ‘At the Prague Organ School the public theoretical-practical annual examinations of Institute pupils will take place on 1st August from 9 until 1 in the School. To conclude the examinations the advanced organists will play classical compositions with obbligato pedal.’ A brief, unsigned review was published by this newspaper on 4/8/1861.

An unsigned review of these examinations was published by Prager Morgenpost 3/8/1861. The correspondent reported that ‘The Prague Organ School has lately come under the leadership of the indefatigable director Krejčí, as in another period of its existence. One must therefore actually assume, that it really will achieve either a time of blossoming as never before, or that this great institute will degenerate from its earlier achievements. It is difficult to suggest one or the other [from the standpoint that the taste of the public constantly changes].’ The text then went on to comment upon what might be expected from the School in terms of its teaching principles and outlook. Of the examinations the source remarked that they provided ‘gratifying evidence’ of the success of the teaching. The correspondent regretted that there was insufficient room for the article to comment upon the individual performances or about Krejčí’s teaching methods. However, ‘the examinations were crowned with the best success.’ The first-year pupils demonstrated good knowledge of harmony and their figured bass accompaniments were proficient. The second-year pupils showed the excellence of their technical achievements and the assiduity of their studies in their performances of their own preludes and fugues and in classical works.

The unspecified Dalibor 10/8/1861 critic utilized the periodical’s review of these examinations to savage the incumbent director of the Organ School, Josef Krejčí. The review began by noting that ‘This occasion proved the ignorance of Mr Director Krejčí in orthography, mistakenly writing into the programme „Motteto“ instead of „Motetto.“ Of this let him next time beware.’ From the middle of 1860 Krejčí suffered criticism from Dalibor over his leadership of the Organ School and, from 1865, of the Conservatory. This stemmed from a vitriolic dispute during 1860 over appointments of teaching staff at the organists’ institute. Subsequently, he was portrayed by sections of the Czech press as being actively hostile to the burgeoning Czech nationalist movement. Thus, the review of the Organ School’s 1861 examinations pointedly noted that Krejčí did not teach his pupils in Czech, ‘although most of the students of the second year are Czechs’, and then expressed an opinion that although the director had ‘examined some students in Czech’ his doing so ‘appeared to be for show; why else did he examine them in a language that he doesn’t speak?’ Of the examinations undertaken by the second year pupils of the School the correspondent refused to submit a judgement as to the quality of the individual performances ‘since we do not know how long each pupil had to learn his pieces.’ The review also noted that the programme to the examinations had announced that the occasion would be concluded with ‘performances of Classical works for high [full] organ with obbligato pedals’. Among these works was Krejčí’s Prelude in D major, op.2, which invoked a response that ‘We are very surprised how Mr [Krejčí] dares to advertise works of his own as Classical. We cannot deny Mr Krejčí that he has [produced] some good compositions, but... to declare his Prelude [a Classical work] on the contrary we pronounce to be a lie. Not even the reporter of the local German paper [Prager Zeitung] expressed [the view that this work was worthy of being called Classical], even though for many years he has stood for Mr Krejčí and has extolled his works.’