• ensemble of the Infantry Regiment of Baron Alemann: participating orchestra, orch
• ČERMÁK, František: director of ensemble

The Bohemia 23/11/1858 report related that sixty five compositions had been submitted as entries to a composition organzied by the Prague music publishers Ad. Christoph and W. Kuhé for new dance music. Many of these works were noted to have come from Vienna. There were seven prizes to be awarded, for 1 Waltz, 2 Quadrilles, 1 Polka, 1 Polka Mazur, 1 Polka Tremblante and 1 Galop. The winning pieces, together with those adjudged the ‘next best’, were to be performed at a dance event given in the Žofín on 28 November at 5pm (later to be announced as beginning at 4.30pm) The participating ensemble was identified as that of the Infantry Regiment of Baron Alemann, under its director Fr. Czermak [Fr. Čermák]. The Dalibor 25/11/1858 report noted only that dance pieces were to be performed on 28 November by a military orchestra under the direction of Čermák. The Tagekalender published in Bohemia 28/11/1858 noted the time (4.30pm and not 5pm as stated in the earlier Bohemia report), venue, and the participanting ensemble in the event.

A review of the occasion was published in Bohemia 29/11/1858. The event was very poorly attended, which the reviewer (signed ‘=’) conjectured was due either to the admission charge of a quarter Gulden ‘a little high’, or to the snowy weather which had rendered ‘impassable’ local roads to the ‘tender skinned feet’ of the ladies. None of the dance compositions was identified by composer or their title. The best was a Polka, ‘no.9’, which had to be repeated. The prize Polka Tremblante ‘no.6’ and the Prize Waltz ‘no.8’ gained general applause but the remainder of the dance pieces passed by unnoticed.

The results of this competition, the compositions adjudged to be prize-winning and ‘next-best’, were announced by the publishers Cristoph and Kuhé in Bohemia 2/12/1858 with an additional name given on 3/12/1858. From this list the content of the programme on 28 November may be established. Over the works listed here the first seven were prize winning (the Orphelia-Quadrille gaining the second prize for its type), the remainder the ‘next-best’ works. A little information was noted of three of the composers; Haag was a ‘Capellmeister in Vienna’, Komsak [Komzák] ‘Capellmeister in Prague’, and Kaiser ‘in Pilsen’.