Person details

August Wilhelm Ambros

August Vilém

Ambros, August Wilhelm (1816-1876). Czech musicologist and composer. Studied painting and law and entered into the civil service. As a personal interest he assiduously cultivated music, being appointed to the board of the Prague Conservatory, later becoming Professor of music history in Vienna. He was active as a critic, being the principal correspondent for the Prague daily newspaper Bohemia in the 1850s and 1860s. As a writer his major accomplishments were his Geschichte der Musik, his history of the Prague Conservatory Das Conservatorium in Prag, and the perceptive and entertaining Bunte Blatter: Skizzen und Studien (Leipzig: Leuckart, 1872). He composed in an effective albeit conservative style in a wide variety of genres ranging from piano music to songs and incidental music.