• 02/02/2023
• By wizewebsite
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I played the organ for the Danish prince, says the author of historical novels<

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"Bach or Mozart also have bad compositions that are almost not worth playing and listening to," claims Josef Bernard Prokop, writer, organist and musicologist. He is also the chairman of the Czech Society of Jan Ladislav Dusík – a musician, world traveler and adventurer who contributed to the improvement of the piano. Conversations with Prokop mostly revolve around books. Why talk about music, which is also his profession?

The sound of the organ has something uplifting about it, similar to church bells. How do you perceive it?

The organ is a fantastic instrument and people love it. Their sound effect on listeners is often overwhelming. Perhaps it is also the reverberations of the fact that they were almost banned under the communists - that is, they were only tolerated. They were often expected to be eaten by a worm and disintegrate.

Their vibrations touch me on a physical level as well.

Vibrations, those ripples like physical phenomena that are there, stimulate the human organism. Mostly positive. But there are even certain frequencies that are dangerous to health. And the organ has a really large sound spectrum. From a faint, gentle sound to deafening cascades of thunderous tones.

Take the world's largest pipe organ, which stands in Atlantic City. You can also find their recordings on YouTube. When you see their gaming table, it's an incredible machine room that has huge possibilities. They have seven manuals – that means seven keyboards above each other – and 935 registers (sound options, editor's note).

Josef Bernard Prokop

Musician, editor, writer, teacher. He actively performs organ concerts, not only in the Czech Republic, but in most European countries. Author of twelve historical novels, the first was Charles IV. – Secret diary, so far the last one last year František Štěpán Lotrinský: The rich husband of the poor empress.

He was born and studied in Prague (organ, piano, musicology). After a short teaching experience, he has been working at Czech Radio for thirty years, where he is an editor and moderator. In addition, he is also the author of more than two hundred radio programs, a co-author of television programs and the author of three plays.

He is also active in musicological work, among other things he is the founder and chairman of the Jan Ladislav Dusík Czech Society.

For comparison, what organ do you play?

They are one of the best in Prague. They have three manuals, 140 indexes. You can come and see me sometime, I play in Prague's Vinohrady.

How did you get into playing the organ?

I played the piano in my childhood and one Christmas Santa brought me a beautiful gramophone record with an organ recording. Bach compositions for the Silbermann organ, some of the most beautiful I know. Playing them is for an organist what driving a Rolls Royce is for a motorist.

My uncle was an amateur organist and he taught me that I had to be good at the piano first. I also started going to the ministry, even though it wasn't very popular back then. I used to go to St. Prokop's church in Žižkov and hoped that maybe someday I would be able to play a little of what I was able to do on the piano. And surprisingly - it sounded nice. And so I started to practice more and could sometimes pick up my dream instrument. Then I started studying the organ.

The organ has advantages and disadvantages. Playing with both hands and both feet is physically demanding and requires concentration, it's great relaxation. There is no restriction, like for example with wind instruments, there you need first-class teeth. Do you know the name Giovanni Stich Punto?

No.

That's a great story! He was a famous horn player who came from Žehušice near Čáslav. He played a lot with my favorite Dusík, but also with Beethoven or Mozart. The archbishop who owned the estate sent Stich to study, but the ungrateful musician did not want to return. The archbishop therefore sent his lackeys to find him, kidnap him, and knock out his front teeth in a secluded place. Today they would have implanted him there, but back then he would have just played the drums and played the drums. But it turned out well, he escaped.

Concerts are incredible experiences

I was surprised that there are world organ competitions. Are you participating?

At my age? Most of them have an age limit, and at the time when I was studying, there weren't that many of them and they simply didn't let you on the international ones. I gradually got too old for competitions. But I've never really had to, because art can't be objectively evaluated well enough. You can race whether you can jump further or reach the finish line faster. But I see musician competitions as a good springboard for budding young artists who need to show the world that they can do something. There are many types of interpretation competitions - from ZUŠ to semi-professional musicians to young professionals.

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I sat on the jury for a few competitions, I know a little something about it. As part of further education, we also go to seminars with Professor Klánský, who has been sitting on international juries for years. He spoke from his heart when he said that he would rate the same pianist differently each time for three days in a row - it also depends on how you sleep, how you feel, whether your back hurts. That's why I think that these competitions are especially informative for young organists.

You have played in many European countries, how do you get there as an organist?

It is different, either you win a competition, or you have acquaintances, or an agency approaches you. How many times does it happen after a concert, whether in a big city during a prestigious concert, or in some remote village, that someone comes to you and approaches you with a proposal to go and play in Italy, for example.

Who was that?

In this case, an Italian organist who enjoyed the concert. This has happened to me several times. Even in the country where you play as a guest. And contacts make more contacts... Especially if you live and play or study in that country for a while.

The concerts themselves would be a long story. Sometimes they are surreal experiences. Imagine how serendipity works: the baroque composer Jeremiah Clarke wrote the March of the Prince of Denmark, which my fellow trumpet player and I mostly played as an encore at performances. Imagine that once after a concert, a well-dressed English-speaking gentleman was waiting for us, who said that we had pleased him very much. He was a real Danish prince who was visiting Prague. He thanked us for how nicely we played the march. That makes a person very happy.

Dusík's fate would take up entire novels

To get in the mood for the interview, I played the work of Jan Ladislav Dusík after lunch...

Yay! That is beautiful…

What attracted you to this musician of the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries so much that you founded and run his company?

He is my lifelong favorite, his music is original and timeless. You know when you resonate with some music? Will they contact you? Of course, I also like other composers, from Bach to Vlach. I am truly an omnivore in both music and literature. I like a lot of stimuli.

But everyone develops, once - as a very young immature student - I said that there is only good old music, and that modern music is bad. That's bullshit. Today I know that good music is composed even today, you just have to choose and sometimes it takes work. On the contrary, bad music was also created in Baroque and Classicism. Even Bach or Mozart have unsuccessful compositions that are not even worth playing and listening to.

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And how is it related to Nitrogen?

He was many years ahead of his time, just like Beethoven later. Consider that Dusík lived from 1760 to 1812, it is a period of transitional style, the so-called early romanticism. But you cannot explain how some of his later compositions could have been created in their time. When he wrote the Harmonic Elegy in 1806, it was already a composition in the style of Chopin, some others already herald Brahms. And Liszt in piano technique. But mainly he worked with a huge amount of musical colors, types of strokes, he had great demands on the performer.

How can I imagine it?

If you were to look at his music text, it is the very instruction for the performer on how to play the piece correctly. Until then, there was almost no writing on it, and suddenly you have to play gently, tenderly, with fire, with passion, he writes out the pedaling exactly... He has one such stimulus after another. This was not normally written out, also because the compositions were generally created for a keyboard instrument, for harpsichord, for clavichord...

Beethoven's first sonatas can also be played on the harpsichord. Nitrous surpassed him in this. His music does not sound on harpsichord, clavichord, it is already purely for piano. He was a world traveler, wherever he arrived, he absorbed stimuli and processed them.

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It is said that he also helped to perfect the piano?

While staying in England, he inspired the famous instrument maker Broadwood to expand and improve the piano. Dusík was there, that can be proven. Because Broadwood's diaries have been preserved, where he writes that they built a new piano for him, how they accommodated him and expanded it in this and that way.

Nitrogen therefore has enormous merit, and it is all the more admirable that he traveled constantly. He ran away from the French revolution, he wasn't a good businessman, so he settled somewhere, got into debt with the music business, and had to run. Elsewhere, he seduced a woman because he was said to be beautiful, and again he had to run away.

You have already written about Charles IV, Maria Theresa, now about her rich and skilled husband František Štěpán Lotrinský in the background, but also about the merchant Sám. No time for a novel about your musical favorite?

Dusík's destinies would really take up entire novels, and in the past two were actually created. Stray song by Gabriela Preissová and then Maestro by Stanislav Václav Klíma. And I think Svatopluk Čech also wrote a short essay. But I perceive one problem. The topic of the book must be chosen in such a way that it is interesting to the reader.

Why would Dusík not interest readers?

People are interested in Charles IV, Maria Theresa, her husband František Štěpán, surprisingly not even Rudolph II. not so much. The Emperor's baker and the Baker's emperor are probably enough for them. And who knows Dusík today? Although of course I would like to, we'll see. I really have a lot of ideas for writing. As they say, everything takes its time.