Mgr. Václav Kapsa, Ph.D.

Researcher and Head of the Department of Musicology  

Václav Kapsa studied musicology at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University (Ph.D. 2009). Since 1999, he has been working in the music department of the National Library of the Czech Republic; among other tasks there, he collaborated on projects focusing on acquiring electronic resources for music and musicology and making them available to the public. Between 1999 and 2002, he worked at the Institute of Musicology, Czech Academy of Sciences and from 2002 and 2018, at the Department of Music History, Institute of Ethnology, CAS. Since 2019 he has been a researcher at the Institute of Musicology of the CAS, v. v. i., focusing on the music of the 17th and 18th centuries.
 
Kapsa deals mainly with the works of lesser-known composers active in the Czech lands, their accessibility in the form of critical editions and the issue of thematic catalogues and historical music inventories. He compiled a thematic catalogue of the works of Josef Brentner and published his compositions in four volumes. He has also edited the sacred compositions of three Bohemian Jesuits and the trio sonatas of Johann Georg Orsler. His other areas of interest include musicians and music at aristocratic courts and the development of concert life in the Czech lands.          

Research Outputs (selection):

Václav Kapsa, Henricus Aloysius Brückner, Magister Capellae of the Prague Cathedral and Native of Liebenthal (Lubomierz, Lower Silesia), in: Tradycje śląskiej kultury muzycznej XVI, Wrocław 2024. PDF

Václav Kapsa, Zwei der Klangwelten des Kultes um den hl. Johannes von Nepomuk in Prag, in: Johannes von Nepomuk. Kult – Künste– Kommunikation, Ramona Hocker, Werner Telesko (edd.), Wien 2023, pp. 305–322.

Václav Kapsa, The Novena to Saint Teresa of Jesus and the work of Prague composers around 1720, Hudební věda 57, 2020, 3, pp. 254–290.

Václav Kapsa, Joseph Brentner. A Catalogue of His Works (Brk), Ústav dějin umění AV ČR 2019–2021, published online.

Václav Kapsa, Böhmische Komponisten und ihre Instrumentalwerke im Schrank II, in: Das Instrumentalrepertoire der Dresdner Hofkapelle in den ersten beiden Dritteln des 18. Jahrhunderts. Überlieferung und Notisten. Bericht über das internationale Kolloquium vom 23. bis 25. Juni 2010, Dresden 2019, pp. 168–191. PDF

Václav Kapsa, The place of Jan Dismas Zelenka within Prague’s sacred music scene as viewed through the inventory of the Knights of the Cross with the Red Star, Clavibus unitis 8, 2019, 1, pp. 91–100. PDF

Václav Kapsa, The Information Value of a Music Inventory: “Musicalien und Instrumenten” listed in Sokolov (Falkenau) in the First Half of the 18th Century, Musicologica Brunensia 53, 2018, 2, pp. 179–199.

Václav Kapsa, Inwieweit die Wörter von Wichtigkeit waren? Zum Wort-Ton-Verhältnis in Arien von Joseph Brentner und anderen mitteleuropäischen Komponisten des ersten Drittels des 18. Jahrhunderts, in: Musikalische und literarische Kontexte des Barocks in Mitteleuropa / in der Slowakei, Bratislava, 22. – 24. 10. 2014, Bratislava 2015, pp. 145–162.

Václav Kapsa, The Violin Concerto in D Major RV Anh. 8 and several other issues concerning František Jiránek (1698–1778), Studi Vivaldiani 14, 2014, pp. 15–43.

Václav Kapsa, Die Musik in der St. Nikolauskirche auf der Prager Kleinseite in der ersten Hälfte des 18. Jahrhunderts, Musicologica Brunensia 49, 2014, 1, pp. 189–209.

Václav Kapsa, On the Way from Prague to Wrocław: Sacred Music by Early 18th-Century Prague Composers in Silesia, in: The Musical Culture of Silesia before 1742. New Context – New Perspectives, Frankfurt am Main 2013 (= Eastern European Studies in Musicology 1), pp. 267–287.

Václav Kapsa, Account Books, Names and Music: Count Wenzel von Morzin’s Virtuosissima Orchestra, Early music 40, 2012, 4, pp. 605–620.

Václav Kapsa, Hudebníci hraběte Morzina. Příspěvek k dějinám šlechtických kapel v Čechách v době baroka, Praha 2010.

Current projects:

Academus Edition