The bronze statue of the Czech composer and conductor František Kmoch (1848-1912) on an island in the river Elbe in Kolín. The monument was raised on July 27th 1913 on the memory by a local organisation Sokol club, an all-age gymnastics organization very popular in Bohemia in these times. Frantisek Kmoch spent most of his life just in Kolin and he founded here a famous brass band and he composed a lot of songs and marches. The bronze bust is a work of a local sculptor Jan Drobník. The island where the statue is located was named after Kmoch in 1932. A wind orchestra in the city still bears his name too. Annually is organized here an international brass band music festil named "Kmochuv Kolin".
Biography
František Kmoch (1 August 1848 – 30 April 1912)
He was born in Zásmuky, near Kolín. His family origin were of minority German ethnics which had been assimilated into Czech people. His father was a tailor and a clarinetist who performed folk music. As a child, František learned to play the violin, and by the age of 10 he was already beginning to compose small pieces.
In 1868 he was studying at the Teachers College in Prague, and by 1869 he had become a teacher in Suchdol, Bohemia. In addition to his occupation as a teacher, he zealously performed in several ensembles, continued to develop himself as a conductor, and composed. In 1873 he was excluded from further assignment as an instructor, allegedly because he had neglected his teaching duties, preferring instead to appear with performing ensembles at balls. It has been suggested, however, that the dismissal was a political decision, since Kmoch did not conceal his sympathies for the nationalistic Sokol athletic movement.
In 1868 he became conductor of the Sokol Wind Orchestra in Kolín. During the 1873 Gymnastics Festival in Prague the Orchestra played a prominent role in the opening ceremony, and visitors who attended the event warmly received the wind orchestra's offerings, both original compositions by Kmoch and arrangements of well-known folk songs.
During this time he married Josefa Kahslova, daughter of a metalworker from Kolín; their marriage was blessed with five daughters.
The city music corps in Kolín also chose him as its conductor and he immediately created a school of music attached to it. In 1882 the school gained official state recognition. Various cities, including Prague, invited him to become conductor of their respective city wind orchestras, but Kmoch preferred to remain in Kolín. With his excellent wind orchestra he made excursions to Vienna, Budapest, and Kraków, and even a three-month journey through Russia. He died in Kolín.
Style
In reaction to the military marches of the Austro-Hungarian empire, he wrote marches that were deeply rooted in Czech tradition, folklore and folk music. In a Kmoch march, the middle section which we generally know today as the trio was almost always underlaid with texts, to be sung by musicians or choirs, or eventually the entire audience. These texts were an important expression in the development of Czech national consciousness.
Biography cited from (
visit link)