Battle of Prague

Battle of Prague

Instrumental suite composed by František Kocžwara (Franz Kotzwara), a Bohemian instrumentalist and composer c1750 - 1791, who spent much of his musical career in England.

"Though it commemorated a much earlier event (1757), Kocžwara’s The Battle of Prague was first published while he was in Dublin about 1788. It had phenomenal success and was widely reprinted in London, the USA and on the Continent (nearly 40 issues have survived). First published with accompaniments, it also became a standard parlour piece for solo piano and in Boston it was ‘indespensable to climax every concert’. Appearing shortly before widespread political upheaval in Europe, it served as the model for a host of imitations describing Napoleonic engagements."

Ronald R. Kidd, "Kocžwara, František" Grove Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/15244

The suite contains a fast section which appears as Quickstep in the Battle of Prague in the manuscript of John Clare (Northamptonshire); and a March which appears in the manuscripts of both John Clare and John Moore (Shropshire).