ZELENKA CONFERENCE PRAGUE, 19 OCTOBER 2018

The 2018 conference consisted of seven papers and a celebration of the work of Janice B. Stockigt (University of Melbourne), who also chaired the conference, on the occasion of the publication of her book Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679–1745): A Bohemian Musician at the Court of Dresden (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000) in the Czech language (trans. Bringing together leading Zelenka scholars with differing approaches and perspectives, the conference was filled with lively debate; its atmosphere was that of a convivial gathering of specialists connected by a strong desire to forge new paths in Zelenka research while continuing to raise the reputation and public awareness of the composer. Vokřínek explained the significance of godparenthood in early modern Bohemian rural areas for a family's social status and presented a wealth of data showing the number of children for whom Zelenka Bavorovský and his wife, Marie (Magdalena) Zelenková, served as godparents. Following Kroupa, we heard from Frederic Kiernan (University of Melbourne), who examined representations of Zelenka in a variety of literary sources, including those in two biographical studies by Friedrich Rochlitz (Für Freunde der Tonkunst (Leipzig: Carl Cnobloch, 1824–1832)) and Moritz Fürstenau (Zur Geschichte der Musik und des Theaters am Hofe zu Dresden, volume 2 (Dresden: Rudolf Kuntze, 1862)), in order to trace the emergence of the long-held assumption that the composer was ‘lonely and isolated’.