(Ger. Kremsier; Lat. Cremsirium).
Town in central Moravia in the Czech Republic. Kroměříž was the residence of the bishops of Olomouc from the 13th century onwards. In 1260 Bishop Jindřich Zdík had the church of St Mořic built there, and founded a collegiate chapter. The episcopal Kapelle was based in Kroměříž from the second half of the 14th century. Bishop Jan ze Středy (1364–80) employed a figellator, a player on the ala bohemica and a good singer as succentor. After the 16th century the church of St Mořic also had an organ. Bishop Stanislav Pavlovský (1579–98) employed Jacobus Handl Gallus, who dedicated many works to him, as his praefectus capellae in the years 1579–85. Gallus was succeeded by Andreas Ostermayer, who held the post until 1588. The Kapelle at this time comprised ten musicians in all: the rector chori, the organist, five adult choristers and two trebles, and a trumpeter. Pavlovský's successor, Cardinal Franz Dietrichstein (1599–1636), preferred to stay in his family residence of Mikulov, where he had several Italian composers in his service (Carolo Abbate, Giovanni Battista Aloisi, Claudio Cocchi and Vincenzo Scapitta). Archduke-Bishop Leopold Wilhelm (1637–62) usually lived outside his diocese, but the administrator of his estates appointed in 1644, Johann Nikolaus Reiter von Hornberg, maintained active relations with a number of composers, including Alberich Mazak, Adam Michna, Wendelin Hueber and Johann Kaspar Kerll. In 1643, when Torstenson's army burnt the town, musical life there was almost entirely extinguished.
One of the most brilliant periods in the history of Kroměříž was the period under the rule of Bishop Karl Liechtenstein-Castelcorno (1664–95), who not only rebuilt the residence and the town but also maintained a well-equipped Kapelle. Its Kapellmeister was the trumpeter and composer Pavel Vejvanovský, and around 1668–70 Biber was a chamberlain there. Even after his flight to Salzburg he sent works of his to Kroměříž. The bishop's chaplain in 1674–8 was Philipp Jakob Rittler. The bishop also had close connections with Johann Heinrich Schmelzer, who regularly provided him with the imperial Hofkapelle's latest pieces. Since the imperial court organist Alessandro Poglietti needed the bishop's help over an inheritance, he too provided him with compositions. In this way Liechtenstein was able to build up a fine collection of music, originally numbering some 1400 works, of which 1152 survive. The Liechtenstein music collection represents the greatest collection of 17th-century church and dance music in central Europe, and is our main source of knowledge of the music of the court of Leopold I. It includes some 130 compositions by Vejvanovský and the only autograph manuscripts of Biber. Unfortunately nothing remains of the 60 musical instruments, which included some made by Jakob Stainer and Niccolň Amati.
In the era of Cardinal Wolfgang Hannibal von Schrattenbach (1711–38) Italian opera and oratorio came to Kroměříž. Schrattenbach's Kapellmeister was Válav Matyáš Gurecký, and Carlo Tessarini was employed in the years 1736–8. Singers from the Piarist college in Kroměříž joined the episcopal Kapelle for performances of opera.
Under Bishop Leopold Egk von Hungersbach (1758–60) the Kapelle performed only early Classical instrumental music. The Kapellmeister was Anton Neumann, and among the musicians was the French horn and baryton virtuoso Karl Franz. The catalogue of music performed by the Kapelle in 1760 includes the earliest mention of Joseph Haydn's Symphony no.1. After Neumann's departure in 1762 musicians of little significance held the post of Kapellmeister. Curiously, no printed or manuscript music of the first half of the 18th century survives in the archives.
The first archbishop of Olomouc, Anton Theodor Colloredo-Waldsee (1777–1811), appointed Ignaz Küffel his director of music in 1780–82, and the post was held from 1788 to 1811 by the violin virtuoso, opera conductor and composer Franz Götz. Most of the Colloredo collection of music has been preserved; it includes works from the 1760s, and consists predominantly of symphonies, chamber music, music for wind band and works for piano or harpsichord. Among the composers represented, the most outstanding are J.C. Bach, Boccherini, Dittersdorf, Haydn, Koželuh, Mozart, Paisiello, Pleyel, J.A. Štěpán, Vaňhal and Wagenseil.
After the economic bankruptcy of the empire in 1811, the bishops maintained only the obligatory trumpeters and a wind band. This state of affairs prevailed under Archbishop Maria Thadäus Trautmannsdorf (1811–19) and Cardinal Archduke Rudolph von Habsburg (1819–31). He too maintained an eight-man wind band as part of his bodyguard. Well known for his friendship with Beethoven, Archduke Rudolph ceased to devote any time to music when he was appointed archbishop. After his death, he left his large collection of music to the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna, but his own works remained in Olomouc and are now in the archiepiscopal music archives in Kroměříž. No wind-band music from the period when he was archbishop has been preserved. Rudolph's successors no longer maintained any musical ensembles, though there are documents recording that the last trumpeters were still employed in 1849.
Music in the town's parish church of the Panna Marie was provided by the rector of the civic school. The town musicians (known as Thurner) also played there, as well as in the church of St Mořic. Jan Leopold Kunert (1784–1865), appointed a town musician in 1811, was also distinguished as a composer. The musical seminary of the Piarist college founded by Bishop Liechtenstein in 1687 was of great importance to the musical education of the young. Some 400 musicians were trained in this seminary between 1708 and 1835. After 1768 the college had its own church, where oratorios were performed.
In 1863 the choir Moravan was founded in Kroměříž and became very active in concerts, performing major cantatas by Dvořák and even some operas. In 1903 its conductor Ferdinand Vach (1860–1939) founded the Pěvecké sdružení moravských učitelů (Moravian Teachers’ Choral Society), which became famous for its performances of Janáček's works for male-voice chorus. Since 1962 the chamber choir Moravští Madrigalisté has been active in Kroměříž, under its choirmaster Jiří Šafařík.
The Higher Music School of Kroměříž was founded in 1949, and in 1971 became the Pavel Vejvanovský Conservatory. Since 1991 there has been a church conservatory, run on an ecumenical basis.
Památník pěvecko-hudebního spolku Moravan v Kroměříži 1862–1932 [Memorial volume of the Moravan choral society in Kroměříž] (Kroměříž, 1933)
J. Sehnal: ‘Pohled do instrumentáře kroměřížskébiskupské kapely 17. a 18. století’ [A glimpse into the instrumentarium of the Kroměříž episcopal orchestra of the 17th and 18th centuries], Umění a svět, ii–iii (1959), 53–91
J. Sehnal: ‘Ze života hudebníků kroměřížskébiskupské kapely v 17. století’ [The lives of musicians of the Kroměříž bishop’s chapel in the 17th century], Hudobnovedné štúdie, vii (1966), 122–34
J. Sehnal: ‘Die Musikkapelle des Olmützer Bischofs Maximilian Hamilton (1761–1776)’, Mf, xxiv (1971), 411–17
J. Sehnal: ‘Das Musikinventar des Olmützer Bischofs Leopold Egk aus dem Jahr 1760 als Quelle vorklassischer Instrumentalmusik’, AMw, xxix (1972), 285–317
C.A. Otto: Seventeenth-Century Music from Kroměříž, Czechoslovakia: a Catalog of the Liechtenstein Music Collection on Microfilm at Syracuse University (Syracuse, NY, 1977/R)
J. Sehnal: ‘Die Musikkapelle des Olmützer Erzbischofs Anton Theodor Colloredo-Waldsee (1777–1811)’, Die Musik auf den Adelssitzen rund um Wien: Oberschützen 1975, 132–50 [Haydn Yearbook 1978]
J. Bombera: ‘K významu Liechtensteinova zpěváckého semináře v Kroměříži’ [The significance of the Liechtenstein singers' seminary in Kroměříž], HV, xvi (1979), 331–9
J. Sehnal: ‘Jakob Stainers Beziehung zur Kremsierer Musikkapelle’, Jakob Stainer und seine Zeit: Innsbruck 1983, 23–8
J. Sehnal: ‘Hudební inventář Kroměříže z roku 1659’ [The musical inventory in Kroměříž in 1659], SPFFBU, H19–20 (1984), 71–6
J. Bombera: ‘Pěvecký seminář v Kroměříži’ [The Kroměříž choir school], Studie muzea Kroměřížska (1989), 52–73
J. Sehnal: ‘Heinrich Bibers Beziehungen zu Kremsier’, De editione musices: Festschrift Gerhard Croll, ed. W. Gratzer and A. Lindmayr (Laaber, 1992), 315–27
J. Sehnal: ‘Die Harmoniemusik in Mähren von 1750–1840’, Kongressberichte Oberschützen/Burgenland 1988, Toblach/Südtirol 1990, ed. B. Habla, Alta musica, xiv (1992), 237–87
J. Sehnal: ‘Salzburger Musikhandschriften aus dem 17. Jh. in Kroměříž’, Festschrift Hubert Unverricht zum 65. Geburtstag, ed. K. Schlager (Tutzing, 1992), 255–73
J. Sehnal: Pavel Vejvanovský a biskupská kapela v Kroměříži [Pavel Vejvanovský and the episcopal orchestra at Kroměříž] (Kroměříž, 1993)
Musik des 17. Jahrhunderts und Pavel Vejvanovský: Kroměříž 1994
J. Sehnal: ‘Die adeligen Musikkapellen im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert in Mähren’, Studies in Music History Presented to H.C. Robbins Landon on his Seventieth Birthday, ed. O. Biba and D.W. Jones (London, 1996), 196–201
J. Sehnal and J. Pešková: Caroli de Liechtenstein-Castelcorno episcopi Olomucensis operum artis musicae collectio Cremsirii reservata (Prague, 1998)
JIŘÍ SEHNAL