Vit Nejedlý

Born June 22, 1912, in Prague; died Jan. 1, 1945, near Dukla Pass (in the Eastern Beskids, in the Carpathian Mountains, on the border between Poland and Czechoslovakia). Czechoslovakian composer and conductor.

Nejedlý, the son of Z. Nejedly, studied composition and conducting under O. Jeremiá ş. Beginning in 1939 he lived in Moscow. He worked as a radio broadcast editor and later directed the Czechoslovakian Army Ensemble, which was named in his honor after he died at the front. Nejedly’s works include the opera The Weavers (based on G. Hauptmann’s play of the same name, 1938; produced 1961, orchestrated by J. Hanus), the cantata The Day (1935), three symphonies (the last of which was dedicated to the heroes of the Spanish Republic, 1938), a symphonette (1938), an overture (based on E. Verhaeren’s poem “The Daybreak”), the chorus 150 Million (based on a poem by V. V. Mayakovsky), marches, popular songs, and adaptations of folk songs. Nejedly wrote a number of articles on music, which appear in Critical Articles on Music (1956).