Novák, Johann Baptist (actually, Janez Krstnik)

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Novák, Johann Baptist (actually, Janez Krstnik)

Novák, Johann Baptist (actually, Janez Krstnik), Slovenian composer; b. Ljubljana, c. 1756; d. there, Jan. 29, 1833. He served as a government clerk and at the same time studied music. In 1799–1800 he was conductor, and from 1808 to 1929 music director, of the Phil. Society in Ljubljana; he gave concerts as a singer and violinist. A close contemporary of Mozart, he composed in a Mozartean manner. His historical importance lies in his incidental music to T. Linhart’s play Ta veseli dan, ali Matiček se Zeni (A Happy Day, or Maticek Is Getting Married; 1790), which is based on Beaumarchais’s comedy that served for Mozart’s great opera Le nozze di Figaro. Novak later renamed his work Figaro. His music forms a striking parallel to Mozart’s procedures and yet contains some original traits.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire