Miloslav Kabelac
Illustration — Portrait of Miloslav Kabeláč Miloslav Kabeláč (1 August 1908 – 17 September 1979) was a Czech composer and conductor. Kabeláč belongs to the foremost Czech symphonists, whose work is sometimes compared with Antonín Dvořák's and Bohuslav Martinů's. In the communist period, his work was on the periphery of official attention and was performed sporadically and in a limited choice of compositions.
Miloslav Kabelac

http: fulltext=Miloslav%20Kabel%C3%A1%C4%8D · Public domain
- Born
- 1908 · Prague.
- Died
- 1979 · Prague.
- Nationality
- Czech Republic
- Occupation
- organist · conductor · composer · teacher
- Fields
- music · educational system
- Education
- Prague Conservatory
- Honours
- Klement Gottwald State Prize
- Languages
- Czech
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Illustration — Portrait of Miloslav Kabeláč Miloslav Kabeláč (1 August 1908 – 17 September 1979) was a Czech composer and conductor. Kabeláč belongs to the foremost Czech symphonists, whose work is sometimes compared with Antonín Dvořák's and Bohuslav Martinů's. In the communist period, his work was on the periphery of official attention and was performed sporadically and in a limited choice of compositions.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Miloslav Kabelac. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q1516398
In this article
Life
Life
Kabelac worked between 1908 and 1979 across organist, conductor, composer and teacher. The registers place that work in symphony, classical music and electroacoustic music. This article rests on 44 catalogued compositions and 9 issued recordings drawn from named institutional registers. Every statement below returns to a source shown in the evidence panel; where the record is silent or divided, the article says so instead of resolving it.
Miloslav Kabelac studied at Prague Conservatory. Jaroslav Krček is recorded as having studied under Miloslav Kabelac. The recorded working language is Czech. The field of work recorded is music and educational system. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are symphony, classical and electroacoustic. Employment is recorded with Prague Conservatory. Distinctions recorded are Klement Gottwald State Prize.
Kabeláč was born in Prague. In 1928–31 he studied at the Prague Conservatory as a pupil of Karel Boleslav Jirák, simultaneously (in 1930–31) he was a pupil of Alois Hába. In 1932–54 Kabeláč was employed by Prague Radio. From 1957 to 1968 he worked as a teacher at the Prague Conservatory. During his life Kabeláč was active in Umělecká beseda, in the Federation of Czechoslovak Composers and other organisations. In the 1960s he tried to revive contacts with Western modern music and composers, but after the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia he was silenced. His works were performed only abroad from then on.
Works
Works
Miloslav Kabeláč belongs to the most distinguished Czech composers of the 20th century. He soon created a distinctive style for which the auspicious melody and harmony, the ingenious polyphony and the consistent architecture of both small and large compositions are typical. His utmost expression was his conscious work with the intervals in which he emerged from non-European musical cultures. Kabeláč used here, for example, artificially numbered scale - modеs whose internal course has a larger range than an octave. He also denounced the term artificial tonal music, especially for the musical theoretical justification of his economical melody. In the interval structure, he also explored the possibilities of so-called interval augmentation and diminution, inversion and other practices brought to the music by the so-called 2nd Viennese school. The first mature compositions of this style include the anti-cantata Do not retreat! (1939), performed for the first time after the end of the Second World War (28 October 1945). At the beginning and in the years of war, Kabeláč focused on chamber opuses (Wind Sextet, Sonata for cello and piano, Two pieces for violin and piano) and Symphonic (1st and 2nd symphonies). Over time, work with large occupation (8th symphony, Mysterium of Time, Reflections), which are his most significant works - along with songs for drums that have already come on European stages at the time (Eight Inventions for percussions). In the 1960s, which gave him wide recognition in the form of the State Prize and Foreign Orders, he received a number of stimuli from foreign avant-garde, which he had organically incorporated into his compositional morphology. He also excelled in pedagogical activities and interest in non-European cultures. He was one of the first promoters of electro-acoustic music in Czechoslovakia. Numerous choreographers have also taken up his work "Eight Inventions for Percussion Instruments. ", Alvin Ailey with the American Dance Theater are the most prominent among them, his choreography titled Streams, was performed in Prague too in 1979.
Symphonies
Symphonies
• Symphony No. 1 in D for strings and percussion, Op. 11 (1941–42) • Symphony No. 2 in C for large orchestra, Op. 15 (1942–46) • Symphony No. 3 in F for organ, brass and timpani, Op. 33 (1948–57) • Symphony No. 4 in A, "Chamber Symphony", Op. 36 (1954–58) • Symphony No. 5 in B flat minor, "Dramatic", for soprano without text, and orchestra, Op. 41 (1960) • Symphony No. 6 "Concertante", for clarinet and orchestra, Op. 44 (1961–62) • Symphony No. 7 for orchestra and reciter on the composer's text after the Bible, Op. 52 (1967–68) • Symphony No. 8 "Antiphonies", for soprano, mixed choir, percussion and organ, on words from the Bible, Op. 54 (1970)
Further orchestral works
Further orchestral works
• Overture No. 1 for orchestra, Op. 6 (1939) • Overture No. 2 for large orchestra, Op. 17 (1947) • Childish Moods. Little orchestral suite, Op. 22 (1955) • Suite from the music to Sophocles' Electra for alto, female choir and orchestra, Op. 28a (1956) • Mystery of Time. Passacaglia for large orchestra, Op. 31 (1953–57) • Three Melodramas to accompany the play Kuo Mo-jo "Master of Nine Songs" for reciter and chamber orchestra, Op. 34b (1957) • Hamlet Improvisation for large orchestra, Op. 46 (1962–63) • Reflections. Nine miniatures for orchestra, Op. 49 (1963–64) • Metamorphoses II, for piano and orchestra, Op. 58 (1979)
Choruses
Choruses
• 6 choruses for male choir on words by Jiří Wolker, Op. 10 (1939–40) • Blue Sky. Children's choruses on the poetry by František Hrubín, after the pictorial cycle of Josef Čapek, Op. 19 (1950) • To Nature. Cycle of children's choruses on the words of folk poetry, Op. 35 (1957–58)
Cantatas
Cantatas
• Do Not Retreat!. Cantata for male voice choir, wind and percussion instruments on folk texts and the words of the chorale "Ye Warriors of God", Op. 7 (1939) • Eufemias mysterion (Mystery of Silence), for soprano and chamber orchestra to Greek words, Op. 50 (1964–65) • Metamorphoses I of the oldest Czech chorale for mixed choir, solo baritone, male voice choir and solo higher female voice), Op. 57 (1979)
Electro-acoustic music
Electro-acoustic music
• E fontibus Bohemicis. Visiones sex (6 tableaux from Czech annals), Op. 55 (1965–72) [Latin for From Bohemian springs: Six views]
Life and work
Life and work
Miloslav Kabelac was born on 1 August 1908 in Prague. Kabelac held the nationality of Czech Republic. Kabelac was educated at Prague Conservatory. Kabelac worked as organist, conductor, composer and teacher. Kabelac was employed by Prague Conservatory. The fields Kabelac worked in include symphony, classical music and electroacoustic music. Kabelac played the pipe organ. Kabelac worked in Czech. Kabelac died on 17 September 1979 in Prague. Kabelac is buried at Strašnice Crematorium.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
Explore 1908–1979
The full dated record · 3 entries
1908
Miloslav Kabelac born at Prague.
1979
Dies at Prague.
1979
Miloslav Kabelac died at Prague.
Piano compositions
Piano compositions
• Passacaglia TGM, Op. 3 (1937) • 7 compositions for piano, Op. 14 (1944–47) • Easy Preludes, Op. 26 (1955) • 8 preludes for piano, Op. 30 (1955–56) • Cizokrajné motivy – Motifs from Foreign Countries, Op. 38 (1959) • Small Suite for piano 4 hands, Op. 42 (1960)
Organ compositions
Organ compositions
• Fantasies for organ in G minor and D minor, Op. 32 (1957–58) • 4 preludes for organ, Op. 48 (1963)
Other chamber compositions
Other chamber compositions
• Wind Sextet, Op. 8 (1940) • Sonatina for oboe and piano, Op. 24 (1955) • Ballad for violin and piano, Op. 27 (1956) • Suite for saxophone and piano, Op. 39 (1959) • 8 Invenzioni for percussion instruments, Op. 45 (1962–63) • Otto ricercari, for percussion instruments, Op. 51 (1966–67) • Lamenti e risolini 8 bagatelles, for flute and harp, Op. 53 (1969) • Fated Dramas of Man. Sonata for trumpet, piano and percussion instruments with recitation, Op. 56 (1975–76)
Compositions for solo voice with accompaniment
Compositions for solo voice with accompaniment
• Moravian Lullabies for soprano and chamber orchestra, on texts from folk poetry, Op. 20 (1951) • Love Songs for soprano, baritone and piano, Op. 25 (1955) • Six Lullabies on text folk poetry for alto solo, small female choir and instrumental ensemble, or for alto and piano, Op. 29 (1955) • Hunters' Songs for baritone and 4 horns, Op. 37 (1958–59) • Echoes from Far Away. 5 songs for alto and piano, without words, Op. 47 (1963)
Compositions
Catalogued output
Compositions
The entries below are works composed by the subject, as the institutional registers catalogue them; later performances and commercial recordings of the same music are listed separately. 11 further compositions are catalogued under Kabelac's name without a date the collections agree on, which is why they are set apart from the dated run rather than placed in it. 54 — 9 catalogued parts. 41 „Drammatica“ — 4 catalogued parts. 30 — 8 catalogued parts. 9 — 4 catalogued parts. 45 — 8 catalogued parts.
Symfonie č.8 “Antifóny”pro soprán, smíšený sbor, bici nástroje a varhaný, op
5 hes moll, op
8 Preludes, op
Sonata for Cello and Piano, op
Passacaglia pro velký orchestr, op
Huit inventions, op
Fantazia pro varhany g moll, op
32 č. Čtyři preludia pro varhany, op
Fantazia pro varhany d moll, op
Hamletovská improvizace pro velký orchestr, op
Primary material
Recordings and discography
The discography assembled here shows how Kabelac's work has been published in sound, not what Kabelac made. 9 sound issues are catalogued, carrying dates from 1993 to 2024. An issue is a published recording, distinct from the composition it carries, from a printed score of that composition and from any single performance of it; none of the entries below is counted in the catalogue of compositions above, and several of them carry the same work in different readings. The 2000s are the densest decade of publication, with 3 issues. The performers and issuing labels are as the discographic register states them; where it names no performer the article names none.
Symphonies Complete
2016
Piano Works
2008
Miloslav Kabeláč: Mysterium času / Hamletovská improvizace / Jan Hanuš: Koncertantní symfonie
2002
Complete Chamber Music
2024
Personal Demons
2021
Mystery of Time
2022
Sonatas for Cello and Piano
2007
Czech Music of the 20th Century: Symphony no
Authority records
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
authority record
General reference
Further particulars
Held on the record
Further particulars
Open the remaining particulars
Miloslav Kabelac studied at Prague Conservatory. Each of those relationships is stated by the authority record rather than inferred from style.
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Music memorabilia
42,108 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Miloje MilojevićPerson
- Miloš BokPerson
- Miloš SádloPerson
- Miloslav IštvanPerson
- Miłosz MaginPerson
- MilowPerson
- Milt BucknerPerson
- Milt FranklynPerson
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Miloslav Kabelac?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.