Pozůstalost Františka Škroupa (1801–1862) v Národním muzeu v Praze (Ke 160. výročí úmrtí)

The Czech composer and conductor František Škroup was one of the most important musicians active in Bohemia in the second quarter of the 19th century. For 30 years from 1827, he was a conductor at the Estates Theatre in Prague, the leading operatic stage in Bohemia (and from 1837 to 1858 the chief conductor), and he conducted the most important Prague concerts. He spent the last two years of his life in Rotterdam, where he took part in the inception of the newly established German opera. He had a major influence over the public’s developing musical tastes at the time, but now Škroup has unjustly become a nearly forgotten figure. He is remembered by the Czech public mostly as the composer of the song “Kde domov můj?” (Where My Home Is) from the farce Fidlovačka. Already in the 19th century, it spontaneously became the unofficial hymn of the Czech nation, and after the dissolution of the Habsburg monarchy and the founding of Czechoslovakia as an independent state in 1918, it became the official national anthem. After Škroup’s death in 1862, the intention of his widow Karolina had been to donate his estate to the National Museum, but in 1863 she only sent the museum the autograph scores of two of Škroup’s key works: the singspiel Dráteník and the farce Fidlovačka. The National Museum obtained the estate in 1921 as an inheritance from Božena Škroupová (1847–1928), who bequeathed its contents to the museum under the condition that she would use some items until her death, whereafter they would be handed over to the National Museum, which she made her sole heir. This very extensive collection is of quite extraordinary cultural value: it contains tangible artefacts (furniture), a wealth of iconographical material, the personal documents of several members of the family of František Škroup – Karolina Škroupová, and their daughters Karolina and Božena, family correspondence. Škroup’s compositions including autograph scores, handwritten copies, and printed editions, plenty of printed material mostly from the period after Škroup’s death, and books. The artefacts and iconographical material were kept at the Department of Historical Archaeology, books and printed or manuscript writings were kept at the literary archive of the National Museum, and music was kept in the music collection that was formerly part of the National Museum Library. When the National Museum’s literature archives were transferred to the Literary Archive of the Museum of Czech Literature, this collection was retained at the National Museum and was registered among the collections at the Music Department in 1954. It is certain that sheet music was turned over to the museum in 1921 and furniture at the beginning of 1929; most of the books had been turned over already in 1921. In most cases it is not possible to determine reliably when written materials were handed over. Inventory numbers or shelf marks have been found for most of the items from the will, and the library still needs to be identified. So far, the writings in the estate are still entered in the systematic records under acquisition number 4/54. The discovery of the will is very beneficial for the further processing of the estate because we are now aware of internal connections and are able to organise the material well.The National Museum has definitely fulfilled the stipulation in Božena Škroupová’s will “that the objects be preserved reverently for future generations” – the objects are properly stored, processed, available to scholarly researchers, and on display in exhibits; most of the furniture is on display in an exhibit at the History Museum in Vrchotovy Janovice.