Jan Hus and Hussitism at the Institute of Art History (CAS) Roundtable

On October 19th, 2021, a roundtable took place within the workshop Identity and Crisis in 19th-Century Culture in Czech lands in (semi)private space.Thanks to the initiatives of Dr. Anja Bunzel (IAH CAS), the public was offered an interesting programme in hybrid form -- with both online and in-person participation possible.

Viktor Velek from the Old Myths, New Facts team presented his work on private and semi-private musical culture with ties to the Czech revolutionary environment of 1848. In the words of the author himself:

"I took this presentation as an opportunity to integrate the multiple directions of my musicological portfolio. That includes first of all the musical culture of Slavic people (especially Czechs) living in Vienna, the musical dimension of the Czech-German social tensions, musical form of Czech historical national traditions, musical life in the year 1848 itself, and music of Slavic comradeship. For the roundtable, I put focus on the musical image of Jan Hus and hussitism in the year 1848 and its relationship to other comparable phenomena such as the St. Wenceslas tradition."

Due to an equipment failure, slides could not be shown, so Viktor Velek had to do with spoken word, and only a part of audio samples and text transcriptions could be presented. "Prof. Pečman called these situations 'revolts of inanimate objects'", adds V. Velek as he looks for a good opportunity to forge this topic into a publication.