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Address:
Department of Musicology
Philosophical Faculty, Palacký University
Univerzitní 3
771 80 Olomouc
Czech Republic
 location on map
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Musicological and music-pedagogical research has made headway in Olomouc since 1946 thanks
to the Department of Musicology at the Philosophical Faculty and the Department of Musical Education
at Pedagogical Faculty of the Palacký University in Olomouc. The founding and key person was
musicologist Robert Smetana (1904-1988) who was to play an important role in the renewal of the
University in Olomouc in 1946 as well. The Institute of Musicology and Music Education at Palacký
University under Smetana's leadership flourished quickly and eventually found a position as a specific
institution in the minds of the Czech musical public. After Prague and Brno, Olomouc became the
third center of musicological research. Not only musicologists, but also secondary school teachers
of music studied at this institution.
In 1972 Vladimír Hudec, Robert Smetana's pupil, became the head of the department and worked
in this position for eight years. In the period of political "normalization", due to the reform
of the school system in Czechoslovakia and in accordance with the decision of the Ministry of
Education, the Department of Musicology at the Philosophical Faculty was canceled in 1980.
In 1990 (as one of the results of changes after the "Velvet Revolution" in November 1989), the
Department of Musicology at the Palacký University was re-opened by Smetana's former co-workers
and pupils, operating in Olomouc, Brno and Prague and under the leadership of Smetana's and Hudec's
pupil Jan Vičar. New students of musicology enrolled in September 1990. Various grants in the nineties
helped to solve the problems of a shortage of books, instruments and computing equipment.
Current research being done at the Department of Musicology is oriented to several projects:
The most important project of the nineties is Critical Editions of Old Musical Documents,
especially from the territory of Moravia. There are special lectures by top visiting professors
and students' work on scores from the Kroměříž Archive (Requiem Claudiae Imperatricis by Philippus
Jacobus Rittler and Missa Obligationis ex C by Wenceslao Mathia Guretzky). Annual November conferences
(since 1992) of Critical Editions of Old Musical Documents are organized in co-operation with the
Institute for Musicology at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, the Museum of Czech Music
in Prague and the Association of Musicians and Musicologists.
The international project Musical Life in Europe - Bohemia and Moravia, 1600-1900.
Circulation, Institution, Representation started in 1997 in cooperation with the European
Science Foundation in Strasbourg. Its first results - often comprised in bachelor's or diploma
theses and doctoral works - will be presented at the International Musicological Conference
organized by the Department of Musicology, Czech Music Council and Ministry of Culture of the
Czech Republic in 1997.
The staff and students also work on other important research projects such as History of the
Music Theater in Moravia, Hymnal Books in the Czech lands in the 15th and 16th century and
Czech Music of the 20th Century (including popular music).
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