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Vaclav Frantisek Cerveny master of his craft.

Article Excerpt
"Cerveny is always inventing something. He has already been inventing for more than thirty years, he is always at it. It is to do with a kind of obstinacy, which is also expressed in the fact that he cannot and will not endure having something better beside him. In Vienna he had to be better than Vienna, in Paris he beat Paris, and wherever there was some exhibition in Europe, Cerveny took the first place in it." Jan Neruda: V. F. Cerveny, to je ten, co tvrdi muziku. In.: Humory (1878)

If we look around for important instrument makers in Czech history, we shall not find a greater figure in the field than Vaclav Frantisek Cerveny (27th July 1819-19th January 1896). His work and inventions were not only highly rated in the Austro-Hungarian empire as it then was, but were acclaimed throughout Europe from Russia to France and even won him respect overseas. With his ingenuity, inventions, designs, organisational abilities, theoretical conclusions and demonstration and reputation abroad Cerveny contributed to the overall development of European musical culture, and this is just one of many good reasons for recalling the most important dates and events of his life and some of his most significant "contributions" to the development of brass instruments that spread through the world.

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In January we also commemorated the 110th anniversary of his death.

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Family History, or the First Steps towards Fame

Jan Cerveny, Vaclav Frantisek's grandfather, was a farmer and serf in Krupa near Kostelec and Cernymi lesy. When he died in 1788 at the age of 31 as a result of injuries caused by a falling waggon-load of wood, he left a wife Barbara and a five-year-old son, Jan. The very next year, 1789, the widow found a new husband in the farmer Jan Klima of Prusice, where Jan grew into a strong and able young man. When he reached the age of military call-up, his stepfather hid him in a parish priest's service in Stolmir, because he knew that farmhands belonging to a prince or priest were not taken into the army. The priest Sadil took a great fancy to Jan and taught him the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic, which he had never acquired in childhood because of a lack of money and time.

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When his stepfather died in 1808, Jan returned to his inheritance, the farm in Prusice, after six years spent at the parsonage, years that were to have a decisive effect on his life. The next spring he married Anna Beranova of Dobrocovice, who bore him a first son Jan (2nd June 1811) and two years later a daughter Anna. In 1815 the whole family moved to a new, larger farm in Dubec near Bechovice not far from Prague, where Jan sometimes used to go on a "Czech expedition" to Vaclav Matej Kramerius' bookshop for books and magazines. After the birth of a second son Vaclav (27th of September 1819), Jan's wife set about persuading him to move elsewhere for the sake of the children, and so in 1823 the family took over a farm in Brezany near Cesky Brod. It was here that Vaclav started to learn to play the horn and bugle with the church teacher Stehlik, but above all the clarinet, which apparently the boy played...

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