Sonatina for Flute, Clarinet and Bassoon was composed in 1966 and performed with academic trios utilizing both the bassoon and the violon cello equally well on the third part.

Pater Noster was composed in April of 1990 as a personal response to belated news (40 years later) of the tragic death of a friend, Josef Toufar, a seminarian, someone he had looked up to during his student gymna;zium days in Hradec Kralove, Czechoslovakia. Zajicek fondly recalls their playing in the orchestra together. Josef played the contrabass, while he played viola. He admired his compassionate ways of regularly visiting the sick in the hospital.

Zajicek left his country in 1949 to serve as music program director of the Czech section of Radio Free Europe in Munich, and then emigrated to the USA in 1952. His father was executed in 1954. He was neither able to receive the truth behind political events nor return to his native land until after the 1989 November Velvet Revolution. When he did return, this is the news that awaited him.

As a parish priest, Toufar just seems to have been in the wrong place in 1950 when the communist regime waged an extremely vicious war against the church and clergy. State Security randomly selected the village of Cihost, where Toufar was stationed. They secretly planted a mechanism in the little church so that a 3 foot crucifix on the altar would move during his sermon, unbeknowns to him, thus creating the sensation of a supernatural phenomena?the Miracle of Cihost, they called it.

Toufar was arrested by authorities who locked him up, demanding that he admit to fixing the crucifix so that it moved. He was severely beaten, receiving damage to his liver, skull, arms and legs. They wanted to make a film of him showing how he did this deed which was totally set up. However, after operating on him for hours, Toufar died of internal bleeding on February 25, 1950. Inspite of this, a short film was made of this Miracle of Cihost using a look-alike in Toufar?s place, but people recognized the imposter. Hearing this news, Zajicek responded by writing his composition, Pater Noster, a truly fitting tribute.

His other compositions include:Variations for Piano (1956-57); Piano Trio (1957); Clarinet Sonata (1957); Sinfonietta (1958); Violin Sonata (1961); String Quartet (1962-63); Concertino for Flute and String Orchestra (1963-64)-Chicago, Feb. 26, 1967); Intrada and Processionale for Brass, Timpani and Organ (1970), Cello Sonata (1975) and songs including Pater Noster (SATB a cappella) and Rikadla published by Alliance Publications.

PATER NOSTER - The Lord's Prayer
AP-1017 SATB a cap $1.25

SONATINA for FLUTE, CLARINET & BASSOON
AP-239 Set $25.

For 30 years, he played with the Brno Radio Folk Orchestra. During this period, he created about 500 arrangements of folk songs for this orchestra and for a number of other ensembles as well. Now he works as a member of the opera orchestra for the National Theatre in Brno in the Czech Republic.

Following this era of making music arrangements, Radoslav Zapletal began to focus on writing original compositions for choir, voice, and chamber music, eg. Capricietto for Dulcimer, Variations on a Folk Song for Dulcimer, Sonata for solo violin, Little Green Mountain for Dulcimer and String Quartet, Morning, Noon and Night, a Suite for Strings and Clever Capers: (Mateniky)for Chamber Orchestra. Since 1992, he as been doing private post-graduate study in composition with Professor Arnost Parsch at the Brno Academy of Music.

His musical works from 1712, illustrate his technical mastery. His colleagues, J. S. Bach and Georg Telemann, particularly admired two characteristics of his music—its contrapuntal ingenuity and harmonic inventiveness.

Zelenka is one of the Baroque composers who could produce original tonal imagery. This is apparent in his liking for chromaticism, the surprising use of accidentals, and for agglomerations of suspensions and chords of the 9th. His themes are sometimes unfashionably long, eg. up to 32 ms. in his Oboe Sonatas, and he used an irregular structure, often mixing Slavonic rhythm with it. He feel for Czech folk music elements is evident in his choice of themes, rhythm, and rustic gaiety.

Ceremonial Horns is an adaptation from a series of reiterfanfaren. Obviously this music was written as ceremonial music for the coronation of Charles VI in Prague. Typically, the musicians rode on horseback (what a test for focusing the embouchure!) with small tympani draped over the back of the horse. Enjoy the wonderfully simple elegance of this musical gem! May it serve to lead you to discover other Zelenka masterpieces which are mostly sacred choral music, much of which is augmented by oboes, strings and trumpets.

As a composer, Zemanovsky produced chamber music for instruments and orchestra, but his largest output is in choral music, his field of greatest strength and experience: mixed choir (23 titles), women's choir (29), men's choir (12) and children's choir (44).

Tri l'ubostne piesne (Three Love Songs) was composed in 1976. It is a suite of three folk Slovak love songs which are arranged for three-part treble a cappella choir and have become beloved in choral circles in Slovakia.

" Three Lovesongs SSA a cap AP-1102