Zdeněk Liška (16 March 1922 – 13 August 1983) was a Czechcomposer who produced a large number of film scores across a prolific career that started in the 1950s. He was revelatory in his contribution to the development of electronic music. His music in this field is noticeable and dramatic, based on a unique musical feeling achieved through using quite unusual instrumental combinations and various electronic and electroacoustic techniques.
Biography
Zdeněk Liška was born on 16 March 1922 in Smečno near Kladno in central Bohemia.[1] His father and grandfather were amateur municipal musicians. As a child he learned to play the accordion and the violin; while in high school, he composed his first song.[2]
He studied composition and conducting at Prague Conservatory under Rudolf Karel, Otakar Šín, Metod Doležil, and Karel Janeček. He graduated from the Conservatory in 1944.[2] After a brief stint as a conductor of an amateur orchestra in Slaný and as a teacher at a Humpolec music school, he joined the Zlín Film Studios in 1945.[2]
Works
Liška worked notably with animator Jan Švankmajer, scoring several of his earlier short films: Punch and Judy (1966), Et Cetera (1966), Historia Naturae (Suita) (1967), The Flat (1968), Don Juan (1969), The Ossuary (1970), Jabberwocky (1971), and Leonardo's Diary (1972), and later The Castle of Otranto (1979). Liška's music for Švankmajer's Historia Naturae (Suita), The Flat, and The Ossuary was also featured in the 1984 short film by American animators the Brothers Quay entitled The Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer.
Liska was the most sought after film composer in Czechoslovakia in the 1950s and 1960s. He scored eight films a year plus numerous shorts, during the 1960s.[3]
In the mid-twentieth century, he was among the most well-known Czech film composers[1] and the foremost Czech composer of fantasy film scores.[5] He was noted for his skill with musical characterizations and humor in music, as well as his creative use of electronic music techniques.[1] He lived in the era of film symphonies but he loved experimenting too with popular rock music and electronic instruments.[3] His score for Death Is Called Engelchen won a prize in a competition for the best Czechoslovak feature-length film score of 1963.[1]
