Music and Vinyl: Fučík - Entry Of The Gladiators etc.

Julius Fučík

Radio Prague International has a page entitled Julius Fučík – Czech Republic’s forgotten composer. His name might be unfamiliar but some of his music is instantly recognisable - most notably the Entry of The Gladiators which has been used in circuses, amongst other places for many years.

Born in Prague in 1872 (then part of Austria-Hungary) the young Julius learned bassoon and violin and studied composition under Antonín Dvořák. He joined the 49th Austro-Hungarian Regiment as a military musician in 1891. Six years later he was a bandmaster based in Sarajevo and wrote what was to become his most famous piece - Einzug der Gladiatoren which was originally titled Grande Marche Chromatique after it's use of chromatic scales.

Fučík wrote over 400 marches, polkas and waltzes - mostly for military band, and has been likened to a Czech John Philip Sousa. By 1913 he had settled in Berlin where he started his own band, the Prager Tonkünstler-Orchester, and a publishing company for his own compositions. But his business began to fail with the outbreak of the First World War, and his health suffered - consequently dying in 1916 aged 44.