Petr Eben

Petr Eben (1929-2007) a prolific Czech composer, suffered both under the Nazi regime and the Stalinist regime. As the son of a Jewish father and Catholic mother, he had been imprisoned in Buchenwald as a teenager. Somehow he not only survived this harrowing period, but he emerged with a strengthened Catholic faith. After the war the Czech people endured a particularly harsh Soviet occupation, and it was under this regime that Eben produced most of his life work. Eben remains virtually unknown outside of his native country and, to a lesser extent, the UK (he was briefly a guest academic in the UK). His relative obscurity stems partly because of the limitations on dissemination caused by the Iron Curtain. In addition, as a steadfast church member and frequent composer of liturgical music, he was not the sort of composer the authorities promoted.

Sources

Andersen, Martin. Fifty Yrs Plus and Minus. Accessed online 21 October 2016. search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/docview/1256185

Blackwell, Vera. “František Halas: The Rock and the Roots.” Books Abroad 43, no. 1 (1969): 13-17.