Czech musician František Kmoch was born in Zásmuky by Kolín. He was born on 1st August 1848, the troubled year when revolution wave was spreading through Europe. Kmoch´s father Jakub Kmoch, a retired soldier and cottager, made living by tailoring and also a bit by folk music, playing the clarinet.
Parents of František Kmoch lived as an unmarried couple, so Kmoch and his siblings Antonín, Václav and Josef were illegitimate children. This was not corrected before November 1855 when their parents got married. Since childhood František Kmoch was naturally interested in music which he could hear at home when his father was practising. So it was no surprise that he literally inherited close relationship to brass band music. Later, he learnt music at Václav Plaček.
Due to lack of money, František was not able to think about studying music at academy of music. In 1864-68 he attended Kolín Gymnasium and because at that time teaching schools provided thorough music preparation, he did not hesitate and started to study Prague teaching institute. He left the institution in 1869 and became a teacher continuously in Suchdol, Červené Pečky and Solopysky by Kolín.
Simultaneously he played as a violinist in many local bands. In 1871 he firstly proved as a band-leader when he founded his own eight-member trumpeter group. Afterwards, he enlarged the group so much that it became an ensemble, or more precisely a band, which belonged to Kolín Sokol. In 1873 Kmoch was suspended due to inconsistence of his teaching job with playing with the band overnights. Subsequently, Kmoch made living only by being a band-leader and music teacher.
Another proof of Kmoch´s love for music is the fact that as a teacher without having tenure, he annually earned 300 gold coins, whereas as a band-leader he had hardly one third. Already around 1872 Kmoch had a well-coordinated brass band and he quite quickly succeeded in starting his music fame by composing his own brass band compositions. During the most famous years, Kmoch´s band had even up to 70 members. The band reached the first breaking point during the celebration of hundredth birth anniversary of Josef Jungman. During the celebration, the cornerstone of Josef Jungman´s memorial was built in today´s Jungman Square in Prague. National newspaper wrote very positively about the performance of Kmoch´s band and the unbelievable precision and teamwork of Kolín Sokol band was pointed out.
The same success was recorded in other cities and towns of Bohemia and Moravia, and the band was also invited abroad. There was a memorable meeting of Kmoch´s band with Leoš Janáček in Brno in 1882. The first performance out of homeland was in Krakow in1884. There followed Wien, Budapest, and in 1896 the band played in Russian exhibition in Nižnij Novgorod and it even played in America. Kmoch composed more than 500 compositions, these concerned mainly marching and dancing opuses. Some of them came from original folk melodies and also several of them were inspired by Kmoch´s personal experience. Let´s name some famous ones: Kolíne, Kolíne; Andulko šafářova; Muziky, muziky; Pode mlejnem; Jarabáček; Zelení hájové; Na stříbropěnném Labi, etc. František Kmoch composed also several Sokol marches – Vzletem sokolím, Lví silou etc. The movie ´To byl český muzikant´ (1940) was filmed about the life of František Kmoch. There was also an operetta ´Tak žil a hrál nám Kmoch´, based on the libretto by L.Hodačová and music by Jaroslav Jankovec.
Czech band-leader and propagator of high-quality Czech music – František Kmoch, died 30th April 1912 in Kolín, in his 63 years.
