Vítězslava Kaprálová – Sheet Music & Scores

Vítězslava Kaprálová (1915-1940) was one of the first female conductors, and despite her life being cut tragically short, she made a huge impact on the classical music world, and she is widely remembered and performed to this day. Browse our sheet music and scores, and explore all her marvellous works today.

A childhood full of beautiful music

Vítězslava Kaprálová was born in 1915 into a family of musicians. Her father Václav Kaprál was a well-known composer from Brno, a student of Leoš Janáček and owner of a flourishing music school, while her mother Vítězslava was a singing teacher. Thanks to her parents, Vítězslava junior was able to develop her musical talent at an early age, and she finished her first composition, “In the realm of fairy tales”, at the young age of 9.

The student years

Kaprálová graduated from the Brno Conservatoire in 1935, conducting her own Vítězslav Novák and the prominent conductor Václav Talich. She completed her studies in Prague with the premier of what is probably her most famous composition, the Military Sinfonietta, she conducted the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, and President Edvard Beneš, to whom the composition is dedicated, was in the audience. The composition has an organic nationalistic feel, and depicts her relationship to nature, to her homeland and to democracy.

The world will hear a lot from me…

From 1937, Kaprálová lived in Paris, after winning a French state scholarship to study conducting with Charles Munch. She also received private lessons from her compatriot Bohuslav Martinů, with whom she became romantically involved. Kaprálová enjoyed great success at the International Society for Contemporary Music’s Festival in London, where she performed her Sinfonietta with the BBC Orchestra.

“I opened the concert right after the anthem. A mister told me that my number was the best yet and that the world would hear so much from me that one day I would remember it.”

Kaprálová died three years later, only two months after her marriage to Jiří Mucha, the son of the famous painter Alfons Mucha, from a misdiagnosed tuberculosis:

“I felt that she was moving away, that one by one the ties that bound her to this world were being torn apart, and only love remained. She held me with both hands, but she was leaving. She heard the music. “It’s Juliette...” Waves of rain rustled on the window. It was beginning to dawn. Her breath was getting shorter. Then it stopped for good. I put my hand over her eyes and said... Goodbye, Vitka.” Jiří Mucha

The works of Vítězslava Kaprálová

During her short life, Kaprálová composed over 40 works that are still frequently performed on concert stages, especially in Western Europe. Her legacy is nurtured by the Kaprálova Society which is based in Toronto, Canada. Kaprálova wrote mainly orchestral works, chamber music and piano works.

A few composers related to Vítězslava Kaprálová

• Leoš Janáček – Sheet Music
• Vítězslav Novák – Sheet Music
• Bohuslav Martinů – Sheet Music