František (Franz) Xaver Brixi was born on 2 January 1732 in Prague. His father was Šimon Brixi (1693–1735), who belonged to a large north Bohemian family of musicians and had made a name for himself in Prague as a composer and Regens chori. The Brixis maintained close contacts with the Benda family, who in the 18th century produced a number of distinguished musicians that had significant influence on the development of music in central and northern Germany. Dorothea (Dorota) Benda (1686–1762), the mother of the famous Bohemian composers Franz Benda (1709–1786) and Georg Anton Benda (1722–1795), was a cousin of Šimon Brixi.
František Brixi enjoyed a comprehensive humanist education at the Piarists’ grammar school in Kosmonosy, where he was also instructed in music. Around this time he is said to have composed his first sacred pieces. In 1749 he returned to Prague, where he was engaged as organist at a number of churches before in 1759 he was appointed kapellmeister at the Prague Metropolitan Church of St. Veit. He kept this office – the highest musical position in the city of Prague – until his untimely death on 14 October 1771.
Brixi is considered one of the most influential supporters of the stylistic changes in Bohemian music taking place around the mid-18th century. Gottfried Johann Dlabacž (1758–1820) describes him as follows: “He was particularly strong in fugues and counterpoint, original and versatile in his ideas. His works are still appreciated and continue to be performed to great acclaim both in the capital and in the countryside […]”.[1] The main emphasis of his musical output lay on sacred music. He composed a large number of litanies, vespers, offertories, motets, cantatas, oratorios and masses, but also school dramas and operettas, copies of which were disseminated widely. His instrumental works comprise several symphonies and organ concertos; two concertos for solo flute and a double concerto for two flutes and orchestra are also attributed to him. In addition he composed partitas for wind instruments and keyboard music.
Abstract from the preface by Phillip Schmidt (translation: Stephanie Wollny)
[1] See Gottfried Johann Dlabacž, Allgemeines historisches Künstler-Lexikon für Böhmen und zum Theil auch für Mähren und Schlesien, vol. 1, Prague 1815, col. 224.
