Losy, Jan Antonín, Count of

Losinthal [Logi, Loschi,

Losymthal]
(b Štekeň Castle, near Strakonice, c1650; d Prague, 9 Aug – 2
Sept 1721). Bohemian lutenist and composer. He was born into a
wealthy family of Swiss origin; his father had settled in Prague in
the 1620s and was raised to the Bohemian nobility for his bravery
during the defence of the city against the Swedes in 1648. Losy
studied at Prague University from 1661, taking the doctorate in
philosophy in 1668. After this he probably undertook the customary
European tour; he is known to have visited Italy, and he probably
went to France and the Low Countries as well. He had a great
enthusiasm for French music, especially that of Lully, and also for
the music of Fux. He played the lute and violin in concerts at his
palace in Prague. At the height of his fame (1696–7) he travelled in
the German lands and engaged in a friendly musical competition in
Leipzig with Pantaleon Hebenstreit and the Thomaskantor Johann
Kuhnau, who subsequently dedicated to Losy his Frische Clavier
Früchte (1696). Losy's son Adam Philipp (1705–81), who lived in
Vienna and became music director to the imperial court, was a
competent double bass player in aristocratic orchestras.
Losy was the best-known and most respected lutenist in late 17th-
century Prague, but his reputation extended far outside his own
land. He was praised by Ernst Gottlieb Baron (Historisch-
theoretische und practische Untersuchung des Instruments der
Lauten, 1727) and one of his courantes was printed in Le Sage de
Richée's Cabinet der Lauten (1695). Silvius Leopold Weiss wrote a
highly expressive tombeau in his honour. The real measure of his
popularity is seen in the number and wide distribution of
manuscripts containing his compositions, which also exist in
arrangements for mandore, angélique and keyboard. Several
manuscripts of compositions by him for guitar are probably also
arrangements. Losy adopted the traditional French style and
genres, but he somewhat moderated the characteristic brisé
texture of Parisian lute music in favour of more distinct melody and
bass lines, probably influenced by contemporary Austrian
composers. Vogl identified 100 or so individual pieces, to which
about 50 more may be added (see Crawford), although attributions
are rarely entirely reliable. A few pieces are grouped into suites or
partitas, but Losy's intentions in this regard remain unclear. About
60 pieces survive only in guitar tablature, most of which may be
arrangements of lute originals.
WORKS
Courante, lute, in P.F. le Sage de Richée's Cabinet der Lauten (1695); ed.
in DTÖ, l, Jg.xxv/2 (1918/R)
Other lute pieces, A-ETgoëss, Kla, KN, KR, Wn; CZ-Bm, Bu, Lobkowitz
family's private collection, Prague; D-Bsb, Gs, Ngm, Ru, SWl; F-B, Pn; GB-
Lbl; PL-Kj, Wn, WRu; S-K, L; US-NYp, R; Partie, 3 others ed. in DTÖ, l,
Jg.xxv/2 (1918/R); 8 ed in DTÖ, lxxxiv (1966); 5 ed. in EDM, 2nd ser.,
Alpen- und Donau Reichsgaue, i (1942); Ouverture in D, Tombeau, ed in
DČHP (1957)
Guitar pieces, CZ-Pnm, and modern gui arrs.; some ed. J. Zuth (Vienna,
1919); 9 suites, 10 other pieces ed. in MAB, xxviii (1958/R); Partita in a, arr.
K. Scheit (Vienna, 1955)
Arrs., mandore/angélique/kbd, CZ-Bm, D-Bsb, S-K
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. Koczirz: ‘Österreichische Lautenmusik zwischen 1650 und
1720’, SMw, v (1918), 74–85, 88–93
J. Pohanka: ‘ Loutnová tabulatura z rajhradského kláštera’ [Lute
tabulatures from the Rajhrad monastery], Časopis Moravského
Musea, xl (1955), 193–203
E. Vogl: ‘Zur Biographie Losys’, Mf, xiv (1961), 189–192
E. Vogl: ‘Johann Anton Losy: Lutenist of Prague’, JLSA, xiii (1980),
58–86
E. Vogl: ‘The Lute Music of Johann Anton Losy’, JLSA, xiv (1981),
5–58
T. Crawford: ‘ New Sources of the Music of Count Losy’, JLSA, xv
(1982), 52–83
ADRIENNE SIMPSON/TIM CRAWFORD