Franciszek Zachara
Franciszek Zachara (b Tarnów, Austrian Poland (now Poland), 10 December 1898; d Tallahassee, Florida, United States, 2 February 1966) was a Polish pianist and composer who concertized extensively throughout Europe in the years leading up to 1928.
The archive of his manuscripts is held at the Warren D. Allen Music Library at Florida State University.
He was educated in the State Gymnasium in Warsaw, and graduated from the Imperial Conservatory in Saratov (Russian: Сара́тов) in 1919.
He then attended the Imperial Conservatory in St. Petersburg (Russian: Санкт-Петербу́рг, then known as Petrograd), studying piano with Alexander Dubassoff, and graduated in 1921.
On November 18, 1928 Zachara gave his American debut in New York's Town Hall.
Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Mozart, Scarlatti-Tausig, Scriabin, Debussy, Liszt, and a piece of his own.
During this time he married Patty Haralson, took up marksmanship, and won many medals in this new hobby.
I thought that every American man should become proficient with firearms since we were fighting for our existence; so I registered for the course (Florida Wildlife, 37).In 1946, Zachara became a U.S. citizen, and relocated to New York for a short period.
In 1948 he became Associate Professor of Piano at Florida State University, where composer and pianist Ernő Dohnányi had also just started teaching.
Becoming a full professor in 1955, Zachara continued composing, performing, and teaching at the School (now College) of Music at Florida State University until he was hospitalized on January 21, 1966 suffering a heart attack.
He occasionally did transcriptions of the music of other composers, including Chopin, Liszt, Strauss, and others.
The list of works below reflects original opus numbers assigned by Zachara.
A new system of assigning notation to all of Zachara's works, whether completely or partially existing, is currently being created (2008).
An extensive collection titled New Well-Tempered Clavicord for the Piano is clearly taken from the Bach model, consisting of 24 sets of preludes and fugues in all major and minor keys, with an additional 25th prelude and fugue (on a theme from Dohnányi) added at the end.
Zachara seems to have composed at least three piano sonatas, but only partial scores exist for these works (opus numbers 75, 80, and 81).
His best-known chamber piece (and possibly the most successful of all his works) is the Sonata for Clarinet and Piano No.
9) Berceuse for Piano Solo Boogie Woogie Etude Burlesque Capriccio in E-flat Major (op.
5) Dutch Dance Gavotte in B Minor Gavotte in D Major Grand Valse Chromatique Indian Sacrifice Menuet in A Minor Menuet in Classic Style The Music Box The Music Box: Cracoviene Polish Natinoale Dans Poeme (op.
29) Second Rhapsody by Liszt Slavic Dance The Star Spangled Banner (arrangement) Suite in Classic Style (op.
