Prach, Ivan Bohumir

Prach [Prach] (Práč; Pratsch), Ivan Bohumir (Johann Gottfried) (c. 1750, Silesia; c. 1818, ?P.). Bohemian folklorist, pedagogue, and comp. Studied in Bohemia, then settled in P. (late 1770s), where he taught at the Smolny Institute (1780–95) and the P. Theater School (from 1784). In 1790 publ. a landmark collection of folk songs, with a preface by N. L'vov and Western harmonizations by Prach in a style more elaborate and “professional” than those by Trutovsky. This collection was the first to…