Wenzel Thomas Matiegka
Czech composer and guitarist (1773-1830)
Wenzel Thomas Matiegka ([macɛɪka]; Czech: Václav Tomáš Matějka; baptised 6 July 1773 – 19 January 1830) was a Czech composer and one of the most celebrated guitarists of the 19th century.
Life
Wenzel Thomas Matiegka was born in Choceň in the Kingdom of Bohemia, then part of the Habsburg monarchy. Upon completion of his primary studies, he continued his musical education under Abbé Gelinek, becoming accomplished on the pianoforte while reading law at the University of Prague. After legal employment in the service of Prince Ferdinand Kinský, one of Beethoven's original sponsors, Matiegka moved to Vienna while in his late twenties, during the first years of the 19th century. There he was quickly acknowledged as a guitarist, composer and teacher of the piano.
His ready acceptance in the musical circles of Vienna was evident by those to whom he dedicated several of his chamber works. Franz Schubert, as a young man, added a cello part to Matiegka's Notturno Op. 21 (originally for flute, viola and guitar; Schubert arrangement D.96) for the important patron of music, Count Johann Karl Esterházy (1775 – 1834), an enthusiastic cellist to whom Matiegka's original music was dedicated. Indeed the work was attributed to Schubert for many years.
Matiegka married and settled in the Vienna suburb of Leopoldstadt where he was also Kapellmeister at the St.
The public source identifies “Wenzel Thomas Matiegka” as czech composer and guitarist (1773-1830). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Wenzel, Thomas and Matiegka.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q119672. VIAF identifies the subject as 15192106. The Library of Congress control number is n81059977. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1773, 1830, 1775 and 1834.
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This entry incorporates text from “Wenzel Thomas Matiegka” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.