Josef Hlaváček

Josef Hlaváček (* 1864 in Louny ; † 1944 there ) was a Bohemian harmonica maker . He and his company played a major role in the spread of harmonicas with Helikon basses ( Heligonka ).

Company history

Josef Hlaváček learned the trade of harmonica maker in what is now Austria , according to a conversation with Mr. Ladislav Titlbach, the current managing director of the successor company harmonica. He founded an accordion company in Louny in 1885 .

His brother Jan Hlaváček († 1895) also founded a company in 1888, the business of which was continued by his mother Antonie Hlaváčková (* 1840 in Louny) from the early death of her son Jan 1895 until 1900. Jan's brother Antonín Hlaváček (* 1869 in Louny) then continued the company from 1900. Frantisek Zíma (* 1895 in Louny), who had been working for his brother-in-law Antonín Hlaváček in Louny and Prague since 1910, started his own business in Prague in 1929 ; his company existed until 1959.

In 1922 the Josef Hlaváček company moved from Louny to Prague with the entire workshop and 20 employees. After his death in 1944, his sons continued to run the company in Prague until it was expropriated.

The production in Louny was taken over by Jan Klasek , who had moved his company from Vienna to Louny, where he took over the workshop of Antonin Hlaváček. He was the first to start producing accordion bellows, which he also sold to other manufacturers and repair shops. After his death Jan Pospísil and Frantisek Hlaváček took over his company. Jan Pospísil worked as a harmonica maker in Louny from 1880 to 1930. Frantisek Hlaváček was not related to the Hlavacek brothers.

At the Louny location, the Harmonikas company produces reed plates today.

World renown

At the beginning of the 20th century, Hlaváček's harmonicas were known all over the world; sold. Harmonica schools were also included with the instruments.

In 1910 the Hlavacek company began manufacturing chromatic accordions with 3 rows and 36 buttons, with basses, in major and minor. At that time, the Hlavacek company produced 500–600 pieces of accordion per year, which is roughly the same size as the Rupert Novak company in Klagenfurt today.

Teaching material

In 1892 Josef Hlaváček published a harmonica school for autodidacts (Cesko-slovanska skola pro samouky ku hre na dvouradovou 19-klapkovou harmoniku. Böhm.-slav. - boh. Laun, Venta 1892.) Around 1910, Josef Hlaváček gave more detailed instructions for the three-row types of diatonic harmonicas. The textbooks came in several editions and were also aimed at complete musical beginners who learned the harmonica purely with tablature . For the chromatic accordion he published an extensive textbook in 1914, which also contains an extensive theoretical part (“training booklet for the chromatic accordion, particularly suitable for self-learners”).

Cyrill Hlaváček

The harmonica maker Cyrill Hlaváček in Brno was not related to the Hlavaceks from Louny, but he used the same name for dubious advertising for his harmonica. He advertised himself as a “harmonica manufacturer and teacher”, and in 1929 the Brno publisher J. Stozicky published his harmonica textbooks.