John Batka

* Bratislava, October 4, 1845 – † Bratislava, December 2, 1917 / archivist, aesthete, music writer ; ; His father, János Nepomuki Batka (Javornik, Silesia, June 1, 1795 – Bratislava, August 18, 1874), was an organist and composer who lived in Bratislava from 1843 and composed mostly church works. His son completed his secondary school studies in Bratislava and then obtained a degree from the Law Academy. He was a city official from 1864 to 1879, and a city archivist from 1879 to 1917. From 1869 until his death, he was a music critic for the Pressburger Zeitung. He was one of the defining figures of Bratislava's musical life, corresponding with the most outstanding composers of his time (Ferenc Liszt, Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály, Ernő Dohnányi, Richard Wagner, Johannes Brahms, Rimsky-Korsakov, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and others). He wrote the biographies of Hungarian musicians for the second supplementary volume of Pougin's Biographie universelle des Musiciens (Paris, 1878–1880). His archival work is also valuable. He translated important works of local history into German, and then contributed to Tivadar Ortvay's work on the history of the city of Bratislava. ; ; His main works: ; Franz X. Messerschmiedts Leben und Wirken, 1885, ; Biographical sketch for the unveiling of the Hummel monument, 1887, ; Pressburger Musikleben in alter Zeit, 1898, ; Ferenc Liszt and Du Mont Henry, 1910–1911, ; Die Cecilienfäste des Pressburger Kirchenmusikvereins zu St. Martin, 1912.