The book discusses the life of the Czech composer Frantisek Josef Benedikt Dusík (1765-after 1817). Dusík was born into a musical family in Cáslav (Bohemia, today Czech Republik). After stuying in Prague he went to northern Italy. In the last decade of the eighteenth century he stayed in Ljubljana where he married and became one of the most important musical figures. He appeared as a musician in several famous Italian musical theatres of that time, from La Scala in Milan to San Benedetto in Venice. In Ljubljana he regularly appeared in musical theatre, was employed as an organist and regens chori in the cathedral and played a leading role in the Philharmonic Society. He wrote operas, church compositions, instrumental pieces, and foremost, symphonies, which represent the first Slovene works of that genre. The biography introduces readers to an almost forgotten musician, whose fortune led him to be a bandmaster of various Austrian infantry regiments, and at almost the same time a composer who praised Napoleon.

Matjaz Barbo graduated in musicology from the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana in 1991, and received his doctoral degree in musicology in 1997. Since 1991 he works at the Department of Musicology at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ljubljana, and was promoted to full professor in 2010. He has lectured at different universities (Graz, Brno, Leipzig, Salzburg). He has been the editor of the Musicological Annual (Muzikoloski zbornik) since 1998. His research focuses on music from the eighteenth century to the present, especially music connected with Slovenian cultural life. Besides that, his research interests include aesthetics and the sociology of music.