Rudolph Freiherr von Procházka (23 February 1864 – 24 March 1936) was a Czech lawyer, composer and music writer. He wrote under the pseudonym " Leon Elms".
Life.
Born in Prague (where he also died), he was from an old noble and landed family from the Czech lands. Even as a child he showed talent for music and poetry. He studied composition, violin and law in Prague. After initially working from 1888 in Eger and Asch, he held a variety of official positions in his home town. He was the founder and first president of the German Musical Academy. In 1893 he married singer and singing teacher Tonia Baronin Procházka, with whom he had Roman von Procházka.
In 1910 he was appointed state music officer, as well as becoming vice president of the Royal and Imperial Examination Commission for Secondary School Music Teaching., government representative on the working committee for German folk songs in Bohemia, member of the panel of music experts in Prague and an active member of the Association for the Promotion of Music (Verein zur Förderung der Tonkunst). He was also a ministerial counsellor, royal-imperial district captain, officer with stadtholder-decree and a commissioner of the Cheb district savings bank. He was also considered a copyright expert.
Selected compositions.
His musical works have a strongly mystical, almost esoteric, influence, initially influenced by Robert Schumann and Robert Franz but later completely distancing himself from them in terms of both content and form.