#czech baroque

[kustavglimt]

Ferdinand Maximilian Brokoff: Chronos and the personification of grief, tombstone of Count Jan Václav Vratislav of Mitrovic (1714-16)

[ars-videndi]

Karel Škréta (Czech, Prague 1610 - 1674), The Lute Player, oil on canvas, 89,8 x 73,6 cm

The veil in front of the sitter may indicate that this is a posthumous portrait. Source.

[quarantinemusiccalendar]

Day 12: Jan Dismas Zelenka - Selected works (1724 -1739)

This will not be a regular “Tereza recommends this one album” sort of blog post. This is an attempt to rediscover the best keep secret of Czech baroque music. The secret is called Jan Dismas Zelenka.

Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679 – 1745) may truly be the best classical composer you have never heard about. If you’re Czech you may have heard the name or seen a poster for a concert around Prague, as he is finally getting some recognition in last 2 decades, but even if the name rings a bell, you probably still have no idea, how does his music sound like. He had been nicknamed “The Czech Bach”, but apart from the fact they were contemporaries and both worked in Saxony and therefore had acquaintances in common and some similar influences, their styles are unique, original and recognizably different from each other.

Zelenka was born in Louňovice pod Blaníkem (about 70 km southeast of Prague, in Benešov District) 1679, his father Jiří Zelenka was a schoolmaster and organist in Louňovice and was likely his first music teacher. Not much is known about his early years, other that at some point he received his musical training at the Jesuit college Clementinum in Prague and that his principal instrument was the violone (double bass, predecessor of contrabass). It seems that he went through formal music education fairly late in his life and only started to work as a professional musician when he was nearly thirty. From 1709 he worked for Baron Johann Hubert von Hartig in Prague, before being appointed as a violone player in Dresden's royal orchestra on recommendation of Baron Hartig. He then rose through the musical ranks of the Dresden court, serving as a Vice-Kapellmeister or standing in for an absent Kapellmeister, but never reaching the top job himself. Up to his death, he stayed in Dresden and produced mostly sacred music for the catholic court church of the Wettin Electors of Saxony. (1)

Zelenka's music is characterized by a very daring compositional structure with a highly spirited harmonic invention and complex counterpoint. His works are often virtuosic and difficult to perform, but always fresh and surprising, with sudden turns of harmony. In particular, his writing for bass instruments is far more demanding than that of other composers of his era. This comes as no surprise as he was initially hired by the Dresden court as a violone player. He was known to write fast-moving continuo parts with driving and complicated rhythm. His works often hint at Czech folk music.(2) It is remarkable that even in the few early works of this self-taught composer which date back before 1710, the original musical language, which is characteristic of Zelenka and which he retains in its basic features throughout his whole life, is already present. Quite possibly the lack of formal musical training and lack of familiarity with modern musical styles are behind the formation of an absolutely original musical language, which Zelenka, thanks to training he received later, brought to perfection.(1)

As already mentioned, Zelenka was a contemporary of J.S.Bach (5 years age difference) and being based in Dresden and Bach in nearby Leipzig, they did exchange letters and in few occasions even music. Zelenka was also close friends with fellow composers Georg Philipp Telemann, Johann Georg Pisendel and Sylvius Leopold Weiss.(2)

I have shortlisted 6 works, which I believe are an excellent introduction to Zelenka’s music.

Missa 1724 is a collection of church music written by Zelenka in 1724-1725. Zelenka’s father passed away in 1724 and for a couple of years after that he was processing his grief and composing a lot of music with sad undertones and wrote a lot of trombone parts into his compositions. The music that comprises the Missa 1724 (Kyrie ZWV 26, Gloria ZWV 30, Credo ZWV 32, Sanctus et Agnus Dei ZWV 26) is a collection of individual parts of a catholic mass ordinary, but they were probably not intended to be performed as one single mass. As these individual parts could hardly be performed in a concert out of the structure of a mass, the conductor of the Collegium 1704 ensemble, Václav Luks, decided to string them together in an imaginary mass and give them a new life. And although assorted artificially 3 centuries after the individual pieces were written, the collection feels and sound remarkably natural played together.

Around the same period he wrote De Profundis (ZWV 97), a hymn of 5 parts based on Psalm 130 ("From the depths, I have cried out to you, O Lord"). This piece is the clearest response to the death of his father. The three trombones used as an independent instrumental group give the work a special richness of tone.

The Magnificat in D major (ZWV 108) was written in 1725. Two years later he composed another Magnificat, this time in C major (ZWV 107). On a side note, a magnificat is a (usually catholic) hymn of praise with lyrics taken directly from the Gospel of Luke (1:46–55) where it is spoken by Mary when she visits her cousin Elizabeth. Zelenka trusted Bach enough to let Bach’s son copy out the Amen part from Zelenka's third Magnificat (ZWV 107) to use in the Leipzig's St. Thomas' Church.

And finally, his Missa Votiva (ZWV 18), a festive and lively mass composed in 1739. Even though a mass, the work was scored for a standard Baroque orchestra, a choir and several soloists who sing their own arias. It is regarded as a highly complex musical composition with intricate polyphonic parts as well as operatic expression.

Happy Easter Sunday, relax and enjoy.

Highlights: - Magnificat in C major (ZWV 107) - “Magnificat anima mea Dominum” - Kyrie, Sanctus et Aagnus Dei (ZWV 26) - Ic.“Kyrie eleison II” - Credo (ZWV 32) - I.“Credo” - De Profundis (ZWV 97) - “De Profundis - After Psalm 130” - Magnificat in D major (ZWV 108) - “Amen” - Missa Votiva (ZWV 18) - “Cum Sanctus Spiritu II” - Missa Votiva (ZWV 18) - “Credo in unum deum”

Playlist: https://spoti.fi/2R41MS0 Note: This is the 2nd playlist, the one for the  classical / orchestral music: Quarantine Classical Music Calendar.

Links and References: (1) V. Luks (19 May 2015). “Proč je Jan Dismas Zelenka více než jen českým Bachem’’. Opera. (2) Jan Dismas Zelenka - Wikipedia