Jan Zelenka A list of Zalenka's compositions
Zelenka was a Catholic composer and violinist who received his musical education from
a Jesuit college in Prague and later studied in Vienna. Except for some trips back to Prague,
Zalenka lived most of his later life (starting c. 1710) in Dresden, Saxony (later Germany)
where he composed and played violin for the royal court.
Musical Style
Zelenka's pieces are characterized by very daring compositional structure, with a highly spirited harmonic invention and perfection of the art of counterpoint. His works are often virtuosic and difficult to perform, but always fresh and surprising, with sudden turns of harmony. In particular,
Miserere in C minor (15:00)
Trio Sonata no. 6 in C minor for 2 oboes & b.c. (11:00)
Sub olea pacis et palma virtutis conspicua orbi regia Bohemiae Corona:
Musical Style
Zelenka's pieces are characterized by very daring compositional structure, with a highly spirited harmonic invention and perfection of the art of 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.
His instrumental works (the trio sonatas, capricci, and concertos) are exemplary models of his
early style (1710s–1720s). The six trio sonatas demand high virtuosity and expressive sensitivity
from performers. As Zelenka was himself a violone player, he was known to write fast-moving continuo parts with driving and complicated rhythm.
Zelenka was aware of the music in different regions of Europe. He wrote complex fugues, ornate operatic arias, galant-style dances, baroque recitatives, Palestrina-like chorales, and virtuosic concertos. Zelenka's musical language is closest to Bach's, especially in its richness of contrapuntal harmonies and ingenious usage of fugal themes. Nevertheless, Zelenka's language is idiosyncratic in its unexpected harmonic twists, obsession with chromatic harmonies, huge usage of syncopated and tuplet figures, and unusually long phrases full of varied musical ideas.
Zelenka's music is influenced by Czech folk music. In this respect, he continues the tradition of the production of specific Czech national music brought to its culmination later, in works by Bedřich Smetana and Antonín Dvořák in the nineteenth century and Leoš Janáček and Bohuslav Martinů in the twentieth century.
In 2013 Damian Thompson wrote of Zelenka, "He belongs to a band of mavericks in musical history whose experiments with harmony seem to catapult them into another generation."
The total number of Zelenka's known and attributed opus numbered works is 249. Sacred vocal-instrumental music is at the center of his compositions, and include over 20 masses, four extensive oratorios and requiems, two Magnificats and Te Deum settings, 13 litanies, many psalms, hymns, antiphons. Zelenka also wrote a number of purely instrumental works – six trio or quartet sonatas, five capricci, one "Hipocondrie" as well as Concertos, Overtures and Symphonies.
The most appreciated of Zelenka's sacred works are probably his masses, above all his Missa Purificationis (ZWV 16, his last mass to include brass instruments) and his final five pieces (ZWV 17–21), commonly called "High Mass" compositions, written between 1736 and 1741 and considered as Zelenka's compositional peak. The last three were also called "Missae ultimae" (Last Masses).
Rediscovery
The rediscovery of Zelenka's work is attributed to Bedřich Smetana, who rewrote some scores from the archives in Dresden and introduced one of the composer's orchestral suites in Prague's New Town Theatre festivals in 1863.
It was mistakenly assumed that many of Zelenka's autograph scores were destroyed during the fire-bombing of Dresden in February 1945. However, the scores were not kept in the Katholische Hofkirche but in the basement of the Japanese Palace, north of the river Elbe. Some are certainly missing, but this probably happened gradually – and the lost scores represent only a small proportion of his extant works.
Interest in Zelenka's music has begun to grow, especially since the end of the 1950s. By the late 1960s and early 1970s all Zelenka's instrumental compositions and selected liturgical music were published in Czechoslovakia.
Missa Votiva in E minor, 1739 1. Kyrie (4:30)
The Missa Votiva is a mass composed by the Czech Baroque composer Jan Dismas Zelenka in 1739, Dresden. The Missa Votiva is about seventy minutes long, and its twenty parts range from forty-five seconds to over seven minutes in length.
Most of the composition is very festive and played with vivacity, the last movement being set to the tune of the first and many of the other arias being in a major key. Zelenka scored this work for a standard Baroque orchestra of strings, woodwinds and brass instruments, with the choral parts sung by a choir featuring several soloists who sing their own arias besides the parts for the whole choir. The mass is regarded as a highly complex musical composition, featuring "polyphonic formality" as well as operatic expression.
Another excellent Zelenka mass; Missa Omnium Santorum, ZWV 21 (1741)
Zelenka was aware of the music in different regions of Europe. He wrote complex fugues, ornate operatic arias, galant-style dances, baroque recitatives, Palestrina-like chorales, and virtuosic concertos. Zelenka's musical language is closest to Bach's, especially in its richness of contrapuntal harmonies and ingenious usage of fugal themes. Nevertheless, Zelenka's language is idiosyncratic in its unexpected harmonic twists, obsession with chromatic harmonies, huge usage of syncopated and tuplet figures, and unusually long phrases full of varied musical ideas.
Zelenka's music is influenced by Czech folk music. In this respect, he continues the tradition of the production of specific Czech national music brought to its culmination later, in works by Bedřich Smetana and Antonín Dvořák in the nineteenth century and Leoš Janáček and Bohuslav Martinů in the twentieth century.
In 2013 Damian Thompson wrote of Zelenka, "He belongs to a band of mavericks in musical history whose experiments with harmony seem to catapult them into another generation."
The total number of Zelenka's known and attributed opus numbered works is 249. Sacred vocal-instrumental music is at the center of his compositions, and include over 20 masses, four extensive oratorios and requiems, two Magnificats and Te Deum settings, 13 litanies, many psalms, hymns, antiphons. Zelenka also wrote a number of purely instrumental works – six trio or quartet sonatas, five capricci, one "Hipocondrie" as well as Concertos, Overtures and Symphonies.
The most appreciated of Zelenka's sacred works are probably his masses, above all his Missa Purificationis (ZWV 16, his last mass to include brass instruments) and his final five pieces (ZWV 17–21), commonly called "High Mass" compositions, written between 1736 and 1741 and considered as Zelenka's compositional peak. The last three were also called "Missae ultimae" (Last Masses).
Rediscovery
The rediscovery of Zelenka's work is attributed to Bedřich Smetana, who rewrote some scores from the archives in Dresden and introduced one of the composer's orchestral suites in Prague's New Town Theatre festivals in 1863.
It was mistakenly assumed that many of Zelenka's autograph scores were destroyed during the fire-bombing of Dresden in February 1945. However, the scores were not kept in the Katholische Hofkirche but in the basement of the Japanese Palace, north of the river Elbe. Some are certainly missing, but this probably happened gradually – and the lost scores represent only a small proportion of his extant works.
Interest in Zelenka's music has begun to grow, especially since the end of the 1950s. By the late 1960s and early 1970s all Zelenka's instrumental compositions and selected liturgical music were published in Czechoslovakia.
Missa Votiva in E minor, 1739 1. Kyrie (4:30)
The Missa Votiva is a mass composed by the Czech Baroque composer Jan Dismas Zelenka in 1739, Dresden. The Missa Votiva is about seventy minutes long, and its twenty parts range from forty-five seconds to over seven minutes in length.
Most of the composition is very festive and played with vivacity, the last movement being set to the tune of the first and many of the other arias being in a major key. Zelenka scored this work for a standard Baroque orchestra of strings, woodwinds and brass instruments, with the choral parts sung by a choir featuring several soloists who sing their own arias besides the parts for the whole choir. The mass is regarded as a highly complex musical composition, featuring "polyphonic formality" as well as operatic expression.
Another excellent Zelenka mass; Missa Omnium Santorum, ZWV 21 (1741)
Miserere in C minor (15:00)
Trio Sonata no. 6 in C minor for 2 oboes & b.c. (11:00)
Sub olea pacis et palma virtutis conspicua orbi regia Bohemiae Corona:
Melodrama de Sancto Wenceslao, ZWV 175 (1723) 90 min.
(Under the Olive Tree of Peace and the Palm Tree of Virtue the Crown of Bohemia Splendidly
Shine Before the Whole World: Melodrama to Saint Wenceslaus)
Symphonia (6:00)
"Vive regna Ferdinand" (2:41)
"Under the olive tree of peace, En, in prompt and shall keep thy law; Live realm" (5:24)
(Under the Olive Tree of Peace and the Palm Tree of Virtue the Crown of Bohemia Splendidly
Shine Before the Whole World: Melodrama to Saint Wenceslaus)
Symphonia (6:00)
"Vive regna Ferdinand" (2:41)
"Under the olive tree of peace, En, in prompt and shall keep thy law; Live realm" (5:24)
No comments:
Post a Comment