Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679 – 1745) was a Czech composer
and musician of the Baroque period. His music is
admired for its harmonic inventiveness and mastery of
counterpoint. He was raised in Central Bohemia,
educated in Prague and Vienna, and spent his
professional life in Dresden. The greatest success
during his career was the performance of the extensive
composition Sub olea pacis et palma virtutis in the
presence of the Emperor Charles VI, shortly after his
coronation as king of Bohemia in 172...(+)
Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679 – 1745) was a Czech composer
and musician of the Baroque period. His music is
admired for its harmonic inventiveness and mastery of
counterpoint. He was raised in Central Bohemia,
educated in Prague and Vienna, and spent his
professional life in Dresden. The greatest success
during his career was the performance of the extensive
composition Sub olea pacis et palma virtutis in the
presence of the Emperor Charles VI, shortly after his
coronation as king of Bohemia in 1723.
Bach held Zelenka in high esteem, and the two composers
knew each other, as evidenced by a letter of 13 January
1775 from his son C.P.E. Bach to the Bach biographer
Johann Nikolaus Forkel. Bach was trusted enough by
Zelenka for his eldest son Wilhelm Friedemann to copy
out the Amen from Zelenka's third Magnificat (ZWV 108)
to use in the Leipzig's St. Thomas' Church, where J. S.
Bach was cantor for the last two and a half decades of
his life. In addition to composing, Zelenka taught
throughout his life a number of prominent musicians of
his time, like Johann Joachim Quantz (Frederick the
Great of Prussia's longtime court flautist and flute
teacher) and J. G. Roellig. His close friends included
eminent composers such as Georg Philipp Telemann,
Johann Georg Pisendel and Sylvius Leopold Weiss.
Zelenka's pieces are 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.
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,
large usage of syncopated and tuplet figures, and
unusually long phrases full of varied musical ideas. He
is sometimes considered Bach's Catholic
counterpart.
Zelenka's music is influenced by Czech folk music. In
this respect, he continues the tradition of the
production of specific Czech national music initiated
by Adam Michna z Otradovic and brought to its
culmination by Bedřich Smetana and Antonín
Dvořák in the nineteenth century and Leoš
Janáček and Bohuslav Martinů in the
twentieth century.
In regard to his masses, Zelenka was not afraid to
challenge the established traditions of his time.
Furthermore, from his unorthodox, disjointed, and
"bizarre" sounding fugal subjects (such as the Kyrie
Eleison from ZWV 48) to his fiery orchestration, he
presents fresh interpretations of established
liturgical mass texts
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Dismas_Zelenka)
Although originally composed for Chorus (SATB) & Organ,
I created this arrangement of Magnificat in D Major
(ZWV 108) for Winds (Flute, Oboe, English Horn, French
Horn & Bassoon) & Strings (2 Violins, Viola & Cello).
