Mikolaj Zielenski (1550 - 1615) was a Polish composer.
Zielenski's only known surviving works are two 1611
liturgical cycles of polychoral works, the
Offertoria/Communes totius anni. These were dedicated
to the Archbishop of Gniezno, Wojciech Baranowski. The
sets consist of large-scale double- and triple-choir
antiphons, as well as some monodic works typical of the
Seconda pratica style of early Monteverdi. Zielenski's
music is the first known Polish music set in the style
of the Baroque.
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Mikolaj Zielenski (1550 - 1615) was a Polish composer.
Zielenski's only known surviving works are two 1611
liturgical cycles of polychoral works, the
Offertoria/Communes totius anni. These were dedicated
to the Archbishop of Gniezno, Wojciech Baranowski. The
sets consist of large-scale double- and triple-choir
antiphons, as well as some monodic works typical of the
Seconda pratica style of early Monteverdi. Zielenski's
music is the first known Polish music set in the style
of the Baroque.
Little is known today about the life and work of
Mikolaj Zielenski who lived at the turn of the 17th
century, indeed too little considering the volume of
his work and its historical significance. The
fragmentary information we have about him today allows
us to reconstruct solely a very fragmentary
biographical sketch about this composer. The
circumstances in which his exceptional talent was born
are a matter of many hypotheses and conjectures. The
music created thanks to his exceptional gift allowed
Zielenski to take a place in the history of music by
which he is even regarded as the best Polish composer
before Chopin. Szymon Skorowolski, a historian
contemporary to Zielenski, classified him as a member
of a group of Polish composers who had been educated in
Rome, "in media Roma exercitati". This is a reference
of great significance as it locates the main source of
his musical knowledge as a professional composer.
Although the time of his musical education is
determined by this remark it makes it possible to come
up with a hypothesis as to the range of the Italian
music masters under whom he may have studied or whose
music became familiar to him and indicates his possible
connections within Italian musical circles. It is quite
certain that Zielenski studied the work of Palestrina
whose compositions were recognized by the Council of
Trent as the stylistic paragon and pattern of church
polyphony. He also became familiar with the
compositions of the Gabrielis (Andrea and his nephew
Giovanni), the two most eminent representatives of the
Venetian polychoral school. Likewise it cannot be
excluded that the Polish composer acquainted himself
with the ideas of Florentine camerata contained in
Dialogo della musica antica et della moderna of V.
Galilea (1581). Even the first attempts at accompanied
monody made by Caccini and Galilea in their Le nuove
musiche (1601) may have been familiar to him.
All the above-made suppositions and conclusions seem to
find corroboration in the two volumes of works by
Mikolaj Zielenski, Offertoria and Communiones
(published in Venice in 1611) at the press of Jacob
Vincentius. Both the frontispiece and the short preface
published in these books state that Zielenski was a
composer, organist and Kapelmeister at the court of the
Polish primate Wojciech Baranowski. The status of the
patron as well as the seat of his court, ?owicz, the
capital of the Archbishops and Primates of Poland, and
a well-known centre of musical life back in these days,
were fitting with the composer's rank as a
musician.
"Viderunt Omnes" is a traditional Gregorian chant of
the 11th century. The work is based on an ancient
gradual of the same title.
The chant was subsequently expanded upon by composers
of the Notre Dame school who developed it as type of
early polyphony known as organum. Thought to be written
for Christmas, the polyphonic settings would have
retained the same liturgical purpose as the original
gradual, while being musically enhanced for the
festivities. The cantus firmus, or tenor, "holds" the
original chant, while the other parts develop complex
melismas on the vowels. The various settings of
Viderunt Omnes provide context for specific trends in
medieval music.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viderunt_Omnes ).
Although originally created for unaccompanied choir
(SATB), I created this Interpretation of "Viderunt
omnes fines Terræ" (All the ends of the earth have
seen [the salvation of our God]) for Woodwind Quartet
(Flute, Oboe, English Horn & Bassoon).
SHEET MUSIC