Johann Christoph Pezel (1639 – 1694) was a German
violinist, trumpeter, and composer. He lived at Leipzig
from 1661 to 1681, with an interruption in 1672, when
he entered an Augustinian monastery in Prague, which
however he left soon after to become a Protestant. His
later years were spent at Bautzen, where (as at
Leipzig) he was in municipal employment as Stadtpfeifer
and Stadtmusicus. He was renowned as a violinist and
clarino trumpet player and published between 1669 and
1686 a considerable...(+)
Johann Christoph Pezel (1639 – 1694) was a German
violinist, trumpeter, and composer. He lived at Leipzig
from 1661 to 1681, with an interruption in 1672, when
he entered an Augustinian monastery in Prague, which
however he left soon after to become a Protestant. His
later years were spent at Bautzen, where (as at
Leipzig) he was in municipal employment as Stadtpfeifer
and Stadtmusicus. He was renowned as a violinist and
clarino trumpet player and published between 1669 and
1686 a considerable number of collections, chiefly of
instrumental music, such as Musica vespertina lipsica
(1669), Musicalische Seelenerquickungen (1675),
Deliciae musicales, oder Lustmusik (1678), Musica
curiosa lipsiaca (1686), etc.; also some sacred vocal
music and theoretical works. He was influential in the
evolution of instrumental forms and the style of
orchestral writing. Pezel died in Bautzen, aged 55. His
name is sometimes given in the Latinized form Pecelius.
He was a Ratsmusiker, meaning that his professional
roots went back to the trumpeters who used to keep
watch from city towers and give signals with their
trumpets. As such, he made his living as a member of
various town bands. Over the years, the Ratsmusiken
evolved into a group providing music for civic
functions and by the seventeenth century, it had string
instruments as well as brass.
Pezel did not spend his entire career in the Bautzen
area. In the first place, there is evidence that he
traveled widely before he received his first
appointment. He is first mentioned in Leipzig and the
city fathers decided in 1664 to increase their town
band from seven members to eight and Pezel got the job,
listed as "fourth Kunstgeiger" (the word means
something like "artist/violinist"). In 1670, Pezel was
promoted to Stadtpfeifer (city piper), which was a
musicians' rank equivalent to "Meister" in a craft
guild. It also was a life appointment.
His first important published work was Hora decima
musicorum, which appeared in 1670, with his name given
as Joanne Pezelio, although he signed the dedication
Johann Bezeld. Over the years, he used a puzzling
variety of different versions of his name, such as
Petzoldt, Bezel, Bezelius, Petzel, and Pecelius. The
last variant is unfortunate because there is a Johannes
Pecelius who was a Czech musician and confusion has
resulted.
Pezel made some efforts to find a different job and
once he applied for the post of Cantor of St.
Thomaskirche in Leipzig (Johann Sebastian Bach's future
post) and another time for a position in Dresden's
Ratsmusiken. Pezel's important music is for cornet or
trombone ensembles, typical Ratsmusik. While he worked
in Leipzig, this brass music would be played twice a
day from the town tower, or Rathaus. It is collected in
the Hora decima musicorum and the Funf-stimmigte
blasende Music.
Hora decima musicorum comprises 40 sonatas in one
movement for wind or strings, the type of figurations
used show that it was conceived as brass music and the
sonatas are grouped according to tonality. In addition,
in every case a piece in double time is followed by one
in triple measure, leading one commentator to suggest
they are conceived as two-movement pairs.
Fünf-stimmigte blasende Music is a group of 76 wind
pieces, mostly intradas but also including some dance
movements. Sharing of motives between pieces strongly
suggests that they were arranged in performance pairs
and the music is harmonically conservative. The
composer shows great skill in devising fresh textures
to overcome the inherent lack of variety in color
caused by the instrumentation. An example of this is
alternating sections in imitative counterpoint and
homophonic texture. The part writing is smooth and
interest mainly lies in the outer parts. The music is
lively and shows that Pezel was fine composer within
the limited possibilities of this genre.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Christoph_Pezel).
Although originally composed for 2 cornetti & continuo,
I created this interpretation of Sonatina in D Major
(No. 67) for Winds (Flute, Oboe, English Horn &
Bassoon) & Strings (2 Violins, Viola & Cello)
