Source: IMSLP.org
Jan Dismas Zelenka Books and Music
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Jan Dismas Zelenka, also known as Johann Dismas Zelenka, was the most important Czech Baroque composer. His music is admired for its harmonic invention and counterpoint.
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. His writing for bass instruments in particular is far more demanding than that of other composers of his era.—Excerpted from Wikipedia
Jan Dismas Zelenka Books and Music
More on Zelenka
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Symphonia in A minor
Capriccio II
Il Diamante
Jan Dismas Zelenka Books and Music
More on Zelenka
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Sacred music
The most appreciated of Zelenka’s sacred works are probably his masses, above all his Missa Purificationis (this is the last mass to include brass instruments) and his final five pieces, ZWV 17–21, called “High Mass” compositions, written from 1736 until 1741, considered as Zelenka’s compositional peak. The last three were also called “Missae ultimae” (Last Masses). The following list contains only the most important sacred works, that have been sufficiently explored to date.
Masses and requiems
Oratoria
Litanies
Psalms and hymn settings
Other liturgical and spiritual works
Secular works
Zelenka composed only a few extensive vocal-instrumental pieces on secular themes, but one of them – Sub olea pacis et palma virtutis—Melodrama de St. Wenceslao (1723) – not only represents one of the high points in baroque music, but transcends it, as with many others of Zelenka’s works. It is a monumental opus with aspects of melodrama, oratory and contemporary opera, composed for the coronation of Charles VI by the Czech king and celebrating the memory of the greatest Czech saint and patron of Bohemia, prince St. Wenceslaus (Václav), one of the founders of the Czech state.
Vocal-instrumental works
Instrumental works
Jan Dismas Zelenka Books and Music
More on Zelenka
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Selected Books
Jan Dismas Zelenka: A Bohemian Musician at the Court of Dresden
Oxford Univ. Press, 2001
Janice B. Stockigt
$166.70 on Amazon
“Stockigt’s lively discussion of Zelenka’s music is illuminating and wide-ranging. Her judgement is fair, her conclusions well-balanced and supported by generous musical illustration.”—BBC Music Magazine on Amazon
Selected Music
Trio Sonatas (1999)
, 2-CD set
Missa Votiva Zwv.18 (2008)
, 1 CD
Orchestral Works (2003)
, 5-CD set
Symphonia in A minor
Capriccio II
Il Diamante
Source: IMSLP.org
Miserere I
Jan Dismas Zelenka, also known as Johann Dismas Zelenka, was the most important Czech Baroque composer. His music is admired for its harmonic invention and counterpoint.
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. His writing for bass instruments in particular is far more demanding than that of other composers of his era.—Excerpted from Wikipedia
Selected Books
Jan Dismas Zelenka: A Bohemian Musician at the Court of Dresden
Oxford Univ. Press, 2001
Janice B. Stockigt
$166.70 on Amazon
“Stockigt’s lively discussion of Zelenka’s music is illuminating and wide-ranging. Her judgement is fair, her conclusions well-balanced and supported by generous musical illustration.”—BBC Music Magazine on Amazon
Selected Music
Trio Sonatas (1999)
, 2-CD set
Missa Votiva Zwv.18 (2008)
, 1 CD
Orchestral Works (2003)
, 5-CD set
Sacred music
The most appreciated of Zelenka’s sacred works are probably his masses, above all his Missa Purificationis (this is the last mass to include brass instruments) and his final five pieces, ZWV 17–21, called “High Mass” compositions, written from 1736 until 1741, considered as Zelenka’s compositional peak. The last three were also called “Missae ultimae” (Last Masses). The following list contains only the most important sacred works, that have been sufficiently explored to date.
Masses and requiems
Oratoria
Litanies
Psalms and hymn settings
Other liturgical and spiritual works
Secular works
Zelenka composed only a few extensive vocal-instrumental pieces on secular themes, but one of them – Sub olea pacis et palma virtutis—Melodrama de St. Wenceslao (1723) – not only represents one of the high points in baroque music, but transcends it, as with many others of Zelenka’s works. It is a monumental opus with aspects of melodrama, oratory and contemporary opera, composed for the coronation of Charles VI by the Czech king and celebrating the memory of the greatest Czech saint and patron of Bohemia, prince St. Wenceslaus (Václav), one of the founders of the Czech state.
Vocal-instrumental works
Instrumental works
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