Jan Dismas Zelenka
Jan Dismas Zelenka, also known as Johann Dismas Zelenka (October 16, 1679 – December 23, 1745), was a Czech Baroque composer. Zelenka played the violone, the largest and lowest member of the viol family, analogous to the double bass in the violin family of stringed instruments.
Life
Zelenka was born in Louňovice pod Blaníkem, a small market town southeast of Prague in what was then Bohemia. His father was a schoolmaster and organist there; nothing more is known with certainty about Zelenka's early years. He probably received musical training in the center of Prague at a Jesuit college named the Clementinum.
It is known that Zelenka served Baron Hartig, the imperial governor resident in Prague, before becoming a violone player in the royal orchestra at Dresden in about 1710. He studied counterpoint in Vienna under Fux from 1715 and was back in Dresden by 1719. Except for a visit in 1723 to Prague to take part in the performance of Fux's opera "Constanza e Fortezza," he remained a resident of Dresden until his death. Whether or not he ever went to Venice is unclear, but there is some indirect documentary evidence to that effect from the Vienna years.
In Dresden, Zelenka initially assisted the Kapellmeister, Johann David Heinichen, and gradually assumed Heinichen's duties as the latter's health declined. After Heinichen died in 1729, Zelenka applied for the prestigious post of Kapellmeister; the post went instead to Johann Adolf Hasse. In 1735, Zelenka was given the title of church music composer. He was in good company, as J.S. Bach had also applied for this title and shared it with Zelenka. Zelenka died in Dresden in 1745, having written works in his final years that were never performed during his lifetime, some of which have been claimed by current Zelenka musicologist Kohlhase to have "visionary power."
There is no known portrait of Zelenka. (A mirror-image black-and-white takeoff of the well-known portrait of Fux has been passed off as a picture of Zelenka on several respected websites.)
Music
Most of Zelenka's compositions were sacred works, including three oratorios, 21 masses, and numerous other pieces of music. Zelenka's orchestral and vocal pieces are often virtuosic and difficult to perform. In particular, his writing for bass instruments is far more demanding than that of other composers of his era, and the "utopian" (as Heinz Holliger describes them) requirements on the oboe-playing in his trio sonatas are notable.
It is no secret that J.S. Bach held Zelenka in high esteem, as witnessed by a letter from Bach's son C.P.E. Bach to J.N. Forkel, dated 13 January 1775, which perhaps accounts for Bach's own striving to produce a full-length Catholic mass (the B minor/H-moll mass) in his final years.
It was mistakenly believed that many of Zelenka's autograph scores were destroyed during the bombing of Dresden in February 1945. The scores were in a library north of the river, however, and not in the Catholic cathedral. Some are certainly missing, but this probably happened gradually, and these represent only a small part of what remains.
The "Zelenka movement," which started in the 1960s, is certainly gaining momentum, as witnessed by the number of recent live performances in far-flung parts of Europe such as Copenhagen and Glasgow. One must always bear in mind that even the great J.S. Bach only gained his proper due in the twentieth century, thanks to the efforts of 19th-century composers such as Mendelssohn and Mahler; Jan Dismas Zelenka appears to have been another "sleeping giant" of the Baroque era.
Selected list of works
- Six trio sonatas (Nos. 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 are written for two oboes, bassoon and basso continuo, while in the third, a violin replaces the second oboe; all designated ZWV 181)
- Other instrumental works (ZWV 182–190)
- Lamentationes Jeremiae Prophetae (Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah)
- Die Responsorien zum Karfreitag (Responses for Good Friday)
- More than 20 masses (designated ZWV 1–21)—some missing—and a number of mass movements. Missa Purificationis, Missa Sanctissimae Trinitatis, Missa Votiva, Missa Dei Patris, Missa Dei Filii, and Missa Omnium Sanctorum (designated ZWV 16–21) rank amongst Zelenka's finest works.
- Ten litanies, including 2 Litaniae Lauretanae (ZWV 151 & 152)
- Four requiem settings (of which one—ZWV 45—has only been attributed to Zelenka)
- Fifty-three psalm settings, some missing
- Sub olea pacis et palma virtutis—Melodrama de St. Wenceslao
- I Penitenti al Sepolcro del Redentore (Oratorio)
- Il serpente di bronzo (Oratorio), ZWV 61
- Officium Defunctorum, ZWV 47
- Missa purificationis Beatae Virginis Mariae, ZWV 16
- Requiem in D minor, ZWV 48