High quality re-upload of this score-video, the finished product which will remain forever hopefully, should there be no copyright issues in the future. NB: The image in the background of the score is the only known authentic portrait of Zelenka, at concert, by Lindemann, Christian Philipp (1700-ca 1754) - somewhere, high up in the rafters performing on his double-bass. Other Masses (Z.1-23) > ruclips.net/p/PLBbL1YJd7_Wr4NRfNe9APKP147z9ok0sV
The autograph score to one of Jan Dismas Zelenka's greatest works and of the entire baroque era, a large yet brief setting of the traditional mass in the stilo misto "mixed style" for a large festive baroque orchestra - the Missa Gratias agimus tibi, /Z. 13/. My favorite work of this composer, which was composed October the 5th, 1730 - the same time-frame that the Missa Sancti Josephi /Z. 14, c.a. 1731/, Missa Eucharitisa /Z. 15, 1733/ and the Missa Purificationis Beatae Vergine /Z. 16/ were composed. This mass was almost certainly composed for the occasion of the birth of Maria Josepha's son Franz Xaver Albert August Ludwig Benno, and was nicknamed "promissae gloriae" based on this event. This mass, despite it's grandeur and large orchestration, is a Missa Brevis "short mass", as indicated on the title-page, and so the individual movements are relatively short. For the opening movement, Zelenka surprisingly composed it "thorough" whereas he usually divided the Kyrie into three independent sections. Kyrie, Christe, Kyrie. The form which he achieved in this Kyrie unites the ritornello technique of the modern concerto (00:12 - 3:50) that Zelenka frequently employed in free, virtuosic choral writing - with strict fugal writing in the outer sections (1:17 - 2:46) and a canon-styled solo duet in the middle (2:12). The Christe theme, derived from the eleison of the Kyrie theme, becomes a second theme of the second fugal section. Zelenka often employed a procedure of this kind even in three movement, thematically related Kyrie settings, from the Missa Sancti Spiritus of 1723 down to his last dated work, the Marian litany of 1744. Moreover, Zelenka did not so much reduce the number of movements that he usually wrote in the Ordinary masses (the rest of his, for the most part, considerably longer masses exhibit a similar sum of "number" and similar text distribution) as rather their lengths. If one simply compares the still magnificent but yet quite short first Gloria movement (No.II) with his other settings of this text, one again finds one of Zelenka's typically pointed ritornello themes (No.II - 4:12), scales, simple accompanying chords and triad figurations. All of No.VIII is also forceful and plain, a Credo ritornello with an ostinato running through it. With it's downward moving scale in the closing, it serves the composer as a speaking figure of descent in the chorus ritornello (in unison!) to the words 'descendit de caelis (16:43)' at the end of the movement. Additionally, in Zelenka's inventory "Inventarium rerum Musicarum Variorum Authorum Ecclesia Servientium" , Zelenka lists No.36 of the 'Missa integrae' (Missa totae) as his own Missa Gratias agimus tibi for four voices, four trumpets and timpani, two flutes, two oboes, strings and thorough-bass. Zelenka's added note 'in Agnus sunt 2 Sopra: et 2 Contralti' shows unmistakably that the only mass that can be meant is this Messa brevis. In the inventory it bears its authentic name after having seemed to have lost it as a result of the missing title page for the work as a whole. The subtitle 'Gratias agimus tibi' points to the extraordinary setting of the passage of the text in No.III of the mass, "Laudamus te (7:16)": a soprano solo over a high bass line for violins and violas (in unison) - hence totally without actual bass instruments (even with out organ) - and beneath winding thirds for the flutes.
Zelenka, J.S Bach, H.I.F von Biber, Buxtehude and number 5 can be whatever Czech composer I feel like listening to at the moment, whether it be Jan Zach, František Tůma, Šimon / František Brixi, Xaver Richter, Sehling, Brentner, Seger, Novak, Černohorský.... etc
Doing good, though insanely busy - December you will see the fruits of my labor before I retire the Zeno channel for good. One last surprise to my nearly 10,000 subscribers. As for Z, I have a very large autograph score-video hoping to be done by this coming Christmas day - a very jubilant and festive work fitting for the occasion.
High quality re-upload of this score-video, the finished product which will remain forever hopefully, should there be no copyright issues in the future.
NB: The image in the background of the score is the only known authentic portrait of Zelenka, at concert, by Lindemann, Christian Philipp (1700-ca 1754) - somewhere, high up in the rafters performing on his double-bass.
Other Masses (Z.1-23) > ruclips.net/p/PLBbL1YJd7_Wr4NRfNe9APKP147z9ok0sV
The autograph score to one of Jan Dismas Zelenka's greatest works and of the entire baroque era, a large yet brief setting of the traditional mass in the stilo misto "mixed style" for a large festive baroque orchestra - the Missa Gratias agimus tibi, /Z. 13/. My favorite work of this composer, which was composed October the 5th, 1730 - the same time-frame that the Missa Sancti Josephi /Z. 14, c.a. 1731/, Missa Eucharitisa /Z. 15, 1733/ and the Missa Purificationis Beatae Vergine /Z. 16/ were composed. This mass was almost certainly composed for the occasion of the birth of Maria Josepha's son Franz Xaver Albert August Ludwig Benno, and was nicknamed "promissae gloriae" based on this event. This mass, despite it's grandeur and large orchestration, is a Missa Brevis "short mass", as indicated on the title-page, and so the individual movements are relatively short.
For the opening movement, Zelenka surprisingly composed it "thorough" whereas he usually divided the Kyrie into three independent sections. Kyrie, Christe, Kyrie. The form which he achieved in this Kyrie unites the ritornello technique of the modern concerto (00:12 - 3:50) that Zelenka frequently employed in free, virtuosic choral writing - with strict fugal writing in the outer sections (1:17 - 2:46) and a canon-styled solo duet in the middle (2:12). The Christe theme, derived from the eleison of the Kyrie theme, becomes a second theme of the second fugal section. Zelenka often employed a procedure of this kind even in three movement, thematically related Kyrie settings, from the Missa Sancti Spiritus of 1723 down to his last dated work, the Marian litany of 1744.
Moreover, Zelenka did not so much reduce the number of movements that he usually wrote in the Ordinary masses (the rest of his, for the most part, considerably longer masses exhibit a similar sum of "number" and similar text distribution) as rather their lengths. If one simply compares the still magnificent but yet quite short first Gloria movement (No.II) with his other settings of this text, one again finds one of Zelenka's typically pointed ritornello themes (No.II - 4:12), scales, simple accompanying chords and triad figurations. All of No.VIII is also forceful and plain, a Credo ritornello with an ostinato running through it. With it's downward moving scale in the closing, it serves the composer as a speaking figure of descent in the chorus ritornello (in unison!) to the words 'descendit de caelis (16:43)' at the end of the movement.
Additionally, in Zelenka's inventory "Inventarium rerum Musicarum Variorum Authorum Ecclesia Servientium" , Zelenka lists No.36 of the 'Missa integrae' (Missa totae) as his own Missa Gratias agimus tibi for four voices, four trumpets and timpani, two flutes, two oboes, strings and thorough-bass. Zelenka's added note 'in Agnus sunt 2 Sopra: et 2 Contralti' shows unmistakably that the only mass that can be meant is this Messa brevis. In the inventory it bears its authentic name after having seemed to have lost it as a result of the missing title page for the work as a whole.
The subtitle 'Gratias agimus tibi' points to the extraordinary setting of the passage of the text in No.III of the mass, "Laudamus te (7:16)": a soprano solo over a high bass line for violins and violas (in unison) - hence totally without actual bass instruments (even with out organ) - and beneath winding thirds for the flutes.
Happy birthday to Zelenka!
❤❤❤❤❤
Name your top 5 Baroque composers.
Zelenka, J.S Bach, H.I.F von Biber, Buxtehude and number 5 can be whatever Czech composer I feel like listening to at the moment, whether it be Jan Zach, František Tůma, Šimon / František Brixi, Xaver Richter, Sehling, Brentner, Seger, Novak, Černohorský.... etc
Hello Zeno! How are you these days? Just checking (Czech-in) in
Doing good, though insanely busy - December you will see the fruits of my labor before I retire the Zeno channel for good. One last surprise to my nearly 10,000 subscribers.
As for Z, I have a very large autograph score-video hoping to be done by this coming Christmas day
- a very jubilant and festive work fitting for the occasion.
@@TheOneAndOnlyZelenkaGuru Woohoo for the surprise! But boo-hoo for the retirement.
@@BohemianBaroque Retirement = more Zelenka
@@TheOneAndOnlyZelenkaGuru 🎼🎶