2015
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Clavibus unitis
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2015
Hlavní redaktor: Jiří K. Kroupa
Jako on-line revue pro kulturněhistorická studia v českých zemích
vydává Nadace pro dějiny kultury ve střední Evropě
(Association for Central European Cultural Studies),
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Clavibus
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© Association for Central European Cultural Studies	 Clavibus unitis 4 (2015), pp. 3-158
Jan Dismas
Zelenka’s
Life and Music
Reconsidered
(Zelenka Conference
Prague 2015)
Edited by
Jiří K. Kroupa
Content
Introduction	 . . . . . . .	 5
Janice B. Stockigt – Jóhannes Ágústsson: Reflections
	 and recent findings on the life and music of
	 Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679-1745)	. . . . . . . . . . . .	 7
Wolfgang Horn: Opera, arias and Zelenka: Remarks
	 on a special relationship	. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	 49
Michaela Freemanová: Prague 1734: Jan Dismas Ze-
	 lenka and Leonardo Leo	 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	 71
Claudia Lubkoll: Watermarks in Zelenka’s auto­-
	 graph scores in the Saxon State and University
	 Library Dresden (SLUB)	. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	 75
Jana Vojtěšková: The works of Jan Dismas Zelenka
	 in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
	 in Prague	. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	 85
Frederic Kiernan: Zelenka reception in the nine-
	 teenth century: Some new sources	. . . . . . . . . .	 91
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6 Úvodem
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JanDismasZelenka’sLifeandMusicReconsidered(ZelenkaConferencePrague2015)
A
t a time when digitization projects of the Sächsische
Landesbibliothek – Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek
Dresden (D-Dl; SLUB) have made important
music collections of the Dresden court available
online,1
it is fitting to reconsider a major contributor to
the sacred music once held in the Catholic court church
of Dresden: Jan Dismas Zelenka. Whilst acknowledging
the firm foundations laid by many musicologists, editors,
and performers whose publications, editions, and
interpretations have appeared over the past fifty years
and more, it now is possible to fill certain gaps in our
knowledge of Zelenka’s life, compositions, and the musical
context in which he worked. In chronogical order we
report additional biographical, contextual, and selected
source information.
1709-1719
It now is well established that Zelenka’s long-time patron
and composition teacher in Bohemia was Johann Hubert
Hartig and not, as previously supposed, the younger
brother Joseph Ludwig Hartig.2
In Zelenka’s petition addressed
in 1712 to August II, Elector of Saxony and King
of Poland, ‘Baron von Hartig’ was the exact title given
*
The authors acknowledge with gratitude the assistance of
Romy Hartmann and Sabine Engler at the Sächsisches Staatsarchiv
– Hauptstaatsarchiv Dresden (D-Dla), and Dr Karl W.
Geck and the librarians at the Sächsische Landesbibliothek –
Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek (D-Dl; SLUB) for their generous
assistance. Dr Birgit Mitzscherlich of the Zentralabteilung,
Archiv-Bibliothek Kunst, Bischöfliches Ordinariat Bautzen (DBAUd)
also is thanked for her continuing help. We are indebted
to the following friends and colleagues who have helped with
translations and good advice: Brian Clark, Dr David Fairservice,
Susanne Haring, Shelley Hogan, Frederic Kiernan, Dr Samantha
Owens, Dr Barbara Reul, Professor Michael Talbot, and
Dr Jana Vojtěšková. Special thanks is due to the staff of the
following institutions for granting permission to publish the
reproductions seen in this article: Ragna Petrak (D-Dla), Marina
Lang (D-Dl), Bettina Erlenkamp at the Deutsche Fototek
(D-Dl), Maren May at the Plansammlung of the Landesamt für
Denkmalpflege Sachsen, and Yvonne Brandt and Andreas Pischel
at the Kupferstich-Kabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen
Dresden.
1
See:
https://hofmusik.slub-dresden.de/en/themes/court-church-
and-royal-private-music-collection/
https://hofmusik.slub-dresden.de/en/themes/schrank-ii/
https://hofmusik.slub-dresden.de/en/themes/opera-archive/
https://hofmusik.slub-dresden.de/en/search-possibilities/
2
On the Hartig family see Kapsa, Václav and Madl, Claire:
‘Weiss, the Hartigs and the Prague Academy Music Academy:
Research into the “profound silence” left by a “pope of music”’,
Journal of the Lute Society of America 33 (2000), pp. 47-85, and
Kapsa, Václav, Perutková, Jana and Spáčilová, Jana: ‘Some
remarks on the relationship of Bohemian aristocracy to Italian
music at the time of Pergolesi’, in: Bacciagaluppi, Claudio
– Ottenberg, Hans-Günter – Zopelli, Luca (eds.): Giovanni
Battista Pergolesi e la musica napoletana in Europa centrale
[= Studi pergolesiani – Pergolesi Studies, 8], Bern: Peter Lang,
2012, pp. 313-341. See also Veverka, Karel: ‘Hudební mecenát
hraběte Jana Huberta Hartiga u pražských křižovníků s červenou
hvězdou ve světle řádového listinného archivu’, Hudební
věda 51 (2014), pp. 161-170.
© Association for Central European Cultural Studies	 Clavibus unitis 4 (2015), pp. 7-48
Janice B. Stockigt
(University of Melbourne)
Jóhannes Ágústsson
(Iceland)
Reflections and recent findings
on the life and music of
Jan Dismas Zelenka
(1679-1745)
At a time when digitization projects of the Sächsische
Landesbibliothek – Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek
Dresden have made important music collections of the
Dresden court available online, it is timely to reconsider
a major contributor to the music once held in the
Catholic court church of Dresden: Jan Dismas Zelenka.
Examination of Jesuit documentation from the era of
Saxon Electors Friedrich August I (August II as King of
Poland) and Friedrich August II (August III as King of
Poland) together with the rich sources of the Sächsisches
Staatsarchiv – Hauptstaatsarchiv Dresden (D-Dla) provides
new information about the life and surroundings
of Zelenka at the court of Dresden. This leads to a reevaluation
of certain opinions sustained in the Zelenka
literature. Building upon research undertaken since the
mid-twentieth century, and including more recent studies,
in chronological order this paper reappraises and
expands upon aspects of Zelenka’s life, his patrons, compositions,
and the musical context in which he worked.
Key words: Jan Dismas Zelenka; Baroque Music; Prague;
Vienna; Dresden; August II; August III; Maria Josepha
Number of characters / words: 28 959 / 183 049
Number of images: 12
Number of tables: 1
Secondary language(s): Latin, German, Italian, French
8 Ja nice B. Sto ckigt – Jóh annes Ágústsson
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by Zelenka to his former instructor.3
On more than one occasion the Diarium collegii Societatis
Jesu ad sanctum Clementem Vetero-Pragae (Diarium Vetero-Pragae) specifically mentions the
musical involvement on the important Jesuit feast days of St Ignatius Loyola (31 July) and St
Francis Xavier (3 December) of a member of the noble Hartig family: the Illustrious and Excellent
Dominus de Hartig. For the feast of St Francis Xavier in 1709 it was reported that on 28
November Count de Hartig rehearsed an Italian Mass for four choirs.4
Perhaps this was Orazio
Benevoli’s Missa In diluvio aquarum multarum. Zelenka, who once held a score of this work (now
water damaged), wrote this note at the conclusion of the title page: ‘à Zelenka Music: de | S:
M: Le Roy de Pologne | Electeur de Saxe. 1719’.5
The Prague performance of this setting, which
involved 130 musicians, was noted on the feast day itself,6
while in 1712 the count offered a
new (unidentified) musical composition for the feast that lasted for two hours.7
Moreover, for
the feast of St Ignatius Loyola in 1710 ‘Ill. D. ab Hartig’ offered another new (also unidentified)
musical composition.8
It is known that in 1709 Zelenka lived in the house of Johann Hubert Hartig, who must
have promoted the compositions of his protégé through organising commissions for him to
compose music to be played at the holy sepulchre in St Salvatore, the principal church of the
Jesuit Clementinum college in Prague’s Old Town. This patronage resulted in three sepulchro
oratorios: Immisit Dominus pestilentium (ZWV 58, 1709), commissioned by the Clementinum
College, Attendite et videte (ZWV 59, 1712) and Deus Dux fortissime (ZWV 60, 1716), both commissioned
by Count Hubert Hartig.9
Some years later, on 9 February 1723, the final day of
Shrovetide, an unidentified, newly-composed work of Zelenka was presented in the church of
St Salvatore,10
and it was given in his presence.11
It long has been known that the Prague copy
of Zelenka’s late setting Litaniae Lauretanae Salus infirmorum (ZWV 152), a work intended to
be performed upon the recovery of Queen Maria Josepha following her illness in 1744, was
originally dedicated to the ‘Eccell. DD S:R:J: Comiti Joanni Huberto de Hartig S:C: Regiae etc.
Majes: Conciliario privato, nec non Regio Boëmiae Locumtenenti.’12
The Prague copy of this
3
‘So habe doch, sowohl, der in der Music hochberühmte und überall bekannte Hr. Baron von Hartig
zu Prage.’ Zelenka’s original petition is kept in Vienna, A-Wn, Sign 15773. It is reproduced by Horn, Wolfgang
– Kohlhase, Thomas – in association with Landmann, Ortrun – Reich, Wolfgang (eds.): ZelenkaDokumentation:
Quellen und Materialen (ZD hereafter), 2 vols., Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1989, v. 1,
Dok. 2, p. 103, and Stockigt, Janice B.: Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679-1745): A Bohemian Musician at the Court
of Dresden, Oxford: OUP, 2000, p. 307. Recently, a calligraphic copy of the petition in the hand of a professional
scribe has turned up in the music department of the French National Library (F-Pn), as part of the
former collection of the French composer and musicologist Charles Malherbe (1853-1911), who donated
this copy to the French Conservatory. It then was transferred to the French National Library. It is not
clear how Malherbe acquired the petition copy of four pages. F-Pn, Mus. L.a. Zelenka, Johann Dismas-1.
4
Diarium Vetero-Pragae, 28. 11. 1709; fol. 170v
: ‘[…] Illu.mus
et Excelle.mus
Dom. de Hartig Locumtenens
probavit in Templo nostro Missam Italicam cum 4. choris producendam in festo S. Fran: Xaverii.’ (The
Illustrious and Excellent Dom[inus] de Hartig, Lieutenant, rehearsed in our temple [church] the Italian
Mass with four choirs which is to be performed during the Feast of St Francis Xavier). Královská kanonie
premonstrátů na Strahově, Diarium collegii Societatis Jesu ad sanctum Clementem Vetero-Pragae
1699-1714, fol. 170v
. See: http://v2.manuscriptorium.com/apps/main/en/index.php?request=request_
document&docId=rec1312982900_6.
5
D-Dl, Mus. 1705-D-1.
6
Diarium Vetero-Pragae, 3. 12. 1709, fol. 170v
: ‘Sacru[m] cantatu[m] […] produxit Illmus
OO. ab Hartig
Supremus Locumentenens. erant 4. chori, et in bis Musici 130.’
7
Diarium Vetero-Pragae, 3. 12. 1712, fol. 218v
: ‘Festum S. Xaverii […] Ill. D Hartig compositionem
novam musicam obtulit duravit ultra duas horas.’.
8
Diarium Vetero-Pragae, 31. 7. 1710, fol. 180r
: ‘[…] Ill. D ab Hartig, qui Musicam heri, et hodie in
Templo fecit.’
9
The autograph title pages of each work are transcribed in ZD ( note 3), v. 1, Doks. 1a, 3, 5, pp.
102-106.
10
Perhaps this was Zelenka’s earliest version of Missa Sancti Spiritus (ZWV 4, ‘Kyrie’ and ‘Gloria’ only),
dated ‘1723’ at the conclusion of the ‘Gloria’.
11
Diarium collegii Societatis Jesu ad sanctum Clementem Vetero-Pragae 1714-1726, fol. 144r
. See: http://
v2.manuscriptorium.com/apps/main/en/index.php?request=request_document&docId=rec1312982900_7.
12
Vojtěšková, Jana: ‘Die Zelenka-Überlieferung in der Tschechoslowakei’, in: Kohlhase, Thomas (ed.)
Zelenka-Studien I: Referate der Internationalen Fachkonferenz J. D. Zelenka, (Marburg, J.-G.-Herder-Institut,
16.–20. November 1991) (ZS I hereafter) [= Musik des Ostens, 14], Kassel and Basel: Bärenreiter, 1993,
p. 87.
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© Association for Central European Cultural Studies	 Clavibus unitis 4 (2015), pp. 7-48
JanDismasZelenka’sLifeandMusicReconsidered(ZelenkaConferencePrague2015)
work is dated ‘1741’, the year of the count’s death.13
Zelenka’s dedication confirms that ‘Joanni
Huberto de Hartig’ once had been Zelenka’s principal support and patron.
Important connections between the Clementinum college and the Dresden court also have
been revealed in passages of the Diarium Vetero-Pragae. During the first week of July 1711
August II and his son, Saxon Crown Prince Friedrich August, came to the college for a brief
visit. A series of entries reveal that the 14-year-old prince arrived on 1 July,14
while his father,
August II, reached the Clementinum college on 4 July.15
During these days a Catholic court
(Aula Catholica) was assembled for the prince. On 7 July a Jesuit from the Province of Austria
who was to become the prince’s future theologian also came to the college.16
Members of the
Dresden Lutheran court who had accompanied the king and prince for this visit were sent back
on this same day. Following a meeting lasting three hours on 8 July, August II and his son left
for Dresden, while the Aula Catholica travelled there via a different route.17
Was Zelenka’s move to Dresden part of this arrangement? Might it have arisen from the connection
between the Dresden court and the Clementinum College? Or was Zelenka’s relocation
organized through his patron, Count Hartig?18
Records are unclear about the year of Zelenka’s
arrival in Dresden. On 18 November 1733 he claimed in a petition that it ‘will be known to
Your Majesty that it is now twenty-four years that I have had the honour of serving Your
Most High Royal House.’19
This implies that 1710 was the year of his arrival in Dresden. His
name, however, is not among the musicians who travelled to Leipzig in January 1710 for the
visit of the King of Prussia with the Crown Prince.20
The earliest known reference to Zelenka in
Dresden court records is an undated salary document that almost certainly was compiled in or
about March 1711.21
This date is suggested in the brief autobiography written in either late
1717 or early 1718 by the Dresden court bassoonist Jean Cadet, who claimed to have entered
the court orchestra in March 1711.22
Cadet’s name is not found in this salary list, which shows
13
CS-Pnm, MCH XXXV D 66.
14
Diarium Vetero-Pragae, 1. 7. 1709, fol. 193v
: ‘Venit Praga[m] Princeps Electoralis Saxoniae.’
15
Diarium Vetero-Pragae, 4. 7. 1709, fol. 193v
: ‘Tota die in armis expectabat Guarnison Rege Polonia
[…] Rex venit vesperi.’ (The garrison, fully armed, waited all day for the King of Poland […] The king
arrived in the evening).
16
Diarium Vetero-Pragae, 7. 7. 1709, fol. 193v
: ‘Et hodie […] P. Antonii Kugler ex Austriaca Prov[icinci]
á, futurus Theologus Principis Electoralis Saxoniae, cui his diebus formata est Aula Catholica. Haeretica
vero remissa Dresdam.’ (Father Antonio Kugler [Kogler; Kögler] from the Province of Austria called in
on us. He is the future theologian to the Electoral Prince of Saxony, for whom a court has been formed
in these days. The heretical [Lutheran] court has been sent to Dresden.’) Father Anton[ius] Kögler SJ, (d.
1721, Dresden) became the confessor and companion to the Saxon crown prince. See Duhr, Bernhard:
Geschichte der Jesuiten in den Ländern deutscher Zunge im 18. Jahrhundert, München and Regensburg:
Manz, 1928, v. 4, p. 496. Monthly payments were made to ‘Pater Kogler’ between October 1717 and
March 1719 when the prince was living in Vienna. Sächsisches Staatsarchiv – Hauptstaatsarchiv Dresden
(D-Dla hereafter), 10026 Geheimes Kabinett (Geh. Kab. hereafter), Loc. 763/8, Des Königlichen Prinzen
Herrn Friedrich August, Hoheit, Hofkassenrechnungen, 1719, 1722, 1725, 1734, fol. 42a-b
(NB: this archive
replaces r-v
with a-b
).
17
On his conversion from Lutheranism to Catholicism by Saxon Crown Prince Friedrich August, see
Horn, Wolfgang: Die Dresdner Hofkirchenmusik 1720-1745: Studien zu ihren Voraussetzungen und ihrem
Repertoire, Kassel and Stuttgart: Bärenreiter, 1987, pp. 21-23.
18
See ZD ( note 3), v. 1, ‘Vor 1710/1711’, p. 91.
19
Zelenka’s petition of 18. 11. 1733, is kept in D-Dla, 10026 Geh. Kab., Loc. 383/1, Varia, das Theater,
die italienische Oper, die musikalische Kapelle und die Musik betreffend, 1680-1784, fol. 54b
: ‘Eu: Königl:
Majestät wird vorhin schon allergnädigst bekannt seyn, daß ich die Gnade gehabt, bereits in die 24. Jahr
for Dero allerhöchstes Königl: Hauß.’ Reproduced in full in ZD ( note 3), v. 1, p. 94, and Stockigt, Jan
Dismas Zelenka ( note 3), pp. 318-319.
20
D-Dla, 10006 Oberhofmarschallamt (OHMA hereafter), F, Nr. 16, Ankunft fremder Herrschaften,
1710-1711, fol. 17/2a
.
21
D-Dla, 10026 Geh. Kab., Loc. 910/1, Das kurfürstliche Orchester und dessen Unterhaltung, ingleichen
das Große Opernhaus und andere zum Departement des Direktors des Pläsiers gehörige Angelegenheiten
1711-1768, fol. 7a-b
.
22
Cadet wrote: ‘Jean Cadet natif d’aiyelle en picardie Ellevés a paris Entré au Service de sa majesté au
mois de mars de L’ané 1711 agé de 48 ans.’ D-Dla, 10006 OHMA, K 2, Nr. 5, Hofbuch 1717-1720, ‘Specification
Derer Königl Pohl und Churfl: Sächßl. Hoff und Cammer Musici, wie alt einjeder, wo er her ist, u: wie
lang beÿ Hoffe alß’, fol. 93a
. On these brief autobiographies, see Köpp, Kai: ‘Ein Musikerverzeichnis aus
dem Jahr 1718 als Referenzquelle für die Dresdner Kapellgeschichte’, in: Landmann, Ortrun – Ottenberg,
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Zelenka receiving 300 Thaler. A salary list dated ‘Monat Junio 1712 bis 1716’, however, states
that ‘Thismas Selencka Violonist’ who had been in service for two years (‘2. Jahr’) received a
salary of 350 Thaler.23
A list of 1726-1729 states that 1711 was the year of Zelenka’s entry into
court service,24
and this same information is repeated in a salary list of 1730-1733.25
In October 1711 Zelenka travelled to Torgau together with members of the Dresden Hofkapelle
who were required to provide the music for the wedding festivities held to celebrate
the marriage between the son of Peter the Great, Crown Prince Alexius Petrovitz, and the goddaughter
of Saxon Electress Christiane Eberhardine, Charlotta of Braunschweig Wolffenbüttel –
a princess who had been raised and educated at the Dresden court. The festivities were held at
Schloss Hartenfels where Christiane Eberhardine, the estranged wife of August II, then was in
residence. Zelenka’s name is seen ranked about half way through Hofkapelle lists which show
that he and most of his colleagues were given a daily allowance of 16 Groschen ( Illustra-
tion 1).26
His name also appears on at least two instrumental bass parts that emerged from
the Schrank II project.27
From the performance materials for excerpts from André Campra’s
L’Europe galante, an unfigured part titled ‘Basse’ bears the name ‘M.r
Selencka’,28
while ‘Mons:
Selencka’ is written on a figured basso continuo part of a concerto by Telemann.29
According
to listings in Répertoire International des Sources Musicales (RISM), and information given in
the Schrank II project, these sets of Dresden parts are from c1710-1711.
The musician Zelenka is usually listed as a player of a string bass instrument of a type
yet to be determined, but probably of the 8-foot or 12-foot variety. In c1711 and again
c1717 he was known as a player of the Contra Basse,30
while between 1728 and 1732 Zelenka
was listed as a player of the Contra Basso in the Königl. Poln. und Churfürstl. Sächsischer
Hoff-und Staats-Calender.31
The Venetian contrabass player and copyist Gerolamo
Hans-Günter (eds.): Johann Georg Pisendel — Studien zu Leben und und Werk [= Dresdner Beiträge zur
Musikforschung, 3], Hildesheim: Olms, 2010, pp. 353-382.
23
D-Dla, 10006 OHMA, K 2, Nr. 4, Hofbuch 1680, 1690, 1694, 1712, 1716, ‘Specification aller Königl.
Pohl: und Churfürstl. Sächß: Hof-Bedienten. wie selbige sich im Monat Junio 1712 bis 1716 befunden’,
fols. 259b
-260a
. Also ZD ( note 3), v. 1, pp. 91-92.
24
‘Dismas Zelenska […] Nach Hoffe gekom[m]en: 1711.’ D-Dla, 10006 OHMA, K 2, Nr. 7, Hofbuch 1726-
1729, ‘Königl: Pohlnische und Churfürst. Sächs. Hoff-Bediente 1726. bis 1729.’ Unfoliated. Zelenka’s age
is given incorrectly as ‘41.’
25
‘Dismas Zelenska […] Nach Hoffe gekom[m]en: 1711.’ D-Dla, 10006 OHMA, K 2, Nr. 8, Hofbuch 1730-
1733, ‘Königl: Pohlnische und Churfürst. Sächs. Hoff-Bediente von 1730. bis 1733.’ Unfoliated. Zelenka’s
year of birth is incorrectly shown as ‘1685.’
26
D-Dla, 10036 Finanzarchiv, Loc. 34180, Rep. 5, Sect 11, Nr. 1, Verzeichnis der Auslösungen beim
Hof-Etat mit Beilagen, 1724, undated [1711], unfoliated. On the verso of this document a payment of 8
Groschen is listed to ‘des Capellmeisters dieners, Kästner.’ This is almost certainly the first reference in
Dresden records of Georg Friedrich Kästner, who joined the Hofkapelle in 1715 and later became contrabass
player (see below) and instrument inspector. Two earlier lists documenting the same event but
without Kästner’s name are seen in: D-Dla, 10006 OHMA, B, Nr. 19, Beilager des Kronprinzen Alexander
Petrowicz, Sohn des Zaren Peter I. von Russland mit Prinzessin Charlotte Christiana Sophia von Wolfenbüttel
in Torgau am 25. Oktober 1711, fol. 84a
, and fol. 107b
. Here, next to the name of the violinist Carlo Fiorelli
(who is not listed in the earlier cited document) the following has been added: ‘ist noch ankommen’, an
indication that either he was too ill to attend, or else he had died. Fiorelli’s place in the Dresden Hofkapelle
was filled in January 1712 by Johann Georg Pisendel, whose entry in the salary list dated ‘Monat
Junio 1712 bis 1716’ specifically states that he had been in service for ‘1/2. Jahr.’; D-Dla, 10006 OHMA,
K 2 Nr. 4, fols. 259b
-260a
.
27
Schranck No: II: das erhaltene Instrumentalmusikrepertoire der Dresdner Hofkapelle aus den ersten
beiden Dritteln des 18. Jahrhunderts (Schrank II project hereafter), (eds.) Poppe, Gerhard – Bemmann,
Katrin – Eckhardt, Wolfgang – Reinelt, Sylvie – Voss, Steffen [= Forum Mitteldeutsche Barockmusik,
2], Beeskow: Ortus Musikverlag, 2012.
28
L’Europe galante (Excerpts) by André Campra. D-Dl, Mus. 2124-F-2, p. 55. See: http://digital.slub-
dresden.de/werkansicht/dlf/7165/1/.
29
Concerto for two solo violins by Georg Philipp Telemann. D-Dl, Mus. 2392-O-56, p. 32. See: http://
digital.slub-dresden.de/werkansicht/dlf/3394/1/.
30
D-Dla, 10026 Geh. Kab., Loc. 910/1, fol. 7a
; D-Dla, 10026 Geh. Kab. 383/4, Die Bande französischer
Komödianten und Orchester, 1703-1720, fol. 182a
.
31
Königl. Polnischer und Churfürstl. Sächsischer Hof- und Staats-Calender (HStCal hereafter), published
in Leipzig almost annually from 1728 until 1757, resuming in 1765 following the Peace of Hubertusburg
that marked the end of the Seven Years War. Laurence Dreyfus, who considered the problem of
Reflections and recent findings on the life and music of Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679-1745) 11
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Personelli (or Personè, nicknamed ‘Momolo’), who arrived in Dresden in 1717 due to Antonio
Lotti’s insistence,32
played one of two larger string bass instruments ordered for Dresden from
the identity of the violone, cites Tharald Borgir who stated that in 17th
-century Italy the term ‘Violone’
could mean any one of three things: a bass viol; a generic term to indicate the lowest string bass; or an
instrument slightly larger than the violoncello. In 1698 Georg Muffat equated a German Violone with an
Italian Contrabasso. Dreyfus, Laurence: Bach’s Continuo Group: Players and Practices in His Vocal Works
(Cambridge Mass: Harvard University Press, 1987, pp. 136-139.
32
‘Comme un homme qui joue du grand violon, et qui a la pratique pour accompagner les voix, et
donne le mouvemt
, à tout L’Orguestre, est absolument necessaire, Monseigr
, Le Prince à l’instance du
Maitre Lotti a engagé un habil homme Girolamo Personelli [...].’ D-Dla, 10026 Geh. Kab., Loc. 383/2, Die
Illustration 1:
‘Selencka’ and Hofkapelle
musicians who travelled
to Torgau, October 1711.
Original and reproduction:
All rights reserved © by
Sächsisches Staatsarchiv –
Hauptstaatsarchiv Dresden.
D-Dla, 10036 Finanzarchiv,
Loc. 34180, Rep. 5,
Sect. 11, Nr. 1, unfoliated.
12 Ja nice B. Sto ckigt – Jóh annes Ágústsson
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Venice in 1719.33
Zelenka might also have played the tiorba, as suggested by the remark ‘Pro
Directore’ in his hand on the cover for the printed tiorba part of Giovanni Battista Bassani’s
Compieta, op. 25 (1701).34
(As a violone player, however, Zelenka could have directed a performance
from this figured bass part by playing a chordal bass on the violone.) It now is known
that Zelenka had a tenor voice, as it will be seen (below).
Questions arise concerning Zelenka’s activities during the second decade of the eighteenth
century. His name is not among the group of nine musicians who accompanied Kapellmeister
Johann Christoph Schmidt to Moritzburg in March 1714 for the celebrations surrounding the
wedding of the king’s natural son, Count Moritz of Saxony.35
In June 1714 Zelenka’s salary was
increased to 400 Thaler:36
Thus, within a very short period of time Zelenka rose to the level
between the lowermost tier of the Dresden Hofkapelle and its uppermost eschelons, the rank
of musical importance to which he ascended in the early 1730s. Although court documents
indicate that Zelenka was to be sent to Venice in 1716,37
evidence has not been found to confirm
that he was in the entourage of the crown prince who, from 9 February 1716 until 24 July
1717, was based in Venice.38
Moreover, Zelenka’s name is not given with the two Dresden court
musicians, oboist Johann Christian Richter and violinist Johann Georg Pisendel, both of whom
entered quarantine on 29 March before travelling to Venice on 25 April. It was reported that
after arrival at the police block at the frontier post at Ossenego a group of four people, including
two musicians from Dresden, were sent in two litters to the Verona quarantine hospital
(Lazzaretto). The two Dresden musicians left about a month later on 25 April: ‘Pisendel and the
oboe player Richter were bound for Venice where, as it is known, they will meet Vivaldi.’39
At
the time of Zelenka’s departure for Vienna in 1716 two of his Mass settings already had been
performed in Dresden: Missa Sanctae Caeciliae (ZWV 1) in 1711 and 1712, and Missa Judica me
(ZWV 2) in 1714. He must have been considered a talented prospect since the decision to send
the Bohemian to the Imperial capital has parallels with other cases where the Dresden court
Engagements einiger zum Theater gehöriger Personen, 1699ff, ‘Specification des pensione accordées par
Monsieur Le Prince Royal aux Musiciens et autres gens actuellement engages pour L’Opera […]’, fol. 53b
.
Shelley Hogan, ‘The Bass Ripieno Section of the Dresden Hofkapelle’ (University of Melbourne, PhD dissertation,
in progress).
33
Personelli died in July 1728. His place as a Contra Bassiste was taken by Kästner. This is known
from Kästner’s two petitions from 12 April 1733 and 30 March 1734. D-Dla, 10026 Geh. Kab., Loc. 383/1,
fols. 108a
-109a
, fol. 163a-b
. A Dresden court document dated 8 June 1719 details Personelli’s travel to Venice
with the sum of 451 Thaler, plus personal travel costs, in order to procure Venetian string instruments.
D-Dla 10026 Geh. Kab., 907/3, Die Operisten, Musiker, Sänger und andere zur Oper gehörige Personen,
1717-1720, fols. 117a
-118b
; 122a-b
). An adjacently filed document (fol. 124a
) signed ‘Alessandro Fedeli’ and
dated 16 May 1719 (‘16. Maggio 1719.’) Venice, lists the instruments of this transaction. They include two
‘Violette’ and two ‘Violoni’ along with cases, strings and bows (loc. cit., fol. 124a
). Information generously
supplied by Shelley Hogan, with further advice kindly supplied by Michael Talbot.
34
D-Dl, Mus. 2114-E-2.
35
D-Dla, 10006 OHMA, F, Nr. 19, Journal von der Ankunft des Königs August II. von Polen in Dresden
am 23. Dezember 1713 bis zu seiner Abreise am 13. Juli 1714, 1713-1714, ‘Beÿlager des Hr. Obristen Moriz
Grafens von Sachßen, mit Fräulein, Johannen Victorien Tugendreich von Löwen, so den 12. Mart 1714. in
Moritzburg gehalten worden 1714’, fol. 156b
.
36
Schulz, Norbert: ‘Johann Dismas Zelenka’, diss., ts., Berlin: 1944, p. 11. Schulz refers to a now missing
‘Rescript d.d. 20. Jun. 1714.’, showing that at that date Zelenka’s salary was raised to 400 Thaler. –
We are very grateful to Markus Bautsch for advising us that until 1943, Norbert Schulz, Zelenka’s first
modern biographer, was chaplain of the Catholic parish of Mater Dolorosa, Berlin Lankwitz. Following
appointments at Gollnow in Western Pomerania (November 1943), at Ostprignitz-Ruppin and Rheinsberg
(June 1944), he returned to Berlin where he served as chaplain of the parish of Holy Cross in BerlinWilmersdorf
(July 1947). Norbert Schulz died in Berlin on 15 September 1949 following a traffic accident.
37
Zelenka’s inclusion in a Dresden court-ordered trip to Venice in 1716 with Pisendel, Christian Pezold,
and Richter was budgeted for in two court documents: D-Dla, 10026 Geh. Kab., Loc. 383/2, dated 12. 11.
1715, fol. 40a-b
; and D-Dla, 10026 Geh. Kab., 383/4, dated 26. 11. 1715, fol. 143a-b
.
38
Blichmann, Dianna: ‘Der Venedig-Aufenthalt Pisendels (1716-1717): Erlebnisse im Gefolge des
sächsischen Kurprinzen Friedrich August als Auslöser eines Kulturtransfers von Venedig nach Dresden’
in Johann Georg Pisendel — Studien zu Leben und Werk ( note 22), pp. 551-559, pp. 1-56.
39
From Rigoli, Paolo: ‘Il virtuoso in gabbia: Musicisti in quarantena al lazzaretto di Verona (1655-
1740), in: Passadore & Rossi (eds.): Musica, scienza e idee nella Serenissima durante il Seicento, Fondazione
Levi, 1996, p. 146. We gratefully acknowledge Samantha Owens who brought this information to
our attention. Michael Talbot elaborated upon this report in: ‘Miscellany’, Studi Vivaldiani 14 (2014),
pp. 60-61.
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sent promising composers or musicians for further study abroad. For example, in 1693 the
Saxon Elector Johann Georg IV sent Johann Christoph Schmidt for a three year study trip to
Italy. Schmidt, who had studied with the Dresden Kapellmeister Christoph Bernhard, became
Dresden Kapellmeister in 1697 and Zelenka’s teacher in Dresden, according to Zelenka’s own
testimony.40
(In 1746 it was suggested that August III should find the means to send Johann
Georg Schürer, one of Zelenka’s Kapellknaben students, for further studies in Italy for two
or three years because of the promise he displayed.41
In 1748 Schürer was appointed Church
Composer to the Dresden court and thus held the same position as his former teacher).
From Zelenka’s Offertorium score of Currite ad aras (ZWV 166) it is known that in mid-1716
he was in Vienna (dated ‘à Vienna. li 13 Juni: 1716.’)42
The reason for his presence there at that
time, and not Venice, perhaps is explained by the dynastic ambitions of August II who, as early
as May 1705 had written a memorandum titled: ‘Project ins fahl das Haus Estreich absterben
sohltes’ (Project in the event of the House of Austria dying out) in which he outlined how he,
August II, or his son the Saxon crown prince, might succeed to the Imperial crown.43
In June
1716 the Papal Legate to Saxony, Father Giovanni Battista Salerni SJ, before whom Saxon Prince
Friedrich August renounced his Lutheran faith and converted to Catholicism at Bologna in
1712, also was in Vienna. Father Salerni wrote to the Roman Curia expressing the view that if
an alliance between the Habsburgs and House of Wettin could be arranged, Catholicism would
enter Saxony without protest or fuss.44
On 8 September 1716, August II wrote to Emperor
Charles VI stating his interest in having his son marry one of the emperor’s two nieces: Archduchess
Maria Josepha (born 1699 – the official Habsburg heir until the birth of Maria Theresa
on 13 May 1717), or Archduchess Maria Amalia (born 1701).45
The king also emphasized that
such an alliance would strengthen Catholicism in Saxony.46
Five months after the birth of Maria Theresa the Saxon crown prince travelled from Venice
to Vienna where he arrived on 6 October 1717, remaining there until 4 March 1719. In August
1718, the Saxon Minister Count Pietro Roberto Taparelli Lagnasc (Lagnasco), who then was
stationed in Vienna, suggested to August II that the finest musicians of the Hofkapelle should
be sent to the Imperial capital in preparation for a great celebration scheduled to be held by
Friedrich August following the birth to the pregnant Empress Elisabeth of what was hoped to
be a male heir to the Imperial crown.47
Thus, in late August 1718, an elite ensemble of eleven
Dresden musicians was ordered to Vienna.48
The musicians were: concertmaster Jean Baptiste
Volumier, Pantaleon Hebenstreit (the pantaleon virtuoso and violinist), lutenist Silvius Leopold
Weiss, premier violinist Pisendel, violoncellist Agostino Rossi, premier oboist Richter, flautist
Pierre Gabriel Buffardin, second violinist Carl Joseph Rhein, second oboist Johann Martin Bloch-
40
See Zelenka’s petition of 1712, originally kept with Missa Sanctae Caeciliae (ZWV 1). A-Wn,
Sign. 15773. Reproduced by Stockigt, Jan Dismas Zelenka ( note 3), pp. 307-308.
41
‘La Music est d’un certain nommé Schürer, jeune homme qui promet beaucoup, sur tout si le Roi lui
fournit les moyens de passer deux ou 3. ans en Italie.’ D-Dla, 10026 Geh. Kab., Loc. 2643/5, Des Geheimen
Rats Freiherr von Gersdorf Abschickung an den kurbayerischen Hof und dessen daselbst geführte Negotiation,
1746 (Vol. 5), letter of Count Wackerbarth-Salmour to Count Gersdorf, Dresden 11 November 1746,
unfoliated. It is not clear whether or not Schürer ever went to Italy.
42
D-Dl, Mus. 2358-E-40.
43
Mikosch, Elisabeth: ‘Court Dress and Ceremony in the Age of the Baroque: The Royal/Imperial
Wedding of 1719 in Dresden. A Study’, Dissertation, New York University, 1999, p. 74.
44
‘entrando in Sassonia una Principessa di Casa di Austria, v’entrarebbe nell’istesso tempo con lei la
religione ed ogni bene senza disturbo, senza strepito e con la maggior naturalezza del mondo.’ Cited by
Horn, Die Dresdner Hofkirchenmusik ( note 17) p. 27.
45
Already in 1710, August II had written to Emperor Joseph I, stating his wish that his son, the
Saxon crown prince, should marry either of the two archduchesses: D-Dla, 10026 Geh. Kab., Loc. 3380/1,
Papiere des Grafen von Wackerbarth, die Vermählung des Kronprinzen mit einer kaiserlichen Prinzessin und
Verhandlungen darüber zu Wien betreffend, 1710-1718, draft, unfoliated.
46
Mikosch, ‘Court Dress and Ceremony’ ( note 43), p. 75.
47
‘Comme toute la Musique de VM. luy sera inutile a cause de son voyage en Pologne Elle pourroit
aussi (si Elle le juge aprouve) Nous envoyer quelques uns de ses meilleurs Musiciens pour accompagner ce
festin et le divertissement d’un beau concert;’ D-Dla, 10026 Geh. Kab., Loc. 661/6, Négociations du Comte
de Lagnasc à Vienne avec le Père Salerne pour le Mariage du Prince Royal avec l’ainée des Archiduchesses,
Josephines, da les Sollicitations à la Cour de Rome pour l’élévation du Révérend Père Salerne au Cardinalat
et Affaire entre la Pologne et les Tartares et Réflexions et rapports sur les conjonctures du temps, 1717-
1718, fol. 321a
.
48
D-Dla, 10026 Geh. Kab., Loc. 383/4, fol. 222a-b
.
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witz, viola (‘Violetta’) player Johann Georg Lehneiß, and bassonist Johann Gottfried Böhme.
It is likely that Zelenka joined his colleagues as the string bass player. For this ensemble of
musicians, plus the two newly employed horn players to the court of the crown prince – Tobias
Buz (Butz) and Johann Joseph Goetzel (Götzel) – it seems certain that Zelenka composed his
Capriccio in A (ZWV 185), dated ‘à Vien: 20 Ottobre/1718.’
Buz and Goetzel are almost certainly the two unnamed horn players who first are mentioned
among the Hoffstaat of Crown Prince Friedrich August in a list drafted in or about July
1718.49
They probably were recruited by the prince on his arrival in Vienna, or shortly thereafter
and, as it has been pointed out, they must be the horn players Zelenka had in mind when he
composed his three other works titled Capriccio (ZWV 182-184).50
Perhaps Buz and Goetzel had
been in the service of the Saxon Ambassador to Vienna, Cabinet Minister, Generalfeldmarschall
and Governor of Dresden, Count August Christoph Wackerbarth, prior to entering employment
with Friedrich August. Based on payments in the account books of the crown prince from this
period it has been suggested that Zelenka wrote three of his four Capriccio compositions for
the chamber ensemble of the music-loving count.51
In 1719 Wackerbarth’s Musique comprised
at least five musicians: keyboard player Johann Gottfried Stiebner (Stübner),52
oboists Johann
Christoph Reinhard (Reinhardt) and Johann Wilhelm Hugo, bassonist Johann B. Lincke and the
Italian cellist Arcangelo Califano,53
who probably became a composition student of Zelenka in
Dresden at a later time.
Wackerbarth’s musicians and Zelenka might also have performed with Francesco Maria
Veracini during his performances for Friedrich August in Vienna. It is well known that the
Italian violinist had been hired by the Saxon crown prince during his stay in Venice, and he
later travelled to the Imperial capital where he rejoined the entourage of the prince. Veracini’s
name is mentioned in letters written from Vienna to Dresden. For example, he is recorded
performing at the residence of Friedrich August on 27 June 1718 for the Saxon crown prince
and his guest, the Bavarian Electoral Prince Charles Albert: ‘[...] there was a fine concert where
Veracini distinguished himself, and apparently enjoyed himself greatly.’54
Here, some of the
violin sonatas Veracini dedicated to Friedrich August probably were heard, and possibly some
of his six overture suites from this period, for example the sixth overture with its busy passage
work for the solo oboists which would have been well suited to the two players of Count
Wackerbarth, Reinhard and Hugo.55
The fact that Veracini and Zelenka were supplying the
crown prince with their compositions at the same time in Vienna casts a new light on the
instrumental works of Zelenka and his connection with the Italian: it has been observed that
‘striking similarities of musical spirit and humour exist between Zelenka’s capriccios and and
Veracini’s ouverture suites.’56
49
‘Lista beÿ S.r
König. Hoheit Hoffstaat Cavalier und bedienten in Wien, [...] Zweÿ Waldhornisten.’
D-Dla, 10026 Geh. Kab., Loc. 758/7, Ihrer Hoheit des Königlichen Prinzen Herrn Friedrich August Aufenthalt
in Wien und endlich erfolgte glückliche Retour in Dresden, 1717-1722, fol. 136a
. See also Seifert, Herbert:
‘Zelenka in Wien’, in: Gatterman, Günter – Reich, Wolfgang (eds.): Zelenka-Studien II. Referate und Materialien
der 2. Internationalen Fachkonferenz Jan Dismas Zelenka (Dresden und Prag 1995) (ZS II hereafter)
[= Deutsche Musik im Osten, 12], Sankt Augustin: Academia, 1997, p. 187, note 30.
50
Köpp, Kai: Johann Georg Pisendel (1687-1755) und die Anfänge der neuzeitlichen Orchesterleitung,
Tutzing: Hans Schneider, 2005, pp. 119-120.
51
Stockigt, Jan Dismas Zelenka ( note 3), p. 50.
52
D-Dla, 11254 Gouvernement Dresden, Loc. 14500/4, Organistenstelle ad der Dresdner Garnisonkirche,
1720, 1728, 1734, 1746-1776, 1795, 1803-1807, petition of Stiebner asking to be re-instated in Wackerbarth’s
‘Cammer Musique’, Dresden, 11 July 1720, fol. 2a-b
.
53
D-Dla, 11254 Gouvernement Dresden, Loc. 14502/10, Anordnung des Gouvernements wegen der
Festlichkeiten beim Einzug der Prinzessin Maria Josepha in Pirna und Dresden, 1718-1719, ‘Hierüber noch
S. Excell. des Herrn Gouverneurs eigne Domestiquen’: ‘musicus Reinhard | Linke | Hucho | Califano’,
fol. 185b
. In 1731 the Saxon crown prince recommended to his father August II that the three last named
musicians, who were then still in the service of Count Wackerbarth, would join the Hofkapelle. They were
hired on 28 November 1731. D-Dla, 10026, Geh. Kab., Loc. 383/5, Die Bande französischer Komödianten
und Orchester, 1721-1733, fols. 223a
-224b
.
54
‘[...] il y eut un beau concert où Veracini s’est distingué, et qui a paru se fort amuser.’ D-Dla, 10026
Geh. Kab., Loc. 661/6, Lagnasc to August II, Vienna, 29 June 1718, fol. 276b
.
55
Between 1733 and 1736 Zelenka wrote many beautiful arias for the chalumeau, the second instrument
Hugo played in Dresden.
56
Stockigt, Jan Dismas Zelenka ( note 3), p. 51.
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Interestingly, Zelenka’s petitions of 1733 claimed that he had received no remuneration
for his music, nor for the considerable expenses incurred during his time in Vienna as had
his colleagues, who are known to have remained in the city until January 1719 (see below).
Zelenka’s meaning is not clear: perhaps he was not compensated for his compositions (especially
the works titled Capriccio).57
Was he referring to payments made from the private purse
of the prince to the eleven musicians in September?58
Various similar payments were made to
unnamed musicians from July onwards, and rent was paid for Veracini.59
However, it should
also be noted that Zelenka was being slightly economical with the truth in his petitions, for he
did indeed receive a 50 Thaler payment ‘zu seiner beßeren subsistenz in Wien’ from the court
coffers in Dresden on 29 March 1718,  Illustration 2.60
Zelenka was absent from Dresden when brief autobiographies were prepared by members of
the Dresden Hofkapelle either late in 1717 or early 1718.61
When the position of Saxon Elector
Friedrich August I as King of Poland was finally confirmed in 1717 and a union between an
Austrian Archduchess and the Saxon Crown Prince seemed possible, an assessment of the entire
household of August II was undertaken to determine whether the grandeur of the proposed
celebrations could be managed.62
Thus, the planned festivities had a dual purpose: not only
were they designed to celebrate the expected marriage of Friedrich August, but the restoration
of Elector Friedrich August I as King of Poland was also to be marked.63
These brief accounts
which give information about place of birth, age, and year of entry into royal service by thirtynine
members of the Hofkapelle are but one aspect of the organization and regularization of
the entire personnel of the Dresden court at that time.
On 28 April 1719 Emperor Charles VI announced that his elder niece, Maria Josepha, would
marry the Saxon crown prince, who already had returned to Dresden. Therefore, Zelenka’s presence
in Vienna at a crucial period in a Habsburg alliance planned by August II suggests that
he had a role in the long-term plan of the ambitious King of Poland and Elector of Saxony:
in anticipation of the arrival in Dresden of a Habsburg bride sacred music composed according
to Viennese traditions would be an essential element in the service of the Catholic court
church. Thus, during the time spent in Vienna Zelenka not only composed: he also studied,
collected and copied examples of music for the Catholic court church of Dresden to use on his
return.64
On 4 January 1719 August II ordered his musicians in Vienna to return to Dresden, adding
that they must arrive before the end of that month.65
Zelenka, who is known to have
been in Vienna on 10 February,66
probably remained in the Imperial city until the departure
57
A RISM search demonstrates that almost half of these musicians sent to Vienna at this time also
composed.
58
The daily allowances for the Dresden musicians were only budgeted for 14 days, after which period
they would have been reliant on their regular salaries from Dresden in addition to gratifications from
the prince. Köpp, Johann Georg Pisendel (1687-1755) ( note 50), pp. 119-120. See also Seifert, ‘Zelenka
in Wien’ ( note 49), pp. 184-185.
59
The Vienna accounts of the prince are seen in: D-Dla, 10026 Geh. Kab., Loc. 763/8, fols. 41a
-42b
,
44b
-51b
. The ‘93 Kf.’ payment of ‘Quartier-gelder’ for ‘dem Violist Verracini’ is seen at fol. 51b
. Seifert,
‘Zelenka in Wien’ ( note 49), p. 185, points out that in October 1718 a payment of 40 Thaler was made
to an Italian musician named Gerolamo. This must be Gerolamo Personelli who first arrived in Dresden
in 1717. See above and note 32.
60
D-Dla, 10026 Geh. Kab., Loc. 907/3, fol. 49a
.
61
D-Dla, 10006 OHMA, K 2, Nr. 5, fols. 90a
-93a
. See also Köpp, ‘Ein Musikerverzeichnis aus dem Jahr
1718’ ( note 22), pp. 353-382.
62
Observed by Mikosch, ‘Court Ceremony and Dress’ ( note 43), p. 78.
63
The first period of the reign of August II as King of Poland extended from 1697 to 1706; the second
from 1709 until his death in 1733.
64
Three of the four volumes of works are dated between 1717 and 1718. Liber I of Collectaneorum
Musicorum libri quatuor (D-Dl, Mus. 1-B-98) is dated ‘Viennae Austriae 1718’; Liber II is dated ‘à Vienna
1718’; Liber III is dated ‘Viennae Austriae. 1717’; Liber IV is dated ‘Viennae Austriae 1718’ and ‘à Vienna
1719 10 Febru:’ ZD ( note 3), v. 1, pp. 71-86.
65
‘P.S. Au reste, je souhaite que les Musiciens appartenant à mon orquestre et qui sont présentement
à Vienna, se rendent à Dresden; pour y étre à la fin de ce mois à Dresden.’ D-Dla, 10026 Geh. Kab., Loc.
2091/71, Briefwechsel König August II. von Polen, 1708-1732, letter from August II to Count Anton Lützelburg,
Warsaw, 4 January 1719, fol. 30a
.
66
Zelenka’s manuscript copy of Luigi Battiferri’s 12 Ricercari op. 3 is dated ‘à Vienna 1719 10 Febru:’,
D-Dl, Mus. 1-B-98, p. 395.
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of the crown prince, who left Vienna on 4 March. This accords with Zelenka’s petitions from
1733 and 1736, where he stated that he had served Friedrich August for eighteen months in
Vienna – almost the exact duration of the prince’s soujourn there. Zelenka must have returned
to Dresden in March, or at least by late April when regular rehearsals began for the wedding
celebrations to be held there during the month of September following the arrival of Friedrich
August and Maria Josepha in the city.67
The first record of Zelenka’s presence in Saxony, how-
67
D-Dl, Mscr. Dresd. Q 229, Chur Fürstl: Sächß: Hof- und andere Nachrichten, zum Behuf einer Fortsetzung
der Sächß: Annalen und Dresdner Chronik [...], 1718-1737 (some years missing), numerous entries
describe rehearsals from April to August, 1719.
Illustration 2:
50 Thaler payment to
‘Zelencka’ in Vienna,
29 March 1718.
Original and reproduction:
All rights reserved © by
Sächsisches Staatsarchiv –
Hauptstaatsarchiv Dresden.
D-Dla, 10026 Geh.
Kab., Loc. 907/3, fol. 49a
.
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ever, comes from October 1719 when he was among Dresden musicians sent to perform at the
celebrations continuing at Moritzburg. ‘Der Contre Basse Zelencka’ is ranked third among the
eighteen musicians sent there, a sign of his rising status within the Hofkapelle.68
Together with
Kapellmeister Schmidt, Cammer Organist Christian Pezold, the cellist Rossi, violinists Pisendel,
Rhein and Simon le Gros, and flautist Buffardin, he was accommodated at house No. 59, ‘beÿ
Heinrich Bischoff.’69
When the theorbo player Francesco Arigoni (Arrigoni) passed away in Dresden two months
later his annual salary of 400 Thaler was projected to be shared between the musicians in
the Hofkapelle who were next in line for a rise. Of the amount about to be distributed it
was suggested that as one of the three principal accompanists alongside Pezold and archlute
player Gottfried Bentley, Zelenka would receive a salary increase of 100 Thaler. This suggestion
came from Kapellmeister Schmidt who wished to increase the wages of these three musicians
so that their salaries would resemble those of the principal accompanists of earlier times.70
Although nothing came of his suggestion, Schmidt’s proposals are nevertheless of interest
because they confirm the important role Zelenka played in both the royal orchestra and as
a Cammer-Musicus – the title seen in the non-autograph dedication accompanying Missa
Sanctae Caeciliae (D-Dl, 2358-D-8), and also the dedication copy kept in the French National
Library.
1720-1729
The most informative source of this, the most productive era of Zelenka’s life, is arguably the
journal kept by a succession of Jesuit superiors at the Dresden court: the Diarium Missionis Societatis
Jesu Dresdae (Diarium Dresdae hereafter).71
Two salary lists included in the Hofbuch provide
information on Zelenka’s wages: In c1721 the ‘Violonist Dismas Zelenska’ was listed with an
annual salary of 400 Thaler,72
and again in c1725. In the salary list of 1721 his place of birth
is given as ‘Lanweriz [!] Bohm’, and although Zelenka’s age is incorrectly given here as ‘41’, the
year of his entry into the Hofkapelle again is shown as ‘1711’.73
As reported above, the salary
list for 1726-1729 repeats the information about his age and place of birth.74
From 1723 until 1732 Zelenka was named annually as a member of the Capelle in the
records of Catholics attached to the Dresden court who were eligible to be interred in the
Catholic cemetery, a burial place established at Friedrichstadt in 1723. These lists present a type
of census in which every member of the household of each Catholic in Dresden court service
68
D-Dla, 10006 OHMA, I, Nr. 26, Friedrich August II. Jagd- und andere Reisen in- und außerhalb Landes,
1718-1719, ‘Fourier Zettel nach Moritzburgk im Oct: 1719’, ‘Von der Capelle’, fol. 294b
.
69
Loc. cit., ‘Die Einlogirung in Moritzburg, 1719 betr.’, ‘Von der Capelle’, fol. 302b
.
70
‘Francesco Arigoni Tiorbist bey der Königl: Pohln: und Churfürstl: Sächßisch: Capelle ist den 27 Dec:
1719 mit Todte abgangen: Weiln nun albereit Weise, und Bently verhanden, welche dieses Instrument
tractiren, und dahero unvonnöthen, diese Stelle wieder zu ersezen; alß könten durch diese besoldung
diejenigen Musici, welche vor andern nunmehro zu consideriren ad interim biß fernerer Allergnädigsten
Verfügung einiger maßen zu frieden gestellet werden, als: Der Cammer Organist Pezold mit 50 r. hätte in
allen 500 r. –, Johann Dismas Zelencka Contre Bass 100 r. – 500 r. –, Gottfried Bentley Arcilutist 80 r – –
480 r. –. Dem vorigen Zeit die ersten accompagnateurs jährl. 600. r. besoldung gehabt und darinnen einander
gleich tractiret worden.’ D-Dla, 10026 Geh. Kab., Loc. 907/3, undated [circa January 1720], fol. 167a
.
The document is in the hand of one of Schmidt’s assistants.
71
Diarium Dresdae (1710-1738). 2 vols [vol. 1] Jhs Diarium seu Protocollum Missionis Societatis Jesu,
À Serenissimo ac Potentissimo Poloniarum Rege, et Sacr: Rom: Imperij Electore FRIDERICO AUGUSTO, Dresdae,
in urbe sua Electorali institutae. Scribi coeptum anno salutis humanae 1710, die 16 Januarij, quô
Missioni huic, Authoritate Admodùm Reverendi Patris Nostri Generalis, per Rdum Patrem Provincialem
Prov:ae Bohemiae, constitutus est Superior P. Georgius Klein. [vol. 2] Continuatio Diarij seu Protocolli a…
FREDERICO AUGUSTO Dresdae in urbe sua Electorali institutae Societatis JESU Missionis. Ab Anno 1721.
usque ad Annum 1738 [...]. Microfilm of the Diarium is held at the Domstift und Bischöfliches Ordinariat,
Bibliothek und Archiv, Bautzen, Germany. Excerpts published by Reich, Wolfgang: ‘Exzerpte aus dem
Diarium Missionis S.J. Dresdae’ in: ZS II ( note 49), pp. 315-375. Also Diarium Dresdae (1739-1742). Poppe,
Gerhard: ‘Ein weiterer Faszikel aus dem Diarium Missionis Societatis Jesu Dresdae wiederaufgefunden’,
in: Wollny, Peter (ed.): Die Oberlausitz – eine Grenzregion der mitteldeutschen Barockmusik [= Jahrbuch:
Ständige Konferenz Mitteldeutsche Barockmusik 2006], Beeskow: Ortus, 2007, pp. 193-204.
72
D-Dla 10006 OHMA, K 2, Nr. 6, Hofbuch 1721-1725, ‘Königl: Pohlnisches und Churfürstl. Sächßisches
Hoff-buch von 1721. usq. 1725’, ‘Capell Musici’, fols. 3b
-4a
.
73
D-Dla 10006 OHMA, K 2, Nr. 6, ‘Capell Musici’, fols. 76b
-77a
. Information given in note 24, above.
74
D-Dla 10006 OHMA, K 2, Nr. 7, ‘Capell Musici’, unfoliated.
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is itemised. Throughout these years Zelenka is recorded as being as an unmarried person who
lived alone.75
Zelenka’s musical contributions to the coronation in Prague of Charles VI as King of Bohemia,
Sub olea pacis: Melodrama de Sancto Wenceslao (ZWV 175) composed for the Jesuits from
the Clementinum College,76
and four instrumental works bearing the inscription ‘à Praga 1723’
(ZWV 186-189), are well documented.77
In December 1722 Zelenka visited that city, and on 9
February 1723 (possibly at the instigation of Johann Hubert Hartig) he produced solemn music
for the Feast of St Apollonia in the church of St Salvatore.78
Not one of the instrumental works
composed for Prague in 1723 (nor any earlier composition written during his time in Vienna)
bears the dedication formula ending in ‘P J R.’ (Augustissimo Principi in reverentia), the letters
indicating that a work was commissioned by the Dresden court.79
Apart from Johann Hubert
Hartig, potential patrons who might have commissioned instrumental music from Zelenka at
this time include Count Wenzel Morzin,80
and Count Francis Joseph Černin.81
The musicians of
Count Morzin’s orchestra are of great interest because among this ensemble were virtuoso
performers of violin, oboe, bassoon – instruments required by Zelenka for three of the four
instrumental works he composed in 1723: Concerto à 8 Concer[tanti] (ZWV 186), Ouverture
à 7 concerta[nti] (ZWV 188), and Simphonie à 8 Concer[tanti] (ZWV 189). In the Simphonie
à 8 Concer[tanti] the wonderfully lyrical ‘Aria da Capriccio’ includes a solo violoncello. Among
Count Morzin’s musicians in 1724 were three violinists, a violoncellist and violone player, an
oboist, and three bassoonists.82
Composer Antonín Reichenauer was the keyboard player of the
ensemble. Nevertheless, Václav Kapsa found no payments to Zelenka in the accounts of Count
Morzin from this period.
Not only do the years 1723 to 1730 represent a time of huge compositional activity for
Zelenka, they also were significant for his career as a composer at the Dresden court. While it is
true that many of Zelenka’s outpourings of this era could be regarded as Gebrauchsmusik, this
does not necessarily mean that the quality is inferior. During the 1720s his personal library of
music by other composers grew to include more than twenty Mass settings and at least fifty
compositions for Vespers (some single listings are of two, even three psalm settings). Most of
these works then were revised for the performance conditions of the Dresden Catholic court
church and the musicians of the Hofkapelle. The question arises: when did Zelenka begin to
receive commissions from the Dresden court to compose sacred music? If the letters ‘P in R’, or
75
These registers are found in D-Dla, 10025 Geheimes Konsilium, Loc. 4636, Der für Ihre Hoheit, die
königlichen Prinzessin Maria Josepha Hofstaat konzedierte Begräbnisplatz zu Dresden, Verzeichnisse der
Beamten katholischer Konfession, ingleichen was wegen des Huldigungseides bei der römisch-katholischen
Geistlichkeit vorgegangen, 1719-1734, fols. 227a
-489a
. The lists are published by Ágústsson, Jóhannes
and Stockigt, Janice B.: ‘Records of Catholic musicians, actors, and dancers at the court of August II,
1723-1732: The establishment of the Catholic cemetery in Dresden’, Royal Musical Association Research
Chronicles (RMARC) 45 (2014), pp. 26-75.
76
See ZD ( note 3), v. 1, Dok. 17, p. 114. Also Stockigt, Janice B. and Vojtěšková, Jana: ‘Zpráva
o návštěvě císaře Karla VI. s chotí v Klementinu v roce 1723 při provedení hry Sub olea pacis s hudbou
Jana Dismase Zelenky’, Hudební věda 29/4 (1992), pp. 351-359.
77
See ZD ( note 3), v. 1, Doks. 18 to 21. Stockigt, Janice B.: ‘On the Dresden sources of Zelenka’s
instrumental music’ presented at the conference Das Instrumentalrepertoire der Dresdner Hofkapelle in
den ersten beiden Dritteln des 18. Jahrhunderts – Überlieferung und Notisten, Dresden, June 23-25, 2010.
Forthcoming on-line publication through Quocosa.
78
Stockigt, Jan Dismas Zelenka ( note 3), p. 123.
79
The most common formula used by Zelenka is ‘A M D G V M OO SS H AA P J R’. Wolfgang Reich suggests
the final letters (AA P J R or P i R) signify ‘Augustissimum Poloniarum in Regem’, while Wolfgang
Horn prefers ‘Augustissimo Principi in reverentia’ (To the most august Prince [or ruler] with veneration,
profound respect). ZD ( note 3), v. 1, p. 157.
80
See Kapsa, Václav: Hudebníci hraběte Morzina: Přispěvek k dějinám šlechtických kapel v Čechách v době
baroka, Prague: Kabinet hudební historie – Etnologický ústav AV ČR, 2010, and Kapsa, Václav: ‘Account
books, names and music: Count Wenzel von Morzin’s Virtuosissima Orchestra’, Early Music 40/4 (2012),
pp. 605-620.
81
For more on the chamber ensembles of Count Morzin and Count Černin see Kapsa, Václav: ‘Hofmusici
a lokajové. K postavení hudebníka na šlechtickém dvoře v Čechách první poloviny 18. století’,
Theatrum historiae 9 (2011), pp. 241-255. New information on the two groups and their role in the 1723
celebrations is provided in Ágústsson, Jóhannes: ‘“La Perfetta Cognitione”: Francis Stephen of Lorraine,
Patron of Vivaldi’, Studi vivaldiani 15 (2015), pp. 121-122.
82
Kapsa, Hudebníci hraběte Morzina ( note 80), Table 8, p. 83.
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‘P J R’ (occasionally ‘PP in R’) seen at the conclusion of Zelenka’s most frequently used dedication
formula – ‘A M D G B V M OO SS H P in R’ – signify Zelenka’s commissioning patron (or
patrons), then the point at which he received commissions to compose for the court becomes
clear. Until September 1725, soon after his return from the court-sponsored pilgrimage of
Dresden Catholics to Graupen,83
Zelenka’s dedications did not include those final letters ‘P in R’
(or ‘P J R’, or similar). One exception occurs: To the dedication of the 1724 Salve Regina of 1724
the letters ‘B V M’ and ‘AA P J R’ were added in a different ink. This suggests that the work
was re-performed after Zelenka was formally commissioned to compose for the court.
Between mid- to late-1725 Zelenka began a remarkable venture: the composition of Vespers
psalms for the whole year. Over the following three years he set thirty-three Vespers works in
three cycles for Dresden’s Catholic court church which was (and remains) dedicated to the Most
Holy Trinity. The unavoidable conclusion is that Zelenka had deliberately embarked upon a very
well-planned project. This grandiose plan would serve every Vespers sequence of the church
year, as the title given to the collection entered into the Inventarium reveals: ‘Psalmi Vespertini
totius anni.’ The psalms are composed as both solemn and ordinary settings, and they reflect
the musicians available to Zelenka throughout these years: either members of the Dresden
Hofkapelle or the music ensemble of the Catholic court church, the Kapellknaben.84
When these
psalms are viewed according to the ZWV numbering system Zelenka’s plan is obscured. It is
visible only in his personal music catalogue, the Inventarium,85
but even there, the order of
composition is not apparent because Zelenka began the listings with those psalms composed
in 1726, and then added the first-composed works, all of which (apart from ZWV 66) are dated
1725. The listing of each cycle begins with a setting of Dixit Dominus.86
The cycle then develops
so that one or more Vespers sequence is served. Zelenka also composed a fourth cycle of
psalms. They are listed in the Inventarium as Psalmi varii ‘J: D: Z: Separatim Scripti’ (separate
from the thirty-three Psalmi Vespertini totius anni). Of the original eight settings from Cycle 4,
six only are found in Dresden today (although for Laetatus sum, ZWV 90, which now is missing
in Dresden, a set of nine parts is held in the collection of Prague’s Metropolitan Cathedral.87
)
Where was all this compositional activity of the mid-to late 1720s heading? In 1725 Zelenka
had heavy musical responsibilities for the octave of the Feast of St Francis Xavier. The Diarium
Dresdae reported that the Mass and Litanies sung on the day of the feast (3. 12. 1725) were
produced by Zelenka,88
and on the Sunday within the octave (9. 12. 1725), Zelenka ‘made’ the
music in the morning and for Vespers.89
Soon after, on 1 January 1726, Feast of the Circumcision
of Our Lord (also the titular feast day of the Society of Jesus, and a gala day at the Dresden
court), the Diarium Dresdae reported that Zelenka was responsible for the Sung Mass in the
morning and for Vespers at 3 pm.90
On 17 January Zelenka began to keep his Inventarium.
From early in 1724 Zelenka began to develop a reputation for directing requiem and memorial
masses offered in Dresden’s Catholic court church, a service he frequently was called upon
to carry out, as reported in Diarium Dresdae.91
In 1729 the Congregation of the Good Death,
83
On this pilgrimage, see ZD ( note 3), v. 1, Dok. 28, pp. 123-124. Zelenka’s first dated work bearing
the full dedication is Confitebor tibi Domine (ZWV 72), dated 25 September 1725.
84
The question of the performers of Zelenka’s psalm settings is discussed by Stockigt in ‘Indications
of the Original Performances of Zelenka’s Vespers Psalms.’, published as ‘Hinweise auf die Originalaufführungen
von Zelenkas Vesperpsalmen,’ in: ZS II ( note 49), pp. 101-143.
85
Inventarium rerum Musicarum Variorum Authorum Ecclesiae Servientium. D-Dl, Bibl. Arch. III Hb,
Vol. 787 d. Facsimile published in ZD ( note 3), v. 2, pp. 169-218. See: http://digital.slub-dresden.de/
werkansicht/dlf/112990/1/.
86
The first composed work whose dedication reads ‘A M D G V M OO SS Semper’ (Dixit Dominus,
ZWV 66) has a cover note in Zelenka’s hand which reads: ‘Hymn | Decora Lux Aeternitatis.’ This is the
Vespers hymn for the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June), which suggests the date of at least one,
if not the first performance of this setting. We are grateful to Michael Driscoll for reminding us of
Zelenka’s note.
87
CZ-Pak, 1400.
88
Diarium Dresdae, 3. 12. 1725: ‘Cantatum cum assistentia [...] Musicam produxit D. Zelenka [...]’
89
Diarium Dresdae, 9. 12. 1725: ‘Musicam fecit mane et in Vesperis Dominus Zelenka.’
90
Diarium Dresdae, 1. 1. 1726: ‘Cantatum cum assistentia. [...] Musicam produxit D. Zelenka. Hora 3.
Vesperas cum assistentia quas D. Zelenka produxit.’
91
Occasions during these years begin with Diarium Dresdae entries on 19. 2. 1724 (Requiem for
Filippo Molteni). Reports continue with and entry on 3. 3. 1724 (Requiem for Zelenka’s father); 28. 3.
1724 (Requiem Mass on the anniversary of the death of the horn player, Franz Sam); 2. 11. 1724 (In
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titled Agonizantis Christi, finally was established in the royal chapel. This congregation, which
had been promised in drafts of the foundation documents of the church in 1708,92
came into
being in 1729 after the death on Passion Sunday 1728 of the 8-year-old Saxon heir, Prince
Joseph, and the near-death of the infant Saxon Princess Maria Margaretha. Passion Sunday
became the titular feast day of the congregation, on which day an album naming the members
of the society and the Papal Bull of Indulgence was presented. It is reported that many
Catholics participated in the devotions and sermons after Vespers on the first Sunday of the
month,93
and it is probable that Zelenka was among these.
After the death in July 1728 of the contrabass player and copyist Personelli, the Dresden
court Kapellmeister, Johann David Heinichen, recommended that Personelli’s annual salary of
800 Thaler should be used, as was customary, to supplement (zulage) the wages of members
of the Hofkapelle who merited an increase,  Illustration 3.94
However, Heinichen’s recommendations
were not implemented and Personelli’s salary reverted back into the Hofkasse, as
were the salaries of other departed or deceased members of the Hofkapelle during this period.
In this way, the Dresden court was able to save a considerable amount instead of using the
funds to reward hard working musicians and reinforce the orchestra, as required.95
Heinichen’s
recommendation that Zelenka should receive an increase of 200 Thaler – a rise of 50 % – clearly
suggests that he valued the contribution of his colleague who had taken control of the music
in the church during Heinichen’s frequent absences due to illness. Note also that Heinichen
proposed a 100 Thaler zulage for Buz as the ‘3ten Kirchen Compositeur’ – a title which at that
time did not officially exist.
The classification of Zelenka’s instrumental composition dated 18 May 1729, a work until
now known in the Zelenka literature as a Capriccio (ZWV 190), should be Sinfonia, the title
given in the catalogue of the music collection of the Dresden Catholic court church assembled
in 1765 under the direction of Schürer.96
This work was almost certainly composed for the
birthday celebrations held in 1729 for August II, who already had left Dresden for Warsaw on
24 April. Although this birthday was usually observed on 12 May, the list of gala days to be
celebrated in Dresden – ‘Galla-Tage, So in Dreßden celebriret werden’ published in the HStCal
for 1729’ – shows that the celebration was re-scheduled to 21 May: ‘Mense Maij. Den 21. Maj.
Ihrer Majestät des Königes in Pohlen und Churfürstens zu Sachsen, Herrn Friedrichs August
Geburths-Tag in Galla’ – that is three days after Zelenka dated the score of this work: ‘18 Maji
1729’.97
At exactly this time the crown prince and princess were based at Moritzburg with
their courts.98
It is likely that Zelenka was given this commission during the final illness of
Heinichen who died on 16 July 1729.
Comm. Omnium Fidelium Defunctorum); 26. 2. 1725 (Requiem for Carl Radziwill); 28. 2. 1725 (Requiem
for Constantin Radziwill); 23. 11. 1725 (Exequies for the Cardinal of Saxony, cousin of August II); 4. 5.
1726 (Sung Solemn Requiem the father of Joanne [Schanoni] of Dresden); 10. 3. 1729 (Requiem for
Countess Fuckerin).
92
‘La devotion de la bonne et heureuse mort se fera le Vendredy ou Dimanche à la maniere accoutumée
ailleurs et celle du Rosaire le Samedy apres le disné’. Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu (ARSI),
Bohemiae (Boh.), Dresda: Reglements du Roy pour l’Eglise et Chapelle Royale, ouverte aux Catholiques,
205/1, Item 11.
93
Saft, Paul Franz: Der Neuaufbau der Katholischen Kirche in Sachsen im 18. Jahrhundert [= Studien
zur katholischen Bistums- und Klostergeschichte, 2], Leipzig: St. Benno-Verlag, 1961, pp. 46-47.
94
‘Der verstorbene Copiste und Violoniste Momolo hat jährlich 800 rthl. gehabt welche der Capellmeister
folgends einzutheilen projectiret | An den Organist Uhlich, so kunfftich dem Violon spielen soll
200 | Dem Violonist Kästner zulage 40 | An dem Copisten Kremler, weil deßen einer statt des verstor-
benen nöthig 200 | Zulage an der Capellmeisters Copisten 60 | An den Compositeur Zelencka zulage
200 | An Ihro Konigl. Hoheit Wald-hornisten Puz als 3ten Kirchen Compositeur zulage 100. | Summa
800 r[eichs­t]h[aler].’ D-Dla, 10026 Geh. Kab., Loc. 354/3, Chatullensachen, undated, fol. 451a
.
95
This is further discussed in Ágústsson, Jóhannes: ‘The Secular Vocal Collection of Jan Dismas
Zelenka: A Reconstruction’, Studi vivaldiani 13 (2013), pp. 16-17, 22-23.
96
‘Catalogo (Thematico) [sic!] della Musica di Chiesa (catholica [sic!] in Dresda) composta Da diversi
Autori – secondo l’Alfabetto 1765’ (‘Catalogo 1765’ hereafter). Compiled under the direction of ‘Joannes
Georg Schürer’, 3 vols. D-B Mus. ms. theor. Kat. 186.
97
Stockigt: ‘On the Dresden sources of Zelenka’s instrumental music’ ( note 77).
98
‘Diese ganzen Monath [May] durch haben Ihro Königl. Hoheit der Chron- und Chur Prinz nebst
dessen Durchl. Frau Gemahlin Königl. Hoheit in den Jagd- und Lust-Schloß Moritzburg […] Dero Divertissement
gefunden.’ D-Dla, 10006 OHMA, G, Nr. 29, Auszug aus dem Journal sowie Karneval in Dresden,
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During the year 1724 and until the death of Heinichen Zelenka’s name frequently appears
in the Diarium Dresdae, especially during those years when the music-loving Father Hartmann
SJ was the Dresden Superior (22. 6. 1721 – 12. 8. 1727). In January 1726 an entry in the ‘Dresden
Diarium’ made by Father Hartmann noted that the customary wonderful singing and the
music heard in Dresden’s Catholic court church had persuaded a Lutheran woman to convert
to the Catholic religion.99
Unfortunately, the reporting by his successor, Father Nonhardt SJ
(22. 8. 1727 – 14. 10. 1733), was less detailed about the music of this royal chapel – although
in 1730 he did note the proselytizing role it played.100
During the years between about 1723
and 1729 (and beyond) it is notable that both Johann Sebastian Bach in Leipzig and Zelenka
in Dresden had simultaneously, and in their own way, embarked upon a program to provide a
complete repertoire to serve the church year of their respective confessions. For Zelenka, this
was a time to which Wolfgang Horn refers as ‘Repertoirebildung.’101
1729, fols. 18b
-20b
. The visit of the court to Moritzburg is also reported in the Dresden journal Kern
Dreßdnischer Merckwürdigkeiten 1729, p. 19.
99
Diarium Dresdae, 22. 1. 1726: ‘Quod en facta Catholica est, […] et admirabilis cantus, et musica
quae in Catholica Capella fieri solet, et certo mihi persuado, […]’ This conversion was first reported in
letters written to the court of Weissenfels: ‘[Dresden] Sontags den 13. Jan: 1726. [...] Hiernechst wird
vor glaubwürdig ersehlet, daß als vor einigen zeit eine Weibes Person die Römisch-Catholischen Religion
angenommen, und derselben Wohltäter hernach gefraget, warum sie solches gethan? Hätte sie zur
Antwort gegeben; Die schöne Music in der Catholischen Kirche habe sie darzu bewogen, und wann der
Hr. Wohltäter sie solte hören, wurde er ebenfalls Catholisch.’ D-Dla, 10119 Sekundogeniturfürstentum
Sachsen-Weißenfels, Loc. 11980, Nr. 9938, Wiener und Dresdener Diarien, 1707-1736, unfoliated.
100
Stockigt, Janice B.: ‘ “This Rare and Precious Music”: Preliminary Findings on the Catalogue of the
Music Collection of the Dresden Catholic Court Church (1765)’, Musicology Australia 27 (2006), pp. 1-18.
101
Horn, Die Dresdner Hofkirchenmusik ( note 17), p. 92.
Illustration 3:
Heinichen’s recommendation
of 200 Thaler salary
increase for ‘Compositeur
Zelencka’, 1728.
Original and reproduction:
All rights reserved © by
Sächsisches Staatsarchiv –
Hauptstaatsarchiv Dresden.
D-Dla, 10026 Geh.
Kab., Loc. 354/3, fol. 451a
.
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1729-1733: The Interregnum
During this era Zelenka faced the greatest challenges of his career at the Dresden court. These
years also challenge our understanding of his position as a composer and musician within
the shifting organisation of the court’s music ensembles. Between Heinichen’s death on 16
July 1729 and the arrival of his successor Johann Adolph Hasse on 3 February 1734, Zelenka
was entrusted with several new assignments in his official post as Compositeur – a position
which at that time effectively made him the acting Kapellmeister. This change resulted in an
increased workload leaving him with less time for composition. From this period onwards,
and up to his final compositions of the 1740s, fewer new works came from Zelenka’s pen than
in the 1720s.102
His new duties came about at a time when the Saxon Crown Prince Friedrich
August took full control of the affairs of the Hofkapelle.103
The prince initiated changes in
personnel and musical direction. A group of young Italian singers arrived for service in 1730
and new members were added to the royal orchestra in 1731. In that year, Hasse was hired as
Kapellmeister and the musical focus in Dresden again turned to the Italian opera. Meanwhile,
during this period of change Zelenka made an important contribution. His responsibilities at
this time included the supply of new compositions for important events at court; the music
education of, and direction of the Kapellknaben ensemble; musical studies with an ensemble of
newly employed young Italian singers; assembling a collection of secular vocal music for use
at chamber concerts at court; and custodianship of the royal musical library.
At some stage during the Interregnum Zelenka was appointed curator of the royal music
library – a position he seems to have held until his death. Maintaining the royal catalogues
was considered a priviliged task which traditionally was assigned to the Kapellmeister, as
evidenced in employment contracts of the late seventeenth century.104
A catalogue fragment
of Maria Josepha’s music collection dating from c1743 is the only existing royal inventory
whose compilation was supervised by Zelenka. Evidence demonstrating the existence of a now
missing inventory he assembled listing librettos of works performed at the Dresden court has
been published.105
Although between 1723 and 1730 Zelenka composed one or more Masses each year, it
has been shown that during the Interregnum he composed Solemn Masses for the churching
ceremonies (German: Kirchgang; Latin: ingressus) held for Maria Josepha following the birth
of each male heir. Moreover, for the Xavier octave in December 1729 when special devotions
were held, Zelenka composed Missa Divi Xaverii (ZWV 12).106
In 1730 Missa Gratias agimus tibi
(ZWV 13) was written for the churching ceremony held on 7 October after the birth of Saxon
Prince Franz Xaver on 25 August. In 1731 Zelenka composed his second Te Deum setting (ZWV
146), which almost certainly was heard on 5 November, the day following the birth of Saxon
Princess Maria Josepha.107
He also composed Missa Purificationis BVM (ZWV 16) in 1733 for the
churching on 23 August following the birth on 13 July of Saxon Prince Carl Christian, while
102
The dated compositions during the Interregnum are: five in 1729, four in 1730, two in 1731, one
in 1732 (two with the undated Missa Sancta Josephi [ZWV 14], see below) and five in 1733. Horn, Die
Dresdner Hofkirchenmusik ( note 17), pp. 88-92. Note that Horn used the term Interregnum for the
period 1729-1734.
103
Ágústsson: ‘The Secular Vocal Collection of Jan Dismas Zelenka’ ( note 95), p. 15.
104
‘[...] darneben wird er die Musicalische Bibliothec, darüber ein Inventarium ihm auß zuhändigen,
treülich in acht nehmen, und davon nichts von abhanden kommen laßen [...]’ D-Dla, 10036 Finanzarchiv,
Loc. 33346, Rep. 52, Gen. Nr. 1961, Bestallungen verschiedener Hofdiener, Amtsleute, Schösser, Rittmeister
und Kriegstbestallter, 1680-1681, ‘Bestallung vor den Capellmeister Christophorum Bernhardi’, fol. 578a
.
105
Ágústsson: ‘The Secular Vocal Collection of Jan Dismas Zelenka’ ( note 95), pp. 33-34.
106
On the music for these events see Stockigt, Janice B.: ‘“After Six Weeks”: Music for the Churching
Ceremonies of Maria Josepha, Electoral Princess of Saxony and Queen of Poland’, in: Stoessel, Jason (ed.):
Identity and Locality in Early European Music, 1028-1740, Farnham: Ashgate, 2009, pp. 191-209.
107
‘Monntags den 5. dito [November] wurde das Te Deum laudamus, wegen dieses erfreulichen Geburth
in der Catholischen Capelle auch unter Trompeten- und Paucken-Schall gesungen.’ D-Dla, 10006
OHMA, A, Nr. 19, Geburt, Taufe und Einsegnung des Prinzen (Franz) Xaver (25. August 1730 – 21. Juni
1806), Sohn von Kurfürst Friedrich August II. und Geburt, Taufe und Einsegnung der Prinzessin (Maria)
Josepha (4. November 1731 – 13. März 1767), 1730-1731, f. 26a. The annual letter reported that immediately
after the birth of this princess a Solemn Te Deum was sung in the church in the presence of the
electoral prince. ARSI, Boh. 148, Annuae Literae Regiae Missionis Dresdensis pro anno 1731, p. 22. (Note
that the Jesuit annual letters are paginated). For the churching of Maria Josepha on 15 December Zelenka
must have supplied the ‘vortrefflichen Musique’ (excellent music), as described in the court report, but
it is not known which work of his was heard on that occasion. D-Dla, 10006 OHMA, A, Nr. 19, f. 34a.
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Missa Sancta Josephi (ZWV 14) was undoubtedly written in 1732 for the Feast of St Joseph on
19 March, nameday of Maria Josepha.108
With Zelenka providing the music for nearly all of the most important occasions during
this period, his compositions began to receive praise in the official court reports and private
correspondence, but without his name being mentioned. In addition to descriptions of the
excellent music heard at the above listed churchings, letters written from Dresden also refer
to the beautiful music performed during service in the Catholic court church. For example,
the secretary of the Italian department of the Dresden court noted in his letter to the Saxon
ambassador in Rome that the magnificent celebrations held in the presence of the king and the
princely couple during Pentecost in May 1731 had been accompanied by ‘excellent music’ and
that everyone had left the court church much edified.109
From the Diarium Dresdae it is known
that Zelenka provided the music for these three days.110
For the Feast of the Holy Trinity which
fell on 20 May that year, he composed the motet Gaude laetare ZWV 168 (dated ‘Dresd[ae] |
17 Maii 1731’). The intended singer must have been the former horn player Goetzel who had
been hired as a tenor in the Hofkapelle to replace Matteo Luchini who was dismissed at the
end of March 1731.111
Zelenka also held responsibilities for the musical direction of the Kapellknaben in the Catholic
court church. From the year 1727, when the decision was taken to expand this ensemble,112
until 1732 (at least), the number of choristers doubled – as seen in the lists of those eligible
to be buried in Dresden’s Catholic cemetery. Eight boys and young men plus their organist
(Augustin Uhlig) and schoolmaster (Ignatius Hoffmann, also a violinist),113
rose to sixteen
Juvenes together with Uhlig.114
Following the departure from Dresden on 21 February 1729 of
their director, Father Frantze SJ,115
Zelenka appears to have assumed musical responsibility for
this group. The preparation of parts for three works from this era suggest the involvement
of certain members of the Kapellknaben ensemble. Antonio Caldara’s Missa Quid mihi et tibi,116
and settings of the Litanies of Loreto (Litaniae Lauretanae) by František Ludvík Poppe and by
Reichenauer117
are accompanied by sets of parts prepared under Zelenka’s direction by copyists
identified by Wolfgang Horn as ZS O, ZS 1, and ZS 2,118
together with a Kapellknabe named
108
This remark accompanies Zelenka’s entry of this work in his Inventarium: ‘facta occasione onomasticae
dies S: M: Principesse ac Domine nostrae.’ This confirms that Zelenka composed Missa Sancti Josephi
for the name-day of Saxon Crown Princess Maria Josepha. Although both the birth- and name-day of
Maria Josepha was given in the Galla-Tage lists of the HStCal as being celebrated on 8 December (Feast of
the Conception BVM), the name-day of the crown princess (from 1733, queen and electress) also came to
be celebrated on the feast of St Joseph (19 March) – information first published in the HStCal, 1741, but
first recorded in the annual letter to Rome for 1738: ARSI, Boh. 157, Annuae Literae Missionis Dresdensis
ad annum 1738, p. 44.
109
‘Tutta la Ser.ma
Padronanza gode, lode à Dio, perfetta salute. Hieri assistè à tutte le funz.ni
sagre
celebratesi con gran magnificenza, ed eccellente Musica in questa Capella Reale con edificazione universale.’
D-Dla, 10026 Geh. Kab., Loc. 747/13, Briefe des Buzzi und des Abbé Accoramboni aus Warschau und
Dresden an den Puchet zu Rom, 1731, Buzzi to Puchet, Dresden, 14 May 1731, unfoliated.
110
Diarium Dresdae, 15. 5. 1731: ‘[Feria III. post Pentecost] Musicam omnibus tribus diebus produxit
D. Zelenka praeter hodiernas vesperas, quas juvenes nostri cecinerunt.’
111
Ágústsson: ‘The Secular Vocal Collection of Jan Dismas Zelenka’ ( note 95), pp. 19-20.
112
ARSI, Boh. 143, Annuae Litterae Missionis Dresdensis ad annum 1727, p. 19.
113
Ignatius Hoffmann had been the schoolmaster to the Kapellknaben and violinist of the royal
chapel since at least 16. 1. 1710 (Diarium Dresdae) until at least 24. 1. 1730 when he was last listed as
being eligible for burial in the Dresden Catholic cemetery. By 1. 5. 1731, when the next list was prepared,
his name had disappeared. Confirmation of his death in 1739 is seen in: D-Dla, 10684 Stadtgericht Dresden,
Nr. 1566, Ignatius Hoffmann Verlaßenschafft, 1739.
114
Ágústsson and Stockigt: ‘Records of Catholic musicians, actors, and dancers at the court of
Augustus II’ ( note 75), pp. 26-75.
115
Father Frantze arrived in Dresden as director of the Kapellknaben ensemble on 6. 5. 1728 (Diarium
Dresdae: ‘Venit circa quintam Sextus Sacerdos ex Boemia qui deinceps chorum reget et inferiores Scholas
docebit.’) Following a decision from the head of the Province of Bohemia, Father Frantze departed on
21. 2. 1729 (Diarium Dresdae: ‘Discessit post mensam P. Frantze in […] Gitzinium.’).
116
D-Dl Mus. 2170-D-14. In Zelenka’s Inventarium this mass of Caldara is listed as number 37 after
Zelenka’s masses of 1729 and 1730: Missa S. Xaverii (ZWV 12), and Missa Gratias agimus tibi (ZWV 13) –
numbers 35 and 36.
117
D-Dl, Mus. 3610-D-1a; D-Dl, Mus. 2494-D-3. Neither work is listed in Zelenka’s Inventarium.
118
On Zelenka’s copyists see Horn, Wolfgang: ‘Die wichtigsten Schreiber im Umkreis Jan Dismas
24 Ja nice B. Sto ckigt – Jóh annes Ágústsson
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Ignatius Joseph Kalousek (or Kalausek),119
and a copyist who signed himself ‘Johannes Thame.’
Since the decision of 1727 also proposed to increase Marian devotions with the singing of litanies
on Saturdays and ferial days preceding Marian feasts,120
Zelenka acquired a group of brief
musical settings of the Litaniae Lauretanae. Five settings of this litany, mainly by Bohemian
composers, entered the repertoire of the church at this time. Each item came into Zelenka’s collection
but these were not entered into his Inventarium. Composers represented are ‘Czerwenka’
(the work is missing from the Music Department of SLUB), Anton Gerbich (Görbig), Capellae
magister at the Metropolitan Cathedral Prague, 1734-1737;121
Johann Grunberger, a Cistercian
whose music is listed in music inventories of the Cistercian monastery at Osek, North Bohemia;122
Beda Muck, a Benedictine;123
and Anton Schütze, a school rector from Gabel in Bohemia.124
The
scribe of some copies (who probably was a Kapellknabe) gave a phonetic spelling of name of
the composer: ‘Korbischi’ (Görbig or Gerbich); ‘Krusberger’ (Grunberger); ‘Muk’ ( Muck).
In addition to court church music duties and musical tasks with the Kapellknaben, Zelenka
also played an important role in the continuing studies of a group of young Italian singers who
arrived for service in April 1730. In 1724 August II had set in motion a long-term plan which
involved their training with some of the best vocal teachers in Italy. This well-thought out plan
was funded by the Saxon treasury and was to bear great fruits. Four of the six singers – the
alto castrato Domenico Annibali, the soprano castratos Ventura Rocchetti and Giovanni Bindi,
and the soprano Maria Rosa Negri, all of whom had taken lessons with Nicola Porpora in Venice
– went on to have long and distinguished careers in Dresden.125
However, upon their arrival
in Saxony these young singers were not all fully trained and they were at different stages in
their development. While his colleagues in the Hofkapelle continued their training by giving
daily vocal and keyboard lessons, Zelenka provided the theoretical part of their education. This
would have involved studies of counterpoint, theory and composition.126
Later, Zelenka would
write some of his most beautiful arias both sacred and secular for the three castratos.
In the first week of February 1730 the young singers were called from Italy to Dresden
and the first phase of their training came to an end. In the same week Hasse was offered the
position of ‘Primo Maestro di Capella’. The fact that this important development took place
at the same time shows that it was always the intention of the Dresden court to employ a
well established opera composer in Heinichen’s place to work with the young Italians. On 7
July 1731 Hasse and his famous wife, the mezzo-soprano Faustina Bordoni, arrived in Dresden.
The following day they travelled to Moritzburg where they performed for Crown Prince
Friedrich August and his pregnant wife Maria Josepha, who were enjoying their summer
residency (Hoflager) in the castle. August II was there also, having travelled to Moritzburg
the night before.127
According to the local newspaper he was very satisfied with the performZelenkas.
Überlegungen zur Methode ihrer Bestimmung und Entwurf einer Gruppierung der Quellen’, in:
ZS I ( note 12), pp. 141-210.
119
Ignatius Kalousek (1729, 1730) and Joseph Kalousek (or Kalouseck, written also Kalouseick [!]:
1730-1732) were each listed as a Capell Musicant of the Catholic court church. Each was eligible for burial
in the Catholic court cemetery of Dresden. See Ágústsson and Stockigt: ‘Records of Catholic musicians,
actors, and dancers at the court of Augustus II’ ( note 75), pp. 26-75.
120
‘Sub initia Anni scolastici aucta juventute musicâ Marianum cultum ampliaturi Sabbata cuncta,
idem feriae festa Mariana praecedentes habebunt, Litaniis […].’ ARSI, Boh. 143, Annuae Litterae Missionis
Dresdensis ad annum 1727, p. 19.
121
D-Dl, Mus. 2873-D-1.
122
D-Dl, Mus. 4022-E-1.
123
D-Dl, Mus. 3612-E-1.
124
D-Dl, Mus. 2874-D-1.
125
By 1740 the two other singers, the sopranos Maria Santina Cattanea and Anna Negri, sister of
Maria Rosa, were no longer a part of the Hofkapelle: Cattanea was dismissed in 1738 and Anna joined
a convent in Italy in 1740.
126
A comprehensive overview of the plan to bring the young Italian singers to Dresden and the
ensuing training program is provided in Ágústsson: ‘The Secular Vocal Collection of Jan Dismas Zelenka’
( note 95), pp. 3-52.
127
‘den 7. [July]. [...] Abends begaben sich Ihro Königl. Maj.t
mit dem Herrn Cämmerer von Brühl
nacher Morizburg.’ The king travelled back to Dresden after the concert: ‘den 8. [July]. Sind Ihro Königl.
Maj.t
abends von der Morizburg wieder alhier zurück kommen.’ D-Dla, 10006 OHMA, G, Nr. 32, Auszug
aus dem Journal sowie Karneval in Dresden, 1732, fol. 29a-b
.
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JanDismasZelenka’sLifeandMusicReconsidered(ZelenkaConferencePrague2015)
ance.128
A previously unknown document, presented here for the first time ( Illustration
4),129
shows that the Hasses travelled to Moritzburg with an elite group
of virtuosos from the Hofkapelle. The list of musicians and their assistants is in the
hand of Pisendel (whose spelling of names has been retained), except for a later
Named as Identification Position and/or Instrument
Capell M: Hass Johann Adolph Hasse Kapellmeister, Cembalo
Faustina Faustina Bordoni Hasse Mezzo-soprano
König Johann Ulrich König
Hofrat, Zeremonienmeister,
Poet, Secretary
Venturini Ventura Rocchetti Soprano
Giovanni Giovanni Bindi Soprano
Domenico Domenico Annibali Alto
Pisendel Johann Georg Pisendel Concertmaster, Violin
Rhein Carl Joseph Rhein Violin
Buffardin Pierre Gabriel Buffardin Flute
Quantz Johann Joachim Quantz Flute
Morgenstern Johann Gottlieb Morgenstern Viola
Rossi Agostino de Rossi Cello
Butz Tobias Buz Horn (Composer)
Goetzel Johann Joseph Goetzel Horn, Tenor
Selencka Jan Dismas Zelenka Compositeur, Contrabass
Weiss Silvius Leopold Weiss Lute
Grebner der d. Clavi­cimb:
accord:
Johann Heinrich Gräbner Tuner
Werner Instrum:
diener
Johann Gottlob Werner Instrument servant
addition in pencil of four musicians: the horn players Buz and Goetzel, plus continuo players,
‘Selencka’ and the lutenist Silvius Leopold Weiss (which suggests the inclusion of instrumental
music).
On 20 July, two days after Friedrich August and Maria Josepha formally ended their stay in
Moritzburg, the Bavarian ambassador to Saxony reported that the king had officially declared
Hasse to be the new Kapellmeister.130
On 15 August the Diarium Dresdae reported that the
‘novus capellae magister’ Hasse had produced the music for the Sung Mass while Zelenka supplied
the music for Vespers. Following the successful performances of Hasse’s opera Cleofide in
September and his return to Italy on 8 October, the new arrangements for the Hofkapelle were
put in place. Eleven new musicians were hired for the orchestra, including Uhlig and three
musicians of Count Wackerbarth: Hugo, Lincke and Califano. Pisendel was officially appointed
as concertmaster on 1 October – a position which not only held great musical responsibilities,
but one also involving administrative tasks, thus leaving little time for composition. At the
same time Zelenka seems to have begun supplying the secular vocal music performed at the
regular chamber concerts held at the Dresden court. This responsibility fell to him because of
the absence of his colleague and Compositeur de la musique Italienne, Giovanni Alberto Ristori
(1692-1753), who had been sent to Moscow at the beginning of the year.131
Over a relatively
128
Mennicke, Carl: Hasse und die Brüder Graun als Symphoniker, Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1906,
p. 376.
129
D-Dla, 10006 OHMA, T 1, Nr. 11H, Reise nach Moritzburg, 1724 und 1731, ‘Reÿße Nacher Moritzburg,
Ihro Hoh: dem Königl. Printzen auch Printzeßin Königl. Hoh. den 31:ten
May. 1731’, unfoliated.
The presence of Johann Ulrich König in Moritzburg could suggest that he had a hand in securing the
services of his protégé Hasse for Dresden. On König’s advice Hasse was hired in 1718 as tenor for the
Hamburg opera. When Hasse was employed at the Braunschweig opera in 1721, it again was on the
recommendation of his ‘Protektor’, König. Mennicke, Carl: Hasse und die Brüder Graun als Symphoniker
( note 128), pp. 356-357.
130
Ágústsson: ‘The Secular Vocal Collection of Jan Dismas Zelenka’ ( note 95), p. 21.
131
Fürstenau, Moritz: Zur Geschichte der Musik und des Theaters am Hofe der Kurfürsten von Sachsen
und Könige von Polen Friedrich August I. (August II.) und Friedrich August II. (August III.), Dresden:
Verlagsbuchhandlung von Rudolf Kuntze, 1862, p. 169.
Illustration 4:
Hasse, Faustina, ‘Selencka’
and musicians who
travelled to Moritzburg,
8 July 1731.
Original and reproduction:
All rights reserved © by
Sächsisches Staatsarchiv –
Hauptstaatsarchiv
Dresden. D-Dla, 10006
OHMA, T 1, Nr. 11H,
unfoliated.
Table 1:
Musicians who travelled
to Moritzburg,
8 July 1731
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short period, or until Ristori returned to Dresden in mid-1733, Zelenka assembled a small
but impressive repertory of contemporary arias, duets, and cantatas by composers such as
Hasse, Porpora, Antonio Vivaldi, Georg Frideric Handel, Giacomo Giacomelli, Giovanni Battista
Pescetti (among others) for use in the chamber and for study with the young singers.132
It is
possible that the salary rise of 150 Thaler as recommended by the crown prince for Zelenka in
November,133
and later agreed to by August II to take effect on 1 February 1732, was authorized
to allow him to purchase this collection of music.134
It was the late Dr Wolfgang Reich who first brought attention to the fact that Zelenka had
owned numerous copies of Italian opera arias, some of which reportedly have been missing
since 1945.135
This important observation, based on Dr Reich’s comprehensive knowledge of
the history and holdings of the Sächsische Landesbibliothek, recently inspired a systematic
search in the Music Department of SLUB which revealed the remnants of Zelenka’s previously
unknown collection of secular vocal music. Today, this collection is found scattered around the
many aria and cantata volumes dating from the eighteenth century. All these manuscripts
are numbered sequentially by Zelenka, suggesting that in the 1730s he prepared a special
inventory which today is missing. Based on the numerical system he used (it is identical with
the one used by Zelenka in his Inventarium) a partial reconstruction of Zelenka’s secular vocal
collection has been published.136
The archival sources are especially rich when it comes to documentation of Zelenka’s activities
in 1733, the momentous year following the death of August II on 1 February in Warsaw. Yet
his name does not appear in the Diarium Dresdae during that year. ‘Zelenska’ was among the
musicians to apply for ‘Trauer-geld’ for the apparel worn by members of the Hofkapelle during
the subsequent period of mourning.137
Of the some forty members in the orchestra applying to
receive these items Zelenka is listed as the fifth highest paid musician. The HStCal for 1735 and
the Jesuit Diarium Dresdae, the Historia,138
and the annual letter to Rome from 1733,139
contain
detailed descriptions of the exequies held for the late king in Dresden held between April 15
and April 18. For these, it is well known that Zelenka composed the Requiem Mass (ZWV 46)
and the Invitatory, Lessons, and the Responsories (ZWV 47). A rare hand-coloured etching of
the interior of the royal chapel at this time shows a group of musicians in the gallery behind
the catafalque ( Illustration 5a). If the player standing slightly to the right in the middle of
the balcony is a representation of Zelenka ( Illustration 5b, detail), composer of the music
performed throughout these days, then he was ideally positioned to direct the musicians.
Immediately following these services the new Saxon Elector Friedrich August II began
a series of tours of homage (Huldigung). After visits to Leipzig, Wittenberg, and Torgau, he
travelled to Bautzen where he arrived on 19 May. Among the events planned for Bautzen
was a performance of a Te Deum to be given by musicians of the Dresden Hofkapelle at the
Catholic end of the city’s interdenominational St Petri Dom. The elector took a personal role
in the organisation of this event. Documentation surrounding this visit reveals that Zelenka
and Pisendel travelled to Bautzen on 11 May to inspect the performance conditions. There they
remained for three days before returning to Dresden so as to be present in Dresden’s Catholic
court church on the Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord (14 May). In the letter of introduction
written by the Dresden Superior, Father Nonhardt, to Johann Josef Ignaz Freyschlag von
Schmidenthal, Dean of the collegiate convent of St Petri in Bautzen, Zelenka is referred to and
introduced as the elector’s ‘Generosus ac Virtuosus D[omi]’nus Capelle Magister’ (Well-born and
virtuoso Kapellmeister), the title he formally sought in a petition later that year. On 20 May,
the day of the homage ceremonies in Bautzen, Zelenka directed the music and sang a ripieno
tenor part in what was almost certainly his own Te Deum setting of 1731 (ZWV 146).140
132
Ágústsson: ‘The Secular Vocal Collection of Jan Dismas Zelenka’ ( note 95), pp. 3-52.
133
D-Dla, 10026, Geh. Kab., Loc. 383/5, fol. 224a
.
134
Loc. cit., fols. 223a
-228a
.
135
Stockigt, Jan Dismas Zelenka ( note 3), p. 207, note 52.
136
Ágústsson: ‘The Secular Vocal Collection of Jan Dismas Zelenka’ ( note 95), pp. 3-52.
137
D-Dla, 10006 OHMA, C, Nr. 27, Tod und Landestrauer wegen des Kurfürsten Friedrich August von Sachsen,
verstorben am 1. Februar 1733 in Warschau, 1733, ‘[No.] 16. Die Musici von Orchestre’, fols. 179b
-181b
.
138
D-BAUd, Alet. E Gruppe VIII No. 86, loc. 3718d
. ‘Historia Missionis Societatis Jesu Dresdae in Saxonia
ab Anno Salutis 1709vo
’.
139
ARSI, Boh. 150, Annuae Literae Missionis Dresdensis ad Annum 1733, pp. 29-30.
140
Stockigt, Janice B. and Ágústsson, Jóhannes: ‘The visit of members of the Dresden Hofkapelle to
Bautzen: May 1733’, forthcoming.
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Two days after Maria Josepha gave birth to Prince Carl on
13 July, a Te Deum with trumpets and timpani was heard in
the Catholic court church. The music, almost certainly the
work heard in Bautzen, was described as ‘excellent’ in the
diary of the event.141
Five days after this birth the officers of
the Court Marshal began making the necessary plans for the
churching. During the customary question and answer session
it was asked if the Te Deum should be performed again
during the ceremony, the reply to which was that this decision
was left to ‘His Royal Highness’.142
The documentation
does not reveal when the new elector decided whether to
order a repeat of the Te Deum or to request a new composition.
A closer look at his itinerary during this period shows
that from 20 July to 3 August he made frequent short trips
outside of Dresden. A hesitancy in decision making on the
elector’s behalf could explain why Zelenka (who according to
his testimony was ill at that time) only had ten days to compose
his Missa Purificationis – the last of his Solemn Mass
settings to include a trumpet and timpani choir. Indeed, the
documentation shows that the planning for the churching
was surprisingly poor, with many important decisions taken
only two days before the event.
This uncertainty might also be the reason why Zelenka
unexpectedly ended up giving instructions to the royal
141
‘den 15. July in der Catholischen Schloß Capelle, Mittags ¾ auf 12. Uhr, das Te Deum laudamus
bey einer vortrefflichen Musique, auch unter Trompeten und Paucken Schall abgesungen.’ D-Dla, 10006
OHMA, A, Nr. 20, Geburt, Taufe und Einsegnung des Prinzen Carl (13. Juli 1733 – 16. Juni 1796), Sohn von
Kurfürst Friedrich August II., 1733, [Vol. A], fol. 4a
.
142
‘[Question No.] 25.) Ob das Te Deum laudamus wiederum gesungen werden soll? [Reply] Beruhet
auff Ihro König: Hoheit Resolution.’ Loc. cit., [Vol. B] fol. 9a
.
Illustration 5:
a) Funeral service in the
Catholic court church for
August II, April 1733.
b) Detail: Zelenka might
be the person seen on
the far right. Christian
Philipp Lindemann – Johann
Baptist Grone: Die
Aufbahrung des Sarges von
August I. (August II. von
Polen), Kurfürst von Sachsen,
Inv. Nr. A 2015-84.
© Kupferstich-Kabinett,
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen
Dresden. Photo:
Herbert Boswank.
28 Ja nice B. Sto ckigt – Jóh annes Ágústsson
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trumpeters and timpanist for the performance of the fanfares which were played during the
churching ceremony on 23 August.143
Immediately following this event a hearing was held at
the office of the Court Marshal concerning a complaint made by the Oberhoftrompeter Christian
Becke against the trumpeter Gottfried Lorenz. According to the court documents, Lorenz was
accused of not having played when Becke gave his signal.144
At the beginning of his testimony Lorenz vehemently protested the accusations against
him. He presented an account of the incident which did not reflect well on Becke, stating that
before the churching the Oberhoftrompeter had failed to communicate to his colleagues instructions
about when to commence playing the fanfares, and in which order. Instead, Becke kept
the instructions in his pocket and when he gave a signal the other trumpeters had no idea
what to do.145
This prompted ‘Mr. Zelencka, who directed the music’ to take firm control of the
situation by summoning Lorenz from his position and telling him in which order the fanfares
should be played.146
Here, it is important to note that Zelenka informed Lorenz that this was
how it had been decided (‘es seÿ also reguliret’), which suggests that Zelenka’s instructions
came from a higher authority. With Zelenka now conveying the signals to the trumpeters the
ceremony seems to have gone ahead without further incident. Afterwards, however, Becke was
furious with his fellow trumpeters for having followed Zelenka’s instructions.147
According to
Lorenz’s testimony, a furious Becke was later seen holding the written orders he had shortly
before concealed from his colleagues.148
Comparison between Lorenz’s description of the event and the instructions for the trumpeters,
which are found in the planning documentation of the Court Marshal, reveal a difference
in plan and execution.149
Remarkably, the instructions are dated 22 August, only one day before
the ceremony.150
They are consistent with the stock directives found in many of the churching
files during the 1720s and the early 1730s, which state that five fanfares should be heard:
four before the Mass and one final Aufzug after the music had ended. However, court diaries
of many of these events show that the number of fanfares played varied from five to seven.151
In the case of the churching in 1733 six fanfares were played – five before the Mass, as Lorenz
143
This event was reported in detail in the HStCal for 1735. See also Stockigt: ‘“After Six Weeks”’
( note 106), pp. 191-209.
144
‘Registratura Dreßden am 25.ten
August 1733.’ D-Dla, 10006 OHMA, A, Nr. 20, [Vol. A], fols. 45a
-46b
.
145
‘[...] nicht wißen können was damit gemeÿnet wäre [...].’ Loc. cit., f. 45b.
146
‘Denn es hätte der Componiste Monsieur Zelencka der die Musique dirigiret ihn Deponenten [Lorenz]
zu rück aus seinem Stande gezogen und gesagt, es seÿ also reguliret, daß wenn er würde ein Zeichen
geben, so solte erstl[ich]. die Intrade gemachet, und wenn er das andere Zeichen gäbe solte ein Auff Zug
oder Sonnate geblasen werden, bis er das Zeichen zum aufhören geben würde. Dann wann er zum dritten
mahle wincken würde, solte wiederumb Intrade gemachet werden, bis die Hohe Herrschafft zum Tauff
Steine gelanget wäre. Das Vierte Zeichen von Tauff Steine bis zum Altari wieder Intrade und Fünfftens
wenn die Hohe Herrschafft vom Altari weg gehe wiederumb Intrade bis zum Zeichen des Auffhörens
geblasen werden, diesen allen nun wäre genaue nach gebebet worden;’ Loc. cit., fols. 45b
-46a
.
147
‘Es möchte dieses aber dem Herrn Ober Trompeter verdroßen haben, daß er und seine Cammerraden
diesen des Componisten Zeichen gefolget hätten [...].’ Loc. cit., fol. 46a
.
148
‘[...] als die Intraden vorbeÿ gewesen gesehen, daß der Herr Ober Trompeter mit einen Zettel in der
hand habende zornnig vorbeÿ gefahren [...].’ Loc. cit., fol. 46b
.
149
For example, the planning for the churching states that the trumpets and timpani should be
heard for the fourth time when Maria Josepha and Friedrich August moved from the altar to the oratory:
‘4). Wann die Hohe Herrschafften von der Altar hin auf in das Oratorium gehen, und der durchl. Junge
Prinz wiederumb as der Kirchen getragen wird, zum vierdten mahlen [...].’ Loc. cit., fol. 44a
. Lorenz’s account,
however, shows that when Maria Josepha moved from the baptismal font to the altar the fanfares
were heard for the fourth time, and for the fifth time when she and her husband moved from the altar
to the oratory. Loc. cit., fol. 46a
.
150
‘Beÿ Ihro Königl: Hoheit der Chur-Fürstin Kirchgang den 23. Aug. 1733. haben die Churfürstl. HoffTrompeter
und Paucker folgendes zu observiren.’ Dreßden, den 22. Aug. 1733, loc. cit., fol. 44a-b
.
151
For example, for the churching of Prince Friedrich Christian on 18 October 1722, seven fanfares
were played: D-Dla, 10006 OHMA, A, Nr. 17, Geburt, Taufe und Einsegnung des Prinzen Friedrich Christian
(5. September 1722 – 17. Dezember 1763), Sohn von Kurfürst Friedrich August II. und Geburt, Taufe und
Einsegnung der Prinzessin (Maria) Amalia (24. November 1724 – 27. September 1760), Tochter von Kurfürst
Friedrich August II., 1722 [1724-1725], fols. 20a
-24a
. Planning for the churching of Princess Maria
Amalia on 6 January 1725 shows that five fanfares were supposed to be played: loc. cit., fol. 41a-b
. However,
the journal of the event clearly states that six fanfares were heard during the ceremony. Loc. cit.,
fols. 49a
-53b
.
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JanDismasZelenka’sLifeandMusicReconsidered(ZelenkaConferencePrague2015)
described, and the customary Aufzug afterwards when the electoral couple left the oratory for
their chambers in the palace.152
The number of fanfares played in 1733 matches the anonymous listing of 6 Marcie per la
Cavalleria in the music catalogue of the Elector Friedrich August III (King of Saxony from 1807
as Friedrich August I.)153
In his study of the music in the Catholic court church Otto Schmid
confirms that fanfares such as those attributed to Zelenka were always played during High
Mass or the Te Deum in former times. Moreover, Schmid added that he had found the music
in Zelenka’s collection.154
Indeed, the journal of the churching ceremony recorded that the
fanfares heard were newly composed by Zelenka: ‘Auch waren zweÿ Chöre von Trompeten und
Paucken formiret, und eine ganz neue componirte Musique von den Hr. Zelenka aufgeführet.’155
After examing the evidence presented here it is proposed that the 6 Marcie per la Cavalleria
(ZWV 212, now listed as ‘Sechs Trompeterfanfaren bzw. Reitermärche’ among the ‘Lost, Doubtful,
and Falsely Attributed Works’ in the Zelenka literature)156
should be moved into the canon
of authentic works by the composer, under the title most likely found on a now lost cover.
Several questions remain: why did Becke jeopardize the playing of the fanfares during the
churching ceremony? Why did he not discuss the directions with Zelenka before the event? Is it
possible that he was resentful or envious of Zelenka having been asked to compose the fanfares
for this occasion – a task Becke might have considered to be his? And was Becke dismissed because
of his actions? Only one year later his position had become vacant. In a petition presented
to the court on 18 December 1734 Christian Haase (one of the trumpeters who played for the
churching ceremony in August 1733) applied for the vacant Oberhoftrompeter position.157
 He
formally replaced Becke on 14 June 1735,158
and according to his sworn employment oath, one
of his obligations was to compose and invent new sonatas, ‘Auffzuge’, and other pieces, or to
obtain such works from others – exactly for occasions like the churching.159
No report exists
of Becke’s side in the hearing, which was dropped after Lorenz gave his damning testimony
about the actions of his superior.
Following the election of Friedrich August as King of Poland on 5 October 1733, a stream
of petitions with requests for unpaid salaries and promotions was sent from servants in
every department of the court to the new ruler. These are found all over the archival sources
from this period. Zelenka’s petitions from 24 October and 18 November for the position of
Kapellmeister are among many from the musicians of the Hofkapelle. It was only natural for
the composer to wish to renew his loyalties to the newly elected king with an appeal for a
formal title, while at the same time asking for renumeration of his considerable expenses – a
reasonable request which the court would later agree.
Much has been read into the response to Zelenka’s second petition that he should be patient:
‘Soll sich gedulden.’ This remark has been interpreted as a dismissive reply to Zelenka’s
request for the position of Kapellmeister and the back payment of monies owing to him. These
152
The 1735 HStCal edition, which reproduces the Court Marshal report of the churching, states that
five fanfares were heard and describes the ceremony according to the planning. However, the detailed
statement of Lorenz, given under oath only two days after the event, is clearly more reliable: ‘Dieses
alles seÿ die pure wahrheit, so er auff verlangen eÿdlich erhärtten könte.’ D-Dla, 10006 OHMA, A, Nr. 20,
[Vol. A] fol. 46b
.
153
D-Dl, Bibl. Arch. III Hb, Vol. 787 i. CATALOGO della Musica, e de’Libretti de S. M. Augusto III. la quale
si trova nella Bibliotecca Musicale, p. 34.
154
‘Jetzt werden die Intraden während des Hochamts und beim Tedeum von 2 Hoftrompetern und
2 Trompetern der Kapelle geblasen. Früher blies man noch am Schlusse des Tedeums und noch früher
auch noch der Hochämter 8- bis 16 taktige Fanfarenmärsche, wie solche, Zelenka zugeschriebene und als
(6) Marcie per la Cavalleria bezeichnete, der Verfasser unter dieses Meisters Noten fand.’ Schmid, Otto:
Die Kirchenmusik in der Katholischen (Hof-) Kirche zu Dresden. Ihre Geschichte und ihre Kunst- und Kulturgeschichtliche
Bedeutung [= Musik im alten Dresden – Mitteilungen des Vereins für Geschichte Dresdens,
29], Dresden: Verlag des Vereins für Geschichte Dresdens, 1921, pp. 5-6.
155
D-Dla, 10006 OHMA, A, Nr. 20, [Vol. A], fol. 25a
.
156
ZD ( note 3), v. 2, p. 310. The marches are listed in RISM as anonymous works, with cross reference
to Zelenka. The hand of the scribe is the copyist named by Wolfgang Horn as ‘ZS 2’, while Zelenka
has added ‘Tromba 1’, ‘Tromba 2’ etc., on the matching staves in the score.
157
D-Dla, 10026 Geh. Kab., Loc. 895/3, Ober- und Hoftrompeter, auch Feldtrompeter, 1698-1759, fol. 17a-b
.
158
Loc. cit., fol. 15a
.
159
D-Dla, 10006 OHMA, K 5, Nr. 5, Pflichtnotule von Hofämtern und Livreebedienten, 1733-1738, undated,
fols. 181a
-183b
.
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same words, however, appear on several petitions presented in 1733.160
Without doubt, this
response was given due to the dire financial situation in Saxony at that time. By 1734 the
coffers were empty. Although the sum of 670,000 Thaler was available on 5 February 1733, it
is estimated that the Dresden court spent a staggering 8 million Thaler to buy the loyalty of
the Polish magnates and to secure the Polish crown for the Saxon elector.161
 Thus, the response
to so many petitions – ‘Soll sich gedulden’ – must be considered within the economic context
of early 1734.
Likewise, the impression often has been given that Zelenka was in direct competition
with Hasse for the Kapellmeister position.162
Even the usually-reliable Moritz Fürstenau was
mistaken when he claimed that this position was unoccupied when Zelenka sent in his petitions
late in 1733.163
He clearly overlooked a draft contract held in the Saxon State Archives in
Dresden, which confirms that Hasse had been reaffirmed as Kapellmeister almost immediately
after August II passed away.164
Fürstenau’s unfortunate oversight resulted in the widespread
misunderstanding that Zelenka came second in a contest against Hasse for the Kapellmeister
position, and this interpretation has affected all considerations concerning this period of Zelenka’s
life. However, the sources are clear as to this point and the evidence of Hasse’s continued
employment by the Dresden court is seen in the libretto to his Siroe, which premiered in
Bologna on 2 May 1733. Here, the composer is named ‘Maestro di Cappella di S. A. R. l’Elettore
di Sassonia’.
It must have been apparent to Zelenka when he submitted his petitions that his colleague
Hasse was, and would remain, the senior Kapellmeister. Zelenka must have thought that the position
of a second Kapellmeister would become available given the fact that in the 1720s three
composers held this title at the same time: Schmidt, Heinichen and the Frenchman Louis André.
Instead, the official position of ‘Kirchen-Compositeur’ was created which was the equivalent of
a Vice-Kapellmeister position. Already after Hasse’s appointment in 1731 Zelenka was referred
to as Kapellmeister by the Jesuits, but o n l y when Hasse was absent from Dresden. This is
demonstrated in an entry into the Diarium Dresdae dated 4 November 1734 where Zelenka is
named ‘Kapellmeister’ following the departure of Hasse for Venice.165
Earlier that year, however,
on 30 January 1734 when a memorial service for August II was being planned just days before
Hasse’s arrival in Dresden, the Diarium Dresdae named Zelenka ‘Vice-Capellmeister’.166
It has
been observed that the working relationship between the two composers from 1731 onwards
presents a classic instance of a Kapellmeister and Vice-Kapellmeister collaboration.167
Zelenka’s
responsibilities during the absence of Hasse included the supply of compositions for the most
important events in the Catholic court church, either from his own pen, or from his personal
collection – a precedent already set in the instructions for Nicolaus Adam Strungk when appointed
Vice-Kapellmeister of the Dresden court in 1692:
160
Phrases such as ‘should be patient’ and ‘to be set aside because funds already disposed of’ appear
with tiresome regularity below similar appeals in the Dresden records of this era. Noted by Petzoldt,
Richard: ‘Economic Conditions of the 18th-Century Musician’, in: Salmen, Walter – Kaufman, Herbert –
Reisner, Barbara (eds.): The Social Status of the Professional Musician from the Middle Ages to the 19th
Century, New York: Pendragon, 1983, p. 168,
161
An overview of the financial situation in Saxony and the cost of securing the Polish crown is given
in: Boroviczeny, Aladár von: Graf von Brühl, Zürich – Leipzig – Wien: Amalthea-Verlag, 1930, pp. 116,
132.
162
See, for example, Reich, Wolfgang: ‘Ein ungeliebter Komponist? Zu Jan Dismas Zelenkas Stellung
in Dresden’, in: idem, Zwei Zelenka Studien [= Studien und Materialien zur Musikgeschichte Dresdens, 7],
Dresden: Sächsische Landesbibliothek – Hochschule für Musik “Carl Maria von Weber”, 1987, p. 11.
163
Fürstenau: Zur Geschichte der Musik und des Theaters am Hofe der Kurfürsten von Sachsen und
Könige von Polen ( note 131), p. 75.
164
Ágústsson, Jóhannes: ‘The Secular Vocal Collection of Jan Dismas Zelenka’ ( note 95), p. 30.
165
Diarium Dresdae, 4. 11. 1734: ‘In prandio nostro RR.DD. Assistentes cum Domino Zelenka Capellae
Magistro.’ (At our lunch there were the reverend assistants with the Kapellmeister, Domino Zelenka.)
166
Diarium Dresdae, 30. 1. 1734: ‘Insinuatum Domino Zelenka Vice-Capellae Magistro de futuro Requiem
1. Februarii pro Serenissimo Rege Augusto II’. (Notice was given to the Vice-Kapellmeister Zelenka
about the requiem on February 1st for King August II.) A further example of the Jesuits using these
terms when referring to Zelenka is seen in the documentation of Augustin Uhlig’s marriage on 14 January
1737, where Zelenka acted as witness alongside Pisendel at a time Hasse was away from Dresden:
‘D. Joan: Dismas Zelenka Königl. Capell-Meister.’ D-BAUd, Matrikula Matrimoniorum, 1709-1777, fol. 26a
.
167
Ágústsson: ‘The Secular Vocal Collection of Jan Dismas Zelenka’ ( note 95), pp. 21-22.
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Nebst dem soll Er, Unser Vice-Capell-Meister, schuldig seÿn, Sowohl in der Kirchen und beÿ
wehrenden Gottesdienste, als beÿ der Taffel mit seinen eigenen und andern Compositionen
die Music zu bestellen und zu dirigiren[…].168
In addition, our Vice-Capell-Master is obliged to supply and direct the Music of his own
compositions and that of others, in the church and during service, as well as at the Taffel.
On the same day Zelenka delivered the first petition, he also dedicated a set of eight Italian
arias to the new king and queen: Alcune Arie (ZWV 176). While it is generally believed
that these were meant to accompany his petition, it should be noted that Zelenka makes no
mention of them in his appeal. Recently, another hypothesis has been introduced to explain
Zelenka’s composition of these arias:169
they were destined to be ‘graduation’ pieces for the
young singers he had been teaching.170
On 21 December 1733 the Compositeur ‘Dismas Zelenca’, thirteen singers, and twenty-three
instrumentalists of the Dresden Hofkapelle, together with copyists, an instrument tuner, and a
servant, set out to attend the coronation in Cracow of the Saxon Elector and Electress as King
and Queen of Poland.171
Their travel arrangements are fully documented with two lists of seating
arrangements in the carriages showing that Zelenka travelled with the tenor Goetzel, and
the bassists Johann David Bahn and Ritszchel.172
Following their arrival in Bautzen, however,
the musicians were ordered to return to Dresden because the offer of the Polish magnates for
their musicians to perform at the coronation ceremony was accepted by the Dresden court.173
Nevertheless, before returning to Dresden, members of the Hofkapelle performed instrumental
and vocal Tafel Musique for Maria Josepha on 27 December, and on the following day they again
were heard when she and members of her court entered the St Petri Dom.174
On 30 December
the Diarium Dresdae noted that the Capella Regia had been ordered to return from Bautzen.175
Given the money spent and the planning that went into their departure for Poland, the
decision of August III to send his musicians back to Dresden is surprising. The newly-elected
king must have been under great pressure from the Polish nobility who had secured his contro-
168
D-Dla, 10036 Finanzarchiv, Loc. 33346, Rep. 52, Gen. Nr. 1968, Bestallungen von Hofdienern, Amtsleuten,
Schössern, Rittmeistern und Kriegsangestellten, 1691-1692, ‘Bestallung Vor den Vice-Capell Meister
und Cammer-Organisten, Nicolaum Adam Struncken,’ fol. 508b
.
169
Until now, the consensus among scholars has been that Zelenka presented the eight arias to the
court to demonstrate that he was able to write music in the Italian opera style. Stockigt, Jan Dismas
Zelenka ( note 3), p. 203.
170
Proposed by Ágústsson: ‘The Secular Vocal Collection of Jan Dismas Zelenka’ ( note 95), pp. 31-
32. The author suggests that the five soprano arias were written, one each, for Venturini, Bindi, Cattanea,
Maria Rosa Negri and her sister Anna, while the two alto arias might have been composed for the senior
singer of the group Annibali, who at that time had already performed in opera houses in Italy and Vienna.
That leaves the sole bass aria and it is suggested that it was composed for Zelenka’s young student
and fellow Bohemian, the Kapellknabe Ritzschel. On 20 October, four days before Zelenka dedicated his
arias, Ritzschel’s petition for a position as a bass singer in the Hofkapelle was presented at court. Three
weeks later, on 12 November, he was formally accepted into the Hofkapelle. D-Dla, 10026 Geh. Kab., Loc.
907/4, Die italienischen Sänger und Sängerinnen, das Orchester, die Tänzer und Tänzerinnen, auch andere
zur Oper gehörige Personen, 1733-1739, 1801-1802, fols. 5a
-7a
. The Negri sisters received a small rise to
their salaries from 1 November: loc. cit., fol. 108a
.
171
D-Dla, OHMA 10006, D, Nr. 16 C, Krönungsreise des Kurfürsten Friedrich August II, 1733-1734, ‘Capelle
so mit Post nacher Cracau von Dresden in December abgegangen.’ ‘NB: Ist in Bauzen contramandiret
worden’, fols. 247a
-249a
.
172
Loc. cit., ’Fortkommen. Vor die Capell-Music von Dreßden nach Cracau Mense Decembr: 1733’,
fols. 257a
-259a
. A court scribe drew up a third list placing Zelenka in a carriage with the lutenist Weiss,
souffleur Antonio Maria Cattaneo (brother of the soprano Maria Santina and the violinist Francesco Maria,
both members of the Dresden Hofkapelle), and Cammer Organist Ristori, but this plan was abandoned.
173
Kern Dreßdnischer Merckwürdigkeiten, No. I. Dieses 1734sten Jahres. Mensis Januarii. Erste Abteilung,
p. 3: ‘Nachdem die Königl. Virtuosen, so nach Cracau mit gehen sollen, in Budißin Ordre erhalten,
zurück zu kehren, so sind dieselben am 30. Dec. wieder allhier ankommen, die Haupt=Ursache soll seyn,
daß sich verschiedene Pohln. Magnaten offediret, ihre Hof-Musicos zu Dienst Ihro Königl. Majest. bey der
Crönung nach Cracau kommen zu lassen.’
174
D-Dla, OHMA 10006, D, Nr. 16 C, fol. 265a
.
175
Diarium Dresdae, 30. 12. 1733, where it is noted that an organist on loan from Graupen had been
sent back because of the unexpected return of the royal musicians: ‘[…] quia musici Capellae Regiae
Budissina iussi sunt redire adeoque illo opus amplius non habuimus […]’.
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versial election in the second round of voting. Zelenka, however, was deprived of what would
have been one of his finest moments: to provide the music for the coronation of his king. On
the other hand, the fact that Zelenka had travelled to Poland in the role of a Compositeur and
with his works in his luggage demonstrates the position he held late in 1733 and the high
opinion August III had of his music. For the ceremony in Tarnowitz on 6 January 1734, where
the Saxon elector swore and signed the Pacta Conventa oath to become king, Zelenka’s Te Deum
of 1731 would have been required, while for funeral ceremonies for the late August II held in
Cracow on 15 January 1734 it would have been expected that the music he had composed for
the Dresden exequies in April 1733 would again be performed. For the coronation ceremony
on 17 January in Cracow, his Te Deum would have been heard once more.176
1734-1739
During the following year Zelenka’s activities as a music director in the Catholic court church
continued, but the burdens of the previous years must have eased considerably following
Hasse’s return to Dresden on 3 February. On 27 March August III and Maria Josepha returned
from Poland. In the next few months they made frequent journeys outside Dresden before travelling
once more to their kingdom at the beginning of November where they were to remain
for almost two years. During the days leading up to Holy Week in 1734 it is proposed that
Zelenka composed the motets Barbara dira effera (ZWV 164) and Sollicitus fossor (ZWV 209,
almost certainly an original composition by Zelenka, but currently entered in the Worklists
under ‘Lost, Doubtful or Falsely Attributed Works’) to be inserted into Leonardo Leo’s oratorio
Sant’Elena al Calvario which was performed in the St Salvatore church of Prague’s Clementinum
College.177
The watermark on the paper used for each score also is seen in Zelenka’s secular
motet of one movement: Qui nihil sortis (ZWV 211).
Reports appearing in the Diarium Dresdae of Zelenka directing the music in the Catholic
court church for the remainder of 1734 include his oratorio of 1730, Il serpente del bronzo
(ZWV 61) on Good Friday (see below), an ‘elegant’ memorial Requiem on 17 April for Maria
Josepha’s father, Joseph I,178
and a Solemn Mass sung for the Feast of St Caecilia, on which occasion
Zelenka requested the high altar to be adorned with eighteen candles.179
Perhaps this
was his thanksgiving for receiving the title of ‘Kirchen-Compositeur’ which formally had been
conferred upon him by September 1734.180
Whether or not the following persons in Dresden named Zelenka (or similar) were relatives
of Jan Dismas remains to be proven: On 12 May 1735 the Dresden concertmaster Pisendel stood
as a godfather to Eleonore Catharina Kuklinsky, daughter of Lucas Kuklinsky and Anna Barbara
Zelenka, whose father Wenceslaus Zelenka (or Zelenki) was a citizen of Prague.181
Earlier, in
1732 Anna Barbara Zelenka had been a witness to the marriage between Antonius Ferdinandus
Weyrauh Silessiensis and Maria Catherina Hermanin Boëma Pravensis [!],182
while in 1738 Anna
Hedwigis Zelenska was a witness to the marriage of Stanislaus Wyschymiski and Ludovica
Koschinska.183
A cousin (Vetter) of Zelenka also appears in records, and is referred to below.
Two important works came from Zelenka’s pen in 1735: on 30 January his newly composed
Litaniae Omnium Sanctorum (ZWV 153) was performed in the Catholic court church,184
and on
Good Friday the oratorio Gesù al Calvario (ZWV 62) was heard. The diary of the 15-year-old
Saxon Crown Prince Friedrich Christian provides new information on the performance of the
176
Information on the coronation ceremonies in Poland is given in: D-Dla, OHMA 10006, D, Nr. 16 E,
Krönungsreise des Kurfürsten Friedrich August II., 1734, and in the HStCal edition of 1735.
177
Freemanová, Michaela and Stockigt, Janice B.: ‘Jan Dismas Zelenka and a Prague performance of
Sant’ Elena al Calvario by Leonardo Leo (1734): An hypothesis’, Hudební věda 51/1-2 (2014), pp. 149-160.
178
Diarium Dresdae, 17. 4. 1734: ‘Hora 11. Requiem solenne anniversarium pro Imperatore Josepho.
Rex interfuit toti cantato sacro, musicam elegantem produxit D. Zelenka.’
179
Diarium Dresdae, 22. 11. 1734: ‘Festum musicorum. Hora 11. Cantatum solennissimum cum assistentia,
pro qua supplicavit D. Zelenka per literas 18 candelae ornatum magis altare.’
180
We are grateful to Dr Ruth Tatlow, who advises that in 1734 the theoretician Joannes ab Unterberg
considered the number 18 [3 x 6] to be perfect. Joannes ab Unterberg: Omne Trinum Perfectum. Sive
Triplex Tractatus de Numeris […], Augsburg: Klugheimer, 1734, pp. 65-66.
181
Köpp, Johann Georg Pisendel (1687-1755) ( note 50), p. 173, and Dok. 49, p. 450.
182
ZD ( note 3), v. 1, p. 94.
183
D-BAUd, Matrikula Matrimoniorum, fol. 29v
.
184
’Diarium Dresdae’ 30. 1. 1735: ‘Hora 11 dictae sunt duae missae coram exposito Venerabili, sub
quibus in choro cantantur Litaniae de OO.SS. quas novas composuit D. Zelenka.’
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two oratorios heard during Good Friday and Holy Saturday in 1735.185
The prince wrote that
on Good Friday he listened to Gesù al Calvario, whereas on Holy Saturday Zelenka’s Il Serpente
del bronzo was performed – which, according to the prince, was a repeat of the same work
heard during the previous year:
Le. 8.e
Avril [1735].
J’allai à 9. heures du matin au sermon et je restai a l’Eglise jusqu’a la fin de toute la
devotion. A mon retour je trouvai beaucoup de monde dans mon antichambre. J’assistai
à 4. heures aux Tenebres à 6. heures et ¼ j’allai saluer le saint sepulchre et j’y restai pendant
une heure. Il y eut à 8. heures un Oratoire fort beau de la Composition de Selenca
intitulé Giesu al Calvario[.] Je mi trouvai avec mes Chers Freres, et Soeurs, et M.e
la Psse
de
Weissenfels. L’Oratoire dura au de là de deux heures.186
Translation:
8 April [Good Friday 1735]
At 9 o’clock in the morning I went to the sermon, and I remained at the church until
the very end of the service. On my return I found many people in my antechamber. At
4 o’clock I was present for the Tenebrae service, and at a quarter past 6 I went to pay my
respects to the Holy Sepulchre, remaining there for an hour. At 8 o’clock there was a very
beautiful oratorio composed by Zelenka with the title of Giesù al Calvario[.] I attended it
with my dear brothers and sisters, together with Madam the Princess of Weissenfels. The
oratorio lasted over two hours.
Pour Sa Majesté Le Roy. Suite du Journal.
Le 9.e
Avril [1735].
Presque Toute la journée du Samedy Saint fût employée au Service Divin[.] Je me trouvai
a l’Eglise depuis les dix heures jusqu’a douze. J’y retournai a deux heures l’apres dine et
j’assistai à un Oratoire de la composition de Selenca intitulé Il serpente del bronzo qu’il
avoit dejà produit l’année passé. Cet Oratoire ne dura que cinq quarts d’heure. Je jouai apres
cela un peu au billard pour degourdir mes pieds. Vers les 8. heures du soir Je retournai
pour la quatrieme fois à l’Eglise on y celebra la Resurection du Savueur avec toutes les
formalités accoutumées.187
Translation:
For His Majesty the King. Continuation of the journal
9 April [Holy Saturday 1735]
Almost all of Holy Saturday was given over to Divine Service. I was at the church from
ten o’clock until twelve. I returned there at two in the afternoon and heard an oratorio
by Zelenka entitled Il serpente di bronzo which he had already produced the previous year.
This oratorio lasted only an hour and a quarter. After that I played billiards a little in order
to loosen up my legs. Towards 8 o’clock in the evening I returned for the fourth time to the
church for the celebration of the Resurrection of the Saviour with the usual formalities.
These two diary entries of Friedrich Christian clarify a misconception found in the literature
on Gesù al Calvario, where it is claimed that the work was composed and performed in two
parts.188
This presumption is based on the entry in the diary of the Jesuits, which states that
on Holy Saturday the oratorio of Zelenka was heard again (which we now know is a reference
to the previous year’s performance of Il serpente di bronzo), and an Avertimento which accompanies
both the set of parts and the presentation copy of Gesù al Calvario. Here, Zelenka advises
that the oratorio should be heard over two days because it is too long to be performed in one
185
Entries with musical references from the diaries and account books of Friedrich Christian will be
published by Ágústsson, Jóhannes: ‘The Saxon Crown Prince Friedrich Christian: The Dresden Diaries and
Account Books’, in: Sammeln – Musizieren – Forschen. Zur Dresdner höfischen Musik des 18. Jahrhunderts.
International Kolloquium, Sächsische Landesbibliothek, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden, 21. bis
23. Januar, 2016, forthcoming.
186
D-Dla, 12527 Fürstennachlass Friedrich Christian, Kurfürst von Sachsen, Nr. 261, Journaux 1732-
1738, fol. 151a-b
. This entry and the next, each in draft form and including corrections and deletions in
two additional hands, have been edited for clarity.
187
D-Dla, 12527 Fürstennachlass Friedrich Christian, Kurfürst von Sachsen, Nr. 261, fol. 152a
.
188
See, for example, Horn, Die Dresdner Hofkirchenmusik ( note 17), p. 93.
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day.189
This, however, was not how he devised his composition. Following the performance on
Good Friday Zelenka might have considered the work to be too long – a performance which,
according to the prince, lasted for two hours.
Another important aspect of Friedrich Christian’s entry is seen in his description of Gesù
al Calvario, which he considered to be ‘very beautiful.’ Since the journal entries of the prince
at that time formed the basis of the letters he sent to his parents in Poland, August III and
Maria Josepha would have learned of the impression left on their son by Zelenka’s work only
days after the performance. When Zelenka’s oratorio I penitenti al Sepolcro del Redentore
(ZWV 63) was performed on Good Friday in 1736 the prince again described the music as ‘very
beautiful’.190
In or about 1735 Zelenka also re-organised many psalms of his own composition (excluding
those from the thirty-three Psalmi Vespertini totius anni) and those from his collection, including
a few additional works unlisted in the Inventarium that must have come to him after about
1730 when he ceased entering newly acquired settings of Vespers psalms and Masses.191
Titled
Psalmi varii, this collection comprises those psalms required only for a Vesperae de Confessore,
which also are those used for Sunday Vespers: ps. 109 (Dixit Dominus); ps. 110 (Confitebor
tibi Domine); ps. 111 (Beatus vir); ‘ps. 112 (Laudate pueri); ps. 148 (Laudate Dominu[m] omnes
gentes); and the canticle Magnificat.192
With few exceptions, the vocal requirements are ‘à 4’
(SATB, but occasionally ‘à 5’, or solo vocal combinations) with a mainly standardised instrumental
accompaniment of violins 1 and 2, oboes 1 and 2, viola, and organ (without basso continuo).
This collection of Vespers compositions in the ‘mediocre’ (or the ‘ordinary’ style) suggests that
by the mid-1730s the direction of Sunday Vespers had become a principal responsibility for
Zelenka.193
During 1736 an improvement in the finances of the Dresden court becomes apparent following
a long period of decline. From this year onwards a systematic effort was made to raise
the salaries of the members of the Hofkapelle. This culminated in the summer of 1738 when
twenty-one musicians and two copyists received a rise – especially those who had families.194
Whether Zelenka had any family members living with him at that time is not known, but on
29 February 1736 he finally received his long-awaited salary increase and remuneration for
expenses incurred in Vienna and for the copying of music – remunerations he had requested
in 1733 and 1736. The salary rise (zulage) of 250 Thaler backdated to 1 January 1736, took his
annual income from 550 to 800 Thaler.195
189
‘Avertimento. Oratorio presente perche sarebbe troppo lungo per un giorno solo, servirà per dui
giorni, cioè per Venerdi, e per Sabbatto Santó. Venerdi Santo Si finisce col Coro di Giudei. Sabbatto Santo,
si ripiglia L’Introduzzione, col reitativo: O Figlie di Sionne e col Coro delle Virgini: Misera Madre, doppo
il quale Siegue Coro di Giudei con tutto il resto sino al fine.’ D-Dl, Mus. 2358-D-1b, note in the hand of
Zelenka, p. 2
190
‘J’allai à 9. heures à l’Eglise et j’y assistai à toute le service Divin. A quatre heures je fus aux
Tenebres et à 8 heures à l’Oratoire que Palavicini à composé et qui fus mis en musique par Selenca.
Il etoit intitulé I Penitenti al Sepolcro del Redentore. Cett’ Oratoire etoit fort beau et il a duré une
heure et demy. d’autant plus l’on le Poete a fait cet oratoire fort cour mais le maitr de chapelle y a fair.’
D-Dla, 12527 Fürstennachlass Friedrich Christian, Kurfürst von Sachsen, Nr. 261, entry 30 March 1736,
fol. 302b
.
191
Zelenka’s acquisitions of Masses and Vespers works are discussed in a paper by Janice B. Stockigt,
‘Transmission of sacred music between Bohemia and Dresden as seen in the collection of Jan Dismas
Zelenka (1679-1745)’ in: Sammeln – Musizieren – Forschen. Zur Dresdner höfischen Musik des 18. Jahrhunderts.
International Kolloquium, Sächsische Landesbibliothek, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden,
21. bis 23. Januar, 2016, forthcoming.
192
Psalmi varii, MS, D-Dl, Bibl. Arch. III H 790f. The numbers given by Zelenka (‘Nro
19no
’, etc.) suggest
that this inventory comes from a greater catalogue, now missing.
193
After the three classifications of ecclesiastical musical styles in use in Imperial Viennese churches:
‘in contrapunto’ (a cappella, used for Lent, Pre-Lent, Advent, and particular offices); ‘mediocre’ music
(ordinary [gewöhnliche] liturgical music composed in the ‘stilus mixtus’ of moderate length and modest
musical resources for Sunday services and feasts of intermediate rank; ‘solenne’ music (music for
high feast days, of greater length and richer orchestration – including trumpets and timpani). See
Riedel, Friedrich W.: Kirchenmusik am Hofe Karls VI. (1711-1740), Munich and Salzburg: Katzbichler,
1977, p. 68.
194
Landmann, Ortrun: ‘Hassiana im Sächsischen Hauptstaatsarchiv zu Dresden: Annotierte Dokumentation
einer Auswahl von Schriftstücken’, Hasse-Studien 7 (2012), pp. 16-18.
195
D-Dla, 10026 Geh. Kab., Loc. 907/4, fol. 52a-b
.
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While it is known that in April 1728 Zelenka lived in Dresden-Neustadt,196
by 1736 ‘So-
lencky – Capellmeister’ had moved across the Elbe River to a house in Moritzstrasse.197
On
7 August of that year, August III and Maria Josepha returned to Dresden after spending almost
two years in Poland. Upon arrival they were greeted by spectacular illuminations which
continued over three nights. These were witnessed by the royal couple who drove through
the city viewing the sights and receiving homage. Zelenka was one of the many citizens of
Dresden who welcomed the king and queen with a decoration. He honoured them by adorning
his bay window with a symbolic painting of the Saxon Genius paying tribute to the king and
queen. This picture, probably painted by the composer himself, contained a chronogram of the
type he so often used which gave the the year 1736. Below his bay window two portraits of
August III and Maria Josepha were positioned under a canopy. A description of Zelenka’s decoration
was given in a commemorative publication, where his contribution was listed among the
exceptional displays seen in the city:
No. 262. In des Hrn. Hof=Rath Fuhrmanns Hause auf der Moritz-Straße, war in der andern
Etage bey dem Königl. Compositeur, Hrn. Joh. Dismas Zelencka, besonders im Ercker
angebracht: Es praesentirte sich die Sonne und der Mond am Himmel. Rechter Hand stund
der Genius Saxoniae im Chur=Habit, auf einem erhabenen Orte, unter einem Palm=Baume,
welcher den in Pohlen hergebrachten Frieden vorstellete. Mit der rechten Hand hielt er das
Chur=Sächß. Wappen, mit der Lincken aber zeigete er gen Himmel auf die stehende Sonne
und Mond, die Worte: Ex Libr. Josuae Cap. X. v. 13. sprechende:
Steterunt Sol & Luna.
Lincker Hand weiter herunter sahe man auf einer Landschafft eine kostbahre offene Chaise
mit 6. Pferden bespannet, worinnen Beyde Königl. Königl. Maj. Maj. und zwar der König als
Sieger, mit dem Lorbeer=Crantze becrönet, saßen, und durch eine weiter forne aufgerichtete
Ehren=Pforte einfuhren. Nicht weit von dieser Ehren=Pforte zeigete sich die Sächsische
Unterthänigkeit und Treue, mit einem Knie auf der Erden kniende, und überreichete von
weiten einen Zaum, als ein Symbolum des Gehorsams, folgende Chronographische Worte
gegen beyde Königl. Maj. Maj. demüthigst sprechende:
ReX sta! sta Regina! abfVIstIs; & hostes DebeLLastIs
	 faVore: State! & faVentes VInCIte aMore
Die Bedeutung und Application wird jedwedem Nachsinnenden zu errathen nicht schwer
fallen. Unter dem Ercker=Fenster selbst aber waren beyder Königl. Königl. Maj. Maj. Portraits
unter einem Baldachine ausgestellet.198
Translation:
On the second floor of the house of Privy Counsellor Fuhrmann in Moritzstrasse, the
following was especially displayed in the bay window of the Royal Compositeur, Herr Jan
Dismas Zelencka: The sun and the moon were shown in the sky. To the right the Genius
Saxoniae dressed in the electoral attire stood in an elevated location under a palm tree
representing the peace that had been achieved in Poland. In his right hand he held the
Saxon Electoral Coat of Arms and with his left hand he pointed up towards the sun and
the moon, where the words from the Book of Joshua, Ch. X, v. 13, were written:
Steterunt Sol & Luna.
[The sun and the moon stood still.]
To the left, set in a landscape a sumptuous (kostbahre) six-horse open coach in which sat
both royal Majesties, the king crowned as victor with a wreath of laurel, entering through
an arch of honor […] Not far from the arch representations of Saxon Subservience and
196
The year 1728 is given in a chronogram with Zelenka’s Canon (ZWV 179). ZD ( note 3), v. 1,
pp. 83-84.
197
Das ietztlebende Königliche DRESDEN in Meißen, Vorstellende den im Jahre MDCCXXXVIII. befindlichen
und darinnen sich würcklich wohnhafft aufhaltenden Resp. Königl. und Churfl. Hof-, Regierungs-, Militair-,
Hauß-, Kirchen- und Privat-Etaat. Dresden: 1738, p. 87.
198
Das Frolockende Dreßden, Oder Beschreibung Derer prächtigen Illuminationen, Welche, als Ihro Königl.
Maj. in Pohlen und Churfl. Durchl. zu Sachsen Fridericus Augustus, nebst Dero Aller-Durchlauchtigsten
Gemahlin Majestät, zu höchsterwünschter Freude des Chur-Fürstenthums Sachsen in Dero Residenz Dresden
Nach hergestellter Ruhe in Pohlen, höchstglücklich zurücke angelanget. Den 7. 8. und 9. Aug. 1736, drey
Abende hintereinander praesentiret, Und der Posterität zum Andencken im Druck mitgetheilet worden,
Dresden: Krause, 1736. See: http://digitale.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/urn/urn:nbn:de:gbv:3:1-154575.
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Fidelity were seen on bended knee handing over a bridle symbolising obedience, whilst
saying or directing the following chronogram towards Their Royal Majesties:
ReX sta! sta Regina! abfVIstIs; & hostes DebeLLastIs
	 faVore: State! & faVentes VInCIte aMore199
[King, stay! Stay Queen! You were absent and overcame your enemies with kindness
(favore). Remain, and win over (ie. defeat) your well-wishers with love].
With some thought, the meaning and application will not be too difficult to comprehend.
Below the bay window itself was exhibited the two royal portraits under a baldachin.
Zelenka’s final secular work is a serenata whose title now is known to be Il Diamante
(ZWV 176) following the discovery of a printed libretto in the Saxon State Archives, Dresden.200
The music, which was heard at a noble wedding in Dresden on 28 February 1737, was commissioned
by Maria Josepha in mid-December 1736, and it almost certainly was presented as
a surprise for the bride and groom and the guests. The full royal orchestra and the Italian
singers performed the serenata with Hasse directing the music from the keyboard. It is the
first of only two known instances where Hasse directed a secular work by another composer
during his tenure in Dresden, and further confirms the close working relationship between
the two men.201
The final recitative and aria of ‘Venere’ was almost certainly sung by Faustina.
During the mid-1730s Zelenka appears to have developed strong ties with trusted servants
of the Dresden court who were close to Maria Josepha. One example from 1 August 1738
demonstrates that both ‘D. Joan. Lucas Zelenka Musicus’ and Franciscus Lauch, a Cammerdiener
of the queen, were witnesses to the christening of the son of the Stubenheitzer, Christiano
Tommaso, who at that time was responsible for heating the rooms of Saxon Princess Maria
Christina.202
The child was given the same names Zelenka also had received at christening:
Ignatius Lucas.
The recent recovery of over four more years of the Diarium Dresdae with entries from 1739
to 1742 provides additional details of Zelenka’s work in the Catholic court church.203
We learn
that in the absence of most of the royal and electoral family Zelenka produced the oratorio on
Good Friday (which stirred pious pity204
), and again and Holy Saturday 1739. On that same day
the court diary recorded that it had snowed all week and the cold was severe.205
Such weather
reports are regularly seen in Dresden journals during this hard winter. As late as mid-May the
court physicians asked whether they should prescribe free medicine to the seven Kapellknaben
to ensure their wellbeing.206
The king became so ill he could not leave his room for a week,207
while the Saxon Prime Minister Count Heinrich Brühl was indisposed for most of May and June.
Zelenka also suffered at this time, and during his illness he made a pledge to compose a
Mass upon recovery. He fulfilled this vow by composing the Missa votiva (ZWV 18). This must
be the new mass by Zelenka reported in the Diarium Dresdae as being heard in the Catholic
court church on 2 July – feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin: ‘Sacrum novum produxit
D. Zelenka.’ The sixth movement of Missa votiva, which could be considered the core of this
199
X I V I I D L L I V V V I C I M: 10 + 1 + 5 + 1 + 1+ 500 + 50 + 50 + 1 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 1 + 100 + 1 +
1000 = 1736.
200
Ágústsson, Jóhannes: ‘Zelenka’s Serenata ZWV 177: a new source discovered’, Hudební věda 46/1-2
(2009), pp. 207-210.
201
Hasse directed the intermezzo La Serva padrona by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi on 8 February 1740,
see Mennicke, Carl: Hasse und die Brüder Graun als Symphoniker ( note 128), p. 388,
202
D-BAUd, Taufbuch. Christian Tommaso (also Tomaso; Thomaso; Thommaso) also heated the rooms
of Saxon princesses Maria Margaretha (HStCal 1735), Maria Amalia (HStCal 1736-1738), and Maria
Anna (from 1739 until her departure for Munich in 1747). Tommaso followed Maria Anna to Munich
and remained there in her service. Reich, Wolfgang: ‘Zelenka ante portas’, Ars Musica Jahrbuch (1994),
pp. 28-42, at p. 31.
203
Published by Poppe, ‘Ein weiterer Faszikel aus dem Diarium Missionis Societatis Jesu Dresdae wiederaufgefunden’
( note 71), pp. 193-204.
204
‘[…] Oratorium musicum sacris Veneris et Sabbati diebus ad piam compassionem resonaret.’ ARSI,
Boh. 158, Annuae Literae Regiae Missionis Societatis IESU Dresdensis ad annum 1739, p. 39.
205
D-Dla, 10006 OHMA, O 1, Nr. 7, Dresdner Hoftagebücher (Serie A), 1739, entry 28 March, unfoliated.
206
D-Dla, 10006 OHMA, T 1, Nr. 11C, Königliche Hofapothekenfreiheit, 1730 [1739], letter from ‘Königl.
Hoff Apothecke’, Dresden, 14 May 1739, fol. 111a-b
.
207
Wienerisches Diarium, Anno 1739. (Num. 40.) 20. Majus, ‘Dresden 9. May’, pp. 416-417. The next
issues of this newspaper reported on the illness of the king and Count Brühl.
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work, is centred around the text ‘Gratias agimus tibi’ (We give Thee thanks). Zelenka’s gratitude
upon recovery from this bout of ill health is expressed in a series of choral repetitions of the
text ‘Gratias agimus tibi’ set against a pulsating orchestral accompaniment which interrupt the
remaining text of the movement: ‘Domine Deus […] Filius Patris.’ The structural model for this
movement seems to be a Mass setting by Domenico Sarro (1679-1744) which Zelenka listed into
his Inventarium early in the 1730s and reworked for a performance in Dresden, naming it Missa
Adjutorium nostrum in nomine Domini.208
Missa votiva is Zelenka’s final Inventarium listing, and
it is among the last of Zelenka’s autograph scores whose dedication formulae end with ‘P J R’.
Zelenka’s last-known work to bear these initials is Missa ultimarum sexta et forte omnium
ultima: Missa Omnium Sanctorum (ZWV 21) whose dedication and date appear at the conclusion
of the Gloria: ‘A M D G B M V OO SS H AA P J R: 1741 3 Februarii’. The tenor aria ‘Christe
eleison’ of this Mass was almost certainly composed for the Italian opera singer Filippo Giorgi,
who was employed with his wife Catarina (soprano) in Dresden between 1740 and 1741. After
Giorgi returned to Italy Zelenka might have written the alto aria Christe eleison (ZWV 29) as
a replacement, as indeed has been suggested.209
Late in October 1739 the ‘Composit[eur]. Zelenca’ travelled to Wermsdorf with five singers
and fourteen instrumentalists to perform the Mass for the churching ceremony of Maria
Josepha held on the high feast day of All Saints – 1 November – in the chapel of Hubertusburg,
the court’s hunting palace.210
The identity of the work was played for the occasion can only be
guessed.211
The singers sent to Hubertusburg were the soprano Venturini, altos Annibali and
‘Nicolini’ (Nicolo Pozzi), tenor Goetzel, and the bass Bahn. While the Italians were accommodated
in the palace, Goetzel, Bahn and the fourteen instrumentalists, in addition to the concertmaster
Pisendel (who had been in Hubertusburg during the month of October), lodged at the
nearby village of Mutzschen. No accommodation details are given for Zelenka who, according
to his position and rank, also should have stayed at the hunting palace Hubertusburg.212
The archival documentation of this churching ceremony shows that Zelenka and Pisendel
corresponded during the days leading up to the event, with the former probably informing the
latter of which musicians were available in Dresden. For example, the soprano castrato Bindi,
whose presence would have been required, had been expected to return from Italy in time for
the churching but was delayed, arriving in Dresden two days after the event.213
(The absence of
a second solo soprano would have had a bearing on the work[s] that could be performed in association
with Maria Josepha’s churching ceremony). Meanwhile, Pisendel wrote to Zelenka requesting
that a positiv should be brought to the palace one day before the musicians arrived.214
208
D-Dl Mus. 2356-D-1 [olim Mus. 2358-D-42]. Zelenka acquired the ‘Kyrie’ and ‘Gloria’ of this Mass
between 1730 and 1732. He shortened the ‘Gloria’ and ‘stretched’ the setting by adding a ‘Credo’ setting.
Horn, Die Dresdner Hofkirchenmusik ( note 17), pp. 177-179. On this Mass, see also, Stockigt, Janice:
‘Missa votiva (ZWV 18) 1739 by Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679-1745)’, Context 34 (2009), pp. 43-48.
209
ZD ( note 3), v. 1, Dok. 73a, p. 150.
210
This churching followed the birth of Prince Clemens Wenceslaus August Hubert Franz Xaver at
Hubertusburg 28 September 1739. The journey of Zelenka and the Hofkapelle was first reported by
Landmann, Ortrun: ‘Musikpflege in der Herbstresidenz Hubertusburg’, in: Schloß Hubertusburg. Werte
einer sächsischen Residenz [= Saxonia. Schriftenreihe des Vereins für sächsische Landesgeschichte e. V.,
3], Dresden, 1997, p. 60.
211
The HStCal edition of 1741 reported that the royal orchestra was heard during the High Service
(Hoch-Amt): ‘Um 11. Uhr erhoben sich beyderseits Königl. Majestäten wieder in die Capelle, da denn von
dem Herrn Nuntio ein Hoch-Amt gelhalten ward, wobey nicht allein das Königl. Orchestre aufwartete,
sondern auch bey der Elevation Sanctissimi, dem Pater noster, und der Benediction iedesmahl 25. CanonSchüsse
aus denen vor dem Schloß nach Reckwitz zu aufgeführten Stücken geschahen.’ The music
possibly performed on this occasion is suggested by Stockigt, Janice B.: ‘“After Six Weeks”’, p. 196, and
pp. 205-206.
212
The instrumentalists sent to Hubertusburg on 30 October were: violinists Carl Matthias Lehneis,
Joseph Titterle, and Johann Georg Fickler; viola players Morgenstern and Johann Adam; the cellist Rossi;
contrabassist Kästner; oboists Richter and Hugo; flautists Buffardin and Quantz; bassoonist Carl Morasch,
and Uhlig who played the positiv. D-Dla, 10006 OHMA, I, Nr. 66b, König Friedrich August III. und dessen
Gemahlin Herbstreise und Hoflager in Hubertusburg, August-Dezember 1739, fol. 139a
. Zelenka travelled
to Hubertusburg in a wagon with Goetzel, Rossi and Richter. Loc. cit., fol. 142a
.
213
‘Den 3.ten
[November]. Diesen Tag ist das Königl. Orchestre auf 4. Gutschen und 1. Rüstwagen, voraus
die Instrumenta, von Hubertusburg wieder anher gekommen. Auch kame der Königl. Capell-Musicus
M.r
Bindi mit seiner Schwester von Venedig wieder anher.’ D-Dla, 10006 OHMA, O 1, Nr. 7, unfoliated.
214
‘Auch giebt der Stall 2. gelbe Callechen, davon 1. mit dem Organisten Gräbner und dem Pos[i]tive,
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1740-1745
The discovery by Szymon Paczkowski of a panegyric in honour of the Dresden Hofkapelle written
by Johann Gottlob Kittel (‘Micrander’) strengthens further our current knowledge of the
esteem in which Zelenka was held as both a composer and as a person.215
Of the twenty-three
Hofkapelle members chosen for special praise by Kittel, Zelenka is listed third, immediately
after the tributes to Kapellmeister Hasse and Faustina. This is in accordance with the hierarchy
of the Hofkapelle at that time.216
Of Zelenka, Kittel wrote:
ZELENCA ward hierauff von Phoebus auch erblicket,
Der dessen billig Lob, wie folget, ausgedrücket:
	 Du hochgepriesener, vollkommner VIRTUOS,
	 Dein selbst erworbner Ruhm ist Welt-bekannt und groß;
Du kanst zu GOttes Ehr, die Seelen zu ergötzen,
Auf das beweglichste die Kirchen=Stücken setzen,
	 Die also rührend sind, daß die andächtge Brust
	 Den Vorschmack schon empfindt von jener Himmels-Lust;
Dahero wird Dein Lob nach Deinen Nahmen * grünen,
Sowohl auf Erden hier, als in den Sternen=Bühnen.
[* Zelenca heißt auf Teutsch grün.]
Translation:
ZELENCA was then also spotted by Phoebus
Who expressed his praise justly as follows:
	 You most highly regarded, perfect VIRTUOSO
	 Your fame, all of your own making, is world renowned and great;
To delight the soul in God’s honour
You are able to write church music in the most stimulating manner,
	 which is so touching that the rapt breast
	 receives a foretaste of those heavenly pleasures;
That is why your praise will * green according to your name
both here on earth as on the celestial stage.
[Footnote: * Zelenca means green in German.]
Note that Zelenka is pronounced to be a ‘Virtuoso’, a descriptor given to no other musician
except for the lutenist Weiss. Zelenka also is mentioned in a passage concerned with his colleague,
the church composer and former horn player, Tobias Buz:217
weswegen Mr. Pisendel an Mr. Zelencka geschrieben, donnerstags abegehen muß [...].’ D-Dla, 10006
OHMA, I, Nr. 66c, König Friedrich August III. und dessen Gemahlin Herbstreise und Hoflager in Hubertusburg,
August-Dezember 1739, letter of secretary Müldener to secretary Reichenbach, Hubertusburg,
27 October 1739, fol. 285b
. Another letter was sent to Zelenka the next day, almost certainly by Pisendel:
‘9. Beÿliegende brief an dem Hr. Compositor Zelencka bitte also bald dem Instrumentdienern zu ferneren
bestallung zu stellen zu laßen.’ Müldener to Reichenbach, Hubertusburg, 28 October 1739, loc. cit.,
fol. 289a
. Letters sent to Pisendel, almost certainly the replies of Zelenka, are registered in the Hof-PostCharta
which lists letters sent between Dresden and Hubertusburg: D-Dla, 10006 OHMA, I, Nr. 66d, König
Friedrich August III. und dessen Gemahlin Herbstreise und Hoflager in Hubertusburg, August – Dezember
1739, Dresden 28 October 1739, fol. 103a
, and 29 October 1739, fol. 106a
.
215
Kittel, Johann Gottlob: Denen Bey Ihro Königl. Majest. in Pohlen und Churfürstl. Durchl. zu Sachsen,
Welt-gepriesenen Hof-Capelle Befindlichen VIRTUOSEN […], Dresden: Krause, 1740. Facsimile published as
Lob-Gedicht auf die sächsische Hofkapelle. Faksimile des Drucks von 1740, fols. 1v
-4v
, with Epilogue by
Gerhard Poppe, Ortus: Beeskow, 2008, pp. 11-16. Kittel was a highly respected poet and chronicler of
historical and contemporary events in Saxony. He was well liked by members of the Dresden court, who
purchased copies of his publications and paid him gratuities for the numerous poems he dedicated to
the royal and electoral family in Dresden. Kittel is known in the literature on Johann Sebastian Bach for
the poem in which he likened the organist to Orpheus whose playing on the lyre drew the animals of
the forest to the sound of his instrument – a reference to Bach’s organ recital in the Sophienkirche in
Dresden on 14 September 1731 which was attended by all the musicians of the Hofkapelle which must
have included Zelenka.
216
From 1739 until his death Zelenka is listed next to Hasse in registers of Hofkapelle members
published in the HStCal.
217
Tobias Buz died aged 68 on 14 January 1760. Within days, his 40-year-old wife Maria Anna also
passed away. This was a year of turmoil when the court was absent from Dresden, which had become the
battle ground between Prussia and Austria during the Seven Years War. This must be the reason that the
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	 Nun wend ich mich zu Dir, mein aufgeweckter BUTZ,
	 Du schaffst beym Gottes=Dienst nicht minder vielen Nutz,
Denn als Compositeur von denen Kirchen=Stücken
Bist Du in diese Zunfft auch billig einzurücken;
	 Ja die profunde Kunst und seltne Wissenschafft
	 Von dem Zelenca hat an Dir also gehafft,
Daß Du auch dermahleinst, wie schon die Proben zeigen,
Biß auf den Gipffel wirst als wie Dein Meister steigen.
Translation:
	 Now, I turn to you, my bright BUTZ.
	 You, no less useful in the divine service
as a Compositeur of church music,
for fairness’ sake you also must be counted among this company.
	 Indeed, the profunde art and rare knowledge of Zelenca
	 has been so well absorbed by you
that one day you will, as examples already show,
climb to the heights of your master.
Buz now may be identified as yet another of Zelenka’s several composition students.
Others, whose mainly small-scale sacred works are listed in Zelenka’s Inventarium (some
as anonymous items), almost certainly include the Hofkapelle cellist Giovanni Felice Maria
(‘Felicetti’) Picenetti,218
and possibly the Prague-based composer Jan František Novák (Ignoti;
Novari; Noack).219
Surviving scores of music attributed to these composers show many signs
of Zelenka’s hand. Based on Zelenka’s abbreviation ‘G. K.’ written on the cover to his copy of
three Miserere settings, both the SLUB card catalogue and RISM have ascribed these works to
Cajetan Kolberer. These settings, however, are so heavily reworked by Zelenka that this is an
unlikely attribution.220
The composer was almost certainly one of his students – perhaps the
horn player and cellist of the Dresden Hofkapelle, Johann [Giovanni?] Georg Knechtel. Held in
Schwerin today is a large collection of dances titled ‘Menuets & Polonaisen à la Redoute Anno
1756’ (D-SWI, Mus. 4739). The watermark seen on paper used for the three parts books (violins
1 and 2, and cello) is also seen on paper used for many sources kept in SLUB. Parts for two
horns (or for two trumpets) accompany some dances. According to names given in the collection,
these dances were composed by ‘Knechtel’ and ‘Röllig’, attributed by RISM to Johann
Georg Röllig – who is known to have been a student of Zelenka. (But perhaps this ‘Röllig’ was
the younger brother of Johann Georg: Johann Christian Roellig jun.)221
Nachlass of Buz was not acquired by the Dresden court. One pre-1733 Mass setting by Buz remains: D-Dl,
Mus. 2834-D-1. Titled Messe Delicta Iuventutis meae ne memineris (Remember not the sins of my youth),
it is dedicated to Saxon Electoral Prince Friedrich August. The title might be apt, since on 3. 4. 1727 the
Diarium Dresdae reported that although Buz had not been contributing music to the royal chapel, a
prompt from the electoral prince saw him resume composition. (‘A longo tempore Dominus Putz nihil
fecit in capella nescio qua de causa. Nunc Seren. Principe annuente iterum resumit labores musicos in
compositione.’) Note that the composer spells his name Buz in the autographic dedication to the mass;
likewise, in an letter written to Count Alexander Joseph Sulkowski on 15 December 1734, he signed his
name as Buz: D-Dla, 10026 Geh. Kab., Loc. 900/8, Oberkämmereikassensachen, 1735-1737, fol. 2a-b
.
218
D-Dl, Mus. 3161-E-1, Salve Regina, with title page in Zelenka’s hand, and dedication formula with
date: ‘A M D G B M V K OO SS H AA P J R 1738 Mense Majo.’ Perhaps this work is the ‘N. N.’ (anonymous)
listing in Zelenka’s Inventarium, 49/14 (without tonality): ‘Salve Canto Solo. Violin 2, Oboe 2, Viole e
Orga:’
219
Jan František Novák (1706-1771) was a Bohemian composer who became the choral director of the
Metropolitan Cathedral of Prague (St Vitus) between 1737 and 1758. The cover title in Zelenka’s hand to
a Magnificat setting (D-Dl, Mus. 3613-E-1) reads: Nro
1mo
[right] | Magnificat | à 4 | C: A: T: B: | Violini 2 |
Viola | e | Basso Continuo | Novari [replacing the deleted ‘Ignoti’]. At the conclusion of the score Zelenka
wrote ‘A M D G V M OO SS H AAtqu
PP R.’
220
Horn, Die Dresdner Hofkirchenmusik ( note 17), p. 139, finds it astonishing for Zelenka to have
put so much effort into such mediocre composition. The extent of his revision almost equals a new
composition.
221
On the identification of musicians named ‘Röllig’ or ‘Roellig’ see Springthorpe, Nigel: ‘Who was
Röllig? – Röllig and the Sing-Akademie collection’, in: Musketa, Konstanze — Reul, Barbara (eds.): FaschStudien
10: Musik an der Zerbster Rezidenz, Beeskow: Ortus, 2008, pp. 117-140. Advice on the watermarks
was kindly provided by Claudia Lubkoll.
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On 20 October 1740 Emperor Charles VI, uncle of Maria Josepha, died. While the annual
letter to Rome gave an account of the mausoleum for the exequies in the Dresden Catholic
court church designed by the Italian architect Gaetano Chiaveri (1689-1770), music is not
mentioned.222
The Diarium Dresdae, however, reported that Zelenka stepped in during Hasse’s
illness to direct the Requiem Mass held on 20 December 1740.223
On the following day the
Danish ambassador to the Dresden court wrote of the great beauty of the music heard on this
occasion,224
while another report specifically noted the beautiful music performed by the royal
musicians.225
On 28 April 1741 Zelenka produced the music for the exequies held for Father
Anton Steyerer SJ, Maria Josepha’s confessor,226
while on 26 September, at the command of
the queen, Zelenka was responsible for the music heard at the exequies held for her aunt, the
Archduchess Maria Elisabeth, Governor of the Austrian Netherlands.227
Following the death in
Vienna of the Dowager Empress Wilhelmine Amalia, Maria Josepha’s mother, Zelenka directed
the music in Dresden for the Vigils held on 3 June 1742, while Hasse provided the music over
the following two days.228
After the entry into his Inventarium of Missa Purificationis (ZWV 16) as listing number 44,
Zelenka ceased giving detailed information about the vocal and instrumental requirements of
his own Masses, as well as those details for almost each Mass of his collection which followed,
noting in a hurried manner only a number, the occasional tonality, and name of the composer.
This suggests that the somewhat untidy Inventarium had become a draft document only, having
been replaced by a new inventory. Several works in Zelenka’s collection bear numbers on
the covers that do not match any listing in his Inventarium, while clearly referring to another,
now lost catalogue. As noted above, the last of Zelenka’s own Mass entries into the Inventarium
is Missa Votiva of 1739. Is it possible that he had come to an agreement in the early 1740s to
sell the manuscript parts of his sacred music collection to the court for an annual payment
of 100 Thaler until his death?229
Such an arrangement, often used by the Dresden court to
distribute payments over a longer period, was a type of life annuity (Leibrente), an example of
which is found in an arrangement whereby Carl Heinrich von Heineken, one time secretary to
Saxon Prime Minister Count Heinrich von Brühl and director of the Dresden court’s collection of
engravings (the Kupferstich-Kabinett) sold his large private collection of valuable etchings and
222
ARSI, Boh. 160, Annuae Literae Regiae Missionis Dresdensis ad annum 1740, pp. 37-38.
223
Diarium Dresdae, 20. 12. 1740: ‘Exequiae solennes pro Augustissimo Imperatore Carolo VI […]
Musicam produxit D. Zelenka ob infirmitatem Domini Hasse […].’
224
‘à Dresde ce 21. Dec: 1740. Hier, on celebra dans la Chapelle du Chateau les obseques de l’Empereur
Charles VI. avec beaucoup de solemnité. Le Nonce du Pape y officia pontificalement, et la musique qu’on
entedit pendant ce service étoit des plus belles.’ Rigsarkivet [The Danish State Archive], Tyske Kancelli,
Udenrigske Afdeling: Polen: Gesandtskabsrelationer (1645-1770) 71-36: Adolf Friedrich von Harling 1739-
1741, Dresden, 21 December 1740, unfoliated.
225
‘à Dresde le 24. Xbr: 1740. Le 20. on celebra à la Chapelle de la Cour les obseques de l’Empereur
Charles VI. de glorieuse memoire, un Catafalque superbe ayant été elevé pour cet effet, et la Chapelle
étant tendué de noir, étôit magnifiquement illumineé. Le Nonce Apostolique officia pontificalement la
Messe de Requiem pendant que la Musiqué du Roy fit un beau concert funebre. S.M:té
de même que la
famille Royale assisterent à ce service avec Cour très nombreuse.’ D-Dla, 10026 Geh. Kab., Loc. 389/11,
Minutes des Feuillets de toutes les années 1737-1742 concernant ce qui ´s´est passé à la cour à Varsovie,
Dresde et Houbertsbourg etc., 1737-1742, fol. 342a
.
226
Diarium Dresdae, 28. 4. 1741: ‘Exequiae pro pie defuncto R. P. Steyerer. P. Superior cantavit Requiem
cum assistentia. Musicam fecit D. Zelenka.’
227
Diarium Dresdae, 26. 9. 1741: ‘Exequiae pro Seren. Domina D. Maria Elisabetha Gubernatrice Belgii
jussu Seren.ae Reginae nostrae. […] Hora 11. Requiem cantavit cum assistentia. Musicam produxit D. Zelenka
[…].’
228
Diarium Dresdae, 3. 6. 1742: ‘Hora 4 Nullae Vesperae, sed celebratae Vigiliae cum decantato Officium
defunctorum. Musicis data directio pro hac et futuris functionibus […] Invitatorium et Lectiones
primi Nocturni musica figurali produxit D. Zelenka.’ The French version of the court journal praised the
music of the two composers: ‘La magnificence de ces decorations avec le bon goût et la belle ordonnance
de cette pompe funebre, ont été admireés de tout le monde; et la musique de la Composition des Srs
.
Hasse et Selenga a été très bien executée à cette occasion.’ D-Dla, 10026 Geh. Kab., Loc. 389/11, fol. 429a
.
A similar report appeared in the Dresden newspaper: ‘Die Music war von der Composition derer Herren
Haße und Selenga bey solcher Gelegenheit sehr wohl ausgeführet.’ Kern Dreßdnischer Merckwürdigkeiten,
Des 1742sten Jahres. Mensis Junii, p. 43.
229
On 11 December 1741 Zelenka was awarded a 100 Thaler salary rise which took effect on 1 January
1742. D-Dla, 10026 Geh. Kab., Loc. 901/3, Hofkassensachen, 1740-1745 [1746], fol. 178a-b
.
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manuscripts to the royal library in the 1770’s towards such an annuity.230
By 1743 Zelenka’s
collection of secular music had been sold to Maria Josepha.231
Perhaps by this time he had begun
to retire from his daily musical duties in the royal chapel, devoting himself to teaching instead.
For example, it is known that between 1740 and 1745 the composer and music theorist Joseph
Riepel (1709-1782) took daily lessons from Zelenka.232
In 1741 and 1742 Maria Josepha purchased several paintings from Zelenka. Her account
book for 1741 contains an entry showing that in October that year the amount of 60 Thaler
was paid to the composer for four landscapes in oil,  Illustration 6 .233
Only four months
later, on 13 February 1742, an additional payment of 100 Thaler was made to Zelenka from
the queen’s private purse for an unknown number of paintings,  Illustration 7.234
The term
used here, ‘gefertigte Bilder’ (completed paintings), is sometimes seen in the account books of
the queen for payments made out to court painters Louis Silvestre and his daughter MarieMaximilienne.
This suggests that Maria Josepha was indeed paying Zelenka for works he himself
had painted. When the queen died in 1757 her testament stated that some of the religious
paintings in her possession were to be divided between the members of her family, but the
remainder, possibly including those of Zelenka, were left to Prince Clemens – except for those
230
‘[...] dessen [Heinecken’s] Sammlungen noch zu seinen Lebzeiten (1778) der Kurfürstlichen Bibliothek
zu Dresden gegen eine Jahresrente gesichert wurden [...].’ Jacobs, Emil: ’Zur Kenntnis Maugérards’,
Zentralblatt für Bibliothekswesen 27 (1910), p. 160. In 1767 the Dresden court church composer Schürer
sold the manuscript parts of his sacred compositions (978 sheets) to the Saxon court. When this sale
was being discussed on 12 May 1767 the court considered buying also the scores of Schürer’s compositions
and weighed the options of either paying him one large sum for the 510 scores, or giving him an
annual rise for life: ‘[...] und ob solches entweder auf ein zugleich ein Vorschlag zu bringendes, ein für
allemahl zu bezahlendes Geld-Quantum, oder auf eine gewiße unvorschreiblich vorzuschlagende, ihm auf
seine Lebens-Zeit zu versichernde Gehalts-Vermehrung, zu seyen seÿn dürfte?’ D-Dla, 10026 Geh. Kab.,
Loc. 910/1, fol. 207b
. The same document reveals that the scores of Zelenka’s compositions were bought
after his death (loc. cit., fol. 208a
), but makes no mention of the parts in his collection which are thought
to have been his private property. ‘In 1767 Schürer sold the manuscript parts of his church compositions
(978 sheets) to the Saxon court and in 1772, when Friedrich August was elector, he sold them the
scores as well (522, dated 1742 to 1770) for 900 thalers. Schürer himself had compiled an index of these
works, giving the opening bars and date of composition of each (Cursus annuus, MS, 1765, D–Bsb). He
retired in 1780 and sold a further 68 scores of sacred works written between 1767 and 1772 for 200
thalers in 1782, again with a detailed catalogue.’ Hartwig, Dieter: ‘Schürer, Johann Georg’, in: Grove On
Line. Accessed 5. 5. 2016.
231
Ágústsson: ‘The Secular Vocal Collection of Jan Dismas Zelenka’ ( note 95), pp. 33-34.
232
Poppe, Gerhard: ‘Die Schüler des Jan Dismas Zelenka’, in: Eberl, Katherin – Ruf, Wolfgang (eds.):
Musikkonzepte – Konzepte der Musikwissenschaft: Bericht über den Internationalen Kongress der Gesellschaft
für Musikforschung Halle (Saale) 1998, Kassel: Bärenreiter, pp. 291-292.
233
‘dito [October] Zahlte an Zelencke, für geliefferte 4 Stück Land schafften, in Öhl Farben gemahlen
Lauth belege | 60 [Thaler].’ D-Dla, 10026 Geh. Kab., Loc. 364/23, Rechnung über Einnahme und Ausgabe,
Ihrer Majestät der Königin in Polen und Kurfürstin zu Sachsen, auch Erzherzogin zu Österreich etc. [Maria
Josepha], empfangene und ausgezahlte Gelder, 1741 (Vol. 23), fol. 21b
. For more on Maria Josepha’s expenditures
on music see Ágústsson, Jóhannes: ‘The Saxon Electress and Polish Queen Maria Josepha: Musical
Entries in the Dresden Account Books, 1719-1757’, forthcoming.
234
‘den 13. dito [February] Zahlte an Zelencka, vor gefertigte Bilder, Laut belege | 100 [Thaler].’ D-Dla,
10026 Geh. Kab., Loc. 364/24, Rechnung über Einnahme und Ausgabe, Ihrer Majestät der Königin in Polen
und Kurfürstin zu Sachsen, auch geborener Erzherzogin zu Österreich etc. [Maria Josepha], empfangene und
ausgezahlte Gelder, 1742 (Vol. 24), fol. 6b
.
Illustration 6:
60 Thaler payment from
Queen Maria Josepha to
‘Zelencke’ for four landscapes
in oil, October 1741.
Original and reproduction:
All rights reserved © by
Sächsisches Staatsarchiv –
Hauptstaatsarchiv Dresden.
D-Dla, 10026 Geh.
Kab., Loc. 364/23, fol. 21b
.
Illustration 7:
100 Thaler payment from
Queen Maria Josepha
to ‘Zelencka’ for an unknown
number of paintings,
13 February 1742.
Original and reproduction:
All rights reserved © by
Sächsisches Staatsarchiv –
Hauptstaatsarchiv Dresden.
D-Dla, 10026 Geh.
Kab., Loc. 364/24, fol. 6b
.
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her ‘beloved K[ing]’ wished to keep.235
The testament shows that Maria Josepha bequeathed her
entire library to Prince Albert (born 1738), but her private music collection was to be passed
to her husband.236
Maria Josepha’s collection included the presentation copy of Zelenka’s Alcune
Arie and a now missing copy of the Litaniae Omnium Sanctorum from 1735, each listed in the
catalogue of the queen supervised by Zelenka in 1743. Both Zelenka’s final composition Litaniae
Lauretanae Consolatrix afflictorum (ZWV 151, 10 April 1744),237
and its sister setting Litaniae
Lauretanae Salus infirmorum (1741/1744) were dedicated to Maria Josepha around the time of
her illness and recovery.
By 1744 Zelenka had moved from Moritzstrasse to a house in Ramschegasse,238
then to the
house in Kleine Brüdergasse of a Täschner named Johann Heinrich Flade,  Illustration 8. It
was here during the evening of the 22-23 December 1745 that Zelenka died. Earlier that month
the Prussians defeated the Saxon army, and on 18 December Frederick II of Prussia occupied
Dresden. The next morning he attended a thanksgiving service in the Kreuzkirche where a Te
Deum was sung to celebrate the Prussian victory. As was customary during festive Te Deum settings
in Dresden the firing of cannons from the fortification walls was regulated by the Court
235
‘Meinem Sohn Clemens alle Meine Bilder, sowohl aus meiner Schlaff-Cammer, dem großen Zimmer,
dem Zimmer, wo wir Abends speisen, als die vom Audience-Zimmer ausgenommen die anderst benennt,
oder die so Mein Liebster K[önig]. behalten wolte.’ D-Dla, 10026 Geh. Kab., Loc. 360/3, Das Ableben Ihrer
Majestät der Königin Maria Josepha, 1757, fol. 134a-b
.
236
‘Meinem Sohn Albert Meine Bibliotheque, mit allem was darinnen, ausgenommen den großen versiegelten
Coffre, und die Musicalien, welche Meinem K[önig]. bleiben.’ Loc. cit., fol. 134a
.
237
The dedication copy of the Litaniae Lauretanae Consolatrix afflictorum is held by the Music Library
of the G. Verdi Conservatory in Milan, I-Mc, M. S. MS. 250-2, where it almost certainly arrived with the
musical Nachlass of Hasse. The calligraphic title page and dedication text of the litany is in the same
hand as the 1743 catalogue of Maria Josepha. This copyist also prepared an additional set of parts for
the ‘Sanctus’ of Zelenka’s Requiem of 1733, D-Dl, 2358-D-81,10, pp. 1-3, 5-41, 91; and a set of parts for
Domenico Natale Sarro’s Missa à 4, D-Dl, Mus. 2356-D-4, pp. 5-63, seen listed as number 67 in Zelenka’s
Inventarium according to RISM. The identity of this copyist and assistant to Zelenka in the late 1730s
and early 1740s is not yet clear.
238
‘Zelencka, Joh. Diesm. Cammer-Compositeur, Ramschegasse in Schmids Hause.’ Das Jetztlebende
Königliche Dreßden [...], Dreßden [c1744], Robring, p. 137. This Schmiedt was a secretary and Ober-SteuerArchivarius.
The house was destroyed in the bombing of Dresden in 1945, but has recently been rebuilt
and restored to its former glory. It stands at Rampische Straße Nr. 31.
Illustration 8:
Flade’s house in
Kleine Brüdergasse
where Zelenka died
is seen on the far right.
© Landesamt für
Denkmalpflege Sachsen
(Plansammlung) / D-Dl,
Deutsche Fotothek, M 7 II,
Blatt 12 – Taschenberg-
palais.
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Marshal, but on this occasion the Prussians deliberately loaded every heavy artillery to its
maximum. As a result, the reportedly terrifying noise from the explosions blew out windows
in homes near the opera house,239
and possibly the windows in Zelenka’s apartment next street.
Four days later, on 23 December, there was one short entry in the court diary: ‘Ist der Königl.
Kirchen-Compositeur Zelencka verstorben.’240
It is notable that the death of the composer was
the only news to report on this day, given the dreadful situation in Dresden and the fact that
the preceding entries had described the Prussian occupation in great detail.
August III and Maria Josepha, who had escaped to Prague on 1 December, learned of Zelenka’s
demise almost immediately. News of his death was given in an especially grim letter
from Prague dated 25 December 1745 from the king’s confessor, Father Ludwig Ligeritz SJ, to
the Governor of the Saxon Electoral Prince Friedrich Christian, Count Joseph Anton Gabaleon
Wackerbarth-Salmour, who then was in Nürnberg with Saxon princes Friedrich Christian, Xaver
and Carl:
Votre Excellence
Le lettre de dresde nous mandent, que le Vieu Selencka est mort, que le General Renard
ne se tirera pas d’affaire, que Römer, et Dominique de Stain sont en vie, que le champ de
Batuille près de dresde est encor plein des Corps Morts. etc etc pardonné, Monseigneur, si
je raconte des choses suranneés à V.E.241
Translation:
Your Excellency
The letter from Dresden informs us that old Zelencka is dead, that General Renard is
finished, that Römer and Dominique de Stain are alive and that the battlefield near Dresden
is still full of corpses. Sire, forgive me if I’m telling Your Excellency things that you
already know.
Within one month exequies were held for Zelenka in Dresden’s royal Catholic chapel. The
cost of these was met by Maria Josepha, as an entry in her account book of 19 January 1746
reveals,  Illustration 9.242
This sum would have paid for at least one mass, candles, sacristans,
and acolytes.243
Whether Zelenka’s colleagues in the Hofkapelle performed funeral music for the
deceased is not known, but it seems likely given that the Diarium Dresdae records many such
instances where the royal musicians honoured their members who had passed away.
239
Richter, Dr. Otto: ‘Ereignisse in Dresden vor und nach der Schlacht bei Kesseldorf. Nach einem
gleichseitigen Tagebuch.’ Dresdner Geschichtsblätter 8, Nr. 2 (1899), p. 160.
240
D-Dla, 10006 OHMA, O 1, Nr. 13, Dresdner Hoftagebücher (Serie A), 1745, unfoliated.
241
D-Dla, 10026 Geh. Kab., Loc. 3426/6, Différentes expéditions faites pendant le voyage de Leurs Altesses
Royales depuis le 2. décembre 1745 jusqu’au 5. janvier 1746, 1745-1746, letter of Father Ligeritz to
Wackerbarth, Prague, 25 December 1745, unfoliated. Zelenka’s death was also reported in a letter written
by court secretary Müldener to his Saxon colleague in Prague: ‘7. Der Compositeur Zelencka ist vor wenig
Tagen verstorben.’ D-Dla, OHMA I, Nr. 107, Reisen außerhalb Sachsens, 1745, Müldener to Hoff Expeditor
Hessen, Dresden, 25 December 1745, fol. 142b
.
242
‘den 19. do
[January] Zahlte an R. P. Superior Grubern, vor gehaltene Exequien des gottseel. Zelencka,
laut bel. 8 [Thaler].’ D-Dla, 10026 Geh. Kab., Loc. 364/28, Rechnung über Einnahme und Ausgabe, Ihrer
Majestät der Königin in Polen und Kurfürstin zu Sachsen, auch geborener Erzherzogin zu Österreich etc.
[Maria Josepha], empfangene und ausgezahlte Gelder, 1746 (Vol. 28), fol. 5a
.
243
On 18 January 1744, a receipt signed by the Dresden Jesuit Superior Father Michael Grüber recorded
that the sum of 8 Thaler and 16 Groschen paid for ‘Meßen, Kertzen, Sacristaner und Ministranten.’
D-Dla, 10026, Geh.Kab., Loc. 478/4, Die Verlassenschaft [Nachlass] der in Ihrer Majestät der Königin
Diensten gestandenen Kammerjungfer Regina Eberhardt, 1743-1744, fol. 10a
.
Illustration 9:
8 Thaler payment from
Queen Maria Josepha to
Fr Michael Grüber for the
exequies of the ‘gottseel.
Zelencka’, 19 January 1746.
Original and reproduction:
All rights reserved © by
Sächsisches Staatsarchiv –
Hauptstaatsarchiv Dresden.
D-Dla, 10026 Geh.
Kab., Loc. 364/28, fol. 5a
.
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Afterlife
At the time of his death Zelenka was in debt. To his still unidentified creditors the Dresden
court paid the sum of 370 Thaler,  Illustration 10.244
An item from Maria Josepha’s Cammerbuch
(an account recording charitable payments for which no receipts were required) reveals
that on 16 June 1751 an unnamed cousin of Zelenka was given the sum of 22 Thaler.245
By
February 1746 an additional 100 Thaler that from 1 January 1742 had been paid to Zelenka
annually was to go to his successor, the church composer Father Johann Michael Breunich SJ,
whose music Zelenka had collected for use in the Catholic court church years before the prelate
formally came into the service of the Dresden court as chaplain of Maria Josepha in 1743.246
Following Zelenka’s death Father Breunich almost immediately stepped into Zelenka’s posi-
tion.247
 The remainder of Zelenka’s salary of 800 Thaler was divided equally between Father
Breunich and the ‘Compositeur’ Ristori.248
244
‘370. [Thaler] zu Bezahlung, derer Creditorum, des verstorbenen Capell Meister Zelencken.’ D-Dla,
10026 Geh. Kab., Loc. 901/4, Hofkassensachen, 1746-1753, ‘Schuld Specificatio. Bey der König: Pohln: und
Churfürst. Sächß: Ober Cämmereÿ-Cassa in Dreßden ultimo Decembr: 1746 Alß: [...].’, fol. 128a
. A possible
creditor of Zelenka is the court librarian and royal chaplain Father Johann Joseph Götze SJ, who was no
doubt a friend of Zelenka as well as a working colleague. The two men first met in Vienna in 1717 when
Father Götze became a part of the Hoffstaat of the electoral prince. Later he became Zelenka’s neighbour
in Kleine Brüdergasse. In 1738 Father Götze loaned Ristori 2000 Thaler and in turn had a collateral on
the composer’s wages: if Ristori did not make the annual payments the money would be withdrawn
from his salary. The loan was to be paid back in instalments in ten years at 5 % interest. This arrangement
came with a personal guarantee from August III to Father Götze and the same agreement could
well have been in place for a loan made to Zelenka. In this way, the payment made out to Zelenka’s
Creditorum is perhaps partly explained. See Ágústsson, Jóhannes: ’Giovanni Alberto Ristori at the Court
of Naples 1738-1740’, in: Bacciagaluppi, Claudio – Ottenberg, Hans-Gunter – Zoppelli, Luca (eds.): Studi
pergolesiani – Pergolesi studies 8, Bern: Peter Lang, 2012, pp. 80-81.
245
‘in die Cammer gegeben, vor einen Vetter von den Seel. Zelenka 8. #.: 22 [Thaler].’ D-Dla, 10026 Geh.
Kab., Loc. 365/6, Kammerbuch über diejenigen Gelder, über welche Ihre Majestät die Königin in Polen und
Kurfürstin zu Sachsen [Maria Josepha] allergnädigst disponiert hat, geführt von Ihrer Majestät der Königin
Kammerzahlmeister François Ponte, 1. Juli 1749 – 22. Oktober 1757, fol. 19b
.
246
Father Breunich was the composer of an unidentified mass which was performed three times in
Dresden and was much admired by August III, partly due to its brevity. Diarium Dresdae, 15. 1. 1741:
‘Cantatum […ter] expositum produxit e voluntate Ser.issimi Regis [August III] R. D. Michael Breunich
Sacerdos Ecclesiasticus Moguntinus, quod ob [concinnita]tem et brevitatem mire placuit.’ (The sung mass,
which has been performed three times, was produced at the King’s request by Michael Breunich, priest of
the church of Mainz. The Mass pleased greatly because of its elegance and brevity.) On the other hand, a
letter written by Maria Josepha to her daughter-in-law Crown Princess Maria Antonia hints at Breunich’s
tendency of performing long works: ‘[...] et sans doute que le R. P. Breunich nous regalera d’une longue
musique que Je crains fort que ma Siesta courra gran risque de me manquer tout à fair.’ D-Dla, 12528
Fürstennachlass Maria Antonia, Kurfürstin von Sachsen, Nr. 17, Briefe an die Kurprinzessin Maria Antonia
von der Gemahlin Friedrich Augusts II (Augusts III) Maria Josepha, 1744-1756, Maria Josepha to Maria
Antonia, [Warsaw] 21 November 1754, fol. 170a
.
247
‘Wurdiger, Hoch und Wohlgebohrne, auch Veßer, Räthe, liebe getreue. Wir haben diejenigen
100. Rhtl., welche der vor einiger Zeit verstorbene, Johann Dismas Zelenka, aus Unserer Hof-Casse
genoßen, dem an seine statt zum Kirchen-Compositeur bestellten Capellan von Unserer herzlich geliebtester
Gemahlin Majt. Hoffstadt, Johann Michael Breunichen, als eine zulage zu seinem bisherigen
gehalt in Gnaden zugetheilet, und begehren diesemnach hiermit gnädigst, ihr wollet beÿ besagter
Hof-Casse behörige Verordnung thun, daß aus selbiger, abgedachte Ein Hundert Thaler, von der Zeit
an, da solche zur Vacanz gekommen, dem Kirchen-Compositeur P. Breunich, alljährlich gegen Quittung,
entrichtet, auch krafft dieses also in Rechnungs-Ausgabe passiren verschrieben werden.’ D-Dla, 10036
Finanz­archiv, Spezial­reskripte, 1746, Nr. 1, order signed by August III, dated Dresden 4 February 1746,
unfoliated.
248
‘An das General-Accis-Collegium, daß von des verstorbenen, Zelencka beÿ der General-Accis-Cassa
zurück gestallenen Besoldung, an 800. Thlr., dem an seine statt zum Kirchen-Compositeur bestallten,
P. Breunich, 400. Thlr., und dem Compositeur, Ristori, die übrigen 400. Thlr. als jährliche Zulage, allegnädigst
zugetheilet worden.’ D-Dla, 10026 Geh. Kab., Loc. 907/5, Die italienischen Sänger und Sängerinnen,
das Orchester, die Tänzer und Tänzerinnen, auch andere zur Oper gehörige Personen, 1740-1784, order
signed by August III, dated Dresden 4 February 1746, fol. 168a-b
. From the HStCal edition of 1747 onwards
Breunich and Ristori were listed as church composers alongside Buz and Johann Sebastian Bach. By 1750
Ristori had been appointed Vice-Kapellmeister – a position he served until his death in February 1753.
Father Breunich passed away in 1755.
Illustration 10:
370 Thaler payment
from the Saxon OberCämmereÿ-Cassa
to the
creditors of the deceased
‘Capell Meister Zelencken’,
December 1746.
Original and reproduction:
All rights reserved © by
Sächsisches Staatsarchiv
– Hauptstaatsarchiv Dresden.
D-Dla, 10026 Geh.
Kab., Loc. 901/4, fol. 128a
.
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Apart from the recovery of several items once held by the Berlin Singakademie composed
and collected by Zelenka,249
a rich collection of Zelenka sources was identified in the final section
of the ‘Catalogo 1765’: Musica senza nome dell’Autore. Numerous remnants of Zelenka’s
musical estate are present here, including sets of parts that between the time of acquisition
of his music by the court and preparation of the ‘Catalogo 1765’ must have become separated
from scores they were meant to accompany – items whose title pages were missing, or scores
drawn up from sets of parts that had been borrowed or exchanged with Bohemian colleagues.
Certain masses listed here, known to be from Zelenka’s collection, are of particular interest
since these might be the raw materials upon which Zelenka then worked in order to draw these
works into the musical style required in the Catholic court church of Dresden.250
To works of Zelenka already known, performance materials and fragments recently have
been uncovered in SLUB under the name of the Italian male soprano ‘Ventura’ (Rocchetti).251
This cover holds parts for the hymn Veni Creator (ZWV 120). Both a score and set of parts for
the hymn Iste Confessore (ZWV 236), once presumed to be lost, is included ( Illustration 11),252
as well as other hymn fragments. An autograph page written between late in 1725 and early
1729 is a figured basso seguente fragment using soprano, alto, tenor, and bass clefs throughout.
It is proposed that this is Zelenka’s reduction to at least four voices of part of the Credo from
Palestrina’s six-part setting Missa Papae Marcelli for CATTBB (GA XI, 128 ff), or else this page
is from a rehearsal score.
A fascinating history of the transmission of Zelenka’s music in the nineteenth century
has been prepared by Frederic Kiernan and published elsewhere in this volume, and a revised
version of the article ‘Zelenka, Jan (Lukáš Ignatius) Dismas’ is in preparation for Grove Music
Online.253
Conclusion
In 1747 Lorenz Mizler made his well known comments about the beauty of Zelenka’s compositions
for the church and how they were well known to all true lovers of music. He also
supplied another important detail whose significance has until now gone largely unnoticed.
Writing from Dresden shortly after Zelenka died, Mizler, who was familiar with many of the
musicians in the city, revealed that Zelenka was ‘greatly mourned’ in the Saxon capital.254
His
observation raises the following questions: who were those who mourned Zelenka and why?
Was it because of his personality, or was it for the ‘profunde Kunst und seltne Wissenschafft’
he brought to the music of the Dresden court?
The rich new archival information introduced in this present article lends support to the
opinions expressed by Mizler and Kittel, and suggests that the image sometimes given in the
249
Masses from Zelenka’s collection include a mass by Antonio Lotti (known in Zelenka’s reworking
as Missa sapientiae; D-B, SA 398); Missa (F) by Domenico Sarro (D-B, SA 398); Missa (D minor) by
Domenico Sarro (D-B, SA 452). Works by Zelenka (many from Harrer’s collection) are the Magnificat ZWV
107 (D-B, SA 686); Kyrie/ Christe/ Kyrie ZWV 28 (D-B, SA 685); ‘Kyrie e Gloria’ from Missa Divi Xaverii ZWV
12 (D-B, SA 688); Missa Divi Xaverii ZWV 12 (three parts, D-B, SA 689); Missa Paschalis ZWV 7 (without
‘Benedictus”, D-B, SA 690); Missa Sancti Spiritus ZWV 4 (D-B, SA 691); excerpts from Missa Sancti Spiritus
ZWV 4 (D-B, SA 692).
250
See Stockigt, Janice B.: ‘Musica Senza Nome dell’Autore: Anonymous Works Listed in the Music
Catalogue of the Dresden Hofkirche, 1765.’, Studi vivaldiani 7 (2007), pp. 3-51.
251
D-Dl, Mus. 1271-E-1. The cover to the set of parts bears Ventura’s name in Zelenka’s hand. This
cover once contained a vocal part intended for this singer.
252
Zelenka’s Iste Confessor received its first performance in modern times at the Zelenka Festival
Prague 2015, with Adam Viktora and Ensemble Inégal performing an edition specially prepared by Frederic
Kiernan whose setting is published as an Appendix to Stockigt, Janice B.: ‘Discoveries and Recoveries
of Vivaldi and Zelenka sources in the Sächsische Landesbibliothek – Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek,
Dresden’, in: Boris, Alessandro – Cameron, Jasmin Melissa (eds.): Fulgeat sol frontis decorae: Studi in
onore di Michael Talbot [= Fondazione Giorgio Cini. Istituto Antonio Vivaldi], Venice: Fondazione Giorgio
Cini, 2016, pp. 223-234, at pp. 231-233.
253
To be submitted November 2016 by Janice B. Stockigt (Life: Music), Shelley Hogan (Bibliography),
Andrew Frampton and Frederic Kiernan (Work List).
254
‘Dresden. Her wird der vortreffliche Kirchencomponist, Johann Dismas Zelenka, sehr bedauert, als
welcher den 22 Dec. 1745 gestorben ist, da die Preußen etliche Tage zuvor, nämlich den 18 Dec. Dresden
besetzt u. eingenommen hatten. Seine prächtigen Tutti, schöne Fugen, u. überhaupt die besondere Geschicklichkeit
im Kirchenstyl sind allen wahren Kennern der Musik genugsam bekannt.’ Mizler, Lorenz:
Musikalische Bibliothek, 1746-52 (Vol. 3), Leipzig, 1752, p. 602.
Illustration 11:
Iste Confessor (ZWV 236),
soprano part in the hand
of Zelenka.
© D-Dl, Mus.1271-E-1,2a,
unpaginated.
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literature of Zelenka as something of the underdog at the Dresden court is not entirely correct.
On the contrary, he is revealed as a composer whose music was admired and praised in official
documents and private correspondence. He also is shown to be a man who commanded ‘the
greatest respect’ from his colleagues and contemporaries, as reported by Moritz Fürstenau.255
Finally, it is the wish of the authors that this study will encourage further research into
Zelenka’s life and music, and especially Czech sources that might bring to light information
about the still mysterious first thirty-years of his life in Bohemia.
255
Fürstenau: ‘Zur Geschichte der Musik und des Theaters am Hofe der Kurfürsten von Sachsen und
Könige von Polen’ ( note 131), p. 76.
49
JanDismasZelenka’sLifeandMusicReconsidered(ZelenkaConferencePrague2015)
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T
he astonishing development of Zelenka’s style can
best be shown by a prudent and illuminating choice
of musical examples. In order to maintain the original
character of this text, which was originally conceived
for oral delivery, I cited only a minimum of secondary literature.
I felt free to do so after some decades of study­ing
the music of Zelenka and some of his contemporaries. So
the following text is rather an introduction to the style
of Zelenka’s arias than a description of the present state
of research. I dedicate these lines both to the memory of
Wolfgang Reich and the flourishing activities of Adam
Vik­tora and the Ensemble Inégal.1
	 Jan Dismas Zelenka was always an ‘adult’ compos-
er – his earliest surviving work, the sepulcrum-sacrumcantata
Immisit Dominus pestilentiam (ZWV 58), is dated
1709 when he was 30 years old. At this age he surely
knew how to compose. This is especially true for pieces
with strong technical boundaries like fugues. But even
in the realm of ‘free composition’ he might have studied
consciously or unconsciously the music surrounding him
without giving in to each and every new fashion. And
this is all the more true for the time during and after
his (probably intermittent) studies with Johann Joseph
Fux in Vienna in the years from 1716 to 1719. So I think
it will be appropriate not to look for vague ‘influences’
or ‘reflections’ of opera in Zelenka’s music but to put the
question from another angle asking: What could opera
music offer to Zelenka when he composed arias? Which
offers did he choose to accept? And which kinds or even
items of opera were relevant for him? It goes without
saying that the basic outlines of an aria – the Da-capoform
and the use of ritornellos – need not be taken into
consideration here.
	 For the sake of clarity I will choose examples of only
two operas which Zelenka did know – of course Zelenka
knew many other operas or at least some arias extracted
from them, as Jóhannes Ágústsson has recently shown
on a broad scale.2
The first opera is Ascanio,3
composed
1
I want to thank Chris Dagleish for reviewing the text with
great patience and care. Of course, the author alone is responsible
for any faults which still might have survived.
2
Ágústsson, Jóhannes: ‘The Secular Vocal Collection of Jan
Dismas Zelenka: A Reconstruction’, Studi Vivaldiani 13 (2013),
pp. 3-51; the two arias from Lotti’s Ascanio cited below are
listed on p. 44 as part of ‘Packet I, folder No. VII’ – the Dresden
repertory of arias ready for separate performance independent
from the operas to which they once belonged was vast.
3
The title of the libretto by the author Antonio Maria
Abbate Luchini [today often given as ‘Lucchini’] reads: ‘Gl’odj
delusi dal sangue’, which means ‘The feelings of hatred destroyed
by the recognition of blood relationship’. This monster
of a title was abridged to Ascanio, according to a main figure
of the plot, already in some archival files of the Dresden court,
where the seemingly French (but senseless) form ‘Ascanie’ occurs
more often (the French translation in the original libretto
gives ‘Ascanio’ as ‘Ascanius’). Even more important is the title
page of a cembalo score from around 1740/50, obviously made
by a musician of Dresden who knew his craft: Ascanio Overo
Gl’odi Delusi da lSangue [sic!; cf. D-Dl, Mus. 2159-F-6, p. 1]. An
edition of this opera prepared by the present author which
includes the Intermezzi by Francesco Gasparini and Giovanni
Wolfgang Horn
(Regensburg)
Opera, arias and Zelenka:
Remarks on a special
relationship
The examination of arias as works in their own right can
reveal much of a composer’s musical identity. Such is the
case with the arias in the works of Jan Dismas Zelenka,
especially those written after 1730. Although meant for
oratorios and masses, they show all of the stylistic traits
so characteristic of the musical style of Hasse’s operas,
but missing altogether in the operas of Lotti, which were
written before 1720 (yet Heinichen commented on some to
them in his treatise). Some of Zelenka’s arias belong to a
‘minuetto-type’ that can be analyzed in terms put forward
many years later by the Regensburg theorist Joseph Riepel
who had some conversations with Zelenka in the early
1740’s.
Key words: Zelenka, Jan Dismas; Lotti, Alessandro; Hasse,
Johann Adolf; Heinichen, Johann David; Riepel, Joseph;
Ascanio; Minuetto; Dresden
Number of characters / words: 49 848 / 8 362
Number of examples: 11
Number of tables: 2
Secondary language(s): German, Italian
50 Wolfga ng Horn
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by Antonio Lotti and performed in Dresden in 1718 and 1719, and the other opera is – of
course – Johann Adolf Hasse’s Cleofide, performed in Dresden in September 1731.4
This restriction
might seem simplistic, but it is a truism that when it comes to analysis a writer never is
an objective mirror of past realities but rather a construction worker of narratives that draw
on dates, facts and arguments. And so any construction is justified if it can highlight some
aspects in the music of a composer which are not obvious at first sight. In the history of Italian
opera Lotti and Hasse stand at different sides of the border which was erected mainly by
Neapolitan composers in the mid‑1720s like Leonardo Vinci, a little later the young Pergolesi,
Nicola Antonio Porpora, and last but not least by Johann Adolf Hasse.5
	 What the virtuoso singers in an opera really made of a score often is a matter of conjecture,
nevertheless the score itself was the basis for and starting point for every sort of
embellishments added by the singers. And the scores of Lotti and Hasse show remarkable differences,
not so much in the general formal layout of an aria – the da-capo-scheme prevails
on either side –, but in the rhythmical differentiation of the music, the refinement of orchestration
and the use of instruments or in the length of the parts constituting an aria. Lotti’s
harmony tends to be rather simple, and in building his melodies he often used somewhat
straightforward motifs. In particular there is no remarkable mixture of different rhythms; all
this results in most cases in a clear accentuation of the underlying meter, whereas Hasse often
uses subtle and highly differentiated rhythms with the effect that his scores look much more
elaborated than the scores of Lotti. Another important trait with Lotti is the lack of a real
dialogue between the instruments and the singer in most arias.
	 Ascanio was the second of Lotti’s three operas performed in Dresden between 1717 and
1719. The plot of Abbate Luchini’s libretto is so complicated, that I will not even try to explain
it.  Example 1 shows the beginning of the aria ‘Frema pur l’onda in tempesta’.6
This example
is typical in many ways. The ritornello is rather clear-cut and shows no other compositional
ambitions than to evoke an impression of rapid motion by using basic musical means. It functions
as a frame displaying the connotations of the rough and stormy text:
Frema pur l’onda in tempesta | ch’esser già non può molesta | allo scoglio fermo in mar. ||
S’alzi, sì, gonfia, sdegnata, | che al suo vortice spezzata | è costretta a ritornar. [Da capo].7
When Silvia begins to sing, the instruments restrict themselves to sporadic interjections, but
when the great melismas occur the instruments do not disturb them at all. So the image of
an average Lotti-aria is characterized by an abundance of rests – this is completely contrary
to Hasse’s Cleofide where at least the strings are almost always playing, embedding the vocal
part in a smooth, but by no means dominating instrumental sonority.
	 Zelenka owned (or ‘administered’) two arias from Ascanio: ‘Frema pur’ (act III, sc. 4) and
‘Vile e debole il cuor’ (act II, sc. 15), both sung by Silva (soprano). The latter is an example
for an aria ‘con strumenti’, written in 12/8-time which Lotti loved, but which plays no role in
Bononcini is forthcoming in: Denkmäler Mitteldeutscher Barockmusik, series II, vol. 7 [Leipzig: Verlag
Friedrich Hofmeister]. The digitized version of the only surviving copy of the work is found on the wellknown
site of SLUB Dresden under its shelf number Mus. 2159-F‑5. I assume that the reader knows how
to find the digital copies of the Dresden sources on the internet; it is sufficient to type the shelf mark
and the letters slub into the window of a search engine.
4
Cf. the opulent ‘First printed edition’: Johann Adolf Hasse, Cleofide. Opera seria. Fassung der
Uraufführung Dresden 1731, hrsg. von Zenon Mojzysz, Stuttgart: Carus, 2008 [= Johann Adolf Hasse,
Werke, hrsg. von der Hasse-Gesellschaft Bergedorf, Abt. I: Opern, Band 1]. This edition could function as
a model for similar editions; but since scores of operas tend to be very thick and many of the original
scores are legible enough to make the preparation of performance material possible even for non-specialists,
it is not probable that we will ever have a Complete Edition of Hasse’s operas, let alone the operas
of other composers. Scholarly editions of carefully selected operas may rather serve as ‘ideal lighthouses’
which show the difference between the practically useful sheets of music and the well-informed presentation
and evaluation of historical sources.
5
This was shown already forty years ago in the magisterial study by Strohm, Reinhard: Italienische
Opernarien des frühen Settecento (1720-1730), Köln 1976 [= Analecta Musicologica, vol. 16/1-2]. This book
opened the present writer’s eyes to the wealth which opera music has to offer.
6
The examples, though some of them might appear rather long, are essential for a text of this kind.
7
‘May the water rage in storms | it cannot do harm to the rock | standing firmly in the sea. || May it
rise and appear swollen and outraged, | it is still forced to return | into its abyss, torn by vortexes.’ The
score does not name the instruments; according to the general practice at Dresden it is probable that
the oboes should double the violins, but only during the ritornellos.
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the works of Zelenka. Given the generally scarce use of instruments when the singer sings, an
aria of this relentlessly accompanied type surely had a special effect. Both copies8
show only a
8
See D-Dl, Mus. 1-F‑82,15‑13 (‘Frema’) and Mus. 1-F‑82,15‑12 (‘Vile’). According to the digitization of
the SLUB ‘Frema pur’ was written by Johann George Kremmler, whose life span, given as ‘c1697-1759’
(according to Ortrun Landmann), makes it seem improbable that this copy could have been made at
the time of the performances of Ascanio in 1718 and 1719; I can hardly imagine that Kremmler’s hand
should be found in sources of such an early date. The scribe of ‘Vile et debole il cuor’ is not known; SLUB
and RISM classify him as ‘no. 7’, but only in regard to the huge convolute Mus. 1-F‑82,15 (1-16) in which
ten different hands can be distinguished; only three of them can be identified (Schlettner, Kremmler,
Lindner).
Example 1:
A. Lotti: Ascanio, ‘Frema
pur l’onda in tempesta’,
atto 3, sc. 4.
Vl 1 plays the upper,
vl 2 the lower note
of each third. Oboes
may double the violins
and the ritornellos.
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numbering by Zelenka, the scores themselves remained untouched. Probably these scores were
copied from the only surviving complete score of the opera, written by the well-known copyist
Girolamo Personelli. Since the scores are practically identical, there is no further evidence to
corroborate this hypothesis. We can be sure, that almost one score, namely Lotti’s autograph,
has been lost. Lotti might have taken it with him when leaving Dresden in 1719, and it is
unlikely that Zelenka and the copyists of his sources did ever see it. Perhaps the performance
material which was surely taken from Zelenka’s scores would show some entries of dynamics
or articulation, but the parts seem to have been destroyed.
	 This kind of reception of operas is remarkable: while the drama unfolds mainly in the recitatives,
the real interest of music lovers at court and elsewhere was obviously restricted to
the arias alone. These arias seem to have formed an important part of chamber concerts even
many years after the last performance of the opera. For many operas there are even arrangements
for Cembalo and voice which surely served the purpose to make the music, that is to
say, the arias (and the Sinfonia), available almost everywhere.
	One should generally be reluctant to draw conclusions from the fact that Zelenka possessed
or knew this or that piece of music. In the realm of church music there are not many
works bought and used by Zelenka which could be related to his style, even if he sometimes
heavily reworked them. The mass which comes closest to Zelenka’s own masses is not a work
by Fux, Caldara, Sarri or another well-known foreign master, but a mass by Zelenka’s pupil
Johann Gottlob Harrer (1703-1755), and in this case it should be clear that Zelenka and not
Harrer was the source of inspiration.
	In my opinion Lotti’s operas had not much to offer to Zelenka. The design as well as the
constituents of a Lotti-Aria, suitable for a drama with a huge amount of ‘numbers’, was too
simple for music without dramatical surroundings. But one must admit that the vocal passages
of Lotti’s arias were often well-invented and fluent, especially in the A-sections. And it
is by no means easy to produce the wealth of nice and memorable melodies needed to make
an opera attractive. Thus, when an author like Johann David Heinichen (1683-1729) underlines
the importance of primarily melodical invention as opposed to contrapuntal craftsmanship,
Lotti’s operas could earn the highest esteem. A professional composer like Heinichen, during
Lotti’s stay at Dresden his close colleague, used to study the compositional techniques of an
opera score meticulously, which shows, that musical inventio is not simply related to melody,
even if melody is the moment most easily grasped especially by musical amateurs, as many of
the opera viewers were.
	In the lengthy ‘Vorrede’ of his well-known book Der General-Bass in der Composition (Dresden,
1728) Heinichen discusses on p. 11-15 three anonymous examples, identified here for
the first time (as far as I know). He calls the composer a ‘sonst fundamentalen Autore’ (‘an
otherwise fundamental author’), a ‘renomirten Mann’ (‘a renowned man’) and an ‘exercirten
Meister’ (‘a well-trained master’), and he counts him among ‘die berühmtesten ausländischen
Componisten’ (‘the most famous foreign composers’). This author is none other than Antonio
Lotti, and Heini­chen’s three examples are taken from Ascanio. The first example is from the
aria ‘Dagl’Elisi ove riposi’ (act II, sc. 5; mm. 69-77), the second one is from the aria ‘Frema pur’
(mm. 28-32), and the third one is from the aria ‘Vile e debole il cuor’ (mm. 7-9/1 and 16-17).
These examples serve to illustrate legitimate cases of free voice leading and free treatment of
dissonances in modern opera music. Otherwise, I cannot explain the popularity of ‘Frema pur’
and ‘Vile e debole’ in the Dresden reception of Ascanio. But since Heinichen mentions also a
third instance (‘Dagl’Elisi’), he may have had a complete score of the opera at hand (perhaps
the one copied by Personelli) and not only single copies like Mus. 1-F‑82,15‑12 and -13. He
explicitly says, that Lotti’s ‘Originalia man allen fallß produciren könte’ (p. 11; ‘the original
sources could be shown on request’).
	 When Zelenka composed arias, his compositional ambitions were obviously higher and of
another kind. Being able to invent nice melodies is a musical gift in its own right, but composition
understood as art is more than inventing melodies. In an aria, ‘art’ can be displayed
in the construction of ritornellos and in the interweaving of instruments with the singing
part. The Latin proverb of unknown provenience: ‘Poeta nascitur, orator fit’, aptly applies to
Zelenka’s music as well as to any music of the baroque era in which a poet who did not know
how to convince the readers or listeners by being a highly trained ‘orator’ according to the
rhetorical rules of his day would not have been deemed an artist. But if a poet – or a composer,
for that matter – did not have ideas which were worthy of being dwelt upon, the art
of rhetoric at best was able to produce a sandcastle or a cover without contents.
	  Example 2 is taken from the aria for bass and instruments at the beginning of the
sepul­crum-cantata Deus Dux (ZWV 60). Zelenka wrote this piece on behalf of Baron Johann
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Example 2:
J. D. Zelenka: Deus Dux,
(ZWV 60; Musica
ad sepulcrum sacrum)
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Hubert von Hartig in Prague9
in the winter or early spring of 1716 when he was in Vienna
for the first time.10
Despite the bad physical condition of Zelenka’s autograph, the music can
9
Cf. Kapsa, Václav: ‘Die Musik in der St. Nikolauskirche auf der Prager Kleinseite in der ersten Hälfte
des 18. Jahrhunderts’, in: Musicologica Brunensia 49 (2014; available online), pp. 189‑209, esp. p. 195.
10
The autograph, badly damaged even after its restoration (see the digitized version of D-Dl, Mus.
2358-D‑76), mentions the place ‘Vienna’ and the year ‘1716’. Since the title page speaks of the ‘Sepulcrum
Sacrum’ it is clear that the work was to be performed during Holy Week; Good Friday fell on April 10,
1716, so this is a reliable terminus ante quem. Besides, it is not known on which date precisely Zelenka
arrived at Vienna.
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be reconstructed almost completely,11
due to its strong contrapuntal structure in which the
motifs and their modifications have their fixed places. The beginning of the ritornello of this
aria is a regular double-fugue with four entries of the soggetto: dux 1 in the first violin (m.
1), comes 1 in the viola (m. 3), dux 2 in the second violin (m. 5) and finally comes 2 in the
basso continuo (m. 7). A series of sixteenth-notes followed by punctuations serves as countersubject
(mm. 3, 5, 7), and the anapaestic motif first encountered in vl I, m. 4, later serves as
the nucleus for the freer passage after the end of the exposition, which leads to the entry of
the vocal bass in m. 22 which presents again the dux of the fugue – of course you would not
expect the words ‘Deus Dux’ to be sung with the comes. This aria is a so-called ‘Devisenarie’,
in which the head motif is sung, followed by a short instrumental passage, after which the
head motif is sung again, this time with its continuation. The ritornello shows at least two
characteristics which can be found in Zelenka’s music of all periods: firstly the almost brutal
chordal caesuras (see mm. 14-15), secondly the rapid transition from major to minor as in 18-
19 and elsewhere. Although these markers can also be found with other composers it seems
reasonable to assume that the personal style of a composer is characterized by an individual
combination of such markers.
	As particular as this invention might seem, it is only one extreme of a general practice encountered
in Zelenka arias between 1709 and the mid‑1720s; there often is a strong tendency
towards polyphonic writing at least in some parts of an aria. And there is a certain lack of the
‘long and freely flowing lines’ which characterize opera music of the ‘second stage’ (Hasse and
others).
	A very nice example is the Latin aria ‘Huc palmas deferte’ from the Melodrama Sub olea
pacis which I have partly transcribed from the admirable edition by Vratislav Bělský ( Ex-
ample 3).12
Although not a fugue, the references to contrapuntal writing at the beginning are
clear since the oboes form a typical pair of soggetto and countersoggetto which could be seen
as a parallel to the fugue-exposition in Deus Dux. What follows is a wild concerto-like entry of
the orchestra, but also this is parallel to Deus Dux where the exposition is followed by a freer
passage. And in the course of the aria the seemingly concerto-like motifs are interwoven with
the other voices to form a dense polyphonic structure as seen in the example starting with
measure 31.
	Of course not every aria in Zelenka’s earlier compositions has such a strong contrapuntal
structure. However, the ‘younger’ Zelenka seemed to be more at ease when he could build
demanding structures in which his fondness of working with short, yet characteristic motifs
could unfold in many different, but preferably contrapuntal ways. Generally speaking, the
more homophone arias in the earlier works, consisting of some melody accompanied by a bass,
could not yet rely on the expanded structures of the arias encountered in Hasse’s Cleofide (and
of course in other operas of the same stylistic level).
	Approaching the second stylistic level one can start from the seemingly rather modest
form of ‘Minuetto’ (or ‘Menuett’) which in fact is no more and no less than a paradigm for a
new musical style. There is a ‘Minuetto’ in 3/8-time as third part of the ‘Sinfonia’ of Hasse’s
Cleofide,13
and there is a ‘Menuett’ of the same type as third part of the Sinfonia of Zelenka’s
Serenata Il Diamante (ZWV 177), both shown in a somewhat reduced form in  Example 4.
This is the only ‘Menuett’ by Zelenka in 3/8-time which I could find – all of his other menuets
are in 3/4-meter. Probably he imported this type of 3/8-minuetto from Italian opera (which
does not mean that it was really ‘invented’ there – suffice it to say, that it was often used as
the third part of the ‘Sin­fonia’).14
11
Cf. the transcription made by the present author on behalf of Das Erbe deutscher Musik around
1990. See: http://www.uni-regensburg.de/Fakultaeten/phil_Fak_I/Musikwissenschaft/EDM/KOMPONIS-
TEN.pdf.
12
Jan Dismas Zelenka, Sub Olea Pacis et Palma Virtutis. Melodrama de Sancto Wenceslao (1723 [ZWV
175]), ed. by Vratislav Bělský, Prague, 1987 [= Musica Antiqua Bohemica, Seria II, vol. 12).
13
Hasse’s ‘Minuetto’ is followed by two ‘Presto’-passages (functioning similar to trios), the complete
form is Minuetto – Presto I – Minuetto – Presto II – Minuetto. Zelenka’s ‘Menuett’ is followed by a short
trio, the complete form is ‘Menuett – (Trio) – Menuett’. Besides it might be useful to differentiate between
the 3/8-meter as such, which is one of the lesser used movements, and its use in pieces of the
minuetto-type which exhibit an additional set of markers.
14
Searching for the origins of a certain musical ‘form’ can be painstaking. I did not find a 3/8-minuetto
in any of Bach’s Suiten, which shows that it was by no means a universal type at that time. However,
there are bipartite 3/8-movements of a rather similar type which already form the final part of the
‘Sinfonia’ in some of Lotti’s operas, e. g. in Foca superbo (D- Dl, Mus. 2159-F‑1), Alessandro severo (Mus.
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Example 3:
J. D. Zelenka: Melodrama
de sancto Wenceslao
(ZWV 175): ‘Huc palmas
deferte’ (Majestas, Nr. 7)
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	In Zelenka’s later arias ritornellos similar to minuettos of the 3/8-type are often to be
found. Of course there are other types of modern arias which cannot be discussed here. As
little and innocent a minuetto might appear, it was very important for the development of a
new musical style and a new kind of theoretical reflection. The minuetto plays a central role
in the first compositional textbooks which not only teach the basic rules of counterpoint but
the building of large-scale forms. The pioneer of this new thinking and writing was Joseph
Riepel (1709-1782). He was born in Austria, but spent most of his musical life at the court of
the dynasty of ‘Thurn und Taxis’ in Regensburg. His first in a series of books, which for the
first time taught composition in a ‘synthetical’ or ‘inductive’ way, appeared in 1752.15
Riepel
knew Zelenka personally: he was in Dresden in the early 1740s and wrote that he discussed
2159-F‑2), Giove in Argo (Mus. 2159-F‑3) and Ascanio (Mus. 2159-F‑5), though they are never designated
as ‘Minuetto’ and though they have a second part which is much longer than the first one – the numbers
for Giove in Argo are 2 × 8 + 56. As one would expect, the older movements have a much simpler
rhythm than the later minuettos. A 3/8-finale (‘Allegro’) of a Sinfonia can already be found in Giovanni
Bononcini’s Il trionfo di Camilla, printed in 1696 (see the Garland-series Italian Opera, edited by Howard
Mayer Brown, vol. 17, fols. 3r
-4v
) which surely is not the earliest example. The conclusion of this
rhapsody would be made by the rather straightforward 3/4-‘Menuette’ (sic!), which forms the third part
of the ‘Ouverture’ (in fact the first part is a French ouverture) in Johann Joseph Fux, Orfeo ed Euridice,
performed 1715 (Italian Opera, vol. 19).
15
The general title of the series is Anfangsgründe zur musicalischen Setzkunst (Principles of the art
of musical composition); the whole series obviously should consist of ten ‘chapters’ (‘Capitel’), of which
only seven appeared in print, the others survived in manuscript form. The first ‘Capitel’ was called De
Rhythmopoeia, Oder von der Tactordnung (Regensburg and Vienna, 1752). There are numerous digitized
versions of Riepel’s texts to be found on the internet or on DVD; a scholarly printed edition of all of
Riepel’s texts (the manuscripts of course in modern transcription), including Indexes and accompanying
texts is: Emmerig, Thomas (ed.), Joseph Riepel. Sämtliche Schriften zur Musiktheorie, 2 vols., Vienna etc.,
1996 (Wiener Musikwissenschaftliche Beiträge, vols. 20/I and 20/II). This edition contains also Riepel’s
printed book Harmonisches Syllbenmaaß (Regensburg, 1776) which does not belong to the series of
‘chapters’. Emmerig completed the text according to a hand-written ‘third part’.
Example 4a:
J. A. Hasse: Cleofide:
‘Sinfonia’, part 3 /
‘Minuetto’
(original designation)
Example 4b:
J. D. Zelenka: Serenata
Il Diamante (ZWV
177): ‘Sinfonia’, part
3 / ‘Menuett’ (original
designation; the form is
in keeping with principles
later described by Riepel)
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with Zelenka some ‘dubious principles of composition’.16
Besides, Riepel was a great admirer of
Hasse whom he called a ‘great master like Frescobaldi in his days’.17
	 The terms ‘Fonte’, ‘Monte’ and ‘Ponte’ which designate a type of sequence (or stationary
har­mony) with a defined formal function in a minuetto were coined by Riepel;  Example 5
16
In the ‘Fourth chapter’ (Erläuterung der betrüglichen Tonordnung, nämlich das versprochene vierte
Capitel, Augsburg, 1765) Riepel writes about the simplicity of a normal canon-soggetto and continues:
‘Wie mir der sel. Herr Zelenka selbst eingestunde. Mit welchem ausbündigen Meister ich damals in Dresden
täglichen Umgang genossen’ (loc. cit., p. 101; ‘This conceded the late Mr. Zelenka himself. With this
extraordinary master I associated daily back then in Dresden’). Probably also the ‘wackere Tonkünstler’
in the following passage refers to Zelenka, where the ‘Praeceptor’ (who is Riepel’s alter ego) says: ‘wie
froh war ich nicht vor ungefähr 14 Jahren, da mir ein wackerer Tonkünstler (ja wohl recht eines aufrichtig-
und harmonischen Gemüts) nur in etlichen Stunden ein- und anderen zweifelhaften Grundsatz
erläuterte’ (Grundregeln zur Tonordnung insgemein. Zweites Capitel: Von der Tonordnung, Frankfurt and
Leipzig, 1755, p. 90; ‘how glad I was about 14 years ago, when a brave composer – indeed a man with
an honest and harmonious soul - took the time of some hours to declare to me one ore another dubious
principle’). The honour of having cited these sentences decades before the advent of computers and the
internet belongs to Twittenhoff, Wilhelm: Die musiktheoretischen Schriften Joseph Riepels (1709‑1782)
als Beispiel einer anschaulichen Musiklehre, Halle – Berlin 1935, pp. 22‑24.
17
Frescobaldi ‘war nämlich damals ein so erhabner Meister als heut zu Tage ein Hasse’. Riepel,
Example 5:
Some Riepelian
dispositions of minuets
(constructed by an
anonymous discantista)
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illustrates these procedures in very simple pieces; ‘HC’ means ‘Half Cadence’, ‘PAC’ stands for
’Perfect Authentic Cadence’. It suffices to say, that sequences of this kind are often encountered
in Zelenka’s arias of the ‘minuetto’-type and in the modern type in general, so his music lends
itself easily to a historically informed analysis on the basis of Riepel’s terms. And that means
that Zelenka’s music can be estimated both from a ‘baroque’ and a ‘pre-classical’ point of view.18
	Arias of the minuetto-type can also be found in Hasse’s Cleofide; Timagene’s aria ‘Quanto
mai felici siete’ ( Example 6) is a case in point, which needs no comment except for the
abundance of appoggiaturas and the lombardic rhythms so typical also for Zelenka’s later
style. The entry of the voice is accompanied colla parte (here in the higher octave) by the inErläuterung
der betrüglichen Tonordnung, see note 16, p. 1; Frescobaldi ‘was back then in fact so illustrious
a master as Hasse in present times’).
18
There is a kind of modernist way to describe the well-known ‘Satzmodelle’ especially in pre-classical
music with names derived from theorists who (casually) have described this or that model (e. g. ‘Prinner’,
‘Fenaroli’ and so on). In my opinion this way of description (if used carelessly) could misrepresent
the music by giving it an anachronistic and kaleidoscopic appearance. Even if it is more painstaking I
would prefer to use terms based on musical entities or techniques (as ‘upward-leading 5‑6-progression’)
or such metaphors which are based on qualities inherent or closely related to the music: Riepel’s ‘Monte’,
‘Fonte’ and ‘Ponte’ refer to the direction of the harmonic movement and therefore seem appropriate for
unbiased musical analysis. Concretions of different orders in the framework of a musical system formed
the ‘musical notions’ in the mind of a composer; I do not see the need to substitute these meaningful
musical categories with a series of names no composer of the time had ever heard of - at least not in the
combinations used today. By the same token I do not use the term ‘galant style’ to designate Zelenka’s or
Hasse’s music. The term with its subtle erotic connotations suggests that everything is just a game and
not to be taken seriously. No author of the 18th century has used this term in the broad stylistic sense
which authors of the 20th and 21st centuries seem to take for granted (see my article ‘Galant, Galanterie,
Galanter Stil’, in: Handwörterbuch der musikalischen Terminologie (2005), available online: https://www.
vifamusik.de/startseite/). In the case of opera music stylistic generalizations are especially unsatisfying.
In the perspective of an extended notion of ‘style’ an individual composer could easily appear as a mere
‘function’ in a general framework. Questions like these need to be addressed not only from a methodical,
but from a meta-methodical or methodological point of view.
Example 6:
J. A. Hasse: Cleofide:
‘Quanto mai felici siete’,
(atto III, sc. 7)
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struments, a technique, rarely if ever used in an average Lotti-aria. When we confront this aria
with a Minuetto based on a ritornello by Zelenka with only a few simplifications (as shown in
 Example 7) we do not need much of an analysis to recognize the similarity which results
from the obvious affiliation to a more or less fixed type. The model of this minuetto is the ritornello
of the aria ‘Christe eleison’ from the Missa Eucharistica (ZWV 15; 1733). This ritornello
is special since it has an almost perfect middle-cadence on the fifth degree (see m. 15) – like a
true minuetto.  Example 8 shows the same piece with all its appoggiaturas in a short score
written before the dawning of the computer era.19
	One could consider the minuetto-type-arias as a sound basis and a starting point for
demonstrating that Zelenka’s music can be aptly described in terms of the so-called ‘punctuation
form’ developed by Joseph Riepel and later systemized by Heinrich Christoph Koch.20
The
19
There is a very similar ‘Christe eleison’ in the Missa Sanctissimae Trinitatis (ZWV 17; 1736), which
is easily available in a printed edition (Das Erbe deutscher Musik, vol. 103, ed. by Thomas Kohlhase,
Wiesbaden et al., 1987).
20
Koch’s Versuch einer Anleitung zur Composition, 3 vols., 1782, 1787 and 1793, are easily available
online and on DVD. A very good, if sometimes a bit dogmatic introduction to ‘punctuation form’ as an
object and tool for analysis is Budday, Wolfgang: Grundlagen musikalischer Formen der Wiener Klassik. An
Hand der zeitgenössischen Theorie von Joseph Riepel und Heinrich Christoph Koch dargestellt an Menuetten
und Sonatensätzen (1750–1790), Kassel et al., 1983. Note that all the notions related to ‘punctuation
Example 7:
A ‘Minuetto’, derived
from J. D. Zelenka: Missa
Eucharistica (ZWV 15),
‘Christe eleison’
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segmentation of the music according to tonal and harmonic categories reflects the composer’s
decisions and allows the precise description of a given musical idiom. Beginning with the simple
8-plus‑8-structures, systematic analysis could show all kinds of manipulations, extensions,
cadential schemata and so on.
	Also larger forms such as the ‘group concerto’ (this term is not well established, but useful)
can be analyzed in the same way, although the form of such a concerto is at times rather
unpredictable. It is well known that the formula ‘per l’orchestra di Dresda’ was used to indicate
the unique status of the Dresden orchestra and its players thus allowing for the composition
of ‘Concerti con molti strumenti’ in the way Vivaldi and others did. The extensive use of the
instrumental forces of the Dresden court orchestra is of course not an invention of the 1730s,
and it is not restricted to Dresden alone – suffice it to say that Bach composed his Brandenburg
Concertos around 1720 for a prince and his orchestra at Berlin.
	One thing is an independent concerto, another thing is a concerto-like ritornello as a formal
function within an aria. Perhaps very few opera houses of the time would have had an
orchestra able to play the ritornello of the aria ‘È ver che all’amo intorno’ ( Example 9) from
the second act of Hasse’s Cleofide, contrasting strings (including the oboes) and flutes with
great effect and at great length on a very simple harmonic basis which makes extensive use of
pedal points. This is only supportable when the rhythmic surface is very animated. The resulting
music is highly exquisite, and the instrumentalists must play with virtuosity and passion.
Any routine playing would destroy the magic of the music. In Hasse’s and Zelenka’s day charming
music was by no means banned from the church, so this kind of ritornello is not restricted
to opera. The ‘Laudamus te’ from Zelenka’s Missa Sancti Josephi (ZWV 14;  Example 10), a
mass probably written in 1732 and thus next to Hasse’s Cleofide, uses the same scoring and the
same ‘ground colour’ not encountered in Zelenka’s earlier music.21
The similarities are obvious,
nevertheless every lover of both composers would be able to tell Zelenka from Hasse.
form’ stay close to the music itself; the notions ‘Comma’, ‘Absatz’ or ‘Periode’, taken from the discipline
of grammar, refer to the length of a passage and the intensity of its cadence and therefore to musical
categories. And since music and language have much in common there is no danger of misrepresentation.
The minuets in Example 5 resemble the dispositions described by Budday on pp. 84-86 (Nr. I: cf. ex. 35
b on p. 86; Nr. II: cf. ex. 35 a/2 on top of p. 86; Nr. III: cf. ex. 35 a/1 on p. 85).
21
You will not find the ‘Laudamus te’ from the Missa Sancti Josephi in the list given at the end of
this article (the number would be 14‑4), since it is not a ‘normal’ aria but rather a ‘succesive duettodialogue’
in which initially Soprano and Alto and then Tenore and Basso are singing. For systematical
(and somewhat arbitrary) reasons which need not be discussed here I put pieces like this in a separate
group although of course they have ritornellos (which by the way is also true for the numerous choruses
in concerto style). The ritornello of 14‑4 would be an example for ‘F. 5 upper voices’ of a new variety:
fl I, fl II, ob I=vl I, ob II=vl II, va. Obviously, the different functions of the parts and instruments would
Example 8:
J. D. Zelenka: Missa
Eucharistica (ZWV 15):
‘Christe eleison’ (15-2)
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	 Finally, the combination of horns, flutes, oboes, fagotti, strings and bass in the ritornello of
an aria is the ‘non plus ultra’ in regard to instrumental diversity in the baroque, leaving out
trumpets and timpani since they are not purely musical instruments but used also and mainly
for purposes of representation. In the aria ‘Così per la foresta’ from the Serenata Il Diamante
(ZWV 177), dated 1737, Zelenka reaches the climax ( Example 11). He composes a ‘concerto
con molti strumenti’, and he even weaves in the soprano as an obbligato voice of the concert.
I have found nothing similar in Hasses Cleofide;22
especially the famous aria ‘Cervo al bosco’ is
a ‘horn concert’, not a ‘group concert’.
	One can hardly imagine a more splendid aria. If ‘Così per la foresta’ were an independent
piece and not (so to speak) ‘hidden’ in a rarely performed ‘Serenata’, it surely would be regarded
as an outstanding example of masterly vocal-instrumental music in the exquisite style
of late baroque group concerto writing. But what can be seen here in a certain sense holds
need further discussion (e. g. the higher strings often form a ‘bassetto’, that is a bass line in the higher
register), but already Zelenka’s (and Hasse’s) highly imaginative choices of instruments can be regarded
as compositional ideas in their own right.
22
In the arias ‘S’appresti omai la vittima’ (Nr. 13 in the edition of Mojzysz) and ‘Quanto mai felici
siete’ (Nr. 61) the horns are incorporated into the orchestra in an almost modern, pre-classical way. – The
ritornello of ‘Così per la foresta’ again is not included in the list below, this time for repertory reasons:
it is not part of a mass.
Example 9:
J. A. Hasse: Cleofide:
‘È ver che all’amo intorno’
(atto II, sc. 11; beginning
of the rit.)
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Example 10:
J. D. Zelenka: Missa
Sancti Josephi (ZWV 14):
‘Laudamus te’
(complete ritornello)
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Example 10:
J. D. Zelenka: Serenata
Il Diamante (ZWV 177):
aria ‘Così per la foresta’
(No. 9)
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true for all of Zelenka’s arias which by no means are a primitive genre (which it can be with
other composers). I just want to add two tables which I made many years ago when I studied
Zelenka’s masses in greater detail. The first table lists 64 arias with ritornellos (including ‘arie
a 2’ and ‘a 3’) in all of Zelenka’s masses.23
	 The following list pairs the names of the masses with the numbers used in the Table 1
(which are in accordance with the ZWV) in order to make the reading easier. The dates of
composition do not exclude later reworkings:
	 1	 Missa Sanctae Caeciliae (1712 and later);
	 2	 Missa Judica me (only Gloria; 1714);
	 3	 Missa Corporis Domini (c1719);
	 4	 Missa Sancti Spiritus (1723);
	[5	 Missa Spei, completely lost];
	 6	 Missa Fidei (only Kyrie, Gloria; 1725);
	 7	 Missa Paschalis (1726);
	 8	 Missa Nativitatis (1726);
	[9	 Missa Corporis Dominici, c1726; not included];
10	 Missa Caritatis (ca. 1727);
11	 Missa Circumcisionis (end of 1728);
12	 Missa Sancti (or Divi) Xaverii (1729);
13	 Missa Gratias agimus tibi (1730);
14	 Missa Sancti Josephi (ca. 1732);
15	 Missa Eucharistica (only Kyrie, Gloria; 1733);
16	 Missa Purificationis (1733);
17	 Missa Sanctissimae Trinitatis (1736);
18	 Missa votiva (1739);
19	 Missa Dei Patris (1740);
20	 Missa Dei Filii (only Kyrie, Gloria; c1740);
21	 Missa Omnium Sanctorum (1741).
N. B.:
The number before the hyphen refers to the ZWV, the number thereafter to the position of
the movement within the mass; the asterisk (*) refers to later reworkings of ZWV 1 and 2.
The equals sign designates instruments playing in unison. ‘a 2’ and ‘a 3’ designate arias with
two or three vocal parts.
A. No upper part (‘continuo-aria’): no example
B. 1 upper part: 8 examples, 6 varieties
1 ob 6‑5
2 ob or vl 11‑11
3 chalumeau 15‑5
4 vl 1‑17, 7‑16
5 vl=va 19‑18
6 uncertain 12‑2, 12‑10
C. 2 upper parts: 38 examples, 16 varieties
7 cor I, cor II 10‑10
8 fl I, fl II 8‑3, 8‑13, 12‑8 (all examples are ‘a 3’)
9 fl, ob 13‑13
23
Except for the Missa Corporis Dominici (ZWV 9; not to be confused with the Missa Corporis Domini,
ZWV 3), the autograph of which is lost. The existing copies show different versions which cannot
be discussed here in detail; the only existing score representing the complete text of the mass – D-B
Am. B. 362 – was obviously heavily reworked by the scribe and composer Johann Gottlob Harrer. This
pupil of Zelenka possessed a considerable amount of Zelenka’s works, but obviously he often could not
use them in their original form. In Harrer’s version of ZWV 9 there are four arias which may or may
not reflect Zelenka’s original settings (‘Qui tollis ... suscipe’: Ob solo, 2 Vl, Va; ‘Quoniam’ and ‘Benedictus’:
[ATB soli] 2 Ob= 2Vl, Va; ‘Agnus Dei [II]’: 2 Vl, Va).
Table 1:
Instrumental upper parts
in the arias of Zelenka’s
masses
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10 ob I, ob II 6‑8, 8‑9 (both examples are ‘a 2’)
11 ob, chalumeau 17‑17 (‘a 2’)
12 ob, vl 3‑8, 6‑2
13 vl I, vl II 2‑4, 7‑2, 13‑10, 19‑11 (‘a 3’)
14 vl, ob da caccia (?) 12‑15
15 vl, va 2‑6, 4‑16, 18‑13, 18‑17, 21‑7
16 va, fag 1-*23
17 va da gamba, vc 1‑7
18 A trb, T trb 2-*14
19 fl=vl, va (occasionally fl, vl) 14‑10
20 ob=vl, va
4‑12, 11‑5 (‘a 2’), 12‑6, 15‑2, 18‑9, 19‑2, 19‑6, 19‑8 (‘a 3’),
19‑16, 20‑8, 21-2
21 ob I=vl I, ob II=vl II 10‑5
22 fl=ob=vl, va 14‑7, 17‑2
D. 3 upper parts: 16 examples, 7 varieties
23
tr I, tr II, ob, vl, va (in varying
combinations)
8‑5 (‘a 2’)
24 ob, vl I, vl II 11‑3, 16‑15
25 vl I, vl II, va 1‑13, 7‑5, 7‑7 (‘a 3’), 16‑9 (‘a 2’)
26 vl, va, vc 1‑10
27 fl, ob=vl, va 17‑15
28 fl=vl I, ob=vl II, va 13‑5
29 ob I=vl I, ob II=vl II, va 2‑2, 2‑8, 18‑2, 18‑7, 20‑2, 21‑5
E. 4 upper parts: 1 example
30 fl, vl I, vl II, va 12‑17
F. 5 upper parts: 1 example
31 ob I, ob II, vl I, vl II, va 1‑4
	It can be clearly seen that Zelenka strived for many different combinations of instruments
playing the ritornello. In 64 arias there are no less than 31 different combinations of instruments.
This is the work of a really great composer, not of a craftsman who wanted to get rid
of his tasks using a restricted set of stereotypes.
	 The Table 2, based on 60 items, shows how the length of an aria increased in the course
of time. In the approximately eleven masses written up to 1730 27 of 33 arias, that is 82 per
cent, are n o t l o n g e r than 110 measures, whereas in the eight masses written after 1731
22 of 27 arias, that is 81 per cent, are in fact l o n g e r than 110 measures. The longest arias
with 283 and 292 measures are found in the Missa Dei Filii (ZWV 20), written around 1740.
The numbers refer to simple measures: 4/4 is counted as 2 × 2/4; 6/4, 6/8, 9/8, 12/8 are rarely
or never used in Zelenka’s masses. Especially in his later arias Zelenka seems to prefer simple
time signatures such as 2/4, 3/8 or 3/4. Common time (4/4) prevails only in choruses both
in polyphonic and in concerto style. The table assumes the turning point between the rather
short Missa Gratias agimus tibi (ZWV 13; 1730) and the very extensive Missa Sancti Josephi
(ZWV 14, probably written in 1732).
50‑80 81‑110 111‑140 141‑170 >170
In ZWV 1‑13
(1712‑1730)
17 10 5 1 0
In ZWV 14‑21
(1731/2‑1741)
2 3 6 9 7
Total 19 13 11 10 7
Table 2:
The length of the arias
in Zelenka’s masses
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	As different as the presented examples both old and new may be, they all are very demanding
compositions – from the view of the composer as well as the performer. When the old
contrapuntal rules or the customs of polyphony no longer suffice to maintain the flow of the
music, the construction of ‘modern music’ has to be understood and described in another way
best explained by Riepel and Koch.
	 Zelenka never wrote trivial music. But it seems obvious that there was a turning point
in his writing which can be connected – for simplicity’s sake –with the arrival of Hasse and
his music around 1730. In one way Zelenka always remained the same, in another way he
changed. I want to insert here a translated paraphrase of an older text which tries to evaluate
the significance which Johann Joseph Fux’s personal teachings might have had for Zelenka
which surely cannot be restricted to the transmission of the simple and basic rules of counterpoint.
Rather one should recognize that Fux did not teach a special ‘style’ of composition,
let alone the style of Palestrina. His rules of compositio regularis, that is ‘strict counterpoint’,
were meant to convince a pupil – and even more an already adult pupil –, that the observance
of some basic laws of composition, reflecting God’s well-ordered creation of the world, was the
necessary and indispensable prerequisite of any good composition. On this sound basis the
pupil was entitled and encouraged to choose his own models.24
	 So in choosing music in the style of Hasse’s operas as a model Zelenka nevertheless remained
the serious composer that he had always been. And his choice had a very important
reason, since the music encountered in the operas of Hasse and others was full of highly
differentiated rhythms and carefully planned combinations of smaller phrases, which formed
greater unities that were attractive despite an often simple and slow-moving harmonic basis.
In other words, this style of music allowed the composer to conquer the musical space without
relying on the structure of polyphony by using a simple but plausible harmonic basis and an
utterly refined rhythmic surface.
	 The concept of an ‘adult’ composer which was introduced at the beginning of this paper
implies that Zelenka could deliberately choose from a wealth of possibilities the music surrounding
him had to offer. Lotti’s average arias were certainly too simple and uniform to
inspire him; the model ‘pretty melody, clear-cut harmony and simple ritornello-framework’ did
not meet his demands. It was only in the later stage of opera at Dresden, connected with the
name of Hasse and the years after 1730, that the offers made by operatic arias of a new kind
were attractive. The harmony was still clear-cut, but the melodies and phrases were highly
elaborated and the composing of the ritornello in a non-polyphonic way became a compositional
task of the first order. And the slow-moving harmonic rhythm allowed for the invention
and performance of ‘melodie lunghe’ which Verdi a century later highlighted in the music of
Bellini.
	Once again Joseph Riepel, an adherent of the music made in Dresden, speaks in favor of the
aria as a demanding art form when he criticizes the decline of aria-composing in the second
half of the eighteenth century. Comparing the style of opera seria, represented by the names
of Hasse, Graun, Vinci or Pergolesi, with the style of the French opéra comique or the German
Singspiel, Riepel notes the difference between an elaborated aria and a crude song which every
peasant could sing after hearing it once. In regard to Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s deliberately
simplistic ‘Intermède’, which Riepel calls an ‘Opera comique’, he writes: ‘Le Devin du village; ein
Geschmier für unsre Bauren [sic!] hier noch viel zu abgeschmack[t]’ (‘The Village Soothsayer;
rubbish, even for our peasants here much too stale’). And: ‘Der elende Tropf soll kommen,
nur von vielen unsrer Chor-Knaben so Harmonie als Gesang zu lernen’ (‘The poor devil should
come to us [in Germany], here he could learn from many of our choir boys harmony as well
as melody [or singing]’.)25
And how much more was there to be learnt from great masters like
Zelenka and Hasse!
24
Here is the original passage: ‘Was im Laufe der Geschichte mit der Musik geschieht, das entzieht
sich für Fux genaueren Festlegungen [...]. Entscheidend ist für ihn, dass die Musik - in welcher stilistischen
und geschichtlich-konkreten Gewandung auch immer – den Kern ihrer Regularität bewahrt. So
gesehen läge die Bedeutung des Fuxschen Unterrichts gerade auch im Falle eines längst erwachsenen
Schülers wie Jan Dismas Zelenka nicht in der Verpflichtung auf ein bestimmtes Stilideal. Der Schüler
hatte das Recht, sich an selbstgewählten Mustern zu orientieren.’ See Horn, Wolfgang: ‘Nachahmung und
Originalität – Zelenkas Studien bei Fux und die Bedeutung der “Imitatio”’, in: Edler, Arnfried – Riedel,
Friedrich W. (eds.): Johann Joseph Fux und seine Zeit. Kultur, Kunst und Musik im Spätbarock, Laaber, 1996
[= Publikationen der Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover, Band 7], pp. 137-169, here p. 162.
25
The quotations are taken from Riepel, Joseph: Fünftes Capitel. Unentbehrliche Anmerkungen vom
Contrapunct, Regensburg, 1768, p. 74. Riepel’s bias for opera seria must not be overlooked although
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	 The task of composing good and demanding arias occurred not only in opera but in every
genre where arias were needed: in oratorios, in masses and also in other liturgical works such
as litanies. By adopting ways of composing that originated in opera Zelenka continued his
career as a highly admirable aria composer shifting to a new idiom that was most suitable for
homophone writing. When he composed his long arias for his later masses he did not want
to make the church an opera house; he simply wanted to do what he had always done: to
bring the best music possible before the altar of God or – if he had the opportunity – also to
a wedding party as in the astonishing Serenata Il Diamante. And the spirit which enlivens all
these pieces is not restricted to arias, operas or other genres which for logical reasons have
their limitations – rather it is the spirit in the core of a great variety of music composed by
leading composers between approximately 1725 and 1750. This does not mean that we should
coin new terms for a new epoch or a certain style under which the single pieces could be
subsumed; it is rather an encouragement to be curious about musical pieces without classifying
them beforehand. Much music produced in Dresden will make it worthwhile to postpone
standardization until the individual beauties have been recognized to their full extent.
his principles of composition are mostly and aptly used for the description of pre-classical and classical
instrumental music. But of course there is a connection.
71
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G
iven the extent of current research into Jan Dismas
Zelenka and the boom in performances of his work,
it is hard to believe that there remains anything
further to discover about him, about his work and its
revival. However, even now, new information can be
unearthed.
The first Czechs to recognise, in the nineteenth century,
Zelenka’s worth as a composer, are considered to
be the important historian František Palacký and the
composer Bedřich Smetana. Palacký, inspired by Friedrich
Rochlitz’s notes on Zelenka, which he published in the
second volume of his Für Freunde der Tonkunst (1825),
urged Prague’s Verein der Kunstfreunde für Kirchenmusik
in Böhmen (founded in 1826 and of which he
was himself a member), to support Zelenka’s recognition
and renaissance in the Bohemian Lands1
. In April 1863
Smetana visited Dresden. This may partly have been to
fulfill the stated aims of the Umělecká beseda (Artists’
Club), founded in 1862, namely ‘starým českým skladbám
a slovanským vůbec budiž zvláštní pozornost věnována’
[‘special attention should be paid to early Czech works,
and Slavonic compositions in general’]. On 19 April 1863
he noted: ‘v Dražďanech stran kompozic Zelinkových [!].
Navštívil jsem krajana Suchánka, bývaliho[!] dvorního
hudebníka, Žije v pensi.’ [‘In Dresden, in connection
with Zelinka’s [!] compositions. Visited my compatriot
Suchánek, former court musician, today a pensioner’].
Smetana’s trip may have been instigated by the Dresden
performance of Zelenka’s Suite in F major on March 9th
,
1863, initiated by the curator of the Royal Music Collection,
the flute player Moritz Fürstenau. The same composition
got performed in Prague’s New Town Theatre
on June 30th
, 1863. It was conducted by Eduard Tauwitz,
later Director of one of the most important Prague Music
Societies – the Žofínská akademie (Sophien-Akademie).2
For a long time, Zelenka’s works were the sole property
of the Saxon court, and therefore beyond the reach
of the outside world. There were clearly some exceptions,
however. Wilhelm Friedemann Bach copied Zelenka’s
Magni­ficat for his father, Bedřich Smetana’s Dresden visit
might have helped the Prague performance of the orchestral
suite mentioned above – while Ferdinand Mende,
Music Director and teacher at the Royal seminary in
Dresden, as well as an honorary member of Prague’s Verein
der Kunstfreunde für Kirchenmusik in Böhmen, had,
at the suggestion of the King of Saxony, copied works
by Jan Dismas Zelenka, performed in the Dresden court
church, for the use of Prague’s Organists College in 1832.
The Organists College was founded in 1830 to promote
the development of sacred music in Bohemia. In 1889
it merged with the Prague Conservatoire and its papers
and music became part of the Conservatoire archives. It
seems that this is how the Conservatoire came to possess
the Zelenka scores that are kept today in the school’s
1
See Palacký, František, ‘Jan Dismas Zelenka, český hudební
skladatel’ [Jan Dismas Zelenka, a Czech Composer], in: Františka
Palackého spisy drobné, III, Praha, 1902, pp. 234-236.
2
See Bedřich Smetana’s diaries, April 1863. Prague, National
Museum – Bedřich Smetana Museum.
Michaela Freemanová
(Prague)
Prague 1734: Jan Dismas
Zelenka and Leonardo Leo
The first Czechs to recognise, in the 19th
century, Jan Dismas
Zelenka’s worth as a composer, are considered to be the
important historian František Palacký and the composer
Bedřich Smetana. Zelenka’s works were, indeed, performed
in the Bohemian Lands already during his lifetime. One
of the most intriguing documents here is the insertion
of his [?] motets Sollicitus fossor and Barbara dira effera
into Parts I and II of Leonardo Leo’s oratorio Sant' Elena al
Calvario, performed by Prague’s Jesuits in 1734.
Key words: Zelenka, Jan Dismas; Palacký, František; Smetana,
Bedřich; Jesuits; oratorio; Leo, Leonardo
Number of characters / words: 16 332 / 2 487
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archives.3
It is also quite possible that these scores, when still in the possession of the Organists
College, might have inspired Bedřich Smetana to look for other works by Zelenka in Dresden.
This idea, however, remains a matter of further research.
Let us now go back to Zelenka’s time, and to the Easter oratorios and sepolcros performed
in the Bohemian Lands of the early 18th
century, and particularly in Prague. Some of these
works were written by Bohemian composers (Joseph Anton Sehling, Anton Mauritius Taubner,
Franz Wenceslas Habermann, Gunther Jacob, as well as Jan Dismas Zelenka, whose I penitenti
al Sepolcro del Redentore were performed in the Kreuzherren’s church in 1738). Others were by
German and Austrian authors, such as Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel, Johann Georg Lösel, Johann
Michael Breunich, Joseph Umstatt and, perhaps, Johann David Heinichen. Most of them were
by Italian composers; they came to the Bohemian lands either via Vienna, or directly from
Italy. (Permanent links with Italy were maintained not only by the high representatives of the
Catholic church or members of Bohemian nobility, but also by the members of religious Orders,
who were in contact with the Italian monasteries and the Papal court in Rome up to the time
of Joseph II’s church reform in the 1780s). With specific regard to Prague, in the first decades
of the 18th
century performances of Italian oratorios were organized by the Kreuzherren with
the Red Star and the Jesuits. The works produced were by Carlo Francesco Cesarini, Nicola
Porpora, Antonio Caldara, Antonio Lotti, Giuseppe Porsile, Diogenio Bigaglia, Leonardo Leo,
Costantino Roberto (Roberti, Ruberti), Francesco Feo, Giuseppe Gonelli, Niccolo Jommelli, and,
perhaps, Baldassare Galuppi. Many of these productions are known only from the Kreuzherren
diaries; librettos and scores are rare. Most of the surviving Prague librettos are found in today’s
National Library, formerly the seat of a prominent Jesuit educational institute. The scores are
dispersed all over Europe – the Czech Republic mainly holds scores of oratorios performed in
the late 18th
century, especially works by Johann Adolf Hasse.4
3
For the Organists College and Ferdinand Mende, see Prague Conservatoire Archives, shelf-mark
7449 (Ad Missam pro defunctis Offertorium, Sanctus et Agnus), 7450 (Missa de Requiem), 7451 (Litaniae
Om­nium Sanctorum), 7452 (Missa paschalis and Missa sonis musicis expressa); Sechster Jahresbericht des
durch Allerhöchste Entschließung Sr. Majestät vom 10. August 1826 bestätigten Vereins der Kunstfreunde
für Kirchenmusik (1832), Prague Conservatoire Archives, Organists College papers, box 5. Cf. Freemanová,
Michaela: ‘In the Shadow of the Conservatoire: The Prague Organists College (1830-1889/1890)’, Hu­dební
věda 48/4 (2011), pp. 369-392
4
For Prague oratorio performances see especially Dlabacz, Gottfried Johann: Allgemeines historisches
Künstler-Lexikon (Prague, 1815); Meliš, Emanuel Antonín: ‘O pěstování oratorní hudby v Čechách
v XVIII. století’ [Oratorio Performances in the 18th
Century Bohemia], Dalibor 6 (1863), no. 1, pp. 1-2;
no. 2, pp. 9-10; Kamper, Otakar: Hudební Praha v XVIII. věku [Music in the 18th
Century Prague] (Prague,
1935); Lauschmann, Josef Jiří: Pražské oratorium XVIII. století [Prague’s 18th
-Century Oratorio Performances],
Diss., Prague, 1938; Kneidl, Pravoslav: ‘Libreta italské opery v Praze v 18. století’ [18th
Century
Prague Italian Opera Librettos], Strahovská knihovna 1 (1966), pp. 97-130; 2 (1967), pp. 115-188; 3 (1968),
pp. 190-201; 4 (1969), pp. 186-215; Port, Jan: ‘Hudební divadlo řádových škol a náboženských bratrstev’
[The Music Theatre of the Monastic Schools and Church Brotherhoods], in: Dějiny českého divadla, I
(Prague, 1968), pp. 167-193; Bužga, Jaroslav: ‘Einige Quellen zur Geschichte des Osteroratorium in Prag
und Brno’, in: De musica disputationes Pragenses, I (Prague, 1972), pp. 151-171; Poštolka, Milan: ‘Libreta
strahovské hudební sbírky’ [The Librettos in the Strahov Music Collection], Miscellanea musicologica
25-26 (1976), pp. 83-149; Berkovec, Jiří: Musicalia v pražském periodickém tisku 18. století [Music News
in 18th
Century Prague Periodicals] (Prague, 1986); Freemanová, Michaela: ‘Pietro Metastasio’s Oratorio
Librettos in the Czech Lands – A Document on the Changes of Taste in the 18th
and 19th
Centuries’, Händel-Jahrbuch
1999, pp. 270-275; eadem: ‘The Librettos of the Italian oratorios in the Bohemian Lands
in the 18th
 Century, Händel-Jahrbuch 2000, pp. 231-246; eadem: ‘Oratorium (and Opera) of the German
Composers as Performed in the Czech Lands in the 18th
and 19th
Centuries’, in: Deutschsprachiges Theater
in Prag (Prague, 2001), pp. 195-204; eadem: ‘Italské oratorium v Čechách na sklonku 17. a v 18. století
[Italian Oratorio in Bohemia in the Late 17th
and in the 18th
Centuries], in: Barokní Praha – Barokní Čechie
1620-1740. Sborník příspěvků z vědecké konference o fenoménu baroka v Čechách, Praha, 24.-27. září
2001 (Prague, 2004), pp. 87-93; eadem: ‘Oratorium w Czechach, na Morawach i w Morawskiej części Śląska
w XVII-XLIX wieku’ [Oratorio in Bohemia, Moravia and Moravian Silesia in the 17th
-19th
Centuries], in: Wokalistyka
i pedagogika wokalna, IV (Wrocław, 2005), pp. 219-228; eadem: Oratorios Performed in the Jesuit
Colleges in the Bohemian Lands, in: Bohemia Jesuitica 1556-2006, II (Prague, 2010), pp. 1011-1018; eadem:
‘Johann Adolf Hasse’s Oratorios in Bohemian Lands’, in: Musiker-Migration und Musik-Transfer zwischen
Böhmen und Sachsen im 18. Jahrhundert (Dresden, 2012), pp. 28-38, online: http://www.qucosa.de/fileadmin/data/qucosa/documents/8800/Kolloqium.pdf;
eadem: ‘Three Points of a Triangle: Italian, Latin and
German Oratorios and Sepolcros in the Early 18th
Century Central Europe’, Musicologica Brunensia 49/1
(2014), pp. 175-187; Spáčilová, Jana: ‘Sant’ Elena al Calvario: Leo, Míča, Caldara, nebo Conti? Příspěvek
Prague 1734: Jan Dismas Zelenka and Leonardo Leo 73
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The Kreuzherren and the Jesuits produced Italian oratorios not only in the original, but
also in German and Latin translations; in later decades the same was also true of the Augustinians.
The purpose of these translations may have been not only the wish to appeal to a
broader public by translating the Italian text into German (in the well-educated high-society
circles Italian was, at that time, commonly understood), but also to reinforce the message of
the works. The Jesuit translators, rather than presenting a common Biblical scene directly or
in the form of an allegory, preferred to underline the relationship between the sin, its punishment,
and God’s mercy. To serve the needs of pastoral work, the original librettos were turned
into morality plays. The Jesuits produced translations of works by Carlo Francesco Cesarini,
Antonio Caldara, Nicola Porpora, Costantino Roberto, Diogenio Bigaglia, and also Leonardo Leo.
None of the translations is straightforward. An especially striking example of this treatment
of the text is Diogenio Bigaglia’s Passione d’Abele innocente, produced in the original in the
Prague Kreuzherren Monastery Church in 1729, and translated into German for the use of the
Silesian Jesuit Colleges in Brieg (Brzeg), where it was performed in 1739, and Klodzko/Glatz,
in 1742. The two Silesian libretti are not fully identical. Their titles, Unschuldiges Opffer Deß
Vom ewigen Vatter Zum Heyl des Menschlichen Geschlechts aufgeopfferten Heylands (Brzeg) and
Unschuldiges Opffer Deß Am Kreuz sterbenden Heylands (Klodzko) suggest the Passione d’Abele
as their possible model. In their character, the original and the translations differ considerably;
in terms of their subject-matter and literary treatment, they are still strongly related.5
The libretto of Leonardo Leo’s Sant’ Elena al Calvario, performed in Prague by the Jesuits
in 1734, presents an example of different, though again rather subtle translation work. The
oratorio deals with Saint Helena’s visit to the Holy Land, and her discovery of the True Cross.
While Pietro Metastasio’s Italian text of 1731 treated this subject with literary elegance, the
1734 Latin translation lacks the original’s poetic clarity – a characteristic feature of Prague
Latin and German oratorio translations in general. For the 1734 performance of Leo’s oratorio,
two additional da capo arias were inserted into Parts I and II – Sollicitus fossor and Barbara
dira effera. Each of them is sung by Eudossa (‘romana’ in Metastasio’s libretto, Eudoxia in the
Latin translation). The second aria, Barbara dira effera, stressing the criminal nature of the
Jewish nation, gives the whole work a xenophobic aspect, foreign to Metastasio’s text. Both
these insertions appear to be peculiar only to the Prague performance of Leo’s composition –
they are not found in any of the surviving copies of the score of this oratorio held today in
Berlin, Brussels, Dresden, Hamburg and Naples. With minor deviations of spelling, the text of
Eudossa’s aria inserted in Part I for this 1734 performance of Sant’ Elena in Prague (see below)
corresponds with the text of a motet attributed to Jan Dismas Zelenka titled Sollicitus fossor
(ZWV 209). The text of Eudossa’s additional aria in Part II of the oratorio also corresponds with
a composition by Zelenka – the da capo aria of his motet Barbara dira effera (ZWV 164). Both
texts are related to Saint Helen’s invention of the Holy Cross.
These insertions pose a number of unanswered questions. Both motets, currently among
the holdings of the Sächsische Landesbibliothek in Dresden, are generally associated only with
Jan Dismas Zelenka; no other setting of these texts by any other composer is currently known.
In the Dresden version, Barbara dira effera is extended by a recitative Vicit leo followed by Alleluia,
which are missing from the Prague version; the second and third movement may have
been added later for a performance in the Dresden Court Church. Although the arias may have
been composed in 1734 or even earlier, there is no Prague source available to support this idea.
There is no doubt that Barbara dira effera is Jan Dismas Zelenka’s work. The score of Sollicitus
fossor, however, is certainly written in Zelenka’s hand, but it was neither entered into the
composer’s personal inventory, nor is it listed among Zelenka’s works in the music catalogues
of the Catholic court church of Dresden from 1765 and around 1783-1784. It is found only at
the conclusion of both catalogues in the section titled ‘Musica senza nome dell’Autore’, among
the ‘Motetti’. Until now, this motet has been categorized in the Zelenka literature among the
lost, doubtful, and falsely attributed works; its compositional style, however, leaves little doubt
that this is again Jan Dismas Zelenka’s composition. No performance materials are shown to
accompany the listed score in either catalogue, an indication that Sollicitus fossor was probably
never heard in Dresden’s Catholic court church. The lack of Zelenka’s usual dedication
suggests that this aria was not written for, or as a commission from the Dresden court. The
Annuae Literae Collegii Societatis JESU Pragae ad Sanctum Clementem pro anno 1734, surviving
k historii oratoria v českých zemích v 18. století’ [Sant’ Elena Al Calvario: Leo, Míča,Caldara or Conti?
To the History of Oratorio in the 18th
Century Bohemian Lands], Opus musicum 41/3 (2009), pp. 25-29.
5
For Diogenio Bigaglia’s Passione d’Abele and its German variants see especially Freemanová, ‘Three
Points of a Triangle’ (see note 4).
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in the Jesuit archives in Rome, do not contain any information on the music performed in
the Clementinum, apart from the productions in which the Jesuit College students took part.
The suggestion that Zelenka composed the arias Sollicitus fossor and Barbara dira effera to be
inserted into Leonardo Leo’s Sant’ Elena al Calvario for a performance given at the Clementinum
college of Prague in 1734 is therefore supported only by the circumstantial evidence of almost
parallel texts. Further research is required here too. If proven, it would be shown that Zelenka’s
contributions of original music to the Clementinum college of Prague continued into the 1730s.6
6
For the detailed description of the Prague version of Leonardo Leo’s Sant’ Elena oratorio cf. especially
Freemanová, Michaela – Stockigt, Janice B.: ‘Jan Dismas Zelenka and a Prague Performance of Sant’ Elena
al Calvario by Leonardo Leo (1734): An hypothesis’, Hudební věda 51/1-2 (2014), pp. 149-160.
75
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1. Project ‘The collections of musical scores from the
Dresden Court Church and the Royal Private Music Collection
dating to the period of the Union of Saxony
and Poland. Development, digitalization and internet
presentation’
T
he project is supported by the German Research
Foundation (DFG) and started in 2013. Its purpose
is to create a complete development and digitalization
of approximately 1500 music scores and parts. The
inventories dating from circa 1700 to 1780 based on
historical inventories and catalogues.1
	 Like the project title shows the collection can be
divided in two main parts: in the first part are scores
of the Royal Private Music Collection. It includes collections
of Friedrich August II., his wife Maria Josepha and
his daughter-in-law Maria Antonia Walpurgis. It mainly
contains secular and sacred vocal works with a small
number of instrumental works. The second part of the
project’s collection are scores from the Dresden Catholic
Court Church, among them autographic scores of Jan
Dismas Zelenka and Johann David Heinichen.
	An important section of the project is the determination
of the paper and their watermarks, on which the
musical scores are written. At the end of the project
in 2016 we will present the results of the extensive
research on RISM online and the watermarks catalogue
on the project website.2
The website also contains the
already existing watermarks catalogue of the Schrank-II
(Cabinet-II) project.3
In the following the first results of
the watermarks determination will be presented.
2. Paper and watermarks in Zelenka’s autograph scores
Almost all autograph scores of Zelenka are located in
the Saxon State and University Library Dresden4
. For the
most part it is Zelenka’s church music. I examined all in
all 105 shelf numbers5
of his works from 1712 to 1744.
This includes only works of Zelenka, which are related
to the Royal Court Music Collection. Furthermore I was
able to identify 244 different watermarks in the paper
1
Catalogo della Musica di Chiesa 1765; Catalogo della Musica
di Chiesa (ca. 1780); Zelenka: Inventarium rerum Musicarum
Variorum Authorum Ecclesia Servientium (1726-1739); Catalogo
De libri Numerati (ca. 1747, Maria Antonia Collection); Catalogo
Dei Libri di Musica con i numeri negri (mid-18th
century, Maria
Antonia Collection); Catalogo della Musica, e de’ Libretti di
S. A. R. Maria Antonia (ca. 1781-1787); Catalogo della Musica, e
de’ Libretti di S. A. Augusto III. (ca. 1781-1787); Catalogue fragment
from Maria Josepha Collection.
2
See website: http://hofmusik.slub-dresden.de/en/ (30. 11.
2015).
3
Website of Schrank-II: http://hofmusik.slub-dresden.de/
en/themes/schrank-ii/ (30. 11. 2015).
4
Later it will be written abbreviated: SLUB.
5
Full list: D-Dl Mus.2358-D-1a; 2; 3b-d; 5; 6,1; 6,3; 6,4; 7a;
9; 10,1-3; 11; 14; 15,1; 15,2; 16; 17; 18,1; 18,2; 20; 21; 23; 26;
27; 30; 32; 32a; 32b; 33,1; 33,2; 34,2; 34a; 35; 37; 43; 46; 47;
48; 49,1; 51; 52; 54; 55; 59; 61,1-23; 64; 65; 66; 67; 68; 70; 71;
73; 76; 77; 500; 504; Mus.2358-E-1; 3; 8; 9; 21; 22; 24; 26; 28;
29; 30; 33; 34; 35; 36; 38; 39; 39a; 40; 42; Mus.2358-G-1; Bibl.
Arch. III Hb 787d.
Claudia Lubkoll
(Dresden)
Watermarks in
Zelenka’s autograph scores
in the Saxon State
and University Library
Dresden (SLUB)
Zelenka used many different types of papers for his compositions
with a large number of various watermarks.
Some of them can help to create a better view on his
working process, to date and localise the paper he used,
exemplarily represented by the examination of some of
his autograph scores and his inventory. Furthermore
there will be an overview of Zelenka’s mostly used paper,
as well as his used Bohemian paper.
Key words: Jan Dismas Zelenka; Baroque music; Dresden;
paper; watermarks; Bohemia; Saxony
Number of characters / words: 22 491 / 3 788
Number of images: 29
Number of tables: 3
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Zelenka used. This examination will renounce paper without watermarks. The largest part consists
of Saxonian paper with 55 %; because his main working place was in Dresden. But there
is also paper from Silesia, Italy, the Netherlands and a great part of Bohemia, which makes
approximately nine percent of the paper, used by Zelenka.
3.1 Watermarks on the papers from Bohemia
There are three different Bohemian watermarks in
Zelenka’s music scores.
	 The first one is the so-called ‘Baroque ornament’
( Fig. 1), which Wisso Weiß and Yoshitake Kobayashi
also examined in some of Johann Sebastian Bach’s
scores6
. They found out that this watermark comes
from Chomutov and it was made by Johann Franz Ossendorf
II, who was active from 1721 to 1740.7
Zelenka
used this paper only between 1725 and 1729, mostly in
the paper of the fly-leafs and music scores of his Psalms
(D-Dl Mus.2358-D-61,1-23).
	 The second Bohemian watermark I found is the
‘crowned letter B’ ( Fig. 2) in Zelenka’s Te Deum D-Dl
Mus.2358-D-48 (ZWV 146). Johann Franz Ossendorf I.
made it in Benešov nad Ploučnicí. He was active from
1695 to 17418
. This watermark appears frequently in
the Royal Court Music Collection between 1731 and
1738 in many variations.
	 The third Bohemian watermark appears only in
Zelenka’s Dixit Dominus D-Dl Mus.2358-D-64 (ZWV
67), which dated circa 17289
. On the paper there is
a ‘crowned double-eagle with heart-shaped breast’
( Fig. 3), and its countermark ‘letters JGD’ ( Fig. 4).
Weiß and Kobayashi found out that this paper could
be made in Bohemia.10
Finally it appears in the Royal
Court Music Collection around the year 1730.
3.2 Results of the watermark examination
Zelenka most frequently used five papers for his autographic
scores; all of them were manufactured in Saxony.
Until now I was able to determine four of these five
watermarks to the place of origin and its paper maker.
3.2.1. ‘Crowned coat of arms of electoral Saxony in
cartouche, beneath Dresden | J G Schuchart’ ( Fig. 5)
The paper mill is situated in Dresden, Germany. From
1717 to 1739 Johann Gottlob Schuchart worked there.11
There are no countermarks of the ‘Schuchart’ watermark.
It appears in the Royal Court Music Collection
between 1725 and 1740.
6
Weiss, Wisso – Kobayashi, Yoshitake: Katalog der Wasserzeichen
in Bachs Originalhandschriften, Kassel and Leipzig,
1985.
7
Eineder, Georg: The ancient paper-mills of the former Austro-Hungarian empire and their watermarks
[= Monumenta Chartae Papyraceae Historiam Illustrantia, VIII], Hilversum, 1960, p. 121.
8
Ibid., p. 114.
9
Horn, Wolfgang – Kohlhase, Thomas – Landmann, Ortrun – Reich, Wolfgang: Zelenka-Dokumentation.
Quellen und Materialien, vol. 2, Wiesbaden, 1989, p. 294.
10
Weiss – Kobayashi, Katalog der Wasserzeichen in Bachs Originalhandschriften (see note 6), p. 57.
11
Schlieder, Wolfgang (ed.): Besitzer und Papiermacher auf Papiermühlen in Sachsen und angrenzenden
Gebieten, Marburg/Lahn, 1993, p. 22.
 Figure 1:
’Baroque ornament’,
D-Dl Mus.2358-E-61,9
 Figure 2:
‘Crowned letter B’,
D-Dl Mus.2358-D-48
 Figures 3 and 4:
‘Double-eagle with
heart-shaped breast’,
countermark ‘letters JGD’,
D-Dl Mus.2358-D-64
Figure 5:
‘Crowned coat of arms
of electoral Saxony in
cartouche, beneath Dresden
| J G Schuchart’,
D-Dl Mus.2358-E-3
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	 Schuchart created quite a few variations of this watermark, but I worked out some clear
differences between the watermarks made in 1720s and 1730s.
	 The writing of ‘J G Schuchart’ within the watermark
gives us the best indicator to distinguish
these two working time periods. First of all in the
1720s the scripture looks very even, swinging,
slightly tilted to the right and decent ( Fig. 6).
	 But in the 1730s it got irregular, letters
were replaced, changed their direction and went
straight and the scripture seems more orderless
( Fig. 7). My suggestion is that the sieves and
their watermarks were only repaired after some
years by Schuchart and were not created completely
new. It fits to the matter of fact that the
mill was entirely financial ruined in 1739.12
	 This paper appears in the Royal Court Music Collection between 1725 and 1740. Zelenka
used the ‘Schuchart’ paper only from 1725 to 1733, but the largest number of Zelenka’s works
is written on this paper in the 1720s.
Frequency/ Time 1724 1725 1726 1727 1728 1729 1730 1731 1732 1733 … 1739
only Schuchart-
paper
– 6 – 5 5 – – 1 1 – –
Schuchart-paper
mixed with others
– 5 1 – 1 1 – 2 – 1 – 1
	 But it is noticeable that the ‘Schuchart’ paper
appears surprisingly in one of Zelenka’s masses in
1739! The Credo of his Missa votiva consists only
of this paper made in Dresden. After examining
the watermarks I found out that the paper must
be preserved by Zelenka for almost ten years, because
the scripture ‘J G Schuchart’ shows all signs of being made in late 1720s: even, swinging
and decent ( Fig. 8).
3.2.2. ‘Springing unicorn’ / countermark: ‘letters CVC’ ( Figs. 9-10)
From 1700 to 1736 the paper maker Christian Vodel worked in the paper mill in Niederlungwitz
in Saxony.13
This paper appears in the Royal Court Music Collection between 1719 and 1728. But
Zelenka only used the ‘unicorn’ paper for his autograph manuscripts between 1722 and 1725.
12
Schlieder, Besitzer und Papiermacher auf Papiermühlen in Sachsen, p. 22.
13
Ibid., p. 44.
Figure 6:
Example 1720s,
D-Dl Mus.2358-E-39a
Figure 7:
Example 1730s,
D-Dl Mus.3158-E-7
Table 1:
Appearances of
‘Schuchart’ paper in
Zelenka’s autograph
manuscripts
Figure 8:
‘J G Schuchart’,
D-Dl Mus.2358-D-33,2
Figures 9 and 10:
‘Springing unicorn’,
countermark ‘letters CVC’,
D-Dl Mus.2358-D-2
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3.2.3. ‘Double circle with tetrapod’ ( Fig. 11)
This watermark is the highly unknown of the five
most frequently used papers by Zelenka. My suggestion
is that the paper might originate from Saxony
or Bohemia. In the Royal Court Music Collection it
shows up from 1723 to 1740. Zelenka only used the
‘tetrapod’ paper between 1725 and 1729.
3.2.4. ‘Crowned coat of arms of Kiesewetter’
( Fig. 12)
Hans Christian Kiesewetter made this paper between
1695 and 1751 in Dittersbach in Saxony.14
It has an enormous size with more than 120 mm
height and it is created very complexly and artisticly.
This paper appears in the Royal Court Music
Collection between 1720 and 1740. Again Zelenka
used this paper only between 1725 and 1729.
3.2.5. ‘Lily within crowned shield, below letters
ICH’ / countermark: ‘letters KB’ ( Figs. 13-14)
The paper maker Johann Christian Hertel was active
between 1714 and 1748 in Kirchberg near Zwickau
in Saxony.15
In the Royal Court Music Collection this
paper shows up in a larger time period from 1719
to 1750. Zelenka used this paper between 1730 and
1737, but mostly in 1733, when he took it for five
of his compositions. But there is again a differing
exploitation outside Zelenka’s typical use of the ‘lily’
paper: we can find it in two autograph manuscripts
in 1725. Both were later or additionally integrated
in the manuscripts.
	 The single sheet of the basso part of Zelenka’s
Sanctus ZWV 35 (D-Dl Mus.2358-D-32b) is written
on the ‘lily’ paper, which means he additionally integrated
it in his composition. The Miserere ZWV 56
(D-Dl Mus.2358-D-504) consists of two versions. The
first version dates to 1722 and the second version
to 1725. Zelenka wrote the second version on the
‘lily’ paper, which means he inserted it later.
Frequency / Time
‘Lily on shield’ + ‘ICH’; ‘KB’
... 1725 … 1730 ... 1733 1734 1735 1736 1737 …
only – – – 1 – 5 – 1 1 1 –
mixed – 2 – – – – – – – – –
To explain the circumstances I can propose three theories:
(1) Zelenka used one or more large piles of different papers at the same time, especially in his
maximum producing stage between 1725 and 1729. Here is the first appearance of three of
his mostly used paper (all listed above): ‘Schuchart’, ‘Double circle’ and ‘Kiesewetter’. Two of
them are completely consumed in 1729 (‘Double circle’ and ‘Kiesewetter’).
(2) Sometimes some sheets of the largest piles of paper remained for later use. Zelenka used
them to draw first ideas or to finish a manuscript after completely consuming a large pile
of paper before. One example is the Miserere ZWV 56 (D-Dl Mus.2358-D-504) that I mentioned
above.
(3) Zelenka brought paper from his travels (very similar to the second theory) and he also
used it to draw first ideas or to finish a manuscript after completely consuming a large
pile of paper.
14
Schlieder, Besitzer und Papiermacher auf Papiermühlen in Sachsen, pp. 19-20.
15
Ibid., p. 34.
 Figure 11:
‘Double circle
with tetrapod’,
D-Dl Mus.2358-D-65
 Figure 12:
‘Crowned coat of arms of
Kiesewetter’,
D-Dl Mus.2358-E-3
Figures 13 and 14:
‘Lily within crowned
shield, below letters ICH’,
countermark ‘letters KB’,
D-Dl Mus.2358-D-504
Table 2:
Appearances of ‘Lily’
paper in Zelenka’s
autograph manuscripts
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	 That means there is a possibility to mark Zelenka’s different producing stages with studying
watermarks on the paper he used.
mixed
only
Kiesewetter
mixed
only
Doublecircle
mixed
only
Unicorn;“CVC”
mixed
only
Lilyonshield+
“ICH”;“KB”
mixed
only
Schuchart
Frequency/time
3
1722
2
1723
3
1724
1
2
3
3
1
2
5
6
1725
2
2
1
1726
2
1
1
5
1727
4
1
5
1728
1
1
1
1729
1
1730
2
1
1731
1
1732
5
1
17331734
1
1735
1
1736
1
17371738
1
1739
Table 3:
Appearances of the paper
mostly used by Zelenka
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3.3. Selected manuscripts and their watermarks
3.3.1. Missa Sanctae Caeciliae Mus.2358-D-7a (ZWV 1b)
Zelenka’s autograph mass originates from circa 1710 to 172816
. There are four stages of development
discovered by Gerhard Anselm in 1981.17
The first stage is the early version of the
Missa. Finally I identified four different papers. The main paper is from the same time as the
earliest one.
3.3.1.1. Paper one
The title page18
(with dedication and date 1712) has the
watermark ‘Double circle with tetrapod’ ( Fig. 15). Like
mentioned above, Zelenka only used this paper between
1725 and 1729. My suggestion is that Zelenka wrote and
inserted the paper in the second half of 1720s. The date
1712 seems not to indicate the year of using the paper.
Perhaps Zelenka revised an earlier concept of the title
page or simply copied it again.
	 The ‘tetrapod’ paper shows up again at the end of this
autograph, from Et unam Sanctam, till the end19
. That
indicates the date of origin between 1725 and 1729, too.
3.3.1.2. Paper two
On page five/six (Kyrie I, beginning of Christe) appears
the watermark of the ‘springing unicorn’ ( Fig. 16)
I mentioned above. In the Royal Court Music Collection
there are almost identic watermarks, solely dating between
1722 and 1723.
	 Zelenka used paper with other variants of this watermark
between 1722 and 1725.
3.3.1.3. Paper three
The eldest paper of this autograph appears on a part of
Kyrie, the complete Gloria, and most of the Credo.20
These
parts are very likely the early version of the composition.
	 The watermark of this paper is a ‘crowned shield with
horn beneath letters PL’ ( Fig. 17). My suggestion is
that the paper originates from Niederlößnitz near Dresden.
Paul Lenk could be the paper maker. He was active
between circa 1706 and 1708. Lenk died in August 1708
and his heirs ran the mill till 1729.21
It is unknown if the
heirs furthermore used the sieves of Paul Lenk. I think it
is more likely that they used the sieves until they worn
out and afterwards build new and different ones.
	Paper was mostly consumed two to four years after
producing, which enables the possibility that the paper
of Zelenkas Missa was made during Lenk’s lifetime. If we
take the four years after Lenks death, we are getting
a time frame from 1708 to 1712, which shows us very
likely the time when Zelenka used the paper for his
Missa Sanctae Caeciliae.
	 There is an interesting issue about the two last mentioned papers: Zelenka put the accolades
across the pages six and seven ( Fig. 18), which means he set newer paper before the older
16
RISM catalogue entry of Zelenka’s Missa Sanctae Caecilia, see: https://opac.rism.info/metaopac/
search?View=rism&id=212006519 (30. 11. 2015).
17
Gerhard, Anselm: Jan Dismas Zelenka – Missa Sanctae Caeciliae / kritischer Bericht und Kommentar,
Berlin, 1981, p. 27.
18
D-Dl Mus.2358-D-7a, pp. 3-4.
19
D-Dl Mus.2358-D-7a, pp. 61-80.
20
D-Dl Mus.2358-D-7a, pp. 7-30 and 39-60.
21
Schlieder, Besitzer und Papiermacher auf Papiermühlen in Sachsen, p. 41-42.
Figure 15:
‘Double circle
with tetrapod’,
D-Dl Mus.2358-D-7a
Figure 16:
‘Springing unicorn’,
D-Dl Mus.2358-D-7a
Figure 17:
‘Crowned shield with
horn beneath letters PL’,
D-Dl Mus.2358-D-7a
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JanDismasZelenka’sLifeandMusicReconsidered(ZelenkaConferencePrague2015)
one. It does not make any sense if we look at the writing process. The only possibility is that
Zelenka wrote the beginning of the mass again at the end of 1720s and put it before the older
version of his Missa.
3.3.1.4. Paper four
The recent paper of the manuscript appears on the pages 31 to 38, where Zelenka wrote the
Cum Sancto Spiritu. It is the above mentioned ‘Schuchart’ paper made in Dresden ( Fig. 19).
This watermark is a twin of some other ‘Schuchart’ watermarks of the Royal Court Music
Collection; they are all dating from 1727 to 1728.
That means this paper dates approximately from
this time.
Summarizing the results a chronological order
in the paper Zelenka used for his Missa Sanctae
Caeciliae is possible: The eldest paper (watermark:
‘crowned shield with horn, beneath letters PL’)
was made around 1710 (1708-1712). The biggest
part of the Missa is written on this paper: some
parts of Kyrie, the complete Gloria and most of the
Credo. The beginning of the Missa dates possibly
from 1722 to 1723 (watermark: ‘unicorn’). Another
big part originates from the second half of 1720s,
more precisely the title page and Et unam Sanctam
and following. The recent paper is to be found at
the end of the mass (Cum Sancto Spiritu till the
end). These pages date from 1727 to 1728 (watermark:
‘crowned coat of arms of Saxony, beneath
Dresden | J G Schuchart’).
Figure 18:
D-Dl Mus.2358-D-7a,
pp. 6 and 7
Figure 19:
‘Crowned coat of arms
of electoral Saxony
in cartouche, beneath
Dresden | J G Schuchart’,
dated circa 1728,
D-Dl Mus.2358-D-61,18
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3.3.2. Miserere d minor Mus.2358-D-504 (ZWV 56)
The autograph parts of this Miserere include two versions. The first version originates from
March 1722, and the second version is from 1725.22
	 Zelenka used only one sort of paper for the older version.
The watermarks are ‘crossed keys’ with the countermark
‘monogram CVC’ ( Figs. 20-22). Both watermarks
came from Christian Vodel, the above mentioned paper
maker, who was active in Niederlungwitz in Saxony. In
combination both watermarks only appear in the Royal
Court Music Collection between 1721 and 1723. The date
of the first version corresponds with the dating of the
paper.
	 The second version consists
of two different sorts of pa-
pers.
	At first we can find the watermarks
‘shield with bend sinister’
( Fig. 23) and countermark
‘letters IV’ on the pages
39-44. This paper was created
in Egmond an der Hoef in the
Netherlands. Maybe the paper
maker was Lubertus van Gerrevink,
who was active between
1694 and 1731 or longer.23
	In the Royal Court Music
Collection are many manuscripts
from the Netherlands,
so it is not unlikely that Zelenka
used this type of paper,
as well.
	 The second sort of paper in
the second version of Zelenka’s
Miserere consists of the above
mentioned paper from Kirchberg
in Saxony. The watermark
is the ‘crowned shield with lily,
letters ICH’ and the countermark
‘letters KB’ ( Figs. 24-
25), which appears in the Royal
Court Music Collection between 1719 and 1750.
	Again that means there is a possibility to mark Zelenka’s different producing stages with
studying watermarks on the paper he used.
3.4. Zelenka’s Inventarium
Between 1726 and 1739 Zelenka created the Inventarium rerum Musicarum Variorum Authorum
Ecclesiae Servientium of his own works and works of other composers.24
Because it is a
continuing progress, the Inventarium consists of many different sorts of papers. I was able to
distinguish seven different types, at all.
	 The small fragments of papers, which were pasted into the pages six, eight, nine and
twenty-three consisting of light and thin paper without watermarks. They will not be integrated
in my investigations.
22
RISM catalogue entry of Zelenka’s Miserere, https://opac.rism.info/metaopac/search?View=rism&id=212006631
(30. 11. 2015).
23
Heawood, Edward: Watermarks. Mainly of the 17th
and 18th
centuries [= Monumenta Chartae Papyraceae
Historiam Illustrantia, I], Hilversum, 1969, p. iii.
24
Horn, Wolfgang – Kohlhase, Thomas – Landmann, Ortrun – Reich, Wolfgang: Zelenka-Dokumentation.
Quellen und Materialien, vol. 1, Wiesbaden, 1989, p. 12.
Figure 20:
‘Crossed keys’,
D-Dl Mus.2358-D-504
Figures 21 and 22:
Countermark
‘monogram CVC’,
D-Dl Mus.2358-D-504
Figure 23:
‘Shield with bend
sinisters’,
D-Dl Mus. 2358-D-504
Figures 24 and 25:
‘Crowned shield with
lily, letters ICH’, counter­
mark ‘letters KB’,
D-Dl Mus.2358-D-504
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3.4.1. Paper one
The main title page on pages one/two consists of two pasted blue cover papers. There are no
watermarks to be found, because the paper layer is too thick.
3.4.2. Paper two
The above mentioned paper with the watermark
‘crowned coat of arms of Kiesewetter’ ( Fig. 26) accounts
for the largest number of paper in Zelenka’s
Inventa­rium.25
	 This watermark is badly recognizable, because
it was couched twice (double-paper). That is why I
was not able to compare this watermark with other
watermarks of the Royal Court Music Collection.
	 But if we take the time frame when Zelenka
used this type of paper, we may conclude that this
was the eldest paper of the Inventarium, originating
between 1725 and 1729.
3.4.3. Paper three
On the pages eleven/ twelve we are dealing with
only one sheet of paper without any watermark.
Zelenka used it to write down the masses. This paper
is different from the paper before and after; it looks lighter and clearer.
	It is interesting that the compositions written on this page dating from the late 1730s, for
example a mass of Baliani D-Dl Mus.2243-D-1 (1736c-1739), Zelenka’s Missa votiva (1739) or a
mass of Georg Reutter D-Dl Mus.2979-D-3 (1739c). That means Zelenka sewed this page in last,
at a time when the Inventarium was almost finished. To sum up: these compositions could not
be listed before the end of 1730s.
3.4.4. Paper four
The following two sheets on the pages 19-22 are blue cover papers without watermarks.
3.4.5. Paper five
The pages 37-42 consisting of the already known paper
from Dresden (paper maker: Schuchart), this time
as double-paper. This watermark ( Fig. 27) is very
likely a twin of some other ‘Schuchart’ watermarks
of the Royal Court Music Collection, they are dating
from circa 1728.
	 Corresponding to the watermark there are compositions
written, which all are dating between circa
1727 and 1729. The following examples written by
Zelenka are Psalms: ZWV 70 (D-Dl Mus.2358-D-61,16;
circa 1727), ZWV 91 (Mus.2358-D-61,18; circa 1728),
ZWV 101 (Mus.2358-D-61,23; circa 1728), ZWV 67
(Mus.2358-D-64; circa 1728), and finally ZWV 73
(Mus.2358-D-65, 1728) and ZWV 95 (Mus.2358-D-68,
1728). There are also two Psalms dating from 1729
ZWV 71 (Mus.2358-D-66) and ZWV 81 (Mus.2358D-67),
but they were written with another ink,
that means they appeared later in Zelenka’s Inventa­
rium.
	 Finally we can assume that Zelenka sewed in and
wrote these pages circa 1727 to 1728, at the same
time as he composed these Psalms.
25
It concerns the following pages: 3-10 (title page, most of the masses), 13-18 (individual parts of
masses, offertories), 23-26 (more offertories, cantatas, arias, hymns, some psalms), 55-56 (lamentations)
and 59-66 (litanies and motets).
Figure 26:
‘Crowned coat of arms
of Kiesewetter’,
D-Dl Mus.2358-E-3
Figure 27:
‘Crowned coat of arms
of electoral Saxony
in cartouche, beneath
Dresden | J G Schuchart’,
D-Dl Bibl. Arch.
III Hb 787d
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3.4.6. Paper six
On the following pages (43-54) I found a watermark with
‘double-eagle and heart-shaped breast’ ( Fig. 28). I can only
assume that this paper may come from Bohemia. But again
there is the possibility to take the written compositions for
the dating of the paper. The following examples are Zelenka’s
antiphons, on page 48: ZWV 135 (D-Dl Mus.2358-E-8; 1730)
and ZWV 139 (Mus.2358-E-10; 1724), on page 48: ZWV 130
(Mus.2358-E-18; 1729) and ZWV 134 (Mus.2358-E-19; 1728a).
All compositions were written with the same ink. That means
they could be very likely written at the same time.
	 Based on the dated compositions and the used ink I can
assume that this paper was sewed in and written 1730 at the
earliest.
3.4.7. Paper seven
Again Zelenka used only one sheet of paper (pages
57/58). The watermark comes very likely from
Silesia. It is the ‘letter W in a crowned shield’
( Fig. 29), which probably means Wratislavia. In
the Royal Court Music Collection I found other manuscripts
with this watermark, they are all dated
between circa 1728 and 1730. It is possible that this
sheet was written and included at the same time.
	 Without integrating the blue paper I made a
possible chronology of the development of Zelenka’s
Inventarium:
	 The ‘crowned coat of arms of Kiesewetter’ is the
main and the eldest paper of the Inventarium. It can
be dated between 1725 and 1729.
	Paper five dates from 1727 to 1728. It comes from
Dresden and is made by Schuchart.
	 The Silesian paper with ‘letter W in crowned shield’ could be originating from circa 1728
to 1730.
	Paper six with the watermark ‘double-eagle’ dates 1730 at the earliest.
	 The most recent paper (paper three without watermarks) dates very likely at the end of
1730s.
4. Conclusion
Thanks to a large number of dated and localized manuscripts of the Royal Court Music Collection,
we have been able to achieve great results in furthering the research of watermarks.
Detailed and extensive conclusions about the origins of music manuscripts can be made
through an interaction of scientific documentation, identification of writers and watermarks.
Figure 28:
‘Double-eagle with
heart-shaped breast’,
D-Dl Bibl. Arch. III Hb 787d
Figure 29:
‘Letter W in a crowned
shield’, D-Dl Mus.997-D-47
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I
n 1830, František Palacký, a leading Czech historian,
published a rather lengthy treatise titled Jan Dismas
Zelenka, Composer in the Jahrbücher des böhmischen
Museums (vol. I, no. 1, p. 119).1
It was based on Friedrich
Rochlitz’s study Für Freunde der Tonkunst, printed in
Leipzig in 1825. In it, Palacký took note of the wealth of
comments ‘of exceeding importance and interest for the
history of our patriotic arts…’, and he did not hesitate to
quote a significant portion of the passage about Zelenka.
Palacký’s treatise was highly influential throughout the
19th
century. Of course, the Czech patriots were wrong
when they wrote that Zelenka’s compositions were unavailable
in this country. In reality, a considerable number
of Zelenka’s works were concealed in copies in Czech
music archives throughout the nineteenth century.
Already during his lifetime, Jan Dismas Zelenka was
well known to and appreciated by Prague musicians.
Unfortunately, we have no information about the music
of the Jesuits connected with the beginnings of Zelenka’s
career as a composer. All the more valuable, then, are the
copies preserved among the music of the choirmasters of
the Metropolitan Cathedral of St Vitus and the Knights
of the Cross with the Red Star.
Kryštof Gayer, the choirmaster at St Vitus’s Cathedral,
owned five copies of works by Zelenka.2
The oldest
was a copy of the parts for the Credo from Zelenka’s
oldest known Mass, the Missa Sanctae Caeciliae ZWV 1.
The Prague copy (now kept in the music archives of the
Knights of the Cross)3
contains a revised version, but
not the version of the score later dedicated to Frederick
Augustus I, and it is very likely that the Prague parts
were copied directly from the Dresden parts made for a
performance there before January of 1712. Of the early
works, Gayer also owned the offertorium Eja triumphos
pangite ZWV 233, which is today the only known source
of the work and, at the same time, the oldest dated
copy (1715) of a composition by Zelenka in the Czech
Republic.4
A copy of the parts of yet another of Jan Dismas
Zelenka’s early works, Gloria della Messa Judica me
ZWV 2, composed in 1714, has been preserved at the
Metropolitan Cathedral of St Vitus. Again in this case, an
original version is involved, and not the final one (which
was also preceded by an intermediate stage), so it may
be assumed that the copy was made soon after the work
had been composed. The Capuchins at the nearby Loreta
also owned the same version of the work. I believe, how-
1
Quoted in Františka Palackého spisy drobné [The Minor
Writings of František Palacký], part III, Praha: Bursík & Kohout,
1903, pp. 234-236.
2
The collection has been reconstructed by Vladimír Koron­thály.
Cf. Koronthály, Vladimír: Hudební sbírka Kryštofa
Gayera [The Music Collection of Kryštof Gayer], Praha: Charles
University, thesis, 1977.
3
Music Archives of the Knights of the Cross with the Red
Star, shelf mark XXXV D 77.
4
Now likewise kept in the Music Archives of the Knights of
the Cross with the Red Star, shelf mark XXXV D 61, to which
Gayer’s collection has been transferred.
Jana Vojtěšková
(Prague)
The works of
Jan Dismas Zelenka
in the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries
in Prague
This article was written with the financial support of the Ministry
of Culture of the Czech Republic within the framework
of institutional funding of the long-term development of the
National Museum as a research institution (DKRVO 2016/37,
00023272).
This study deals with the Prague copies of works by Jan
Dismas Zelenka from the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries. It references the large number of copies kept
by the Knights of the Cross with the Red Star and by
the Metropolitan Cathedral of St Vitus. Attention is also
devoted to an unknown work performed in 1723 at the
Jesuit Church of the Savior in Prague’s Old Town. There
is also discussion of copies of Zelenka’s works from the
nineteenth century, the autograph manuscripts of which
have not been preserved (e.g. the psalm Praise God in
His Sanctuary). The study also draws attention to a new
acquisition at the National Museum – Czech Museum
of Music: a Zelenka manuscript from the collection of
Richard Morawetz.
Key words: Jan Dismas Zelenka; Baroque Music; Dresden;
Prague; Metropolitan Cathedral of St Vitus; Knights of
the Cross with the Red Star; mass; 19th
-century music in
Prague; The National Museum – Czech Museum of Music
Number of characters / words: 20 638 / 3 468
Number of images: 2
Secondary language(s): Latin, German, French
86 Jana Voj těšková
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Fig. 1:
Diarium collegii Societatis
Jesu ad sanctum Clementem
Vetero-Pragae
1714-1726, fol. 144r
(© Royal Canonry
of Premonstratensians
at Strahov, Prague,
shelf mark DC III 19)
ever, that this source, discovered by Robert Hugo among anonymous musical materials, is a
later copy from ca. 1750.5
An important milestone for the recognition of Zelenka’s music came in Prague in 1723. We
are relatively well informed about the performance of the melodrama Sub olea pacis et palma
virtutis. We have less information about Zelenka’s composition performed at the beginning
of the year – on Shrove Tuesday, 9 February 1723 – at the Jesuit Church of the Savior in the
Old Town. Concerning this, the journal Pražské poštovské noviny published the following fairly
lengthy report:
Last Tuesday, during the last days of Carnival, when an ordinary worship service was
being held by the reverend fathers of the Society of Jesus at the Church of the Savior in
Prague’s Royal Old Town, during High Mass, excellent new music by Jan Zelenka, a native
Bohemian, court musician to His Royal Highness, the King of Poland and Elector of Saxony,
was performed by forces comprised of about seventy musicians, and it lent the ceremony
great splendor and pomp. During this music, ad Graduale, Mr. Danyel Pořický – the cantor
at the Týn Church – let himself be heard singing tenor in a pretty Italian Cantata.6
The Zelenka literature has not yet dealt with identifying the work in question. One possibility
is that it was the Kyrie and Gloria from the Mass ZWV 4, but it may, of course, have been
some work that is not known to us. I wish to thank Andrew Frampton, who has studied this
Mass in detail, for allowing me to consult with him, with the outcome that this hypothesis
is quite probable. Heretofore it had been assumed that this Mass, titled Missa Sancti Spiritus,
had been premiered in Dresden for the Feast of Pentecost on 16 May 1723. Andrew Frampton
has, however, confirmed that the title of the Mass was added when the work was revised. It
was not listed under this title in the catalogues from either 1765 or 1784.7
There are, then,
two possibilities. The first is that in Prague on Shrove Tuesday, 9 Feb. 1723, there was a performance
of the Kyrie and Gloria ZWV 4, and Heinichen’s Mass was sung in Dresden on 16 May.
This version would involve the assumption made until now that for the main celebration of
Pentecost, Zelenka’s work was performed, and not Heinichen’s, as would have been the usual
procedure. A second possibility would be that the Mass ZWV 4 was in fact premiered in Dresden
at Pentecost, and the work that had been performed in Prague on Shrove Tuesday is now lost.
In the Diarium collegii Societatis Jesu ad sanctum Clementem Vetero-Pragae for the years
1714-1726, the following inscription is found on fol. 144r
( Fig. 1):8
Solennitas devotionii et ordo idem ut heri, nisi quod frequentissimi fuerint communicantes
ob festum S[anctae] Apolloniae, et Musicam Solenissimam produc[ens?] fuerit per [?]
d[ominum] Selenka Illus[trissimus] d[ominus] Baro Hartig.
The ceremony of devotion and the order [liturgy] were the same as yesterday, except that
there were far more communicants because of the Feast of St Apollonia; the most illustrious
Lord Baron Hartig arranged for the ceremonial music by the master Zelenka.
5
National Archives, Lobkovic Family Archives, collection no. 2612, LP-RA-Loreta, box 259.
6
Pražské poštovské noviny [Prague Postal News], 13 Feb. 1723. Quoted from Berkovec, Jiří: Musicalia
v pražském periodickém tisku 18. století [Musicalia in Prague’s Periodic Press of the Eighteenth Century].
Praha: State Library of the Czech Socialist Republic, 1989, p. 43.
7
The dating of this catalogue is only approximate.
8
Quoted from Diarium collegii Societatis Jesu ad sanctum Clementem Vetero-Pragae 1714-1726,
shelf mark DC III 19; Royal Canonry of Premonstratensians at Strahov, Praha; fol. 144r
. See: http://
v2.manuscriptorium.com/apps/main/en/index.php?request=request_document&docId=rec1312982900_7
[accessed on 2015-09-30]. I wish to thank Janice Stockigt for drawing this to my attention.
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In my opinion, it was also in 1723 that the dedicatory score of the Responsoria pro Hebdomada
Sancta ZWV 55,9
dedicated to Jan Hubert Hartig, also found its way to Prague. In
Dresden, it was copied by Philipp Troyer, the main copyist of Zelenka’s works. In view of the
fact that in the dedication, Hartig is still given the title of baron (he gained the title of count
two years later), I believe that the score was copied for Hartig and was dedicated to him on
the occasion of Zelenka’s stay in Prague in the autumn of 1723 or soon thereafter.
Also dated to the year 1723 is a copy of the parts for Zachariáš’s canticle Benedictus dominus
ZWV 206,10
which probably came from the collection of the late Baroque composer Šimon Brixi,
a contemporary of Zelenka who was serving as the choirmaster at the Church of St Martin in
the Wall. That copy is today the only known period source of the work.
Zelenka’s father died in 1724 in Louňovice. For the Requiem Mass, Zelenka composed the
psalm De profundis ZWV 50, and Kryštof Gayer copied the parts himself.11
His copy contains the
original version of the Psalm, and it was probably made soon after the work was composed.
Near the end of Gayer’s life (he died in 1734), he may also have obtained copies of two new
works by Zelenka: the Requiem in D Major ZWV 4612
and the Musik zum Totenoffizium ZWV 47,13
composed in 1733 for worship services held in memory of Elector Frederick Augustus I (it is
not, however, entirely clear that these copies were part of Gayer’s collection.)
From Prague’s Knights of the Cross with the Red Star, we have documentation of interest
in Zelenka’s music from the late 1730s. Thanks to Count Hartig, Zelenka’s oratorio I penitenti al
sepolcro del Redentore (a libretto was also issued in print) was performed there in 1738.14
The
Knights of the Cross also obtained copies of the parts of the Missa Sanctissimae Trinitatis ZWV
1715
and the Missa votiva ZWV 18.16
The copies of both Masses are very close to the Dresden
autograph manuscript. One set of parts of Missa Sanctissimae Trinitatis was actually made by
a Dresden copyist, in all probability Johann Georg Kremmler I.17
Additionally, some of the parts
there do not correspond to customary performance practice in Dresden.
Shortly before his death, Jan Hubert Hartig obtained the dedicatory score of the Litaniae
Lauretanae ZWV 15218
in 1741 (as had previously been the case with the score of the Responsoria,
the Dresden copyist Philipp Troyer also wrote out the score of the Litaniae), the copy of
the Magnificat ZWV 10819
kept by the Knights of the Cross is dated 1742, and the copy of the
Missa Corporis dominici ZVW 9 is dated 1750 (i.e. after Zelenka’s death).20
The music inventory of the Knights of the Cross from the years 1737-173821
also lists other
works by Zelenka, but they cannot always be identified unambiguously based on the records
in the inventory. At the least, we do not know the four Salve Regina and the Cantata Desiste
in cauta mens, as well as possibly another Credo and De profundis.
The Metropolitan Cathedral of St Vitus has preserved not only the aforementioned copy
of the Gloria della Messa Judica me ZWV 2, but also the Mass Gratias agimus tibi ZWV 13 and
9
Music Archives of the Knights of the Cross with the Red Star, shelf mark XXXV D 81.
10
Music Archives of the Knights of the Cross with the Red Star, shelf mark XXXV D 79. Issued in print:
Zelenka, Jan Dismas: Benedictus Dominus, Stuttgart: Carus Verlag 40.459, score.
11
Music Archives of the Knights of the Cross with the Red Star, shelf mark XXXV D 78.
12
Music Archives of the Knights of the Cross with the Red Star, shelf mark XXXV D 74-5.
13
Music Archives of the Knights of the Cross with the Red Star, shelf mark XXXV D 73.
14
Printed edition: Nella Stamperia apresso Giovane Norberto Fitzky in Bergstein / 1738. Now preserved
in the library of the Knights of the Cross with the Red Star, shelf mark XXVII J 19 vol. IX adl. num. 8.
15
Completed in 1736. Music Archives of the Knights of the Cross with the Red Star, shelf mark XXXV
D132.
16
Completed in 1739. Music Archives of the Knights of the Cross with the Red Star, shelf mark XXXV
D 80.
17
Compared with the manuscripts listed by Landmann, Ortrun: Über das Musikerbe der Sächsischen
Staatskapelle. Drei Studien zur Geschichte der Dresdner Hofkapelle und Hofoper anhand ihrer Quellenüberlieferung
in der SLUB Dresden, Dresden: Sächsische Landesbibliothek – Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek
Dresden, 2
2010, p. 154, Abb. I.2, I.4, I.9-11, III.64-70. See: http://www.qucosa.de/fileadmin/data/qucosa/
documents/3851/Drei%20Studien-2.Ausgabe.pdf [accessed on 2016-06-01].
18
Music Archives of the Knights of the Cross with the Red Star, shelf mark XXXV D 66.
19
Music Archives of the Knights of the Cross with the Red Star, shelf mark XXXV D 63.
20
Music Archives of the Knights of the Cross with the Red Star, shelf mark XXXV D 131.
21
The original inventory has not been preserved. A transcript was made in a thesis by Fukač, Jiří:
Křižovnický hudební inventář [Music Inventory of the Knights of the Cross], I-II, Brno 1959.
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several Psalms composed between 1725 and 1730: Görbig’s22
copy of Laetatus sum ZWV 9023
and Sehling’s24
copies of the parts for Confitebor tibi ZWV 73, Dixit Dominus ZWV 67, and Lauda
Jerusalem ZWV 102. In addition, Zelenka’s Missa Dei Patris ZWV 19 is held in the Archives of
the Metropolitan Chapter under the name Ristori.25
According to Podlaha’s 1926 catalogue,26
the archives also contained two more Masses and the Psalm De profundis by Zelenka.
Quite uniquely, one Mass has also been preserved from the Jesuit Church of St Nicholas in
Prague’s Lesser Town, the Missa Nativitatis Domini ZWV 8, a copy of which is dated to 1736-
1737. Based on the cuts they contain, the parts were probably copied from other parts rather
than the score, but we do not know where the source for the copies came from. From the
same collection, there is also an anonymous copy of the parts for the Litany of Loreto ZWV 152,
made from Hartig’s specimen.27
Among the other Prague copies, we have parts belonging to
the Strahov church choir for the Requiem in C Minor ZWV 45, dated to 1763, originally owned
by the Premonstratensian Vincent Jawurek. The autograph manuscript score of this Requiem
is unknown.
As can be seen, copies of Zelenka’s works were widely distributed in Prague in the eighteenth
century. Of his more than twenty Masses, copies have been found there of at least nine,
including both early works and such masterpieces as the Missa Sanctissimae Trinitatis, the
Missa votiva, and the Missa Dei Patris. Count von Hartig owned the score of the Responsoria
pro Hebdomada Sancta and the Litany of Loreto, and copies have been preserved of Psalms and
the Magnificat as well as the Requiem in D Major, the Requiem in C Minor, and funeral music
for the Elector of Saxony. From the existing copies of Zelenka’s works, one cannot usually determine
whether they were played, and if so, when. We do, however, know that Zelenka’s Missa
Sanctissimae Trinitatis and Missa votiva were still being performed by the Knights of the Cross
in the 1780s, and the Litany of Loreto was performed in 1763 and 1783.28
Another indication of
a strong Zelenka tradition is that fact that his works were also widely disseminated to church
choirs outside of Prague, as is documented by entries in inventories in Osek and by copies at
the church in Mělník and at the Piarist monastery in Podolínec.
In the early nineteenth century, however, Zelenka’s works fell into obscurity. At the instigation
of Palacký, the Prague Society of the Friends of the Arts for Church Music (Verein der
Kunstfreunde für Kirchenmusik), founded in 1826, obtained modern copies of the Requiem in
D Major ZWV 46, the Litaniae Omnium Sanctorum ZWV 153, and an older copy of the Masses
ZWV 7 and 13 from Dresden from a teacher and organist there named Ferdinand Mende. During
the same period (i.e. ca. 1830-1844), Václav Jan Tomášek (1774-1850), the well known Prague
composer, pianist, and teacher, also obtained copies of Zelenka’s Requiem in D Major and of the
Litaniae ZWV 153. The choirmaster Gerlak Strniště found parts at the church in Strahov for the
aforementioned Requiem in C Minor ZWV 45, from which he reconstructed a score.
A new wave of interest in Zelenka’s music arrived in the 1860s. Fürstenau’s book Zur Geschichte
der Musik und des Theaters am Hofe zu Dresden29
was published, and the interest in
Zelenka further increased after the Dresden performance of the Suite in F Major ZWV 188 in
March of 1863. Articles about Zelenka appeared in the Prague journals Bohemia (14 Jan.), Slavoj
(15 Jan.) and Politik (27 March). At one of the first meetings of the Umělecká beseda (Arts Forum),
the decision was made that the members would attempt to obtain Zelenka’s works from
Dresden. Bedřich Smetana was to have brought the compositions back from there. Smetana’s
role is probably exaggerated in the Czech musicology literature. While Smetana noted in his
diary that he had been in Dresden to look for Zelenka’s compositions and had visited his
22
Antonín Görbig was the Kapellmeister at St Vitus’s Cathedral from 1734 to 1737, immediately after
Kryštof Gayer.
23
This is now the only known source of this work.
24
Josef Antonín Sehling (1710-1756) served as a violinist at St Vitus’s Cathedral (from 1739) and
frequently stood in for the ailing choirmaster Jan František Novák.
25
I wish to thank Janice Stockigt for brining this to my attention.
26
Podlaha, Antonín: Catalogus collectionis operum artis musicae quae in Bibliotheca Capituli Metropolitani
Pragensis asservantur, Pragae: S. F. Metropolitani Capituli Pragensis, 1926. XXXXI, 85 pp. [= Editiones
Archivii et Bibliothecae s. f. Metropolitani Capituli Pragensis, XIX].
27
Václav Kapsa has drawn attention to this source. Cf. Kapsa, Václav: ‘Die Musik in der St. Nikolauskirche
auf der Prager Kleinseite in der ersten Hälfte des 18. Jahrhunderts’, Musicologica Brunensia 49/1
(2014), pp. 189-209.
28
From a comment written on Hartig’s dedicatory copy.
29
Published in Dresden in 1861-1862.
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compatriot Suchánek, a retired court musician who had promised help, there is no further
mention of Zelenka in his diaries. When Zelenka’s Suite in F Major ZWV 188 (the same work
played in March in Dresden) was played at an academy of music and drama held at the New
Town Theatre on 30 June 1863, Eduard Tauwitz conducted according to the journal Bohemia.
The works performed were highly esteemed both by the critic for Prague’s German-language
journal Politik and by the public:
The Suite for Orchestra by Jan Dismas Zelenka has convinced us that the composer’s contemporaries
have not overestimated his importance in the least by placing him alongside
Händel and Bach; the music’s greatness of spirit manifests itself not only through Zelenka’s
contrapuntal facility and artistry, but also through the originality of his melodic and
rhythmic invention as well as his remarkable mastery and employment of instrumental
means. The Composition begins with an energetic fugal ‘Ouverture’ in F Major, followed by
an ‘Aria’ in A-Minor, then ‘Menuetto’ 1 and 2 in F Major, a ‘Siciliano’ in B Flat, and finally
a ‘Furia’ [recte Folia – JV] in F-Major. All of the movements were quite well played by the
augmented theatre orchestra, and they also gave pleasure.30
At about the same time, another score was obtained from Dresden – a five-hundred page
copy of the Responsoria and Lamentations.31
We do not known who copied the score, but we
do know that it contains instructions for the performers by the director of the Prague organ
school František Skuherský.32
This copy, made from a copy by the Dresden church choirmaster
Christian Wilhelm Fischer, also contains the later addition of col parte instrumental parts based
on the Dresden parts that were still then in existence; this instrumentation had been written
into the Dresden score by Moritz Fürstenau. The Prague copy of the score was used for the
performance on 21 May 1865 at St Nicholas’s Church in Prague.33
Ferdinand Tadra, a historian, singer, and member of the Prague vocal association Hlahol,
obtained more copies based on Dresden autograph manuscripts in 1877 and 1878. From Dresden,
he borrowed the Requiem in D Minor ZWV 48, the psalm Chvalte Boha silného (Praise God
in His Sanctuary) ZWV 165, the oratorio Gesù al Calvario ZWV 62, and the Ouvertura ZWV 188.34
Coincidentally, the autograph manuscripts of the first two of these works (the Requiem in D
Minor and the Psalm Chvalte Boha silného) are now lost.
During the nineteenth century, the Zelenka tradition was preserved with reverence, but his
works did not receive deeper recognition. Zelenka’s name was remembered more as a historical
concept than as a living phenomenon. A new addition to the Zelenka collection acquired by
the Czech Museum of Music in 2008 is one small example of this.35
An interesting item has been preserved in the collection of Richard Morawetz (1881-1965).
Moravetz’s reputation as a collector is based mainly on his 1908 purchase of the bulk of the
Bohemicalia from one of the most valuable private collections of former Austria-Hungary, the
collection of Friedrich Donebauer, for which the Museum of the Kingdom of Bohemia lacked sufficient
funds at the time. Morawetz then expanded the collection further. Among other items,
30
Politik 2 (1863), no. 179 (1 July), p. 1, evening edition: ‘Die Suite für Orchestr von Joh. Dismas Zelenka
überzeugte uns, dass die Zeitgenossen den Componisten dadurch das sie ihn an die Seite Händel’s
und Bach’s setzten keineswegs überschätzt haben; es waltet darin ein Grosser Geist, der nicht allein
durch kontrapunktische Gewandtheit und Kunst, sondern auch durch Originalität der Erfindung in Melodie
und Rhytmus wie auch in einer merkwürdigen Beherschung und Anwendung der instrumentalen
Mittel sich manifestiert. Die Composition beginnt mit einer schwungvollen fugierten „Ouverture“ in F
dur, hierauf folgt eine Aria in A-moll, dann „Menuetto“ 1. und 2. in F dur, hierauf „Siciliano“ in B, endlich
„Furia“ [recte Folia – JV] in F-dur. Sämmtliche Sätze wurden von dem verstärkten Theaterorchester recht
gut aufgeführt und gefielen auch.’
31
Today at the National Library of the Czech Republic, shelf mark 59 R 63.
32
This information has been taken from Emilián Trolda, who made the following comment in his
card catalogue (NM-ČMH): ‘Die Lamentationen für Charwoche besaß 1910 in tadelloser Partitur mit Bemerkungen
von Skuherský’s Hand Landesgerichtsrat JUDr Alois Hnilička in Prag.’ [‘In 1910, the regional
court justice Dr. Alois Hnilička in Prague possessed the Lamentations for Holy Week in an impeccable
score with comments in Skuherský’s hand’].
33
Cf. Tadra, Ferdinand: ‘Jan Dismas Zelenka, český hudební skladatel’ [Jan Dismas Zelenka, the Czech
Composer], Hudební a divadelní věstník [Music and Theatre Bulletin ] 1877, no. 23, pp. 177-180, 187-189.
34
Now kept in the Hlahol archives in Prague, shelf mark 1847, 1848, 1849, and 254.
35
National Museum, Czech Museum of Music, shelf mark G 13 728.
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he also obtained a neatly trimmed page36
with signatures and inscriptions of three musicians,
with Jan Dismas Zelenka as the first to have signed it. Unfortunately, we do not know where
Morawetz obtained this document. All that is certain is that he acquired it through his own
activities as a collector, because Zelenka’s name does not appear in Donebauer’s own catalogues.
The document bears the signatures of three persons, the first two being members of the
royal ensemble in Dresden. The inscription reads:
À Zelenka Musicien de la Chapelle de
S. Majeste Le Roy de Pologne, Electeur
de Saxe.
a Dresd: 1726 7 Janv[ier]
A Binder, Musicien de la Chapelle de S.
Majesté Le Roÿ de Pol: Elect. de Saxe.
1762
5 Thlr[er].
A Ernst Ludwig Gerber, Secretair de la
Cour de Prince regnant de Schwarzbourg
Sondershoufe
1794.
Zelenka made an inscription shortly before
beginning to compile his Dresden music
inventory.37
After Zelenka, the next to sign
was the Dresden pantaleonist and organist Christlieb Siegmund Binder (1723-1789), the son
of an oboist. He received his musical education as a Kapellknabe with Pantaleon Hebenstreit,
from whom he learned to play the pantaleon beginning in 1742.38
In 1751 he was accepted
into the services of the court as a musician (pantaleonist), and at the same time, he played
the harpsichord. He later became an organist. The last signature is of Ernst Ludwig Gerber
(1764-1819), a German composer and the author of the well known Historisch- Biographisches
Lexicon der Tonkünstler.39
The inscription implies that the signatories had received something. This is also indicated
by the sum of five tolars probably written in Gerber’s hand. One is tempted to assume that
a piece of music was involved. Nonetheless, the wide time intervals between the inscriptions
dated 1726,40
1762, and 1794 raise a number of questions. What did these three musicians
have in common? If it were a piece of music, why was the new owner not listed after Zelenka’s
death in 1745, and why does the next signature not appear until 1765? Binder must have
known Zelenka from his childhood because he was a permanent resident of Dresden, so he may
even have been acquainted with him personally. And he certainly would have known Zelenka’s
liturgical music, whether as a performer or a listener. Another question is the path by which
the specimen found its way to Gerber. By that time, he had issued his two-volume lexicon,
which contained an entry about Zelenka. Incidentally, his signature happens to be dated 1794,
when he became the secretary to the Prince of Schwarzburg-Sonderhausen. A number of these
questions probably can no longer be answered. One can only regret that the document bearing
the signatures has not been preserved in a more complete form. On the other hand, we
are indebted to Richard Morawetz for having preserved at least this inscription, which is now
the only item in the holdings of the Czech Museum of Music that is in Zelenka’s own hand.
(Translated by Mark Newkirk)
36
The paper bears no watermark and is rather thin. There appear to be remnants of glue on it,
and it was seemingly attached as a label. It definitely does not come from an envelope for sheet music.
37
On the title page, it is dated 26 Jan. 1726. Cf. Horn, Wolfgang – Kohlhase, Thomas – Landmann,
Ortrun – Reich, Wolfgang: Zelenka-Dokumentation. Quellen und Materialien, vols. 1-2, Wiesbaden: Breitkopf
& Härtel, 1989.
38
An instrument similar to a dulcimer.
39
It came out in two volumes in 1790 and 1792 and in four more volumes in 1812, 1812, 1813, and
1814.
40
Unfortunately, the paper is damaged right where the last numeral appears, so its reading is not
quite clear.
Fig. 2:
Zelenka’s autograph
dated Dresden,
7 January 1726
(© National Museum,
Czech Museum of Music,
Prague, shelf mark
G 13 728)
91
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© Association for Central European Cultural Studies	 Clavibus unitis 4 (2015), pp. 91-96
W
hen Swiss ensemble Camerata Bern first released
recordings of Jan Dismas Zelenka’s trio
and quadro sonatas in 1973, several reviewers
conveyed a sense of startled admiration for the Bohemian
composer’s engaging and complex musical style.
Edward Greenfield wrote for The Guardian, ‘The message
comes over very plainly indeed that this is music to set
against that of Bach himself with no apology whatever.’1
Many also conveyed a sense of surprise that they had not
already heard of Zelenka, but comparatively little had
been written about him at this point.
Zelenka took up employment in Dresden in either
1710 or 1711, as a violone player in the orchestra of
the royal court. He spent much of his career in service
there, first as instrumentalist, and later primarily as a
composer of Catholic sacred music. He never married,
had no children, and died in Dresden in 1745. Most Zelenka
scholarship has understandably focused on various
aspects of his life and work in Dresden, and much
less has been written about the posthumous fate of
Zelenka’s music. There has been general agreement that
Zelenka’s music was, for the most part, forgotten until
his twentieth-century revival.2
This article will present
evidence of some fascinating new sources that can shed
further light on the nature and extent of the transmission
of Zelenka’s sacred music after he died, and will
point toward some of the possible implications of these
sources for our understanding of Zelenka reception in the
nineteenth century.3
It is already established that certain protagonists
played a key role in disseminating Zelenka’s music, including
Gottlob Harrer (1703-1755), a one-time student
of Zelenka who succeeded Bach in Leipzig in 1750. After
Harrer died, his extensive collection was sold by his
widow Christiana Elizabeth, probably to the Leipzig pub-
1
Greenfield, Edward: ‘Ives League’, The Guardian, 8 October
1974, p. 12.
2
Important studies dealing with aspects of the reception
of Zelenka’s music include Stockigt, Janice B.: Jan Dismas
Zelenka: A Bohemian Musician at the Court of Dresden
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), esp. Ch. 9, and ‘The
Life and Afterlife of Jan Dismas Zelenka’, Musicology Australia
19 (1996), pp. 48-48; Ottenberg, Hans-Günter: ‘Eine ZelenkaAufführung
des Jahres 1864: Alte Musik in den Sinfoniekonzerten
der Königlichen Musikalischen Kapelle in Dresden’, in:
Ottenberg, Hans-Günter – Steindorf, Eberhard (eds.) Der
Klang der Sächsischen Staatskapelle Dresden: Kontinuität und
Wandelbarkeit eines Phänomens. Bericht über das Symposium
vom 26. bis 27. Oktober 1998 im Rahmen des 450 jährigen Jubiläums
der Sächsischen Staatskapelle Dresden: veranstaltet von
der Technischen Universität Dresden, der Sächsischen Staatsoper
Dresden und der Sächsischen Akademie der Künste (Hildesheim;
New York: Olms, 2001), pp. 183-197; and Vojtěšková, Jana:
‘Die Zelenka-Überlieferung in der Tschechoslowakei’, in: Kohlhase,
Thomas (ed.): Zelenka-Studien I: Referate der Internationalen
Fachkonferenz Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679-1745), Marburg,
J.-G.-Herder-Institut, 16.-20. November 1991 (Kassel and New
York: Bärenreiter, 1993), pp. 85-99.
3
Library sigla are given as per RISM, and an appendix
provides additional information on sources not discussed in
the article.
Frederic Kiernan
(University of Melbourne)
Zelenka reception
in the nineteenth century:
Some new sources
Most of the new source material discussed in this article was
uncovered during the author’s Endeavour Research Fellowship
based at Martin Luther University, Halle – Wittenberg, Feb –
July 2015. I am indebted to Wolfgang Hirschmann and Janice B.
Stockigt for their kind assistance in making this research pos-
sible.
This article presents evidence of new sources relating
to the transmission and reception of the music of Bohemian
composer Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679-1745) in the
nineteenth century, which are located in Poland, Russia,
Boston and elsewhere. The author speculates about the
role of Italian theologian and composer Fortunato Santini
(1778-1861) in promulgating Zelenka’s music, and
shows that this music was more widely disseminated
than previously thought.
Key words: Jan Dismas Zelenka; Baroque Music; Dresden;
Prague; reception; transmission
Number of characters / words: 16 716 / 2 625
Number of tables: 1
92 Frederic Ki er nan
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lishing house of Breitkopf. The firm experienced financial difficulties in the late eighteenth
and early nineteenth centuries, and many works were sold off.4
At this time, about 250 works
from Breitkopf’s holdings came to be listed in the music catalogue of Prussian Minister Carl
Otto Friedrich von Voss-Buch (1755-1823), which is now held in Berlin,5
and this includes works
by Zelenka.
Also, in the mid-eighteenth century, Zelenka’s one-time student Johann Georg Pisendel
(1687-1755) copied the full set of Zelenka’s Responsoria pro hebdomada sancta (ZWV 55), for
Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767), who intended to publish them but never did. Pisendel
attempted to disguise the fact that the entire work had been copied at one time by requesting
that Telemann publish the responses in sections, and make slight alterations to the score,
which implies that circulation of these works was somewhat restricted. In 1810, Telemann’s
grandson then sold this copy to Georg Pölchau (1773-1836), a collector of music manuscripts
and librarian to the Berlin Singakademie. Pölchau’s vast collection now makes up a significant
portion of the music manuscripts now held at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin.6
Several new sources have emerged, however, which shed further light on these, and other,
aspects of Zelenka reception in the nineteenth century. Shortly after Pölchau died in August
1836, the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung reported on a performance by the Dessau Singakademie
of a Zelenka motet, ‘Quomodo justus moritur’, which refers to his setting of the Response
‘Ecce quomodo moritur justus’.7
The excerpt reads:
The Sing-Akademie arranged, on 23 August, a dignified celebration in memory of their esteemed
colleague Georg Pölchau. After a chorale by Fasch, and a Requiem by Hellwig, the
director Rungenhagen described in a brief address the credit of the deceased Pölchau to
music in general, and in particular to the Sing-Akademie, which Pölchau had served as librarian
from [Carl Friedrich] Zelter’s death until his own illness developed. Pölchau also
played an essential part in the organisation of Zelter’s musical estate, which was purchased
from the Sing-Akademie. After the commemoration speech, a motet by Zelenka was sung,
‘Quomodo justus moritur’, in remembrance of the donor, which had been presented as a
gift from Pölchau and the Sing-Akademie. Mozart’s Requiem, from ‘Hostias et preces’ until
the end, concluded the grave, exhilarating celebration.8
In December 1844, the Dreyssig Singakademie, an esteemed choir founded by the Dresden
court organist Anton Dreyssig (1774-1815) in 1807, performed one of Zelenka’s ‘Qui tollis’ settings.
Although the programme does not reveal which one,9
I argue that this must have been
from the Missa Sanctae Caeciliae (ZWV 1), since the stamp of the Dreyssig Singakademie appears
on a score copy of the ‘Qui tollis’ from this mass, which is held in the Sächsische Landesbibliothek
– Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden (SLUB).10
Only one other known music
manuscript of a Zelenka work has yet been associated with Anton Dreyssig or his Singakademie,
and that is a copy of Zelenka’s well-known Miserere setting (ZWV 57) held in Berlin.11
A manuscript set of parts for a Zelenka Salve Regina setting (ZWV 141) is also held in
the Wrocław University Library in Poland, which is yet to be acknowledged in the Zelenka
literature.12
The set of thirty-six parts comprises seventeen for canto, fifteen for alto, and four
parts for bass; there are no parts for tenor, indicating that the set is incomplete. The work is a
parody on ‘Recercar dopo il Credo’ from Girolamo Frescobaldi’s (1583-1643) third organ mass,
Messa della Madonna, and is attributed to Zelenka, although he never claimed authorship of
4
Stockigt, Zelenka ( note 2), pp. 267-269.
5
Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Musikabteilung (D-B) Mus. MS theor. Kat. 26.
6
Stockigt, Zelenka ( note 2), p. 265.
7
I would like to thank Jóhannes Ágústsson for drawing my attention to this source.
8
Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung 38 (1836), pp. 674-675, author’s translation.
9
The programme is held at Stadtarchiv Dresden, Kapsel 150, Dreyssicsche Singakademie Material
1820-1928 in zeitlicher Ordnung; see also Oschmann, Susanne: ‘Die Rezeption des geistlichen Werkes von
Johann Sebastian Bach in Dresden im Jahrhundert der “Wiederentdeckung”‘, in: Herrmann, Matthias
(ed.): Die Dresdner Kirchenmusik im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert, (Laaber: Laaber Verlag, 1998), p. 52.
10
SLUB (D-Dl), Mus. 2358-D-503.
11
D-B Mus. MS Eler 1 M (31-48).
12
PL-WRu, 22522 III N (formerly held at Akc 665 Muz.).
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the work.13
The set of parts is held with a copy of a published edition of the same work,14
from
which the parts were obviously extracted. It is unclear whether this work was ever performed
in Wrocław (then called Breslau), but a Salve Regina setting by Zelenka is listed in the holdings
of the Breslau Singakademie, which was established by Johann Theodor Mosewius (1788-1858)
in 1825. This institution modelled its activities very much on those of the Berlin Singakademie,
and, as in Berlin, they often performed sacred works in a concert setting. In 1850, on the
twenty-fifth anniversary of the establishment of the Breslau Singakademie, Mosewius published
a Festschrift that lists the dates of concerts and works performed.15
In Appendix C of this
publication, titled ‘Catalogue of the singing materials used for practice by the Sing-Academie
from 17 May 1825 to 1850’ (Verzeichniss des zu den Uebungen der Sing-Akademie benutzten
Singestoffes vom 17. Mai 1825 bis dahin 1850) we find Zelenka’s Salve Regina, which suggests
that the work was performed not in concert, but rather in an educational context, as study
or practice material.
One of the most intriguing new sources relating to Zelenka transmission in the nineteenth
century is to be found in the Boston Public Library: a collection of twenty-eight manuscript and
printed volumes prepared by German librarian and teacher Siegfried Wilhelm Dehn (1799-1858),
bearing the title ‘Practical music works by outstanding composers of the sixteenth-eighteenth
centuries, selected and compiled by S.W. Dehn’ (Practische Musik-Werke hervorragender Componisten
des XVI.-XVIII. Jahrhunderts ausgewählt und zusammengestellt von S. W. Dehn).16
This
collection includes six manuscript copies of works by Zelenka, which are not mentioned in the
published Zelenka literature, but which are, interestingly, listed in a card catalogue of the SLUB
in the handwriting of the late Dr. Wolfgang Reich. I have not yet been able to view this source
in person, and at the time of writing only fragments of the source have been digitised, so many
questions are yet to be answered. However, some information concerning the provenance and
contents of the collection is available.17
Dehn prepared the collection in approximately 1858 for the American musicologist Alexander
Wheelock Thayer (1817-1897), who spent time in Germany between 1849 and the midlate
1850s preparing his seminal biography of Beethoven. Shortly thereafter, the collection of
over 150 works, representing seventy-three composers, moved to the Boston Public Library.18
Four works by Zelenka are held in volume nineteen: two settings of the Marian antiphon Sub
tuum praesidium (ZWV 157), and two movements from the Responsoria pro hebdomada sancta
(ZWV 55), ‘Ecce quomodo moritur justus’ and ‘In monte Oliveti’. The Sub tuum praesidium settings
confirm that these copies originated in Berlin; Zelenka set this text ten times, and the
manuscript score was eventually acquired by Pölchau, entering the Royal Library in Berlin as
part of Pölchau’s collection in 1841, after Dehn had taken over its custodianship. The only other
known source for these works is a set of twenty-eight parts, missing from Dresden.
Volume twenty-eight also contains two mass settings by Zelenka: the Missa Circumcisionis
(ZWV 11) and the Missa Nativitatis Domini (ZWV 8). Only one known copy of the Missa Circumcisionis
is held in Berlin,19
which was notated by a scribe associated with the Breitkopf firm
around the 1760s, before entering the collection of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788),
13
A second set of parts to this work—also incomplete—is held at the University of Warsaw Library
(PL-Wu), RM 5901. This source was formerly owned by the Akademisches Institut für Kirchenmusik,
Breslau, and dates from the early nineteenth century.
14
Naue, Friedrich (ed.): Kirchenmusik verschiedener Zeiten und Völker (Leipzig: Friedrich Hofmeister,
1832).
15
Mosewius, Johann Theodor: Die Breslauische Sing-Akademie in den ersten fünf und zwanzig Jahren
ihres Bestehens (Breslau [Wrocław]: O. B. Schuhmann, 1850).
16
Boston Public Library (US-Bp), 4051.14.
17
I am indebted to Charlotte A. Kolczynski and the kind staff at the Boston Public Library for their
assistance investigating this source.
18
Grant W. Cook III has claimed that Thayer acted as a buyer of books and music collections for
the Boston Public Library, perhaps explaining the reason for this purchase. Interestingly, his travelling
companion on his second trip (departed summer 1856) was organist John Knowles Paine (1839-1906),
who travelled with Thayer on the insistence of his Dresden-trained teacher Hermann Kotzschmar (1829-
1909). See Cook III, Grant W.: ‘A. W. Thayer, Dwight’s „Diarist,“ and Foreign Correspondent: Beethoven’s
Biographer as Choral Critic’, The Choral Scholar: The Online Journal of the National Collegiate Choral
Organization 2 (2010), pp. 2-6.
19
D-B Mus. MS 23540.
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and then the collection of Georg Pölchau in 1799.20
However, two known sources for the Missa
Nativitatis Domini are held in Berlin, one of which can be traced back to the collection of
Princess Anna Amalia of Prussia (1723-1787),21
younger sister of Frederick II, and the other,
like the Berlin copy of the Missa Circumcisionis, entered Pölchau’s collection in 1799 from the
estate of C. P. E Bach.22
This copy, however, replaces Zelenka’s original scoring for two trumpets
with a pair of horns, and this difference may prove useful when future attempts are made
to determine which of the two Berlin sources served as the source for the Boston copy. It is
clear that this collection will have implications for the reception histories of not only Zelenka,
but a vast number of composers, as their music migrated to the American ‘new world’ of the
mid-nineteenth century.
It is no surprise that Dehn would have included Zelenka in his collection of ‘outstanding’
composers from days gone by. Dehn was editor of the Zeitschrift Caecilia between 1842 and
1848, and was a great advocate of Zelenka’s music, having published an admiring biographical
study of the composer, along with an edition of the above-mentioned ‘Ecce quomodo moritur
justus’ setting, in that journal during his final year as editor there. Dehn’s article describes Zelenka
as a ‘valued’ composer, who, ‘must have been an excellent artist.’ He writes that Zelenka’s
music ‘drew universal attention,’ and that, at the time of his death, ‘he held the reputation of a
noble and virtuous artist’.23
This is one of an increasing number of sources that contradict the
idea, popular in early Zelenka scholarship, that Zelenka’s later years were isolated and lonely,
and that his achievements were not recognised by his contemporaries.
Reference to two further manuscript copies of movements from Zelenka’s Responsoria pro
hebdomada sancta (ZWV 55, nos. 2 and 14) has also recently appeared on RISM, held at the
Taneyev Research Music Library of the Moscow Conservatory.24
I have not yet been able to verify
these sources, but the incipits given on RISM do match Zelenka’s scores. In 1998, Dr. Karl Geck
wrote that many manuscript sources were presumed to have been relocated from Dresden to
Russia following the Second World War, contrary to international law.25
However, these two
sources seem to have made their way to Russia via a different route. RISM states that they are
held in a collection formerly owned by Alexandr Skarjatin, a Russian diplomat based in Rome,
and were copied by the Italian theologian and composer Fortunato Santini (1778-1861), who
was also based in Rome at the German College, and whose own enormous collection of over
five thousand manuscripts and other printed items is now held in Münster.26
Regardless of whether these manuscripts turn out to be verified Zelenka copies, this connection
to Fortunato Santini seems to hold important clues about the nature of the transmission
and reception of Zelenka’s sacred music in the nineteenth century. A recent exhibition at the
Diocesan Museum in Münster provided a fascinating overview of Santini’s social and professional
network across Europe, several members of which possessed copies of Zelenka’s music.27
This network included: Sir Frederick Ouseley (1825-1889), who took copies of works by Zelenka
to St Michael’s College in Tenbury in the United Kingdom;28
Eduard Grell (1800-1886), who from
1817 was associated with the Berlin Singakademie, becoming its principal conductor in 1853,
and who was the one-time owner of a copy of Zelenka’s Missa Circumcisionis (ZWV 11) now held
in Paris;29
Raphael Georg Kiesewetter (1773-1850), arguably one of the pioneers of musicology,
who was heavily involved with the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien and with Viennese
20
Stockigt, Zelenka ( note 2), p. 271.
21
D-B Am.B 360 (II).
22
D-B Mus. MS 23539; this copy is completed with the Sanctus and Agnus Dei from Zelenka’s Missa
Charitatis (ZWV 10).
23
Dehn, Siegfried Wilhelm: ‘Ueber Johann Dismas Zelenka’, Caecilia 27 (1848), pp. 101-105, author’s
translation.
24
Held together at RUS-Mk, XI-428.
25
Geck, Karl Wilhelm: ‘Die SLUB als Archiv für die Musik der Dresdner Hofkapelle’, SLUB-Kurier 12
(1998), pp. 12-14.
26
The same two settings are also found in Santini’s collection at the Diözesanbibliothek in Münster
(D-MÜp), formerly D-MÜs, SANT Hs. 1217.
27
Schmitz, Peter – Ammendola, Andrea (eds.): Sammeln, Komponieren, Bearbeiten: der römische
Abbate Fortunato Santini im Spiegel seines Schaffens (Münster: Agenda, 2011), pp. 52-53.
28
On the Zelenka sources in the Tenbury collection (now housed at the Bodleian Library, Oxford) see
Frampton, Andrew: ‘A Copyist of Bach and Zelenka: Identifying the Scribes of GB-Ob, MS Tenbury 749’,
Understanding Bach 11 (2016), pp. 131-139.
29
Bibliothèque nationale de France (F-Pn), D-13.347.
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concert life, and who owned copies of three of Zelenka’s Responsoria pro hebdomada sancta
(ZWV 55);30
Carl von Winterfeld (1784-1852), a founder of the Bach-Gesellschaft and promoter
of the ideals of the Cecilian movement, whose hand is found on an incomplete score copy of
a Zelenka Salve Regina setting (ZWV 127) held in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin;31
Aloys Fuchs
(1799-1853), an Austrian musicologist closely associated with Kiesewetter and Pölchau, who
owned a score copy from the late-eighteenth century of Zelenka’s Requiem (ZWV 45);32
Gustav
Wilhelm Teschner (1800-1883), a German singer and music editor who was appointed Royal
Prussian Professor in 1873, and whose collection once contained a copy of a ‘Qui tollis’ setting
by Zelenka (from Missa Sanctae Caeciliae, ZWV 1) dating from 1851;33
Rungenhagen, who, as
mentioned above, directed the Berlin Singakademie in a performance of a Zelenka motet in
1836, and whose hand appears on a copy of Zelenka’s Missa Sancti Spiritus (ZWV 4) held in
the Singakademie zu Berlin Notenarchiv;34
and finally, Skarjatin, who it seems owned copies
of two movements from Zelenka’s Responsoria pro hebdomada sancta (ZWV 55, nos. 2 and 14)
now held in Moscow.35
All of these men are named among Santini’s professional and social network in Europe,
and all of them played some role in the transmission of Zelenka’s music across Europe in the
nineteenth century, but the influence of Santini on the reception of Zelenka’s music remains
unexplored. It seems clear that Santini’s network is more than simply a checklist of Europe’s
cultural elite, and that an investigation into the values, artistic ideals and ideologies of this
group of men could yield a much greater appreciation of the nature of Zelenka reception in
the nineteenth century.
30
A score copy of no. 2 (A-Wn, SA. 67 H. 48 Mus) and no. 24 (A-Wn, SA. 67 H. 49 Mus), as well as the
already-mentioned copies of nos. 2 and 14 now held at Münster, (D-MÜp, formerly D-MÜs, SANT Hs. 1217).
31
D-B, Mus. Winterfeld 103a (formerly M 1911.627).
32
This source is held at the Stift Göttweig (Niederösterreich). See Riedel, Friedrich W.: ‘Zelenkas
Kompositionen zum Toten-Offizium’, in: Reich, Wolfgang – Gattermann, Günter (eds.): Zelenka-Studien II
: Referate und Materialien der 2. Internationalen Fachkonferenz Jan Dismas Zelenka, Dresden und Prag 1995
(Sankt Augustin: Academia Verlag, 1997), pp. 153-159. Riedel suggests that Fuchs may have acquired this
copy from the court organist Johann Hugo Voříšek (p. 157).
33
D-B, MS Teschner 249, fos. 57-66.
34
D-Bsa, SA 692.
35
RUS-Mk, XI-428.
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Appendix:
A table of additional notes on new Zelenka sources
Source location Source description Comments on provenance
1.
The Glinka Museum
of Musical Culture (RUS-Mcm),
Ф.73 No. 388
Credo from
Missa Purificationis BVM (ZWV 16)
arr. piano and choir.
1820-1869?
From collection
of Prince Vladimir Odoevskij
(1803-1869)
2.
The Royal Library, Copenhagen
(DK-Kk), MAlæs-B304,
Jens Peter Larsens samling,
U300, mu 1306.2700
Credo from
Missa Purificationis BVM (ZWV 16)
arr. piano and choir.
1800-1900?
From collection
of Jens Peter Larsen (1902-1988);
likely to be connected with no. 1
3.
Österreichische
Nationalbibliothek
(A-Wn), HK.1979 Mus
Score copy of
Missa dei Patris (ZWV 19)
Stamps:
‘v. Raymond’, ‘N. Clix’
A copy of A-Wgm, Q 634?
4.
SLUB (D-Dl),
Mus.2358-D-505
Score copy of Missa ‘Gratias agimus
tibi’ (ZWV 13)
Wilhelm Aletter (1867-1934);
Prague Conservatoire (CZ-Pk), 7452
5.
SLUB (D-Dl),
Mus.2358-D-506
Score copy of
Missa Paschalis (ZWV 7)
Wilhelm Aletter (1867-1934);
Prague Conservatoire (CZ-Pk), 7452
Redakční rada
—
Editorial board
Šéfredaktor
Editor-in-chief
PhDr. Jiří K. KROUPA (Nadace pro dějiny kultury ve střední Evropě, Praha)
Výkonní redaktoři
Assistant editors
Mgr. Jan BAŤA, Ph.D. (Ústav hudební vědy Filozofické fakulty Univerzity Karlovy, Praha)
Mgr. et Mgr. Marek DOSPĚL (Český egyptologický ústav Filozofické fakulty Univerzity Karlovy, Praha)
Mgr. Jana SPÁČILOVÁ, Ph.D. (Katedra muzikologie Filozofické fakulty Univerzity Palackého, Olomouc)
Mgr. Martina ŠÁROVCOVÁ, Ph.D. (Ústav dějin umění Akademie věd České republiky, v. v. i., Praha)
doc. PhDr. Jaromír Linda, Ph.D. (Filološki fakultet, Univerzitet u Beogradu)
Členové redakční rady
Members of the editorial board
PhDr. Josef BARTOŇ, Th.D. (Katedra biblických věd Katolické teologické fakulty Univerzity Karlovy, Praha)
prof. dr. Giuseppe DIERNA (Facoltà di Lingue e Letterature Straniere Moderne, Università degli Studi della Tuscia,
Viterbo)
prof. PhDr. Marta HULKOVÁ, Ph.D. (Katedra muzikológie Filozofickej fakulty Univerzity Komenského, Bratislava)
IV
Clavibus unitis
4 (2015)
CONTENT
A r t iculi
Jan Dismas Zelenka’s Life and Music Reconsidered
(Zelenka Conference Prague 2015)
(edited by Jiří K. Kroupa)
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Janice B. Stockigt – Jóhannes Ágústsson: Reflections 	and recent findings on the life and music of Jan
Dismas Zelenka (1679-1745) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Wolfgang Horn: Opera, arias and Zelenka: Remarks 	on a special relationship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Michaela Freemanová: Prague 1734: Jan Dismas Ze	lenka and Leonardo Leo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Claudia Lubkoll: Watermarks in Zelenka’s auto­	graph scores in the Saxon State and University Library
Dresden (SLUB) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Jana Vojtěšková: The works of Jan Dismas Zelenka in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Prague
Frederic Kiernan: Zelenka reception in the nineteenth century: Some new sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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