Product Description
Jan Dismas Zelenka, the brilliant but elusive contemporary of Bach, musically served the Catholic chapel of the dazzling Dresden court during the first half of the eighteenth century.Research has uncovered biographical information, and reveals the remarkable music of a major figure of the Baroque era. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A grand attempt at a very hard task
Dr. Stockigt is probably one of the best English speaking authorities on JD Zelenka. She did a fine job of tracking down the life of a man who was a Catholic outsider in the Lutheran world of Saxony. The challenge is great because of damage wrought by the fires set in Dresden by the Austrians and Prussians in the seige of 1760 and then the damage wrought by the holocaust in 1945 and then possible Soviet pilfery of the Dresden archives. Whole parts of the Zelenka catalogue are missing and some manucripts are missing sections.

Zelenka was not cooperative with historians. He left no portrait and had no children or close students to whom he could have confided his secrets. He kept no known personal diary. Zelenka is not recorded as having married. Leaving so little behind makes the task of defining the man difficult.

Dr. Stockigt weaves together a picture of life as a Bohemian child learning music, one which Zelenka must have lived. She shows the world of Zelenka as he matured, from Count Sporck's orchestra to the Dresden hopfkappel. She shows the Byzantine politics of the Dresden Court, the tensions between the Catholics who are tolerated for political reasons and the Lutheran majority who resent "Papist" influences in the Court. We learn of the thread of the Jesuits throughout Zelenka's life, from his education at the Klementium to his life at the Dresden Court. The Jesuits, the feared agents of the counter-Reformation, are to be seen at every turn in Zelenka's adult life.

She chronicles Zelenka's triumphs, his downfall at the hands of Hasse and his eventual death and then his legacy as a composer.

Dr. Stockigt focuses closely on Zelenka's music, offering analyses of themes, technical points and performance practices. We learn that the Dresden Catholic Chapel had castrati, who went on "strike". Dr. Stockigt reveals that Zelenka's patroness, the Empress Maria Josepha, protected him and we are shown his loyalty and devotion in return.We learn of her critical role in preserving his musical legacy and in how Zelenka crafted for her fine works of devotion.

We are gratified to know that many of the best composers of the time esteemed and valued Zelenka's music - even Lutherans who had no great love of Catholics in general and Jesuit trained Catholics in particular. This does not exclude J.S. Bach, with whom Zelenka collaborated on Masses and compositional practices at the Dresden Court. We discover that Zelenka's help was critical to the first performance of Bach's mass in b minor.We are also told of the fellowship and friendship between Zelenka and Johann Georg Pisendel, much admired violinist.We also learn the G.P. Telemann, one of the greatest composers of his day, attempted to publish Zelenka's "Responsora" at risk to himself.

Dr Stockigt shows the "afterlife" of Zelenka, from his relative neglect after death, to his legacy during the years preceding the Dresden holocaust, to his hesitant but sure "renaissance" today. It is obvious at every turn that Dr. Stockigt is fascinated with the man, loves his music and shares both with the reader.

This book reveals a long gone world, warts and all, to those who value the music of those times. This book also attempts to show, as best as can be done, the man behind the compositions.

Gene Herron ... Read more

Product Description
Kapitel: Jan Dismas Zelenka, Johann Michael Nicolai, Rupert Ignaz Mayr, Johann Samuel Endler, Annabel Lee, Giovanni Battista Vitali, Christian Ferdinand Abel, Joseph Küffner, Clamor Heinrich Abel. Aus Wikipedia. Nicht dargestellt. Auszug: Jan Dismas Zelenka (16 October 1679 - 23 December 1745), also known as Johann Dismas Zelenka, was a Czech Baroque composer. Zelenka played the violone, the largest and lowest member of the viol family, analogous to the double bass in the violin family of stringed instruments. As of the 21st century, classical musicians are slowly becoming more aware of Zelenka's forgotten genius thanks to Zelenka revivals instigated by many Baroque ensembles and music historians. Whereas Felix Mendelssohn and Gustav Mahler perpetuated the music of J.S. Bach to the audiences of their time, Zelenka's music did not enjoy any significant revival in the 19th and most of the 20th century. (perhaps because Dresden and the Czech Republic fell behind the Iron Curtain from 1949 to 1989. The Czechoslovakia Communist government detested the Roman Catholic Church and did not approve of any music that supported the Church.) Thus, Zelenka's music has never been in the musical canon. However, as Zelenka's genius is slowly becoming more accessible to the public, the future of his music is very exciting. Certainly, the classical music scene has been enriched by a new wave of astonishing baroque music. Jan Dismas Zelenka, memorial plaque in Louňovice pod BlaníkemZelenka was born in Louňovice pod Blaníkem, a small market town southeast of Prague in what was then Bohemia. His father was a schoolmaster and organist there; nothing more is known with certainty about Zelenka's early years. He probably received musical training in the center of Prague at a Jesuit college named the Clementinum. It is known that Zelenka served Baron Hartig, the imperial governor resident in Prague, before becoming a violone player in the royal orchestra ...http://booksllc.net/?l=de ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Czech Music, published by Czech Music Information on January 1, 2010. The length of the article is 625 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Jan Dismas Zelenka: I Penitenti al Sepolchro del Redentore.(Sound recording review)
Author: Jindrich Balek
Publication: Czech Music (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2010
Publisher: Czech Music Information
Issue: 1Page: 48(1)

Article Type: Sound recording review

Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Czech Music, published by Thomson Gale on January 1, 2006. The length of the article is 678 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Jan Dismas Zelenka.
Author: Ondrej Jaluvka
Publication: Czech Music (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Issue: 1Page: 43(2)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Czech Music, published by Czech Music Information on October 1, 2008. The length of the article is 449 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Jan Dismas Zelenka: Missa votiva e moll ZWV 18 (1739).(Sound recording review)
Author: Jana Slimackova
Publication: Czech Music (Magazine/Journal)
Date: October 1, 2008
Publisher: Czech Music Information
Issue: 4Page: 48(1)

Article Type: Sound recording review

Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Czech Music, published by Czech Music Information on July 1, 2008. The length of the article is 791 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Jan Dismas Zelenka.(Sound recording review)
Author: Michaela Freemanova
Publication: Czech Music (Magazine/Journal)
Date: July 1, 2008
Publisher: Czech Music Information
Issue: 3Page: 47(1)

Article Type: Sound recording review

Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning ... Read more

Product Description
Les achats comprennent une adhésion à l'essai gratuite au club de livres de l'éditeur, dans lequel vous pouvez choisir parmi plus d'un million d'ouvrages, sans frais. Le livre consiste d'articles Wikipedia sur : Antonín Dvořák, Viktor Ullmann, Petr Eben, Jiří Válek, Jan Dismas Zelenka, Leoš Janáček, Bohuslav Martinů, Zdeněk Fibich, Bedřich Smetana, Oskar Nedbal, Josef Mysliveček, Oldřich František Korte, Hans Krása, Miloslav Kabeláč, Jan Hammer, Antonín Kraft, Julius Ernest Wilhelm Fučík, Jiří Antonín Benda, Gideon Klein, Johannes Wenzeslaus Kalliwoda, Antoine Reicha, Vítězslava Kaprálová, Pavel Haas, Vladimír Hirsch, Ignaz Moscheles, František Kmoch, Vítězslav Novák, Josef Páleníček, Eduard Nápravník, François-Xavier Richter, Viktor Kalabis, Florian Leopold Gassmann, Carl Stamitz, Josef Suk, Paul Wranitzky, Jan Václav Hugo Voříšek, Antonio Rosetti, Jan Novák, Karel Svoboda, Adalbert Gyrowetz, Erwin Schulhoff, Václav Pichl, František Tůma, Jean-Baptiste Vanhal, Leopold Anton Kozeluch, Jan Ladislav Dussek, Franz Krommer, Rudolf Karel, František Brixi, Alois Hába, Anton Wranitzky, Johann Stamitz, Johann Antonin Kozeluch, Václav Jan Křtitel Tomášek, Markéta Irglová, Josef Reicha, Gottfried Finger, Johann Anton Losy Von Losimthal, Bohuslav Matěj Černohorský, Franz Koczwara, Pavel Smutný. Non illustré. Mises à jour gratuites en ligne. Extrait : Viktor Ullmann (né le 1 janvier 1898 à Teschen, Autriche-Hongrie, aujourd'hui Český Těšín, Tchéquie - mort gazé le 18 octobre 1944 à Auschwitz-Birkenau) était pianiste et compositeur tchèque (autrichien selon d'autres sources). Issus de familles juives, ses parents s'étaient convertis avant sa naissance à la religion catholique. Son père Maximilian a pu, en tant que juif converti, entreprendre une carrière d'officier. Pendant la Première guerre mondiale, il devint colonel et fut anobli. Viktor fréquenta à partir de 1909 un lycée de Vienne en Autriche. Ses aptitudes et son inclinaison pour la...http://booksllc.net/?l=fr ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Czech Music, published by Czech Music Information on April 1, 2005. The length of the article is 2881 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Jan Dismas Zelenka: (16th October 1679-22nd-23rd December 1745).(profiles)
Author: Jaroslav Smolka
Publication: Czech Music (Magazine/Journal)
Date: April 1, 2005
Publisher: Czech Music Information
Issue: 2Page: S1(3)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more