ZELENKA | Missa Gratias agimus tibi | promissae gloriae, ZWV 13 {Autograph score} 1730

#jan #dismas #zelenka #score #sheetmusic #zwv #zwv13 The autograph score to one of Zelenka's greatest works, a large yet brief setting of the traditional mass in the stilo misto "mixed style" for a large festive baroque orchestra - the Missa Gratias agimus tibi, /Z. 13/. My favorite work of this composer, which was composed October the 5th, 1730 - the same time-frame that the Missa Sancti Josephi /Z. 14, c.a. 1731/, Missa Eucharitisa /Z. 15, 1733/ and the Missa Purificationis Beatae Vergine /Z. 16/ were composed. This mass was almost certainly composed for the occasion of the birth of Maria Josepha's son Franz Xaver Albert August Ludwig Benno, and was nicknamed "promissae gloriae" based on this event. This mass, despite it's grandeur and large orchestration, is a Missa Brevis "short mass", as indicated on the title-page, and so the individual movements are relatively short. For the opening movement, Zelenka surprisingly composed it "thorough" whereas he usually divided the Kyrie into three independent sections. Kyrie, Christe, Kyrie. The form which he achieved in this Kyrie unites the ritornello technique of the modern concerto (00:12 - 3:50) that Zelenka frequently employed in free, virtuosic choral writing - with strict fugal writing in the outer sections (1:17 - 2:46) and a canon-styled solo duet in the middle (2:12). The Christe theme, derived from the eleison of the Kyrie theme, becomes a second theme of the second fugal section. Zelenka often employed a procedure of this kind even in three movement, thematically related Kyrie settings, from the Missa Sancti Spiritus of 1723 down to his last dated work, the Marian litany of 1744. Moreover, Zelenka did not so much reduce the number of movements that he usually wrote in the Ordinary masses (the rest of his, for the most part, considerably longer masses exhibit a similar sum of "number" and similar text distribution) as rather their lengths. If one simply compares the still magnificent but yet quite short first Gloria movement (No.II) with his other settings of this text, one again finds one of Zelenka's typically pointed ritornello themes (No.II - 4:12), scales, simple accompanying chords and triad figurations. All of No.VIII is also forceful and plain, a Credo ritornello with an ostinato running through it. With it's downward moving scale in the closing, it serves the composer as a speaking figure of descent in the chorus ritornello (in unison!) to the words 'descendit de caelis (16:43)' at the end of the movement. Additionally, in Zelenka's inventory "Inventarium rerum Musicarum Variorum Authorum Ecclesia Servientium" , Zelenka lists No.36 of the 'Missa integrae' (Missa totae) as his own Missa Gratias agimus tibi for four voices, four trumpets and timpani, two flutes, two oboes, strings and thorough-bass. Zelenka's added note 'in Agnus sunt 2 Sopra: et 2 Contralti' shows unmistakably that the only mass that can be meant is this Messa brevis. In the inventory it bears its authentic name after having seemed to have lost it as a result of the missing title page for the work as a whole. The subtitle 'Gratias agimus tibi' points to the extraordinary setting of the passage of the text in No.III of the mass, "Laudamus te (7:16)": a soprano solo over a high bass line for violins and violas (in unison) - hence totally without actual bass instruments (even with out organ) - and beneath winding thirds for the flutes. Performer & Album Info - 32:17 I: Kyrie (Chorus, Fugue) - 00:00 II: Gloria in excelsis Deo (Chorus) - 4:06 III: Laudamus te (Alto, Tenor, Bass) - 5:40 IV: Qui tollis peccata mundi (Chorus) - 10:29 V: Quoniam tu solus sanctus (Soprano) - 12:15 VI: Cum sancto spiritu (Chorus) - 13:44 VII: Amen (Chorus, Fugue) - 14:13 VIII: Credo in unum Deum (Chorus) - 15:24 IX: Et incarnatus est (Chorus) - 17:00 X: Crucifixus (Soprano) - 18:15 XI: Et resurrexit tertia die (Chorus) - 20:13 XII: Sanctus (Chorus) - 22:40 XIII: Pleni sunt coeli (Chorus) - 23:11 XIV: Benedictus (Tenor) - 23:55 XV: Osanna in excelsis Deo (Chorus, Fughetta) - 26:37 XVI: Agnus Dei I (Chorus) - 27:27 XVII: Agnus Dei II (Soprano I, II, Alto I, II) - 28:14 XVIII: Agnus Ultima (Chorus) - 30:42 XVIII: Dona nobis pacem, Amen! (Chorus, Fugue) - 31:03 Performer(s): Missa in D - Kyrie · Jan Dismas Zelenka · Pražský filharmonický sbor/Lubomír Mátl · Jana Jonášová · Marie Mrázová · Vladimír Doležal Zelenka: Missa in D, Responsoria pro hebdomada sancta ℗ 1990 SUPRAPHON a.s. Background image of Zelenka at concert by Lindemann, Christian Philipp (1700-ca 1754) © Academica Wypozyczalnia Title: "Pompa Qua In Funere Sereniss. Et Potentiss. Augusti II Poloniar. Regis Regium Elector. Sacellum Dresdae Ornabatur " I do not own the copyright to the audio used in this video. I do not make money from this video. This channel is non-profit, not monetized, for educational purposes only. Images provided by the Sächsische Landesbibliothek – Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden) - non-commercial use only.