Jan Dismas Zelenka - a worthy challenger of the Baroque master Bach

Baroque music was very different across European countries. What most European influences agreed on within Baroque music, however, was polyphony – the simultaneous conducting of voices which have their own rhythm and melody, yet go together perfectly and sound parallel to each other. Its unsurpassed master, Johann Sebastian Bach, found no rival in his art of polyphony for many centuries. But now we know of a worthy challenger - the "Czech Bach" Jan Dismas Zelenka.

J. D. Zelenka, 'In exitu Israel'|Photo: Sächsische Landesbibliothek, Dresden, CC BY-SA 4.0

Although he was born in the Czech town of Louňovice pod Blaníkem in 1679, he worked in Dresden, Germany, where he stayed practically all his life. And maybe that’s why, we did not know much about Jan Dismas Zelenka until the 1970s. After Zelenka's death in 1745, his work became the property of the monarchy and was deposited in the archives of the Dresden choir. For a long time it was not possible to copy or publish his compositions. However, this prohibition was broken when, for example, Bach's son Wilhelm Friedemann Bach copied Zelenka's Magnificat.

During WWII the Dresden music archives were bombed and Jan Dismas Zelenka’s works were thought to have been lost forever. Therefore, it was a big surprise when the Swiss oboist Heinz Holliger discovered some of the composer's chamber music in the 1970s. When they came to light, everyone started looking for other Zelenka pieces that might have survived, and, as the years went by, more and more of them started to appear.

Jan Dismas Zelenka: Sonata No. 1 F Major, ZWV 181/1 / Ensemble Berlin Prag

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What has never been found, however, is a more detailed portrait of Zelenka. Therefore, even today we do not know what Zelenka really looked like. There are only two alleged portrayals of the artist. However, the first one has not been proven to be Zelenka and the second one turned out to be a portrait of the Austrian Baroque composer Johann Joseph Fux. Another pen drawing was also found in which Zelenka is supposedly depicted. However, the features of his face are too vague to tell us anything about the composer's appearance. The face of the Baroque genius thus remains unrevealed.

Photo: JanBlanicky, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 DEED

The Czechs always speak of their composers modestly, only as the vanguards of the world's musical greats. Only Dvořák is seen as one of the leading composers of his time, who truly stood at the pinnacle of the Romantic movement.

But that is incorrect. We now have Jan Dismas Zelenka, a mysterious figure, whose life we don’t know much about. However, today, in the eyes of experts and the public, with his In exitu Israel or Dixit Dominus, this man stands alongside Johann Sebastian Bach, and is a polyphony genius himself.

If you are interested in hearing Zelenka's brilliant polyphony live, you can do so in the autumn at two festivals that celebrate Jan Dismas Zelenka and his work. The Podblanický hudební podzim music festival was founded in 1984, and the international Zelenka Festival Prague has been held since 2014 - both celebrate the “Czech Bach” and his work.