Just a lost masterpiece

Well, it’s location, location, location.

And in this case, it’s clear that Jan Dismas Zelenka is living at the end of the last street on the wrong side of the tracks. Which is to say that any composer living up near Bach, Brahms, and Beethoven tends to get visited on the iPod a lot more than a composer whose name starts with “z.”

Don’t feel bad if you don’t know Zelenka—I didn’t know him either until I ran into him in a book by Oliver Sacks about music. So, since Sacks was blown away by Zelenka, he seemed worth a hear. And instantly, I was hooked.

How good is he? Well, Bach (whom Zelenka visited) thought highly of him, and copied out the amen section from Zelenka’s third Magnificat for use in a church service at St. Thomas Church in Leipzig.

Born in 1679, Zelenka was an almost exact contemporary of Bach, but he seems to have gotten around a bit more than Bach. Born south of Prague, he studied in Vienna, and knew Telemann and Pachelbel. As well, he may have gone to Venice: his music is clearly influenced by the Italian baroque.

Wikipedia will tell you that his music most closely resembles Bach, and that “his music is admired for its inventiveness and counterpoint.” What Marc will tell you is that the guy had to have been manic as well; it’s almost exhausting to listen to, at times.

Zelenka’s music is totally distinctive. There’s the manic quality, which often takes the form of rapid scales, unusual harmonic twists, dramatic changes. One commentator on a classical music forum speculates that that’s why Zelenka’s music is so unknown—it’s too weird. Another wonders if the problem was that his music was locked up in a library of the court of Dresden, kept under lock and key and never performed. Still another notes that there’s no image of him. In any case, he’s unjustly minor.

Is he as good as Bach? No, but who is? Do we ask that Telemann or Vivaldi be as good as Bach?

That said, the mass below comes close to the B Minor Mass of Bach. It has the scale, it’s inventive, it surprises and delights. It was written in 1739, late in Zelenka’s life, and after a serious illness.

“It’s nothing less than a lost masterpiece,” wrote one reviewer, of a CD of the work.

I agree.