Jan Dismas Zelenka: Missa paschalis & Litaniae Omnium Sanctorum

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These two large-scale works by Zelenka were composed at key moments of his life. Missa Paschalis (ZWV 7) comes from the year 1726 when he appears to have begun to aspire to a position at the Dresden court as a composer rather than one of performer. Litaniae Omnium Sanctorum (ZWV 53) was almost certainly written in 1735 soon after this ambition had been realised. Moreover, these two works are among the many sources that go a long way towards negating the popular impression that Zelenka’s music was unappreciated during his lifetime and never heard after his death. On the contrary, sources kept outside Dresden of both Missa Paschalis and Litaniae Omnium Sanctorum reveal that Zelenka’s music lived on into the nineteenth century – well after his death.  Missa Paschalis is a relatively early example from Zelenka of a complete solemn mass. Interestingly, examination of the autograph score shows that Zelenka re-worked final sections of Missa Paschalis. It is clear that he remodeled the conclusion of the ‘Osanna’ and he inserted the beautiful ‘Benedictus’ setting for solo soprano. During the eighteenth century Zelenka’s Missa Paschalis was among the most widely circulated of his masses. The Jesuit Diarium from Dresden provides a very strong hint about the origins of Zelenka’s Litaniae Omnium Sanctorum. His musical setting of this extensive text is the only example of the oldest of all litanies held among the hundreds of sacred compositions listed in the Catalogo of Dresden royal chapel’s music collection when it was assembled in 1765. To several compositional mannerisms that belong to him alone (these are sometimes referred to as ‘Zelenkisms’), new developments took place in the early 1730s. These are heard in those glorious solo and ensemble arias, prodigious use of varied articulations, a wide range of dynamics, and obligatory ornaments written into the uppermost orchestral and solo vocal parts. Zelenka’s autograph score of Litaniae Omnium Sanctorum is today missing from Dresden. Fortunately, nineteenth-century copies of Litaniae Omnium Sanctorum exist in Prague. One example is kept today in the archive of the Prague Conservatory. Another nineteenth-century source of this work from circa 1850 is held today in the Historical Department of the Museum of Czech Music.