Czech Renaissance composers

Kryštof Harant z Polžic a Bezdružic 

(1564 – June 21, 1621) 

He was a Czech nobleman, traveller, humanist, soldier, writer and composer. As a composer he represented the school of Franco-Flemish polyphony in Bohemia. His activity in the revolt of Protestants resulted in his execution by Catholic forces after the Battle of White Mountain during the Thirty Years' War.

Life

He was born at Klenová Castle, near Klatovy, Bohemia. From 1576 he studied singing and counterpoint as a member of a local court band at Innsbruck, at the court of Archduke Ferdinand II, learning 7 languages, discovering his talent for music and the other arts and his interest in history, geography and political science. He returned to Bohemia in 1584 in a vain attempt to get a post at the court of Rudolf II

In 1598 and 1599 he went to the Holy Land as a pilgrim, wishing to visit the Holy Sepulchre with Eva's brother Hermann. He wrote about his experiences in a book entitled Journey from Bohemia to the Holy Land, by way of Venice and the Sea which was published in Prague in 1608. During 1614-15 he travelled to Spain with a diplomatic mission.
In 1618 he converted to Protestantism, returned to Prague, joined the forces arrayed against the Catholics as an artillery officer and fought on the side of the Bohemian states during the uprisings. In 1619 he became the commissioner of the military unit of Boleslav, Kouřim and Hradec Králové, and was involved in a 50,000 strong regiment in the unsuccessful march on imperial Vienna. During the rebellion he bombarded the imperial palace in Vienna—with the emperor inside—which proved to be a bad move.

After the defeat of the Protestant Czechs at the Battle of White Mountain in 1620 by the combined arms of Maximilian and Tilly, the subsequent sack of Prague by Imperial troops, and the assumption of office by the EmperorFerdinand II, Harant withdrew to his castle. He was captured there by Albrecht Wenzel Eusebius von Waldstein, arrested and taken to Prague, unsuccessfully pleading for mercy. As one of the twenty-seven Bohemian noble rebels, he was condemned to death and beheaded on 21 June 1621 by Jan Mydlář in the Old Town Square, Prague, along with all the other leaders of the insurrection.
Music

Music

Harant's music was conservative, and in the style of the Netherlands composers of the previous generation. He used archaic techniques such as cantus firmus mass composition. Seven separate works survived, all sacred vocal compositions (the rest were lost when his property was confiscated as being that of an executed traitor). One of his pieces is a cantus firmus mass based on amadrigal by Marenzio (Missa quinis vocibus super Dolorosi martir) —an amusing musical irony in that it combines a technique which went out of fashion a hundred years before with the music of one of Italy's most popular and progressive composers.

Harant had a reputation as a fine instrumentalist and singer in addition to being a composer. In another interesting irony, one of his Roman Catholic masses was performed in 1620, just before his execution, in a Catholic church in Prague, to great ceremony.

Musical works:

·  Motet Maria Kron, die Engel schon - for five voices, to the German text, 1604

·  Motet Qui confidunt in Domino - for six voices, composed in Jerusalem, 1598

Fragments:

• Dejž tobě Pán Bůh štěstí - Czech wedding song
• Dies est laetitiae - an arrangement of a Christmas song for eight voices
• Motet Psallite Domino in cythara - for five voices
• Motet Qui vult venire post me - for five voices

Jan Vencálek

(1598-????)

was a Bohemian Renaissance-era composer for the lute and voice. Considered one of the masters in arrangement for lutes, Vencálek's compositions were showcased in Prague during the reign of Rudolph II.

Jan Trojan Turnovský

(before 1550 - 1606)

was a Czech Renaissance composer. He became known in the second half of the 1570s. His compositions are included in the most important sources of the Utraquist polyphony music.

Life

Very little is known about his early life. He was born in Turnov, and his father was a baker. The oldest known mention of his life dates from 1564 when he was matriculated at the Charles University in Prague.He was matriculated together with several other composers, Jiří Rychnovský and Pavel Spongopaeus Jistebnický among others. However, it is not entirely clear whether they really studied there. 

As an Utraquist priest he served in Davle (1579), and the same year he was possibly active also in Mladá Boleslav. Later he moved to Netvořice (1581), Benešov (1587), and Sepekov (1595, probably before 1590).

Turnovský was married two times. He married his first wife Kateřina on 11 November 1579 in Mladá Boleslav. In 1604, he — together with his second wife Zuzana Jezberová — bought a house in Benešov. The payment from 1606 is the last mention of his life.

Music

The oldest dated composition originates from 1572, the earliest work was composed in 1602. Fifteen of his forty compositions have been preserved completely. A half of Trojan's compositions is preserved and carefully dated in the collection Benešovský kancionál (Benešov Hymnbook), collected by Václav Kolářovic (died 1596). One Latin ordinarium, two responsories and eleven Czech songs have been completely preserved. In addition to this Trojan composed six Czech and four Latin motets, two song fragments, five Czech plenaria and seven compositions intended for Utraquist religious service. These compositions are preserved in fragments.

Some of his works are preserved in the sources of Czech literary fraternities in Prague, Rokycany, Hradec Králové and Jaroměř.

Trojan's compositions are remarkable for their well-handled polyphony technique and careful work with words in relation to music.