Jan Dismas Zelenka Nine responsories for Good Friday

The Bohemian composer Jan Dismas Zelenka was a double bass player and church music composer at the Saxon court of the Elector August the Strong and his son Friedrich August II. In the years after 1721 he composed an extensive repertoire of Catholic church music together with the Kapellmeister Johann David Heinichen. Although most of his works are committed to the modern concert-style of the middle Baroque period, Zelenka also composed very expressive music in the stile antico. A cappella, accompanied only by the basso continuo, it is in the tradition of the music for Holy Week. A profound example are the 27 Nocturne-Responsories for the three matins on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday ZWV 55, from which the present publication contains the Nine Responsories for Good Friday. The four voices of the choir can be amplified by strings and trombones.