A. This is discussed at length in Janice Stockigt's book. After Zelenka's death, much of his music was "kept under lock and key" by the Dresden court, and the reasons for this are not clear. Telemann (1681-1767) is known to have written of ZWV 55 (Responsoria) being guarded jealously "as something very rare" (a more complete translation is given below). Copies of certain works (which had presumably been given away while Zelenka was alive) were made after his death and ended up in different parts of Germany and Czechoslovakia. There were even a few performances in the 1800s. Perhaps one of the strongest reasons for the obscurity of Zelenka's music was that Catholic liturgical music had no place in a Lutheran society.

Q. How many composers of his time did Zelenka actually meet?

A. Perhaps it is more relevant to ask which composers he didn't meet! Between 1716 and 1719, he studied under Fux (1650-1741) in Vienna and had Quantz (1697-1773) as his student. Zelenka would also have met Antonio Caldara (1670-1736) in Vienna. He worked alongside Heinichen (1683-1729) in Dresden, (the Kapellmeister whom Zelenka stood in for when his health was failing). Zelenka was friendly with J.G. Pisendel (1687-1755), who was a highly esteemed violinist in the same orchestra. It is not clear whether Zelenka ever visited Italy, but his close colleague Pisendel certainly studied under Vivaldi (1675-1741). Zelenka returned from Vienna in February 1719, and was presumably in Dresden to meet Händel (1685-1759) and Telemann (1681-1767) in the same year, when there was a month-long festival to celebrate the marriage of August, successor to the throne, to the Hapsburg emperor's daughter Maria Josepha (see legend to photograph below). The Venetian A. Lotti (1667-1740), having spent 2 years with his Italian opera group in Dresden, was also present at the festival. G.A. Ristori (1692-1753), much of whose music is still missing from Dresden, worked alongside Zelenka as Court organist and composer for many years, and they probably influenced each other.

Zelenka must also have known all the choristers and musicians who passed through the Catholic Court Church of Dresden. He must also have met J.F. Fasch (1688-1758), who spent almost two years in Dresden, from late 1726 to c.1728. Zelenka worked alongside Hasse (1699-1783) during the 1730s, a man 20 years his junior who had direct experience of Italian opera and who influenced Zelenka's style during that period. J.S. Bach (1685-1750) was almost certainly a regular visitor to Dresden during the 1730s, as his son (W.F. Bach (1710-1784)) was organist at St. Sophia's Church.

Q. What did J.S. Bach think of Zelenka's music?

A. We know from a letter sent from Bach's son (C.P.E. Bach (1714-1788)) to J.N. Forkel dated 13th January 1775 (30 years after Zelenka's death), that J.S. Bach held the music of Zelenka (and of nine others) in high esteem. It is also stated that he had known Zelenka personally.

Q. The present Hofkapelle (Catholic cathedral) was completed in 1755. Where was the original Catholic Court Church in which Zelenka worked?

A. The building (from the 1660s) was originally a theatre joined on to the court buildings and was converted to a church in 1707-1709. The church is well portrayed, although only partially, in Bellotto's picture of the Zwinger (see opposite; click here to view a wider detail of the painting and compare it with photograph of the Zwinger below). Interestingly, the direction of the seating was reversed (to face east) after the conversion so that the wider west- (originally, stage-) end became the main entrance. The organ gallery with its large end-window (which can be seen opposite) was located above the entrance hall at the west end, and accommodated most of the orchestra. The music thus came from the back of the church, not the front.

The building was re-converted in 1755 when the new cathedral was finished, was given a Classicistic façade in 1802 and was demolished in 1888-1889 to make way for the tramway which still runs past the court buildings. The Catholic Court Church building was actually used as a library, so Zelenka's manuscripts remained inside it during most of the 1800s.

The "Zwinger", an ensemble of pavilions and galleries in Saxon baroque style which was completed for the wedding festivities of 1719. Behind is the reconstructed Taschenbergpalais/Kempinski Hotel, with Kleinebrüdergasse (where Zelenka died) still situated to the right of it. The original Catholic Court Church was located some distance behind the pavilion on the left (roughly in line with the fountain).

Q. Did Zelenka ever marry or have children?

A. No. Apart from that, we know almost nothing about his private life.

Q. Did anyone try to publish Zelenka's works after his death?

A. Johann Georg Pisendel copied Zelenka's 27 Responsoria pro hebdomada sancta (ZWV 55) and tried to convince Telemann to publish them in 1749. Telemann never got around to this, or failed to do it for some other reason, but wrote on the copy "Because of its particular effort, this work deserves an admirer who can afford at least 100 thalers to have it in his possession. Of it, there are only three or four single pieces known [...]. The complete manuscript, however, is locked up at the Dresden court as something very rare, from which a good friend of the late composer [Pisendel] made this immaculate copy."

Q. It has been written by at least one scholar from the 1800s (Fürstenau) that Zelenka was dissatisfied and subject to melancholy. Is this true, and did it influence his music?

A. There are no personal letters which might have given us a clue as to his true personality. The obsequious petitions to his employer may give this impression, but they may only have been the result of sheer financial frustration. His music, however, shows no sign of bitterness, and in fact much of it portrays happiness, e.g. many of the movements from the late Masses (ZWV 17 - ZWV 21) which were written after the time that Zelenka was said to be aggrieved by his failure to secure the post of Kapellmeister. Some of his music even portrays real fun (e.g. parts of the works for orchestra, ZWV 182 - ZWV 190). As with all great composers, his music could, of course, be contemplative.

Q. Where was Zelenka born?

A. He was a Bohemian, and was born in Loudovice in 1679. This village is now in the Czech Republic and is called Lounovice pod Blanikem ("pod Blanikem" meaning "under Mount Blanik"). It is south-east of Prague. Zelenka was the oldest of eight children. His father was the local schoolmaster, which meant that he also played the organ in the village church. There is a plaque commemorating Zelenka's birth mounted on a stone in the village.

Q. Is there a memorial to Zelenka in Dresden?

A. There is a plaque which was unveiled in 1995 (see opposite). This is fixed to the rear wall of Kempinski Hotel (which stands on the site of Taschenbergpalais; see photograph of the Zwinger above), only one block south of the court buildings. In English, it reads "To the memory of Jan Dismas Zelenka 1679-1745. Royal court musician and church composer. His last dwelling house was in Kleinebrüdergasse."

Q. Where was Zelenka buried?

A. He was buried in the Catholic cemetery which is located about 1.2 km west of the Zwinger. There was no trace left of Zelenka's grave even in the early 20th century. The grave of Carl Maria von Weber (died 1826) can be found at the far end of the cemetery.

Q. Did Zelenka ever write music for the keyboard?

A. Not as far as we know. Zelenka was primarily a violone player ("contrabassist"). Fortunately, he kept an inventory of his own compositions and those of others that were available as scores in Dresden. It is possible that only those of his own works he considered to be mature were listed. This source shows no keyboard music. There does not appear to have been a strong tradition of composing music for the keyboard in Dresden. Zelenka's working life before he left Prague for Dresden (at about thirty years of age) is largely unknown. It is not impossible that he composed music for the cembalo (or organ) during that period.

Q. Are any of Zelenka's works the subject of controversy?

A. Zelenka scholars seem to agree that Zelenka's Requiem in C minor (ZWV 45) may have been written by someone else, or at least "worked on" by someone else. This work is not mentioned in Zelenka's Inventory and there was no autograph score in Dresden. The earliest dated material (from Strahov Monastery in the Czech Republic) states "Prag 1763". The work does not resemble Zelenka's final masses. According to one scholar, Zelenka's usual painstaking precision in the strict matching of vocal phrasing and music is not in evidence in the copies that have survived.

Interestingly, the Requiem in C minor appears to consist partly of another composition (Dies Irae solenne, also in C minor). This was not originally considered to be an integral part of the Requiem, although the two had presumably been used at the monastery to complement each other. The latter was written for a group of instruments to include violas, whereas there are no violas specified in the Requiem. The galant style is quite evident in Tuba mirum. The first section of Dies Irae solenne, the Dies Irae (with chorus), is not characteristic of J.D. Zelenka.

Two recordings have been made of the integrated Requiem in C minor (ZWV 45), some of the tempos in the one reading (on Panton) being appreciably quicker than in the other (on Claves). Few people would deny the beauty of this music. In the Panton notes, it is described as being "profoundly pensive".

Q. Which earlier composers influenced Zelenka's work?

A. There are many composers listed in the Inventarium. The music of Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643) certainly influenced Zelenka, as he adapted some of Frescobaldi's works for his own use. The long list from the Inventarium includes Giuseppe Antonio Vicenzo Aldrovandini (1672/3-1707), Gregorio Allegri (1582-1652), Attilio Ariosti (1666-1729), Orazio Benevoli (1605-1672), Domenico Gabrielli (1651-1690), Cristóbal Morales (c. 1500-1553), Luca Marenzio (1553-1599), Costanzo Porta (1528/9-1601) and Johann Rosenmüller (c. 1619-1684).

Q. Where are Zelenka's autograph manuscripts stored?

A. They are stored in the new premises of the Sächsische Landsbibliothek - Staats und Universitetsbibliothek (the Saxon State and University Library, Dresden). Before 2002, they were stored in the previous State Library building at another location in Dresden, and before that they were located in the original Catholic Court Church which was demolished in the late 1890s (see above).