BUTNER, Crato (1616-1679) - Te Deum Laudamus (1662)

Crato Bütner (1616-1679) - TE DEUM LAUDAMUS: ... 12. Vocibus & 8. Instrumentis binisq; Tubis & Tympano, | unà cum | BASSO CONTINUO PRO ORGANO ... | ANNO M DC LXII. (1662)

Performers: Cappella Gedanensis; Alina Kowalska-Pinczak (Conductor)

Painting: Neapolitan school (18th century) - The Pool of Bethesda

Further info: Te Deum Laudamus

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Crato (Cratone) Bütner [Büthner, Bytner, Buthnerus et al.]

(Gotha or Sonneberg, 1616 - Danzig, 1679)

German composer and organist. Nothing is know of his early years. From 1650 he was organist of St Saviour, on the outskirts of Danzig. He soon became Kantor and director of music at St Catherine; according to Hermann Rauschning he was appointed in 1652, though he still described himself as organist of St Saviour in publications up to 1654. In both parishes he was required to teach in schools, and as director of music at St Catherine he could rely on the services on average of eight instrumentalists and six singers. It was to his directorship that the church owed its prominent position in the musical life of Danzig. Evidence of Bütner's activities and of the extensive and varied cultivation of music in the Danzig of his day was afforded by a collection of printed music, consisting of some 150 pieces, both instrumental and vocal, by Italian, Polish and German composers and including over 50 sacred vocal works by Bütner himself. His numerous surviving works are very varied both in their forms and in the forces for which they are scored, some of the latter being substantial. Most of them are Lutheran settings of German words which introduced the sacred concerto to Danzig. Typical features of his music include short-winded motivic writing, simple harmony, a quick succession of short, compressed sections and the setting off against each other of homophonic groups of voices. The style of his music, even if it is somewhat inexpressive, was something quite new in Danzig.

Sig. Matouš (18th Century) - Parthia ex Dis

Sig. Matouš (18th Century) - Parthia ex Dis

Performers: Prague Mozart Trio

Drawing: George Johann Scharf (1788-1860) - Street musicians

Further info: Musique en Trio pour Instruments a Vent

JANIEWICZ, Feliks (1762-1848) - Concerto à Violon Principal (1804)

Feliks Janiewicz (1762-1848) - Cinquième concerto (e-moll) à violon principal, deux violons, deux alto,

basse, flûte, deux bassons, deux hautbois et deux cors (1804)

Performers: Zbigniew Pilch (violin); Musicae Antiquae Collegium Varsoviense; Kai Bumann (1961-2022, conductor)

Painting: Józef Marszewski (1827-1883) - Vilnius viewed from Tauras Hill (1872)

Further info: Concertos for violin and orchestra

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Feliks (Felice, Felix) (Benjamin) Janiewicz [Yaniewicz, Jennewitz, Yarnold]

(Vilnia, 1762 - Edinburgh, 21 May 1848)

Polish violinist and composer. He probably received his initial training in Warsaw, becoming a musician in the court orchestra of King Stanisław August in 1777. In 1784 he decided to move to Vienna, where he performed at various concerts for several years, and in 1787 he made his debut at the Concerts spirituels in Paris. There he was also employed in the orchestra of the duc d’Orléans. In 1792 he went to London, where he appeared as violinist and composer, first at private concerts and soon afterwards in public, mostly at Salomon’s concerts. His next London appearances were apparently not until 1794. He also gave concerts in other English cities, in Scotland and Ireland. In 1800 he married Miss Eliza Breeze of Liverpool, where in 1801 he opened a 'Music, Musical Instrument Warehouse', which traded until 1829; he also had a music shop in London, 1810-12. In 1815 he moved to Edinburgh. He led the orchestra in the first Edinburgh Festival in the same year and in subsequent festivals (1819, 1824), and was an active teacher and organizer of musical life. In February 1829 he gave his last public concert. As a composer, his music is largely for his own instrument and consists of five violin concertos and six trios for two violins and cello. The style is reminiscent of Giovanni Battista Viotti. He left two talented daughters, Felicia Janiewicz, a pianist, and Paulina Janiewicz, a harpist.

DIEUPART, Charles (1676-1751) - Suitte de Clavessin (1701)

Charles Dieupart (1676-1751) - Suitte (II) de Clavessin des 'Six suittes de clavessin divisées en ouvertures, allemandes, courantes, sarabandes, gavottes, menuets, rondeaux & gigues composées & mises

... dédiées à Madame la Comtesse de Sandwich' (1701)

Performers: Luc Beauséjour (harpsichord); Hervé Niquet (harpsichord)

Painting: German School (18th century) - Portrait of Nun or collegiate lady

Further info: Musique Française À Deux Clavecins

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Charles (François) Dieupart [Diepart]

 (Paris, 10 August 1676 - Saint-Germain-sur-École, 26 January 1751)

French harpsichordist, violinist and composer. Nothing is known of his early years. Son of Nicolas Dieupart (?-1700), an ordinary musician to Louis XIV's Grande Ecurie, at some point, he befriended Elizabeth Wilmot of Rochester, countess of Sandwich, and Jacques Paisible who were visiting James II of England in his exile at Saint-germain-en-Laye near Paris. He is first heard of in England in an advertisement for a concert at Drury Lane, London, on 11 February 1703, when he accompanied Gasparo Visconti in some of Arcangello Corelli’s sonatas. According to John Hawkins, he played the harpsichord and Nicola Francesco Haym the cello in this and Giovanni Bononcini’s 'Il trionfo di Camilla' (1706), and he wrote an overture and chaconne for Peter Anthony Motteux’s pasticcio 'Thomyris' (1707). He was evidently a prominent member of the Drury Lane musical establishment. In the winter of 1707-1708 he was among those involved in setting up a rival operatic project at the Queen’s Theatre in the Haymarket, London, and wrote and arranged music for its first production, Motteux’s pasticcio 'Love’s Triumph' (1708); Motteux wrote in the preface that any success ‘will owe not a little to Mr Dieupart, for his share in the Contrivance of the Entertainments and his supplying what Recitative and other Music was necessary’. According to Hawkins, Dieupart played continuo with Haym in Alessandro Scarlatti’s 'Pyrrhus and Demetrius' (1708), and he played in the Haymarket orchestra until about 17 November 1710, when he was apparently dropped. He did not entirely retire from concert life: concertos by him were performed at Drury Lane for ‘Two Hautboys and Two Flutes’ (14 March 1722), ‘Little Flute’ (11 May 1722), ‘Hautboys, Flutes and Violins’ (15 May 1723), as well as a trumpet sonata (14 May 1726). Hawkins wrote that Dieupart ‘grew negligent’ towards the end of his life, ‘and frequented concerts performed in ale-houses, in obscure parts of the town, and distinguished himself not more there, than he would have done in an assembly of the best judges, by his neat and elegant manner of playing the solos of Corelli’. His last known appearance was in Hampstead on 11 September 1724, when he played ‘Violin Concertino’ and was billed as ‘Capt Dupar, Scholar to the late celebrated Signor Corelli, and late Musick Master to his present Highness the Prince of Orange’.

BELISSEN, Laurent (1693-1762) - Laudate Pueri

Laurent Belissen (1693-1762) - Laudate Pueri | Motet a grand choeur et Simp. e | Par M.r. Belissen. | Maitre de Musique du Concert de Marseille | & de L'abbaye de Saint Victor de la Meme Ville

Performers: Les Festes D'Orphée; Guy Laurent (conductor)

Painting: Gérard de Lairesse (1641-1711) - The Marriage Feast of Peleus and Thetis

Further info: Grands Motets en Provence

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Laurent Belissen [Bellissen, Bellissens]

(Aix-en-Provence, 8 Aug 1693 - Marseilles, 15 July 1762)

French composer. His home was near the Cathedral of St Sauveur in Aix; although there is no evidence that he was admitted to the choir school, he was probably one of the last composers to study with Guillaume Poitevin, maître de musique there. By 1722 Belissen was in Marseilles, where he made his career. He followed Blanchard as maître de musique at the Abbey of St Victor, and held this position for the rest of his life, also directing the Académie de Concerts in Marseilles. Many of Belissen's works are lost or in uncatalogued collections. The extant works, principally grands motets, reveal a style markedly different from the Versailles motets of Lalande, Campra and Mondonville. Belissen preferred a four-voice texture to the five-voice one popular with the Versailles composers. His choral style combines French and Italian characteristics: his choral fugues are highly developed and repeat the text continuously in the Italian manner. His orchestral treatment in the motets also reflects Italian practices, with the use of ritornello passages as an important articulatory device.