Johann Joseph Ignaz Brentner
Johann Joseph Ignaz Brentner (3 November 1689, Dobřany – 28 June 1742, Dobřany) entered into the music history of the Czech Lands mainly through four collections, which appeared in print in Prague from 1716 to 1720. The sacred arias, choral offertories, and instrumental concertos contained in them reflect period stylistic influences of Italian music, and together with the works preserved in manuscript, they provide a valuable glimpse of the music being composed at that time in Bohemia. In their day, Brentner’s compositions were quite widely disseminated, and they were known in places as far away as Jesuit missions in what is now Bolivia.
Offertoria solenniora
ed. Václav Kapsa
The Offertoria solenniora op. 2 of 1717 became the most widespread of Brentner’s printed collections. These pieces for four voices, two violins and basso continuo composed in various styles were very popular, being even played in the Jesuit missions in South America. Among the works by Brentner surviving in manuscript, the collection of pieces composed to the texts of the officium of St. Teresa of Ávila is quite remarkable. It seems to have originally been intended for the Carmelites in Prague. The present edition includes six of these as well as three other offertories surviving uniquely in the musical collections of Benedictine abbeys of Lambach, Göttweig and Kremsmünster. The volume coming out 300 years after the first publishing of Brentner’s second opus brings to light a not-so-well-known chapter in the history of Prague music print and provides insight into the local music production during the High Baroque era.
