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.
Sacred Arias I
ed. Václav Kapsa
The edition presents Brentner’s first collection published under the title Harmonica duodecatomeria ecclesiastica, op. 1, dated 1716 in Prague. This involves twelve arias for soprano or alto with instrumental accompaniment calling for varying forces. The volume also contains three Brentner arias from manuscript sources, which were composed to texts that are the same as or similar to texts of arias in the first collection.
