Thank you, Mr. Ness, for weighing in and helping (along with Roman) to clear away some of the confusion surrounding this interesting - and apparently quite fine - composer, Bartolomiej Pekiel.
Ned On Apr 7, 2012, at 1:35 PM, A. J. Ness wrote: > We have a coincidence here, so I'll expand on what Roman and Ned have > written, and combine the subjects of two recent postings here: "Re: Ms > 4022" and "Bartolomiej Pekiel." The topics have much in common, since > Ms 4022 is the one Roman calls "The Danzig Manuscript," with pieces > sometimes erroneously attributed to Pekiel. > > > > Ms 4022 now in Berlin was one of two lute manuscripts in the > Stadtbibliothek in Danzig (Gdansk) before WW_II (see the stamp at the > bottom of the first page). (The other is Ms 4021.) They were long > reported to have been destroyed during the war. Recently Ms 4022 (and > Ms 4021?) turned up in a small archive in Germany, perhaps brought > there when Germans were expelled from Danzig at the end of the war. > Recently they seem to have been given over to the Staatsbibliothek zu > Berlin, retaining their old call numbers. > > > > Ms. 4022 probably dates from the first or second decade of the 17th > century, and has an east European repertory, as some of you have > noticed, including German, French, Italian and English works. Some > titles are familiar, e.g, La Monica, Pavan d'Espagna, Heydruken Tanz, > Baletto Rutteno (!), Allemande d'Amour, Rolandt, Spagnoletta, Parlament > of Englandt, Duda, (a bagpipes piece) and intabulations of German > secular and sacred Lieder (many by Hans Leo Hassler). The named > composers are familiar: Ballard, V.B. (Bakfark?), Perrichon, Piccinini, > Nani di Milano, Gaultier, Mercure, et al. (Some titles and > attributions were trimmed away during binding.) > > The pieces on folios 20-32 (etc.) have obtained some notoriety, so to > speak. And the current New Grove online perpetuates the confusion. > Some 40 lute dances are identified solely with the initials "B.P." in > the margin. To some this suggested Bartolomeij Pekiel (d. ca. 1670), a > composer little known in the west. Polish musicians consider Pekiel > one of the truly "great" Polish composers of the early baroque, a well > deserved reputation, judging from the quality of his music. He > specialized almost entirely in sacred music, written in the polychoral > Venetian concertante style of composers like the Gabrielis: works for > large choral, solo and instrumental forces. A nice selection of his > sacred music is Polish Baroque: Pekiel and Contemporaries with the > Ensemble Euopeen Wm. Byrd, Graham O'Reilly, cond. (Ambronay CD #010). > > > > Well, the "B.P." attribution stuck to Pekiel, and accordingly the > pieces made their way into a critical series of "monuments" of Polish > music, > > Maria Szczepanska, ed., Bartolomiej Pekiel: 40 utworow na lutniea > [="Bart. Pekiel: 40 pieces for lute"], in Wydawnicto Dawnej Muzuki > Polskej, vol. 30. [Krakow]: Polskie wydawnictwo muzyczne, 1955. > > I own Stanley Buetens's well worn personal copy of this publication. > Stanley undoubtedly drew from it for the anthology from which Ned made > his nice recording. [1]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v'X65jfhUcg > > > > There are a number of problems with the attribution. Pekiel began > working as a professional in 1631, which suggests a birth date around > 1610. In that case he would have been a child when the pieces were > copied into the Danzig Manuscript. Accordingly the Pekiel lute edition > was withdrawn by the publishers and vol. 30 was replaced with what is > surely the correct resolution of B.P., Polish Dance, "Baletto > Polacco": > > Zofia Steszewska, ed., Tance polskie z Tabulatury gdanskiej (I po. XVII > w.): na lutnie. Ibid., 1965. > > It is nice to have Ms 4022 available on line. The music is worthy of > your attention. > > [2]http://digital.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/dms/werkansicht/?PPN=PPN61 > 8787879&PHYSID=PHYS_0001 > > > > AJN > > > > -- > > References > > 1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v%C2%B4X65jfhUcg > 2. > http://digital.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/dms/werkansicht/?PPN=PPN618787879&PHYSID=PHYS_0001 > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
