Bartłomiej Pękiel

Featuring

Alice Gribbin
Caroline Trevor
Charlotte Mobbs
Eamonn Dougan
Jeremy Budd
Jimmy Holliday

Kim Porter
Matthew Long
Stuart Young
Nicholas Mulroy
The Sixteen
Bartłomiej Pękiel

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Compositional Technique

In his stile moderno works, Pękiel broke from Renaissance counterpoint, using more dissonant, expressive styles and the concertato technique to mix voices and instruments.

Composer Biography

Bartłomiej Pękiel was the first non-Italian musician to become the royal maestro di cappella (chapel master) in Poland, setting a benchmark for native Polish musicians.

Compositional Technique

Pękiel's works show connections to eminent composers like Palestrina (polyphonic motets), Monteverdi (expressive Dulcis amor Jesu), and Carissimi (sacred dialogue Audite mortales).

Composer Biography

Pękiel served as organist, then vice chapel master, and finally chapel master for the Polish Vasas in Warsaw, and later as chapel master at Wawel Cathedral in Kraków.

Compositional Technique

Pękiel's religious music exhibits stylistic dualism, featuring both stile antico (Renaissance polyphony) and stile moderno (Italian religious music with concertato technique).

Critical Reception

Pękiel's Audite mortales was so reminiscent of Giacomo Carissimi's style that a copyist once attributed it to Carissimi, a testament to Pękiel's achievement.

Historical Context

In the 17th century, Poland's King Sigismund III Vasa, a strong supporter of the Counter-Reformation, recruited leading Italian composers to his court in Warsaw and Kraków.