Biography
The data we have about the life and activity of Ludwik Maader, conductor of the Jasna Góra ensemble from 1784 to 1798, is excep- tionally scarce. He came to the Pauline con- vent as a lay musician from an ensemble in Dub, near Olomuniec in Moravia, where he worked from 1777 to 1783. His departure from Jasna Góra could have been dictated by a difficult political situation, deteriorating economic conditions at the convent, and reduction in the conductor’s pay. As Kapel- lmeister, Maader took great care to enlarge and update the ensemble's repertoire, copy- ing works of foreign as well as Polish artists (among the latter: Engel, Or3owski and ̄ebrowski). His works, in turn, ended up in the repertoire of ensembles in Gidle and Gostyñ. Maader’s oeuvre, maintained in Classical style, shows him to be an artist of very good compositional technique, decisively distinguishing himself in the Jasna Góra ensemble of the end of the 18th century. Some of the works require great technical ability on the part of performers; other – simpler – ones are rather of utilitarian char- acter. In the Jasna Góra archives, 19 of Maader’s works remain to this day, which are arrangements of liturgical texts (among others, the mass and the litany) as well as non- liturgical, some, in the Polish language (e.g. the mazurka Tusz1c pasterze [While Shepherds Waited]).
The worship composition Laudate Dominum, maintained in the key of F major, is a mass work intended for the offertory. Maader, as Gotschalk later did, treated this composition as the joyful, enthusiastic song of the faithful worshiping God. Four wind instruments (oboes and horns) represent a coloristic complement to the more melodically-developed string parts. The chordal choral texture, the har- monic and melodic simplicity of the compo- sition, interplays with the fanfare motifs.
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The work as a whole was framed in a da capo form, in which the second movement (Andante) is comprised by a tenor solo with two violins.
The Litany of Our Lady of Loretto in D is one of several works written by Maader to the text of this prayer. Despite the fact that in the ensemble performing this work, the composer included two oboes and two trumpets, the Litany has the character rather of chamber music, for the wind instru- ments only appear in the outer movements of the sixteen-part formal structure. The foundation for performance is created by four vocal parts, which are utilized as a full choir in the first movement (Kyrie eleison) and the sixth (Agnus Dei), and as a refrain in the fifth movement (Regina Angelorum). In the middle segments of the composition (Sancta Maria, Rosa mystica, Salus infor- morum and Regina Angelorum), the indivi- dual solo voices present themselves in an aria-like manner (with particular virtuosity in the bass solo of the fifth movement), for which a harmonic background or virtuosic accompaniment is created by two violins. The lightness of the ensemble sound, as well as the uncomplicated, consonant har- mony, give the work a climate of a serene, lyric prayer.
Maader left behind two arrangements of the mass for the dead at Jasna Góra. The composition being presented during today's concert is a work more expansive in terms of both form and scoring, which is com- prised – apart from the four voice parts – of two violins, two horns and a violin con- certante, playing solo in the Benedictus. The Requiem is divided into ten segments of contrasting tempo, meter and scoring. Slow tempi (Adagio, Andante) predominate, though a certain invigoration is introduced by the more dramatic passages, in particu- lar the Dies irae. In other fragments of the Requiem, as well, the composer attempted to emphasize the mood of the text with the music. Particularly noteworthy is the power of sound and the pathos in the Domine Jesu Christe, Rex gloriae segment, as well as the quasi-lullaby rhythmic lan- guage of the penultimate segment Lux aeterna luceat eis.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.