We know very little about Johann Daniel Pucklitz. The composer was born in Gdańsk in 1705 (baptized in St. John’s Church on October 29), where he also died in 1774 (the funeral took place on January 11, also in St. John’s Church). He was the son of the city musician and tower piper (Turmpfeiffer) Daniel Pucklitz and Maria Valentina Pohl, the husband of Rahela and the father of four children. We know nothing about his education, but he probably received his first music lessons from his father, and then from Maximilian Dietrich Freislich (the bandmaster of St. Mary’s Church in the years 1699–1731). From 1731 he was a member-instrumentalist of the St. Mary’s Chapel under the direction of the next bandmaster – Johann Balthasar Christian Freislich, and from 1740 also a musician of the City Council as a tenor and instrumentalist, and from 1752 only as an instrumentalist. Finally, towards the end of his life, from 1759 until his death, he was employed as a cellarman at the Artus Court.

In the years 1745-1758 Pucklitz organized numerous public concerts in the house of the musician of the City Council Chapel Johann Carl Braunitz, in the English House and in his own, at which he presented vocal and instrumental music as well as his own oratorios.

A mysterious fact is the preserved large, mainly sacred, output of Pucklitz, due to the fact that the monopoly on composing in Gdańsk at that time was held by the Bandmaster of St. Mary’s Church. Of the over 80 pieces by Pucklitz known before World War II, manuscripts of 61 compositions have survived to this day (one was written down twice), which the author bequeathed to the Church of St. John in his will together with manuscripts of compositions by other composers. In 1905, the manuscripts were transferred to the collections of the City Library (Danziger Stadtbibliotek), currently the Gdańsk Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences. These are almost exclusively religious pieces: five masses in the missa brevis type, three oratorios and cantatas with German texts, sometimes referred to as motets, concertos or arias. His compositions are characterized by an original musical language through a distinct, expressive narrative and unconventional tone colour. The surprising melodic, harmonic, rhythmic and dynamic progressions are enriched by the sounds of characteristic and rare instruments, such as violets, recorders, oboes d’amore, horns da caccia, bombard (a type of bassoon), glass harp or David’s harp, as well as by the full organ sound, including pedal play. It is worth noting a significant element of this music – due to the above-mentioned features, all solo parts, both vocal and instrumental, require considerable technical and musical skills, as if the composer did not care at all about the level of difficulty, only about the musical idea itself, a consistently carried out idea. This indirectly indicates the high level of musicians working in Gdańsk at that time, with whom Pucklitz collaborated.

Missa ex D♮ et in Terra D# PL-GD Ms. Joh. 226 represents a typical arrangement of the Lutheran mass with musical arrangements of two permanent movements – Kyrie and Gloria. Kyrie classically consists of three parts. The first Kyrie is a four-voice fugue with permanent counterpoint operating with constant chromaticism. It is followed by a 10-bar homophonic and strongly modulating Christe, which then changes into Kyrie based on the musical material of the first section repeated from the dominant key to the end, which in its entirety creates a tense form of fugue with an episode. The musical language of this part goes far beyond the Baroque style and even Mozart would not be ashamed of it. The four-part Gloria based only on the opening verses of this hymn begins with a bass aria accompanied by a clarino, or trumpet, at the tempo Presto Allabreve on the text Et in Terra |pax hominibus bone voluntatis preceded by the Gregorian incipit Gloria in excellsis Deo. The text Laudamus Te, Benedicimus Te, Adoramus Te was developed as a 4-voice, slightly articulated fugato at the tempo Allegro, gradually changing with the change of text into a declamatory homophonic texture at the tempo Moderato and Adagio. The polyphonic texture returns in the lively Allabreve based on the words Glorificamus Te. The compositions ends with Tutti with the text Gratias agimus tibi propter magnam gloriam tuam at the tempo molto Vivace in an almost songlike character.

The four cantatas for the ordinary period after the Epiphany are characterized by a concise form and a small instrumental cast. They all have a similar structure – the initial chorus and the final chorale are separated only by a short recitative and an aria with texts adapted to the content of the liturgical readings from the individual Sundays. However, in each of these short forms Pucklitz manages to present musically several characteristic elements illustrating individual words or content important for the liturgy. Cantata PL_GD MS. Joh. 228 begins with the famous words of the wedding mayor to the groom from Cana of Galilee, when Jesus changed water into wine – Du hast den guten Wein bisher behalten took the form of a simple chanted party song with a marching character. And in the tenor aria from this cantata, in a very sophisticated and at the same time expressive way, the composer showed the fears and questions expressed in the text regarding the passing of time through a characteristic leading motif of the accompaniment based on dissonant progressions of seconds, as if pouring out harmonies, repetitive notes symbolizing the ticking of a clock and ‘questioning’ harmonic suspensions. Pucklitz presents in no less interesting way the content contained in the next cantata PL-GD Ms. Joh. 229 in the first part, in which the words resound: Dein Schade ist verzweifelt böse, und deine Wunden sind unheilbar the composer gives a very slow tempo, in which unresolved harmonies resound strongly signaling the word unheilbar, and short motifs with sharp articulation symbolize the word böse, nb. each syllable is always sung secco. In the soprano aria in the same cantata on the words Verzweifelt böse ist der Schade, der mir von Adam an geerbt! the author actually ‘inherited’ all the characteristic elements of musical rhetoric from the first part (the text is, after all, very similar), but shaped them in a completely different way, additionally on the words mich hat der Aussatz meiner Sünden von Haupt bis auf den Fuß verderbt. The melismatic soprano melody stretches between g” and d’, and the harmony in the instrumental accompaniment meanders, not allowing the soloist to find support. Pucklitz paints the most dramatic and expressive, almost operatic, musical images in the next cantata PL-GD Ms. Joh. 230. In the opening Coro, in order to musically illustrate the words Erwecke dich, Herr! Warum schläfest Du? evoking the scene from the Gospel, when in a boat on Lake Genesareth in the middle of a storm the disciples awaken Jesus in fear and anxiety, the composer harnesses all the stylistic means – the agogic, harmonic, rhythmic, sound and formal ones. Their accumulation is so great that it is difficult to resist the violence of the scene in which a terrible storm is raging, in the instrumental layer arousing fear and anxiety in the apostles personified by the choir, to end in a rather unexpected way moving away and calming down, which is also brilliantly presented in the music. In the same cantata in the tenor aria, the composer presents another display of his unbridled musical imagination. On the words Schlaffen Jesu Augen gleich we almost fall asleep with him at the tempo of Adagio and measured simple harmony, only to wake up to the sound of the vibrating virtuoso melody of the soloist at the tempo of Vivace on the words nur getrost sein Herze wachet. In the second part of the aria, practically every word (underlined): Dieses treue Herze bricht, eh noch seiner Augen Licht bei dem Sturm und Wetter euch, als ein Licht des Trostes lachet finds its exemplification using various musical means. In the last cantata presented on this record with the catalogue number PL_GD Ms. Joh. 231 we have an example – one of many in Pucklitz’s works – of a very unorthodox approach to musical imagery of the text and the extraordinary musical imagination of the composer. In the opening cantata Coro, based on the short text Herr, hast Du nicht guten Samen auf Deinen Acker gesäet? Woher hat er denn das Unkraut? the composer first shows the sowing of the seed through the incessant motif of repetitive semiquavers in a triplet movement, which begins with a broad musical gesture based on a scale spanning over two and a half octaves, in order to literally present musical ‘weeds’ in the verse about weeds, such as non-standardly achieved and unresolved harmonies, shifts of entire chords contrary to the rules of counterpoint, and finally a surprising ending that cannot ‘decide’ on the minor or major mode. These essentially very simple musical means produce an extremely colourful and clear effect, while at the same time provoking amusement. The author continues this idea in the alto aria, in the first part with the text Die Kirche Christi ist ein Garten, wo Rosen, doch auch Dorne sind, he contrasts the beautiful and elegant music symbolizing roses in the church with thorns, which he depicts not only in the standard staccato articulation, but also through rhythmic shifts of the individual voices in relation to each other in this articulation, achieving an almost physically perceptible effect of a delicate prick. In the second part of this aria, once again almost every word of the text (underlined) in wo gut’ und foule Bäume stehen, wo man bei Feigen saure Schlehen und Herlinge bei Trauben find’t receives its musical exemplification through the use of various harmonic, articulatory, melodic and formal means.

The music of Johann Daniel Pucklitz constantly surprises, including us as the performers. Although he uses the musical language characteristic of the baroque, sentimental, galant and rococo styles, he does it in a truly original way, which is very recognizable. The compositions presented on this album will certainly find interest in the contemporary audience, and encourage us to further explore the secrets of his compositional craft, which we will present in the next recordings.