About Johann Daniel Pucklitz and his music

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.

The five cantatas by Johann Daniel Pucklitz, which we present during the second concert, were composed for the period between Epiphany and Lent, as well as for the time of penitence. Pre-Lent — from the Latin Tempus Septuagesimæ, i.e. the ‘time of the seventieth’ — is a liturgical season in the Catholic Church and in some Protestant denominations, such as Lutheranism. It includes Septuagesima Sunday (Dominica Septuagesimae), Sexagesima Sunday (Dominica Sexagesimae), and Quinquagesima Sunday (Dominica Quinquagesimae). These Sundays fall, respectively, in the seventh, sixth, and fifth decades of days before Easter Sunday, and the seventy-day period alludes directly to the seventy years of the Babylonian captivity.

The text of the cantata Nimm was dein ist PL-GD Ms Joh. 243 for Septuagesima Sunday refers to the Gospel parable of the vineyard owner and the workers who disagree with equal payment for those who worked all day and those who worked only one hour. The text calls for reconciliation with God’s will, for such acceptance is man’s greatest treasure. Right from the very beginning of the cantata, the composer indicates the figure of Jesus or God the Father, symbolized by the bass voice. Thus, instead of beginning in the traditional choral manner, he opens with a solo aria. In the second bass aria, through the form of a dance-like siciliana, he evokes a pastoral atmosphere symbolizing the text: ‘Contentment lays the soul upon the bed of rosy delight…’

The second cantata, Wohl dem, der mit Lust PL-GD Ms Joh. 232, was written for Sexagesima Sunday and bears the additional title von dem rechten Gebrauch des Wortes Gottes – ‘On the proper use of God’s Word.’ Although built of six movements, its dimensions do not exceed the framework of a standard Lutheran church service. It opens with a beautiful four-part setting of a Protestant chorale, whose text praises the one who ‘…with joy and willingness follows the law of the Most High…’ In the subsequent recitative and fugato, however, the text admonishes those who merely hear but do not act. Pucklitz presents the text in a refined way: ‘Be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.’ He uses the form of a fugato, i.e. imitation following the dux (leader, the Lord). At the same time, he shapes the subject so that its ending is harmonically open, suggesting uncertainty about the correctness of the path pursued by the following voice. Only when all voices repeat the subject in unison, and then in nota contra notam technique, does the harmony clarify. This musical commentary shows that we must walk the path together in order to reach the goal. In the alto aria to the words ‘Erase the shameful stains revealed by God’s Word. The blood of Christ is good for blotting them out…,’ Pucklitz’s compositional mastery is fully displayed. Virtually every word is musically illustrated, and a full description of these devices would far exceed the scope of this essay. Suffice it to say that the use of the oboe obbligato in an alto aria normally serves to create a gentle, lyrical atmosphere; here, however, the melodic intricacies and rhythmic diversity introduce rather unease and a peculiar ‘dirt,’ which the alto voice is tasked with ‘washing away.’

The next two cantatas were composed for the last Sunday of Pre-Lent – Quinquagesima Sunday (not to be confused with Pentecost after Easter, i.e. the Feast of the Descent of the Holy Spirit), called Estomihi after the Latin words of Psalm 71: ‘Esto mihi Deum protectorem…’ i.e. ‘Be to me a rock of refuge, O God…’ Both are examples of the highly varied and unconventional way in which Pucklitz approached the text and recurring liturgical occasions, each time enriching them with a completely different musical image. 

The first cantata for Estomihi Sunday – Höchster Priester der du dich PL-GD Ms Joh. 242, subtitled Die Aufopferung Sein Selbst / ‘On the sacrifice of oneself,’ has a very different, highly intimate character. The ensemble is distinctive: there are no violins, but two violas, two oboes d’amore, and two transverse flutes appear, even a trumpet in E, with the instruction that all are to play with mutes for most of the time. In the vocal parts, the scoring is three-voiced – the alto is absent. Yet amid this chamber-like, pastel soundscape, a tenor aria bursts forth to the words: ‘Kill evil desires, boldly apply the knife! Let sins find no favor with you. Without mercy! They must be destroyed.’ Indeed, the music becomes uncompromising, chiefly through contrasting rhythms realized on various levels by the instruments, including a brilliantly virtuosic traverso part.

The form of the second of these cantatas already suggests something new in its title – Concerto Befiehl dem Herrn deine Wege PL-GD Ms Joh. 244. Indeed, not only is the form expanded, but the instrumentation also provides fresh color: in addition to the standard violins, viola, and basso continuo (with violoncello obbligato), there appears an unusual instrument – the violino piccolo, a small violin tuned a third higher than the standard one. This does not drastically change the kind of sound but profoundly alters the ensemble’s timbre; moreover, the part written for it is rather virtuosic. The first movement is in two parts: first, a stately instrumental symphony with a solo violin part, followed by a rapid allabreve fugue with a subject set unusually for its time to the words: ‘Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him – He Himself will act.’ The subject not only employs chromaticism as coloring but also as modulation, and right at the outset of this ‘way of the cross,’ without a clear direction in detail yet with a well-drawn overall contour, it leaps by a major seventh… It is as if one were blindfolded and told to leap into an abyss, then led through the meanders of life. Thus, a single voice can hardly determine its course on its own. But… when all follow the subject strictly, as is natural in a fugue, this complex structure gradually acquires clear harmonic shape, and the direction of its development becomes ever more evident. This is one of the most extraordinary and subtle musical portrayals of divine action in human life to be found in European Baroque music. Also, the middle aria of this cantata is structured in an unusual way: the solo tenor is set against three other voices singing a harmonized chorale on the melody Jesu, meine Freude, while in the instrumental parts, the duet of violins and cello is contrasted with the rest of the instruments, who provide detailed, sometimes even onomatopoeic, commentary on the text of successive verses of the chorale.

The last of the cantatas presented in the concert has a penitential character, but its origin lay in Pucklitz’s efforts to obtain a position at St. Bartholomew’s Church in Gdańsk. Perhaps it is here that one should seek the reason for its highly elaborate form. The cantata consists of as many as ten movements, in which the composer displays his artistry in various forms – the first movement is a four-part fugato ending with a five-part chorale, in which the four-part choir forms a counterpoint to the cantus firmus sung by a soloist. The third movement is a classic da capo tenor aria, somewhat in the Telemann style, with a recurring orchestral ritornello; in the sixth movement, however, we encounter the typically Pucklitzian recomposition, in which each word assumes its own musical shape – affect – and the shifts of affect within a single aria take on an almost operatic dimension.

The music of Johann Daniel Pucklitz never ceases to surprise us, even as performers. Although he employs a musical language characteristic of the Baroque, Sentimental, Galant, and Rococo styles, he does so in a highly original and personal manner that is instantly recognizable. The works presented on this recording will surely find resonance with today’s audience, and they encourage us to continue delving into the secrets of his compositional craft, which we shall reveal in future recordings.