Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorczycki (ca. 1665 to 1667 – 30 April 1734) was a Polish Baroque composer.
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Born in Rossberg (Rozbark) near Beuthen (Bytom) in Silesia around 1665, little is known of his early life. Similarly little is known about his musical education; however, it is known that he attended the University of Prague, where he gained graduated from the department of Liberal Arts and Philosophy, and then attended the University of Vienna where he gained a licentiate in Theology. He arrived in Kraków in 1689 or 1690, where he then attended the Catholic Seminary there. He was ordained on 22 March 1692.
Immediately after his ordination, he was appointed to the academy for missionary priests in Chełmno in Pomerania, where he lectured in rhetoric and poetry, as well as conducting the local orchestra. After two years, he returned to Kraków, where he was appointed Curate of the cathedral, and performed in the cathedral orchestra. He was appointed conductor on January 10, 1698, and remained in this position for the rest of his life, dying on April 30, 1734.
The earliest recorded information on any of Gorczycki's works comes from 1694, but he must have written a substantial amount before 1698 in order to be appointed Kapellmeister. Unfortunately none of his compositions were ever published during his lifetime, so most of them have been lost; 39 works can however be safely attributed to him.
Gorczycki wrote mainly church music: unaccompanied compositions for choir, sometimes with b.c. accompaniment in the antico style (motets, masses, songs), as well as vocal-instrumental ones with b.c. accompaniment in the stile moderno featuring rich concertato technique multi-sectional and verse religious concertos as well as ensemble cantatas. Gorczycki is regarded as an outstanding Polish composer of high baroque. He used the most advanced achievements of the compositional technique of those times. His work is essentially divided into three strands:
These are works for 4 part choir, either a cappella or with small accompanying ensemble. It is here we see Gorczycki's mastery of counterpoint; he wrote masses, as well as arrangements of introits, antiphons, offertories and hymns which all belong to this category.
Examples include:
This style was more current at this time, as opposed to the Renaissance style of the above works, and these works were composed for small ensemble and choir.
Examples include:
Whilst this section of his work is small, it is known that Gorczycki did write instrumental pieces; in 1962 evidence of a Ball Polonaise was discovered, however only a violin part remains. There is also evidence that the orchestra of Wieluń had Gorczycki's Ouverture ex D in its repertory.