Pavel Josef Vejvanovsky (1640 Hukvaldy or Hlucin - 24.7.1693 Kromeriz)

prominent early baroque Czech composer. His birthplace is not clear by now, even the year of birth is different in various sources: some say 1639, some even 1633. In 1656-1660 he studied at the Jesuit college in Opava where he met composers H. Biber and P.Rittler who influenced his later musical development. About 1664 he entered his service to Bishop of Olomouc Karl Lichtenstein-Kastelkorn. After Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber left Kromeriz for Stuttgart, Vejvanovsky got his positions of Field Trumpeter and church bandmaster of St. Moric. At about that time, Vejvanovsky started to write his first works. In 1666 he married the daughter of the Kromeriz City Mayor Miniscator (whose family came from Lugano, Switzerland). In 1670 he got also the position of the bishop's orchestra bandmaster and he was one of the best paid bishop's employees. Thanks to marriage he also got the ale-house on the main square of Kromeriz where he lived and worked for the rest of his life.
   He created extensive, mostly orchestral work often with rich wind instrumentation. His temporal works are mostly in sonata form, the rest are suite-like forms (serenades, so-called ballettis etc.) He also wrote spiritual works like masses, requiems, offertories, litanies, Te Deum etc. The total number of known works is above 120. He also owned a collection of musical literature with many unsigned works, the authorship of which is unknown yet. Today, all of his manusripts are saved at the Kromeriz castle.
   His early works still bear marks of the renaissance procedures. He was mainly influenced by his fellow composers from Vienna; his compositions are simple yet quite original because of utilisation of wind instruments and Moravian traditional melodics. He was interested in numerical symbology, the evidence of which is e.g. his Sonata tribus quadrantibus. His favourite composition for trumpet was Sonata a 4 Be mollis.

Works (selection of the most important compositions):

• Missa brevis, 1664
• Sonata a 4 Be mollis, 1665
• Sonata Vespertina for 2 trumpets, 2 violins, Alto Violin, violoncello, double bass and organ
• Sonata a 10, 1665
• Sonata laetitiae for 2 violins and 3 violas; 1666
• Sonata Sancti Mauritii: for 2 trumpets, 2 violins, 3 tubes, organ 1666
• Sonata a 7; 1666
• Sonata sancti Petri et Pauli, 1667
• Sonata Ittalica a 12, 1668
• Balletti for trumpet, oboe and organ, 1670
• Missa fidelitatis; 1670
• Litaniae lauretanae, 1674
• Salve Regina, 1678
• Missa martialis, 1682
• Congregati sunt inimici nostri, 1684
• Missa misericordiae, 1689
• Dixit dominus - Psalm 110; 1692
• Confitebor - Psalm 111; 1692
• Beatus vir - Pslm 112; 1692
• Laudate pueri - Psalm 113; 1692
• Sonata a 5 Do maggiore for tube, strings and basso continuo
• Laudate dominum - Psalm 117; 1692
• Magnificat (Canticum BVM); 1692
• Sonata Tribus Quadrantibus
• Sonata Venatoria in D
• Composizioni per orchestra I - III

Sources:

Wikipedia
Mala encyklopedie hudby (book by dr. Jar. Smolka; &kolektiv, Supraphon 1983)
Sleevenote of LP Pavel Josef Vejvanovsky: Orchestral works (Supraphon 1967, sleevenote author Jiri Berkovec)

Sample (MP3):
Sonata Vespertina in C a 8 (Symphonic Orchestra of the Capital City Prague FOK and Chamber Harmony, directed by Libor Pesek; rec. by Supraphon 1967)