De Profundis (from Deep Places) ZWV 50 - Full Score

The Bohemian composer Jan Dismas Zelenka was a double bass player and church music composer at the Saxon court of the Elector August the Strong and his son Friedrich August II. In the years after 1721 he composed an extensive repertoire of Catholic church music together with the Kapellmeister Johann David Heinichen. These works, together with the Dresden operas composed by Johann Adolf Hasse in quick succession from 1731 onwards, established the reputation of the Saxon court as one of the most important musical centers of the late Baroque period. Zelenka composed this psalm setting De profundis in D minor ZWV 97 in 1724 on the death of his father, including a concluding Requiem verse. This was later replaced by the lesser doxology so that the work can be performed in the office of Christmas week. Both endings are included in this new edition. Three trombones, used as an independent instrumental group, give the work a special tonal color.