Jakub Jan Ryba - Czech Christmas Masses

Jakub Jan RYBA (1765-1815)

Czech Christmas Masses

Czech Christmas Mass / Missa Pastoralis

Czech Madrigalists Orchestra

Czech Madrigalists Choir

Doležal, Vladimír; Kšica, Josef; Kšicová, Pavla; Sibera, Václav; Vaňkátová, Dagmar

František Xaver Thuri

Over the years, the Czech Christmas Mass "Hej, mistře" (Hail, master!) by Jakub Jan Ryba has become an inherent part of Czech tradition. This is mainly owing to the simplicity, the emotional impact and pure comprehensiveness of Ryba's music. These are also the attributes that have been accepted without exception by all interpreters taking part in this recording. It has been the intention to record Ryba's Christmas music with an approach and a spirit that are as close as possible to the original intention of the composer. In addition to the Czech Christmas Mass, the present release also includes Ryba's Missa pastoralis, which has been recorded here for the first time.

In the Czech lands in the eighteenth century, music occupied an irreplaceable position. Based on along tradition, it drew on perennial local resources. Apart from their basic school duties, country schoolmasters were also musicians and music teachers. Teaching music in elementary schools was important for educational and social reasons. It gave talented pupils access to many ecclesiastical and secular scholarships, especially those for choristers, allowing them to go to higher schools; and the musical talent of students opened up opportunities for employment in private or public service. Music and school were the main sources of activity for the many promoters of the Czech national revival of that time, and Jakub Jan Ryba, as teacher, writer, poet and composer, was one of those who made a great contribution through their prolific creative work.

Jakub Jan Ryba was born the son of a teacher, organist and composer on 26th October 1765 in Přeštice. When he was seven, the family moved to Nepomuk, where he also started attending school. His father taught him to play the violin, the piano and the organ. His first attempts at composition from that time have not been preserved. In the late 1770s the young Ryba started learning the basics of Latin grammar and Greek. His father, wanting to give his clever son a higher education, tried to secure one of the secular scholarships for him, but without success. Help finally came from Ryba's uncle, Jan Vaniček, who took him to Prague in 1780 to study at the Piarist Gymnasium. Apart from his studies, he devoted much of his time to music. He learnt the cello, and went on to play in the St Wenceslas Seminary and in church choirs. He also played the organ in the Church of St Salvator. Having started to earn an income by playing the cello or organ in church choirs and selling his compositions, Ryba could afford to go to the opera. In this way he became familiar with the music of many composers, especially Italian opera composers, and also with the music of Mozart. Later, he was to conduct Mozart's Marriage of Figaro in Prague.

In 1784 Ryba found that a teaching post in Nepomuk had become vacant and he gave up his studies as well as his plans for making a mark on Prague's musical life. It was at that time that many of the scholarships were abolished, and it was highly unlikely that under these changed conditions Ryba would have been able to support himself and his studies. He applied for the teaching position and received an appointment notice as an assistant teacher on condition that he presented his teaching qualifications. After a teaching course he obtained qualifications to teach in parish schools and spent a short period in the school at Nepomuk, leaving in 1786 left to teach in Mníšek where, besides his teaching work, he started composing, with works including the Festive Mass in D major, three other Masses, and a hymn, lste Confessor.

In February 1788 Ryba came as a new teacher to Rožmitál, where he was to spend the longest period of his life. Here, in 1790, he married Anna Langlerova, who bore him nine children. It was in Rožmitál that Ryba composed his most important and popular works. In 1788 he wrote his Missa pastoralis in D major using Latin as well as Czech texts, a work for which there is no surviving autograph. It may be assumed that for most ordinary church-goers the pastoral mass with its Latin text was made more familiar by using the tunes of popular carols and folk-songs, and Czech texts set to music would be even closer to the listeners. Pastoral scenes, too, were included in the liturgy, mostly in the interchangeable sections of the Mass or at the end. Their inclusion in the fixed sections of the Mass was probably a constant source of debate.

Ryba wrote his Christmas Mass "Hail, master!" in 1796. Its programmatic sequence basically follows the plot used in the folk Christmas Nativity plays. In a rather unusual treatment of the introductory sections, Ryba demonstrates his ability to create a dramatic increase of tension among the listeners. The angel voices do not announce the birth of the Saviour until the second section of the Mass, the Gloria. In the first section, the Kyrie, the shepherds argue about the possible causes of the natural phenomena observed in the night. In the Graduale and the Credo the shepherds are preparing for their journey to Bethlehem. The Offertory pays homage to the new-born child. The three final sections, Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei, are presented as celebratory songs of praise before the cradle, with the choir in the final passage praying for peace on Earth to men of good will. Although in form this work has all the hallmarks of a Mass, the use of text and musical setting make it more like a Christmas cantata.

A characteristic feature of both Masses on this recording is the bright mood of joy and the feeling of happiness radiating from every note. The schoolmaster of Rožmitál always seemed to have bright, expressive and memorable tunes at his fingertips. In his music Ryba achieved the aim that he pursued throughout his life: to speak clearly and vividly to people's hearts. On 8th April 1815 Ryba took his own life in the forest outside Rožmitál, apparently as the result of progressive internal depression.