Old Czech Organ Christmas

This collection offers Christmas pastorales and fugues of Czech composers of the 18th century (Josef Seger, Jakub Valerián Pausa, Frantisek Xaver Brixi, Jirí Ignác Linka, Jan Krtitel Vanhal, Jan Krtitel Kuchar and Karel Blazej Kopriva). As with other European national cultures, the Czech lands also have their own unique and distinctive national music to characterise the Christmas festivities.

The Czech Christmas pastorales of the Early Baroque period were ordinarily sung with accompaniment, instrumental versions appeared somewhat later, including many arrangements for organ. In this form they were performed in churches; if played in a secular setting, the harpsichord might have been used. The publication is part of the old Musica Viva Historica series and is introduced by a brief commentary from the collection’s editor Jaroslav Smolka.