In the first half of the fifteenth century, the leading musical centre in the Republic of Poland was the country’s capital at that time – Cracow. The most valuable completely preserved musical source from that period is a manuscript codex held in the National Library in Warsaw, known as Kras 52. It contains works by the pre-eminent Polish composer of the time, Nicholas of Radom. His compositions were also included in another manuscript, which was lost during the Second World War. However, it was fragmentarily preserved in the form of microfilm and manuscript transcriptions from the original.
Little is known about the life of Nicholas of Radom. He was most probably associated with Cracow. It is also known that a musician named Nicholas [Mikołaj] worked as a harpsichordist at the court of Władysław II Jagiełło’s last wife, Queen Sophia of Halshany. However, we cannot be certain that this was Nicholas of Radom. The name was also mentioned more than once in the list of students of Cracow Academy.
Peter of Grudziądz (It. Petrus Wilhelmi de Grudencz) was also associated with early Jagiellonian Cracow. He too began his studies at Cracow Academy, in 1418, obtaining a Master of Liberal Arts degree twelve years later. His compositions enjoyed considerable popularity, both in the fifteenth century and over the next two centuries. They then fell into oblivion for many years, only to be rediscovered in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Simply… Philharmonic! Project 3:
Both historical eras and cultural centres are often associated with outstanding individuals who represent the art created in a given place and time. However, confining ourselves to the individual perspective often distorts the full picture of the artistic reality of the time. For Baroque Italy, such a point of reference is certainly Antonio Vivaldi. Although he was an outstanding violinist, he also wrote concertato works not intended for string instruments, as did another violinist, Georg Philipp Telemann, who today remains in the shadow of the great Baroque luminaries from Saxony – Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel. Unlike Vivaldi, Telemann was a multi-instrumentalist, also experienced in playing wind and keyboard instruments.
Francesco Landini can be considered a symbol of Florence, and also of the entire Italian output of the Trecento. He too delighted his contemporaries with his performance art, specialising in organ. The most outstanding composer of the Polish Republic of the first half of the fifteenth century known to us today was Nicolaus of Radom. Very little is known about his life, but he can certainly be associated with his activities in early Jagiellonian Cracow.
Daniel Laskowski
