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Krystof Harant (Kryštof Harant z Polžic a Bezdružic) (1564 – June 21, 1621) was a Czech composer, writer, nobleman and nationalist. As a composer he represented the school of Franco-Flemish polyphony in Bohemia, but his activities as a Protestant and a Czech nationalist resulted in his execution by Catholic forces after the Battle of White Mountain during the Thirty Years War.
Life
He was born at Klenové Castle, near Klatovy, and received some early education at Innsbruck, at the court of Archduke Ferdinand II. Between 1593 and 1597 he served as a soldier, and fought against the Turks. In 1598 and 1599 he went to the Holy Land as a pilgrim, writing about his experiences in a book entitled Journey from Bohemia to the Holy Land, by way of Venice and the Sea which was published in Prague in 1608.
In 1618 he converted to Protestantism, and joined the forces arrayed against the Catholics as an officer of artillery. During the rebellion he bombarded the imperial palace in Vienna—with the emperor inside—which proved to be a bad move. After the defeat of the Protestant Czechs at White Mountain in 1620 by the combined arms of Maximilian and Tilly, and the subsequent sack of Prague by Imperial troops, he was captured, unsuccessfully pled for mercy, and was beheaded on June 21, 1621 in the Old Town Square along with all the other leaders of the insurrection.
Music and influence
Harant's music was conservative, and in the style of the Netherlands composers of the previous generation. He used archaic techniques such as cantus firmus mass composition. Seven separate works survive, all sacred vocal compositions. One is a cantus firmus mass based on a madrigal by Marenzio—an amusing musical irony in that it combines a technique which went out of fashion a hundred years before with the music of one of Italy's most popular and progressive composers.
Harant had a reputation as a fine instrumentalist and singer in addition to being a composer. In another interesting irony, one of his Roman Catholic masses was performed in 1620, just before his execution, in a Catholic church in Prague, to great ceremony.
References and further reading
- Article "Kryštof Harant z Polžic a Bezdružic", in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. ISBN 1561591742
- Gustave Reese, Music in the Renaissance. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1954. ISBN 0393095304
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