Beati mundo corde

Zieleński’s compositions reveal much about the often-overlooked relationship between Poland and Italy during the late-sixteenth and early-seventeenth centuries, and how Polish composers—alongside local painters, architects, and even culinary artists of the time—took inspiration from fashionable Italy. From 1608 to 1615, Zieleński was in the service of Wojciech Baranowski, Archbishop of Gniezno, who, at the King’s instigation, sent Zieleński to study with Giovanni Gabrieli (c. 1557–1612), whose Sacrae symphoniae (1597) motivated composers from across Europe to come to Venice.

Zieleński’s 122 surviving works are contained in the 1611 Venetian publication, Offertoria/Communiones totius anni (dedicated to Baranowski), featuring liturgical cycles of polychoral works, as well as a handful of hymns, antiphons, three instrumental fantasias, and a remarkable 12-part Magnificat. The influence of the Venetian School is undeniably present in Zieleński’s compositions, which are reminiscent of the music Gabrieli himself was writing as principal organist at the iconic Basilica di San Marco.