The first mentions of Pękiel are linked to his activity in the court of king Władysław IV in Warsaw, where he certainly stayed in the years 1637-1654, or perhaps even from 1633. (Variable spelling of his surname found in manuscripts of works stored in Wawel collections – Pekel, Peckel, Pekell – prompts musicologists to deliberate on the possibility of his German origin). In the royal band directed by Marco Scacchi, he initially performed as an organist, later to be promoted to the position of a deputy bandmaster, creating and performing religious music and educating young musicians. After Scacchi’s departure from Poland 1649, Pękiel assumed the position of a bandmaster. After the Swedish seizure of Warsaw (1655) he left the capital city and probably spent the next 3 years wandering alongside the queen’s court.
From 1658 to 1664 he was a bandmaster of the Wawel Cathedral ensemble in Cracow. He died around 1670.
During Pękiel’s life, only one piece of his music was published in print. It was a triple, 6-voice canon, published in Xenia Apollinea, an addition to Cribrum musicum ad triticum Siferticum by Marco Scacchi containing notations (Venice 1643). Other works were discovered as manuscripts, later to be copied by scriptors of Polish and foreign origins (among others, rev. Maciej Arnulf Miśkiewicz, a Rorantist, who considered one of Pękiel’s masses the most beautiful one and called it Missa pulcherrima).
Vocal and instrumental works intended for various line-ups display an abundance of textural and performative means, therefore they could have been created during his activity in Warsaw, although it cannot be ruled out that they belonged to the repertoire of the vocal and instrumental band directed by Pękiel at the Wawel Cathedral. Meanwhile, the vocal pieces, usually intended for 4 voices and characteristic for the repertoire of a Rorantist band, were probably composed during the composer’s activity at Wawel and it was there that they were performed.
Compositions:
- vocal and vocal-and-instrumental:
- Assumpta es Maria - alto, 2 tenors, bass
- Audite mortales. Dialogus (...) in advent - 2 sopranos, 2 altos, tenor, bass, 3 violas, basso continuo
- Ave Maria - alto, 2 tenors, bass
- Domine ne in furore, two tenor and one bass voices in the surviving part
- Dulcis amor Jesu - 2 sopranos, alto, tenor, bass, violone, basso continuo
- Magnum nomen Domini - soprano, alto, tenor, bass, basso ripieno
- Missa a 4 - alto, 2 tenors, bass, basso ripieno
- Missa a 6 de Resurrectione Domini Nostri Jesu Christi, a viola part has survived
- Missa a 14 - 2 sopranos, 2 altos, 2 tenors, 2 basses, 2 violins, 2 violettes, bass viola, basso continuo
- Missa brevis - alto, 2 tenors, bass, basso ripieno
- Missa Concertata La Lombardesca - 2 sopranos, 2 altos, 2 tenors, 2 basses, 2 violins, 3 trombones, basso continuo
- Missa in defectu unius contraaltus, second tenor voice and one bass voice in the surviving part
- Missa paschalis - alto, 2 tenors, bass, basso pro organo
- Missa pulcherrima - soprano, alto, tenor, bass, basso ripieno
- Missa secunda - alto, 2 tenors, bass, basso ripieno
- Missa senza le cerimonie [I] - 2 sopranos, 2 altos, 2 tenors, 2 basses, basso continuo
- Missa senza le cerimonie [II] - 2 sopranos, 2 altos, 2 tenors, 2 basses, basso continuo
- Missa super Veni sponsa, surviving fragments of the tenor voice
- Nativitas (Conceptio) tua - alto, 2 tenors, bass
- O adoranda Trinitas - alto, 2 tenors, bass
- O salutaris Hostia, second tenor voice and one bass voice in the surviving part
- Patrem na rotuły - alto, 2 tenors, bass
- Patrem rotulatum - alto, 2 tenors, bass
- Quae est ista, two tenor and one bass voices in the surviving part
- Resonet in laudibus - soprano, alto, tenor, bass, basso ripieno
- Salvator Orbis - soprano, alto, tenor, bass, basso ripieno
- Sub tuum praesidium - alto, 2 tenors, bass
- instrumental:
- Canones a 6: 1. Tres canones simul cantantur, 2. Aliud. Sex vocibus, 3. Aliud. Sex vocibus
- Fuga - organ
Author: Małgorzata Kosińska, Polish Music Information Centre, Polish Composers’ Union, December 2006, last update: November 2024.
