Ministerstwo Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego

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Composers

Jan Engel

†1788

Jan Engel, died 30 June, 1788 in Warsaw, Polish composer, printer and music publisher. As Kapellmeister at the Cathedral of St. John in Warsaw at the turn of 1771 and 1772 he opened a printing press on Ulica Krzywe Koło, which operated until 1776. In 1772 he published six of his own symphonies, each separately, with identical title pages, and sold them in the Warsaw booksellers M. Gröll and J.A. Poser. Copies of the first three symphonies published are preserved in the Pauline Monastery in Częstochowa, the others are known only from announcements in the Warsaw press and Breitkopf (Leipzig) catalogues from 1772, 1777 and 1785-1787. In 1773, Engel published a collection called "Mélanges de Musique pour le clavecin par Monsieur Engel", containing, among others, pieces by M. Kamieński; this publication was lost during World War II. He probably also included pieces of his own and other composers, such as Masses, motets, arias, duets and oratorios, the manuscripts and prints of which he intended to sell in 1773 together with a new "from one’s own invented note printing machine." September 1, 1773 Engel resigned as kapellmeister in the cathedral in Warsaw. A notice in "Gazeta Warszawska" on February 14, 1776 informed that his printworks were moving to Wędrychowska’s tenement on ul. Kamienne Schodki, the publication of ‘new Polish dances arranged for the harpsichord’ and also includes the announcement of twelve more dances that are to be published. With such sparse data it can be concluded that he published rather sporadically, being the pioneering undertaking of one man.