Collection of sheet music of the Church of St. John the Baptist in Teplice

Summary: The aim of this study is to inform about the collection of sheet music preserved in the Church of St. John the Baptist in Teplice. It is a set of about 1500 previously unexplored sheet music from the 18th and 19th centuries. A substantial part of the collection was taken or copied by the local choirmasters. Most of them are church compositions by German and Austrian composers, and to a lesser extent Czech composers are also represented. The collection includes unique Latin or German contrafacta of arias and choirs from Italian operas (most notably Hasse) dating back to the 18th century. The benefit of this work is that it presents for the first time the basic characteristics of this very valuable collection of sheet music and expands the knowledge of musical life in this important spa town in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Keywords: Teplice, church music, thematic catalogue, collection of sheet music, composers, choir-masters, contrafacta, Gellert, 18th century, 19th century