The Danish-German composer H.O.C. Zinck (1746-1832) was a student of C.P.E. Bach and very active both as a musician, teacher, and composer, but today his works are rarely heard.

On 7 November we're releasing a digital album with six sonatas by Zinck, recorded by Mads Damlund who is one the leading clavichord specialists in Denmark, devoted to exploring the instrument’s intimate and poetic sound world

Listen to a single here while you continue reading.

Inspiration of the moment

Hardenack Otto Conrad Zinck was born in the German-speaking region in Schleswig, came from a musical family and distinguished himself early on as a flute virtuoso. Zinck’s work was profoundly influenced by Enlightenment ideas regarding music’s ennobling effect on the individual and his carreer took him far and wide: he was a court musician, singing master at The Royal Danish Theatre, an organist, teacher and writer among other things.

When Zinck began composing himself he was strongly inspired by C.P.E. Bach. He wrote a great number of sonatas for keyboard, including the six sonatas presented on this album, which were published in 1783. In the preface to the conatas Zinck explains that the musical material arose from particular emotional states and the "inspiration of the moment". Overwhelmed by different moods, he would throw himself at the keyboard to give musical expression to his feelings. The sonatas are ranging from gentle to agitated and can almost be described as a kind of programme music, which is quite unusual for its time.

The instrument of private homes

All the works on the album reflect Zinck’s joy in performance and his enthusiasm for the expressive possibilities of the keyboard. This is the first time that the works have been recorded on the clavichord, which was the instrument most commonly found in private homes of the time, and therefore particularly well suited to Zinck's music. A clavichord does not play very loudly, but it offers other expressive possibilities than the piano, for example the ability to produce vibrato, as on a guitar.

The last sonata featured on the album ends very unusually with a lied, performed by tenor Tomas Medici. It was a novel and bold idea to transition directly from an instrumental to a vocal work and Zinck's contemporaries doubted it would become a trend, but the concept reflects Zinck’s experimental approac.