FROM SPIS TO ROYAL PRUSSIA - THE CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT OF JOHANNES CELSCHER

The article is devoted to Johannes Celscher, composer absent from modern music lexicons, who lived at the turn of 16th and 17th centuries. Several new data are reconstructed, such as the composer's origin (Spisská Nová Ves), places where he studied (Gdansk, Königsberg) and worked: at Chancellor's of Lithuania court, as a cantor in Kwidzyn and as a city of Torun composer. His compositions contained in prints from Königsberg and Torun are described, as well as those preserved in manuscripts; among them the only fully preserved is a 6-part Mass, a parody of the 6-voice motet by Orlando di Lasso. Comparisons between Celscher's sacred and secular works lead to the assessment of the significance of the composer and his works.