Jakub Polak (c. 1545 - c. 1605), also known as Jakub Reys (Reis, de Rais, de Reiz, de Restz, de Retz, du Retz) and Jacques le Polonois, was a Polish
lute
A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted.
More specifically, the term "lute" can ref ...
nist and composer. He was notable for his service as court lutenist to
Henry III of Poland and France.
["The Oxford Companion to Music" Scholes,P Oxford,OUP,1955 p823] Initially Polak served as one of the court musicians at
Kraków
Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...
, and after Henry III fled Poland, Polak joined him in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
in 1574. He was an author of several lute compositions, most notably
preludies,
fantasies
Fantasy is a genre of fiction.
Fantasy, Fantasie, or Fantasies may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment Music
* Fantasia (music), a free-form musical composition
* ''Fantasie'' (Widmann), a 1993 composition for solo clarinet by Jörg Widmann
* ...
, dances and several
chanson
A (, , french: chanson française, link=no, ; ) is generally any lyric-driven French song, though it most often refers to the secular polyphonic French songs of late medieval and Renaissance music. The genre had origins in the monophonic s ...
s. During his lifetime he was renowned for his lute improvisations.
References
External links
Polak's ''Praeludium'' in .mid format
1540s births
1600s deaths
Polish composers
Polish lutenists
Polish male classical composers
Renaissance composers
{{Poland-composer-stub