Georgius Richnovinus

Georgius Richnovinus, also known as Jiří Rychnovský, was a composer and organist from eastern Bohemia, a region of today's Czech Republic, active in the field of Renaissance music. He was born around 1545 in Rychnov and died in Chrudim in 1616; his date of birth is approximate.

From 1570 he worked as organist in Chrudim, where the town's literary brotherhoods commissioned liturgical music from him. His output survives in manuscripts from Chrudim, from other Bohemian towns and from Bardejov, in present-day Slovakia. The large number of pieces that have come down to us suggests that he enjoyed considerable reputation as a composer.

His output includes four Ordinary masses, two cycles of Proper chants and two motets. The Ordinary masses are all for five voices and are parody masses, while the Proper cycles are based on plainchant. The motets, one for five voices and one for four, include works in Latin and in Czech. In addition, fragments of nineteen other pieces have been preserved, many of them transmitted in sets of partbooks from which some volumes have since been lost.

His legacy is known above all through these scattered sources, which allow us to reconstruct the musical life of the churches and brotherhoods of Renaissance Bohemia.