a 17th-century Czech-Austrian composer. Mazak was born in Ratibor to a Czech family. After studying music and philosophy, he entered Heiligenkreuz Abbey in 1631 and was ordained a priest in 1633. Mazak created more than 300 compositions. He wrote masses, litanies, offertories, antiphons, psalms and sacred cantatas. The instruments he used most were the violin, the trumpet, the bassoon, the viola da gamba, the cornet and the sackbut. His compositions, predominantly motets, collected under the title Cultus harmonicus, were published by him in Vienna.
