Christian Cannabich

Johann Christian Innocenz Bonaventura Cannabich (baptised 28 December 1731 – 20 January 1798), was a German violinist, composer, and Kapellmeister of the Classical era. A composer of around 200 works, he continued the legacy of Johann Stamitz and helped turn the Mannheim orchestra into what Charles Burney described as “the most complete and best disciplined in Europe.” The orchestra was particularly noted for the carefully graduated crescendos and diminuendos characteristic of the Mannheim school. Together with Stamitz and the other composers of the Mannheim court, he helped develop the orchestral texture that paved the way for the orchestral treatment of the First Viennese School. Biography Background Christian Cannabich was born in Mannheim, the third child of Martin Friedrich Cannabich (1690–1773), a flautist, oboist and music teacher at the Mannheim court. Cannabich’s father was the personal flute teacher of the Prince elector Carl Theodor, which in itself created favourable conditions for Christian Cannabich’s later career. The family originally hailed from Alsace, which through history, tradition and custom has always had (and still has) close ties to the Palatinate. It is po