Sebastian Knüpfer

Sebastian Knüpfer (6 September 1633 – 10 October 1676) was a German composer, conductor and educator. He was the Thomaskantor, cantor of the Thomanerchor in Leipzig and director of the towns’s church music, from 1657 to 1676. Life Most of the biographical information about Knüpfer comes from a published obituary. He was born in Asch (now Aš, Czech Republic), and was first taught music by his father, a Kantor and organist. He also studied regularly with an unidentified tutor living near Asch, from whom he gained a solid grounding in, and lasting love for, a number of scholastic disciplines. At the age of 13 he entered the Gymnasium Poeticum at Regensburg and remained there for eight years. During this unusually long period he became well versed in the city’s musical traditions (such as the works of Andreas Raselius), studied the organ, perhaps with Augustin Gradenthaler, and mastered a number of humanistic subjects, especially the poetic arts and philology. His gifts as a student were supported by scholarships from the city of Regensburg, and he was commended by influential members of the staff of the Gymnasium and the city council, some of the latter providing him with favourable t