Holy Roman Empire on Music Theory Print

Amandus Ivanschiz

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Amandus (Matthias Leopold) Ivanschiz (bapt. 24 December 1727 – 1758) was an Austrian composer of the early classical period and a member of the Pauline order. Other spellings of his surname adopted in Slavic musicological literature (“Ivančić” or “Ivančič”) are not evidenced in historical accounts. His father came from the village of Baumgarten (presently in the Austrian Burgenland) inhabited by the Croatian minority. Matthias Leopold was baptized on 24 December 1727 in Wiener Neustadt. He entered the Pauline order in his hometown and choose the name of Amandus likely by the end of 1742. After his novitiate in the Ranna monastery at the age of 16 (25 December 1743) he took his monastic vows. He then studied in Maria Trost and Wiener Neustadt, where he was ordained a priest on 15 November 1750. Between 1751 and 1754 he stayed in Rome as an assistant to the Procurator General of the order, from where he returned to Wiener Neustadt. In 1755 he was sent again to the Maria Trost monastery, where he died in 1758, at the young age of 31. Despite his early passing, Ivanschiz left behind a remarkable number of compositions. His output comprises about 20 symphonies, 15 string trios, 17 masse

Antonie Brentano

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Antonie Brentano (28 May 1780 – 12 May 1869 in Frankfurt), born Johanna Antonie Josefa Edle von Birkenstock and known as Toni, was an Austrian philanthropist, art collector, arts patron, and a close friend of famous German composer Ludwig van Beethoven, being the dedicatee of his “Diabelli” variations. Early life Antonie was born 28 May 1780 in Vienna. She was the daughter of Austrian diplomat, educational reformer, and art collector and his wife Carolina Josefa von Hay (born 1755 in Fulnek/Böhmen; died 18 May 1788 in Vienna). She had three siblings, two of whom died in infancy: * Hugo Konrad Gottfried von Birkenstock (15 December 1778 in Vienna – 10 April 1825 in Ybbs an der Donau). Lieutenant in the k.u.k. Weydenfeld-Infantry * Konstantin Viktor von Birkenstock (born and died 1782 in Frankfurt) * Johann Eduard Valentin von Birkenstock (born and died 1784 in Frankfurt) Her father was an Imperial advisor to Empress Maria Theresa and the reformist Emperor Joseph II. Through his wife, he was the brother-in-law of Joseph von Sonnenfels, the dedicatee of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 15 in D major, Op. 28 (1801). Antonie von Birkenstock Brentano’s mother was the sister of the Reformbisc

Carl Andreas Göpfert

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Carl Andreas Göpfert (or Goepfert) (1768–1818) was a German virtuoso clarinettist, and composer. Göpfert composed in several genres, including symphonies, concerti, wind ensembles, sonatas, and songs. Carl Andreas Göpfert, in his lifetime salaried Chamber Musician to the Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, excellent virtuoso on the clarinet and admirable composer, was born on 16 January 1768 in Rimpar near Würzburg, the son of a surgical officer. Initially taught singing, piano and organ by the local schoolmaster, his preference for the clarinet led him in 1780 to the celebrated Würzburg clarinet virtuoso Philipp Meissner, who may also have taught him the rudiments of composition. Göpfert’s rapidly acquired phenomenal skill on the clarinet led to his being engaged as first clarinettist of the Meiningen court orchestra at the age of 20. As his gentle character prevented him from insisting, he had less and less opportunity to become known further afield as a virtuoso, which would certainly have brought him as much acclaim as did his very popular compositions. He received a golden medal for dedicating a Fantasia militare for wind band to King Wilhelm III. In 1788 Göpfert moved to Vienna. While in

Carl Friedrich Abel

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Carl Friedrich Abel (baptised 22 December 1723 – 20 June 1787) was a German composer of the early Classical era. He was a renowned player of the viola da gamba, and produced significant compositions for that instrument. He was director of music at the Dresden court from 1743, and moved to London in 1759, becoming chamber-musician to Queen Charlotte in 1764. He founded a subscription concert series there with Johann Christian Bach. According to the Catalogue of Works of Carl Friedrich Abel (AbelWV), he left 420 compositions, with a focus on chamber music. Life Abel was born in Köthen, In 1762, Johann Christian Bach, a son of J. S. Bach, joined him in London, and the friendship between him and Abel led, in 1764 or 1765, to the establishment of the famous Bach-Abel concerts, England’s first subscription concerts. Abel died in London on 20 June 1787. In 2015 new manuscripts of Abel’s viola da gamba music were found in the library of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, in a collection from the Maltzahn family palace in the town of Milicz in Poland, originally brought back from London by . Many of them were published by Edition Güntersberg. Notes and references ;Notes ;References F

Christoph Bernhard

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Christoph Bernhard (; 1 January 1628 – 14 November 1692) was born in Kolberg, Pomerania, and died in Dresden. He was a German Baroque composer and musician. He studied with former Sweelinck-pupil Paul Siefert in Danzig (now Gdańsk) and in Warsaw. By the age of 20, he was singing at the electoral court in Dresden under Heinrich Schütz and composed some of the music for the Master’s funeral. He then spent a year in Copenhagen to study singing with Agostino Fontana. After his appointment as assistant kapellmeister in Dresden in 1655, Bernhard made two sojourns to Italy to further his musical education. When he was 35, he moved to Hamburg to work as the director of music for the Johanneum and for civic musical events. The next ten years were a golden age in the musical tradition of Hamburg: Bernhard and his good friend Matthias Weckmann performed together and directed the latest compositions from Italy and Vienna, as well as composing an important collection of music in finely-wrought counterpoint. The Elector of Saxony recalled Bernhard to Dresden in 1674, where he returned as assistant kapellmeister. Six years later, the large - and primarily Italian - musical establishment in the ci

Christoph Förster

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Christoph Förster (30 November 1693 – 6 December 1745) was a German composer of the baroque period. Life Christoph Förster (spelled Johann Christoph Friedrich in his death register) was born in Bibra, Thuringia as the son of council treasurer Christian Förster who gave him his first musical instruction in singing and playing on various instruments. External links *

Christoph Sonnleithner

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Christoph Sonnleithner (28 May 1734 in Szeged, Hungary – 25 December 1786 in Vienna, Austria) was an Austrian jurist and composer. He was the father of Ignaz von Sonnleithner and Joseph Sonnleithner. His daughter Anna was the mother of Franz Grillparzer. Life Sonnleithner studied legal science at the University of Vienna where he graduated with a doctorate. Later he was given work as a solicitor in the service of the princely House of Esterházy being his employer Prince Paul II Anton Esterházy de Galantha. Sonnleithner was appointed as Dean of the Juridical Faculty at the University of Vienna, and had thus the office of the court judge of the Scottish Abbey, the College of the Scots. As a composer, Sonnleithner was in contact with Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He composed 36 string quartets, all dedicated to Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, several symphonies and various church music. Additional information Sources * Notes References ;Attribution *This article is based on the translation of the corresponding article on the German Wikipedia. A list of contributors can be found there at the History section. External links *

Conrad Paumann

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Conrad Paumann (c. 1410 – January 24, 1473) was a German organist, lutenist and composer of the early Renaissance. Born blind, he became one of the most talented musicians of the 15th century, and his performances created a sensation wherever he went. He is grouped among the composers known as the Colorists. Life He was born in Nuremberg to a family of craftsmen. His musical ability must have become apparent early, for he received an excellent training with the support of aristocratic patrons. In 1447 he became the official town organist of Nuremberg, and the councilors even issued orders for him not to leave without their permission. As rebellious as he was talented, Paumann left what was probably a stifling environment, traveling secretly to Munich in 1450 where he was immediately employed by Duke Albrecht III as court organist, who also gave him a house. Munich was officially his home for the remainder of his life, although he began to travel extensively. While exact records of his travels do not remain, they were clearly extensive, and everywhere he went he was greeted with astonishment; his renown as a performer and composer grew. Milan and Naples both made him attractive job off

Countess Amalia Katharina of Waldeck

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Countess Amalia Katharina of Waldeck (8 August 1640 – 4 January 1697), née Countess of , was a German noblewoman, poet and composer. Early life She was born in Arolsen to Count Philipp Theodor von Waldeck-Eisenberg and his wife, Countess Marie Magdalene of Nassau-Siegen (1622–1647, daughter of William, Count of Nassau-Siegen). In 1664, she married George Louis I, Count of Erbach-Erbach, the son of George Albert I, Count of Erbach-Schönberg. Poet and composer She published a number of Pietist poems and songs in Hildburghausen in 1692. They were meant for private household devotion. There were 67 poems, some of which had simple melodies and a figured bass. Issue She and her husband had sixteen children: * Henriette (27 September 1665 – 28 September 1665). * Henriette Juliane (15 October 1666 – 27 February 1684). * Philipp Louis, Count of Erbach-Erbach (10 June 1669 – 17 June 1720). * Charles Albert Louis (16 June 1670 – k.a. Dapfing a.d.Donau, 18 August 1704). * George Albert (born and died 1 July 1671). * Amalia Katharina (13 May 1672 – 18 June 1676). * Frederick Charles (19 April 1673 – 25 April 1673). * A son (born and died 16 September 1674). * Wilhelmine Sophie (16 February 1675

Federigo Fiorillo

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Federigo Fiorillo (baptized 1 June 1755 Brunswick, Germany, died after 1823) was a mandolinist and composer, who wrote thirty-six caprices for violin, also called études. Life and career Fiorillo’s father was Ignazio Fiorillo, a Neapolitan, who also played mandolin. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, Ignazio was appointed conductor at the Court Opera House at Brunswick and settled there, where his son, Federigo, was born. Federigo’s early musical education was superintended by his father. He inherited his parents’ love of the mandolin and obtained complete mastery over it, able to show mastery of delicate nuances of tone of which it was capable. References External links * *Songdiggers, has portrait.

Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor

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Ferdinand III (Ferdinand Ernest; 13 July 1608 – 2 April 1657) was Archduke of Austria, King of Hungary and Croatia from 1625, King of Bohemia from 1627 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1637 to his death. Ferdinand ascended the throne at the beginning of the last decade of the Thirty Years’ War and introduced lenient policies to depart from the old ideas of divine right held by his father, as he wished to end the war quickly. After military defeats and against a background of declining power, Ferdinand was compelled to abandon the political stances of his Habsburg predecessors in many respects to open the long road towards the much-delayed Peace of Westphalia. Although his authority as emperor was weakened after the war, his position in Bohemia, Hungary and Austria was stronger than that of his predecessors before 1618. Ferdinand was the first Habsburg monarch to be recognised as a musical composer. Early life Ferdinand was born in Graz as the third son of Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor of Habsburg and his first wife, Maria Anna of Bavaria, and was baptised as Ferdinand Ernst. He grew up in Carinthia with loving care from his parents and developed great affection for his siblings and h

Fortunato Chelleri

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Fortunato Chelleri (originally: Keller, also: Kelleri, Kellery, Cheler) (May or June 1690 in Parma – 11 December 1757 in Kassel) was a Baroque Kapellmeister and composer. Biography Chelleri’s father had emigrated from Germany to Italy; his mother was from the Italian family of musicians Bazzani (or Bassani, see also Giovanni Battista Bassani). After the early death of his parents, he grew up with his uncle Francesco Maria Bazzani in Piacenza, who trained him as a musician. Chelleri started to compose operas for different opera companies in Northern Italy in 1708. He served in noble families in Barcelona, Florence and Venice, among others, including a post as maestro di capella of Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici. In 1722 Fürstbischof Johann Philipp Franz von Schönborn engaged him as Hofkapellmeister in Würzburg, together with Giovanni Benedetto Platti. After the death of the Fürstbischof in 1724, Chelleri was in Kassel Hofkapellmeister of the Landgraf Karl von Hessen-Kassel. Between 1732 and 1734, he followed Karl’s son and successor Frederick of Sweden to the royal court of Stockholm. He returned to Germany with the title and fund of Hofrat (Court Councillor) and directed the private o

Francesco Pollini

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Francesco Giuseppe Pollini (25 March 1762 – 17 September 1846) was an Italian pianist, composer and academic. Life Pollini was born in Ljubljana (now in Slovenia) in 1762, son of a medical doctor. He moved to Vienna in 1783, and was a student there of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He returned to Ljubljana, performing there as a singer and actor. In Italy he appeared as a pianist, violinist and opera singer, appearing in several cities. From 1790 he lived mainly as a piano teacher in Milan, where in 1793 he took lessons from Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli. He made guest appearances in Paris and in German cities. From 1809 he was a professor of piano at Milan Conservatory; he died in Milan in 1846. Pollini was highly regarded by his contemporaries; Vincenzo Bellini dedicated the opera La sonnambula to him. Works He composed piano music, which demand a virtuoso technique; chamber music; two operas (Il genio insubre and La casetta nei boschi); a Stabat Mater and other church music. His instruction book for pianists, Metodo pel clavicembalo, was used as a textbook at Milan Conservatory. The three-hand effect He is associated with the three-hand effect of piano playing; his biographer in A Dictio

Franz Joseph Haydn

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Early life#

Joseph Haydn was born in Rohrau, Austria, a village that at that time stood on the border with Hungary. His father was Mathias Haydn, a wheelwright who also served as “Marktrichter”, or marketplace supervisor. Haydn’s mother Maria, née Koller, had worked as a cook in the palace of Count Harrach, the presiding aristocrat of Rohrau. Neither parent could read music; however, Mathias was an enthusiastic folk musician, who during the journeyman period of his career had taught himself to play the harp. According to Haydn’s later reminiscences, his family was extremely musical, and they frequently sang together and with their neighbours. Haydn’s parents had noticed that their son was musically gifted and knew that in Rohrau he would have no chance to obtain serious musical training. It was for this reason that, around the time Haydn turned six, they accepted a proposal from their relative Johann Matthias Frankh, the schoolmaster and choirmaster in nearby Hainburg, that Haydn be apprenticed to Frankh in his home to train as a musician. Haydn therefore went off with Frankh to Hainburg; he never again lived with his parents. Life in the Frankh household was not easy for Haydn, who later remembered being frequently hungry and humiliated by the filthy state of his clothing. However, he quickly profited from his musical training, and could soon play both harpsichord and violin; he also sang treble parts in the church choir. There is reason to think that Haydn’s singing impressed those who heard him, because in 1739 he was brought to the attention of Georg Reutter the Younger, the director of music in St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, who happened to be visiting Hainburg and was looking for new choirboys. Haydn passed his audition with Reutter, and after several months of further training moved to Vienna (1740), where he worked for the next nine years as a chorister. Haydn lived in the Kapellhaus next to the cathedral, along with Reutter, Reutter’s family, and the other four choirboys, which after 1745 included his younger brother Michael. The choirboys were instructed in Latin and other school subjects as well as voice, violin, and keyboard. Reutter was of little help to Haydn in the areas of music theory and composition, giving him only two lessons in his entire time as a chorister. However, since St. Stephen’s was one of the leading musical centres in Europe, Haydn learned a great deal simply by serving as a professional musician there. Like Frankh before him, Reutter did not always bother to make sure Haydn was properly fed. As he later told his biographer Albert Christoph Dies, Haydn was motivated to sing well, in hopes of gaining more invitations to perform before aristocratic audiences, where the singers were usually served refreshments. Anthony Tommasini writes that “Matthias Hyaydn must have felt guilty, if not horrified, when he received a letter from the choir director proposing that Joseph’s soprano voice be surgically preserved.”

Franz Xaver Richter

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Franz (Czech: František) Xaver Richter, known as François Xavier Richter in France (December 1, 1709 – September 12, 1789) was an Austro-Moravian singer, violinist, composer, conductor and music theoretician who spent most of his life first in Austria and later in Mannheim and in Strasbourg, where he was music director of the cathedral. From 1783 on, Haydn’s favourite pupil, Ignaz Pleyel, was his deputy director. The most traditional of the first-generation composers of the so-called Mannheim school, he was highly regarded in his day as a contrapuntist. As a composer he was equally at home in the concerto and the “strict church style”. Mozart heard a mass by Richter on his journey back from Paris to Salzburg in 1778 and called it “charmingly written”. Richter, as a contemporary engraving clearly shows, must have been one of the first conductors to actually have conducted with a music sheet roll in his hand. Richter wrote chiefly symphonies, concertos for woodwinds as well as trumpet, and chamber and church music, his masses receiving special praise. He was a man of a transitional period, and his symphonies in a way constitute one of the missing links between the generation of Bach

Franz Xaver Süssmayr

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Franz Xaver Süssmayr or Süßmayr (; 1766 – September 17, 1803), also anglicized as Suessmayr, was an Austrian composer and conductor. Popular in his day, he is now known primarily as the composer who completed Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s unfinished Requiem. Life Süssmayr was born in Schwanenstadt in upper Austria. He received early music lessons from his father Franz Karl Süssmayr, and later was educated at Kremsmünster Abbey, where Georg Pasterwitz was a teacher. At the monastery he composed symphonies, cantatas and church music, which were performed at the abbey theatre. He moved to Vienna in 1788, where he became a student and friend of Mozart. On Mozart’s last journey to Prague in 1791, where his opera La clemenza di Tito was first performed, Süssmayr accompanied him; Süssmayr, at Mozart’s request, composed the secco recitatives for the opera. In 1792 he became the substitute conductor at the Burgtheater, and from 1794 to 1803 he was conductor at the Theater am Kärntnertor. He composed operas that were staged at these theatres and at Emanuel Schikaneder’s theatres: the Theater auf der Wieden and later the Theater an der Wien. Of special note may be the clarinet concerto (SmWV 501)

Friedrich Erhard Niedt

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Friedrich Erhard Niedt (31 May 1674 – 1717) was a German jurist, music theorist, and composer. Niedt was born in Jena, and enrolled at the University of Jena in 1694, where he is thought to have studied law. Around 1700, he moved to Copenhagen, staying in Hamburg along the way. He died in Copenhagen. The first part of his Musical Guide might be a record of musical techniques similar to what Johann Sebastian Bach used. Works in music theory The Musical Guide, 1700-1710 Niedt’s Musical Guide consists of three parts, each of which are concerned with figured bass. In the first part, Niedt discusses the basics of figured bass, and gives the following definition: Niedt’s suggestion that figured bass is “the most complete foundation of music” might be misinterpreted if it is read out of context, for later in this same quote, he clarifies that by “complete” he simply means that the keyboard can play many notes at once, whereas other instruments are limited to one note at a time. The second part of the Musical Guide describes how variation may be introduced in figured bass. Many examples are presented that demonstrate how simple musical materials may be made more complex. Niedt justifies de

Friedrich Kalkbrenner

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Friedrich Wilhelm Michael Kalkbrenner (7 November 1785 – 10 June 1849), also known as Frédéric Kalkbrenner, was a pianist, composer, piano teacher and piano manufacturer. German by birth, Kalkbrenner studied at the Conservatoire de Paris, starting at a young age and eventually settled in Paris, where he lived until his death in 1849. Kalkbrenner composed more than 200 piano works, as well as many piano concertos and operas. When Frédéric Chopin came to Paris, Kalkbrenner suggested that Chopin could benefit by studying in one of Kalkbrenner’s schools. It was not until the late 1830s that Kalkbrenner’s reputation was surpassed by the likes of Chopin, Thalberg and Liszt. Author of a famous method of piano playing (1831) which was in print until the late 19th century, he ran in Paris what is sometimes called a “factory for aspiring virtuosos” and taught scores of pupils from as far away as Cuba. His pupils included Marie Pleyel, Marie Schauff, and Camille-Marie Stamaty. Through Stamaty, Kalkbrenner’s piano method was passed on to Louis Moreau Gottschalk and Camille Saint-Saëns. He was one of the few composers to achieve financial success. Chopin dedicated his first piano concerto to hi

Friedrich Witt

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Friedrich Jeremias Witt (8 November 1770 – 3 January 1836) was a German composer and cellist. He is perhaps best known as the likely author of a Symphony in C major known as the Jena Symphony, once attributed to Ludwig van Beethoven. Biography Witt was born in 1770, the same year as Beethoven, and was a German composer of considerable stature in his time. He was born in the Württemberg village of Niederstetten, the son of a cantor and court clerk. Witt became a cellist (some accounts say a violinist) in the court orchestra of Oettingen-Wallerstein when he was nineteen, taking composition lessons there with Antonio Rosetti, that is, the Bohemian-born Anton Rösler. Witt was most famous in his lifetime for his oratorio Der leidende Heiland (The Suffering Saviour), securing an appointment as Kapellmeister for the Prince of Würzburg, and later for the theater, where he stayed until his death. He also wrote two operas: Palma (1804) and Das Fischerweib (1806). His other compositions include concertos, church music, chamber music and symphonies. His best-known work, a symphony in C major known as the Jena, is modeled after the Symphony No. 97 by Joseph Haydn. The Haydn connection contribut

Georg Böhm

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Georg Böhm (2 September 1661 – 18 May 1733) was a German Baroque organist and composer. He is notable for his development of the chorale partita and for his influence on the young J. S. Bach. Life Böhm was born in 1661 in Hohenkirchen. He received his first music lessons from his father, a schoolmaster and organist who died in 1675. He may also have received lessons from Johann Heinrich Hildebrand, Kantor at Ohrdruf, who was a pupil of Heinrich Bach and Johann Christian Bach. After his father’s death, Böhm studied at the Lateinschule at Goldbach, and later at the Gymnasium at Gotha, graduating in 1684. Both cities had Kantors taught by the same members of the Bach family who may have influenced Böhm. On 28 August 1684 Böhm entered the University of Jena. Little is known about Böhm’s university years or his life after graduation. He resurfaces again only in 1693, in Hamburg. We know nothing of how Böhm lived there, but presumably he was influenced by the musical life of the city and the surrounding area. French and Italian operas were regularly performed in Hamburg, while in the area of sacred music, Johann Adam Reincken of St. Katharine’s Church (Katharinenkirche) was one of the le

Georg Caspar Schürmann

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Georg Caspar Schürmann (1672 (or early 1673), in Idensen bei Neustadt am Rübenberge – 25 February 1751, in Wolfenbüttel) was a German Baroque composer. His name also appears as Schurmann and in Hochdeutsch as Scheuermann. Life Schürmann studied music, including voice, in his native Lower Saxony. By 1693, he was singing at the Oper am Gänsemarkt as a young alto. In 1694 he composed a cantata for the inauguration of the Castle Salzdahlum in Wolfenbüttel. In 1697, he went to Lüneburg (about 50 km southeast of Hamburg) for a guest performance. His singing there so impressed Duke Anton Ulrich of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel that the Duke hired him on the spot. From 1702 to 1707 he was principal conductor and composer for the Meiningen Court Orchestra. In 1707 Schürmann officially succeeded Reinhard Keiser as Cammer-Componist (court composer). He served the court of Brunswick, with but a few brief interruptions, for 54 years until he died at the age of 79. Work Schürmann wrote over thirty operas, many of which have not survived. His music was characterized by harmonic richness, careful contrapuntal elaboration, flexible handling of form and theatrically effective delineation of characters. Amo

Georg Pasterwitz

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NOTOC Georg Pasterwitz, baptized as Robert Johannes Ivo Pasterwitz (7 June 1730 – 26 January 1803) was an Austrian composer and teacher. He was born in Bierhütte, near Passau. First educated at Niederaltaich, he entered the Benedictine monastery in Kremsmünster in 1749. When he took his vows in 1750, he adopted the name “Georg” as his religious name. He then enrolled at the University of Salzburg, studying theology, law and mathematics. It was during this time that he met Johann Ernst Eberlin, who became his music teacher. Pasterwitz completed his studies in 1759 and soon started teaching philosophy at the monastery’s Ritterakademie, eventually rising to teach courses in mathematics, physics, economics, and political science; since about 1755 he was also active as composer, producing stage works for the monastery almost every year. Between 1767 and 1783 Pasterwitz served as the monastery’s choir director. Due to reforms started by Joseph II, he had to give up some of his duties and became instead the monastery’s treasurer and eventually official representative, when it was threatened with dissolution in 1785. Pasterwitz died in 1803 in Kremsmünster, having served as dean of the

Georg Philipp Telemann

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Georg Philipp Telemann (; 24 March 1681 – 25 June 1767) was a German Baroque composer and multi-instrumentalist. He is one of the most prolific composers in history, at least in terms of surviving works. Telemann was considered by his contemporaries to be one of the leading German composers of the time, and he was compared favourably both to his friend Johann Sebastian Bach, who made Telemann the godfather and namesake of his son Carl Philipp Emanuel, and to George Frideric Handel, whom Telemann also knew personally. Almost completely self-taught in music, he became a composer against his family’s wishes. After studying in Magdeburg, Zellerfeld, and Hildesheim, Telemann entered the University of Leipzig to study law, but eventually settled on a career in music. He held important positions in Leipzig, Sorau, Eisenach, and Frankfurt before settling in Hamburg in 1721, where he became musical director of that city’s five main churches. While Telemann’s career prospered, his personal life was always troubled: his first wife died less than two years after their marriage, and his second wife had extramarital affairs and accumulated a large gambling debt before leaving him. As part of his

George Frideric Handel

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Family#

Handel was born in 1685 (the same year as Johann Sebastian Bach and Domenico Scarlatti) in Halle, in the Duchy of Magdeburg, then part of Brandenburg–Prussia. His parents were Georg Händel, aged 63, and Dorothea Taust, daughter of Georg Taust, a pastor, and Dorothea Cuno, the niece of Johann Olearius. His father was an eminent barber-surgeon who served the court of Saxe-Weissenfels and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. Halle was a relatively prosperous city, home of a salt-mining industry, a centre of trade, and a member of the Hanseatic League. The Margrave of Brandenburg became the administrator of the archepiscopal territories of Mainz, including Magdeburg when they converted, and by the early 17th century held his court in Halle, which attracted renowned musicians. Even the smaller churches all had “able organists and fair choirs”, and humanities and the letters thrived (Shakespeare was performed in the theatres early in the 17th century). The Thirty Years’ War brought extensive destruction to Halle, and by the 1680s it was impoverished. However, since the middle of the war the city had been under the administration of the Duke of Saxony, and soon after the end of the war he would bring musicians trained in Dresden to his court in Weissenfels. The arts and music, however, flourished only among the higher strata, of which Handel’s family was not a part. Georg Händel (senior) was born at the beginning of the war and was apprenticed to a barber in Halle at the age of 14 after his father died. When he was 20, he married the widow of the official barber-surgeon of a suburb of Halle, inheriting his practice. With this, Georg determinedly began the process of becoming self-made; by dint of his “conservative, steady, thrifty, unadventurous” lifestyle, he guided the five children he had with Anna who reached adulthood into the medical profession (except his youngest daughter, who married a government official). Anna died in 1682. Within a year Georg married again, this time to the daughter of a Lutheran minister, Pastor Georg Taust of the Church of St Bartholomew in Giebichenstein, who himself came from a long line of Lutheran pastors. George Frideric was the second child of this marriage; the first son was stillborn. Two younger sisters arrived afterwards: Dorothea Sophia, born on 6 October 1687, and Johanna Christiana, born on 10 January 1690.

Gottfried August Homilius

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Gottfried August Homilius (2 February 1714 – 2 June 1785) was a German composer, cantor and organist. He is considered one of the most important church composers of the generation following Bach’s, and was the main representative of the empfindsamer style. Life Homilius was born in Rosenthal, Saxony, the son of a Lutheran pastor, and was educated at the in Dresden. He then studied law at Leipzig University and the organ. It has often been repeated that he was a student of Johann Sebastian Bach, but there is no contemporary written evidence to support this, and strong contextual evidence against it. From 1742 he was organist at the Dresden Frauenkirche, and from 1755 until his death Kreuzkantor, the cantor at the Kreuzkirche in Dresden with the associated responsibility of music director at the Kreuzkirche, the Sophienkirche, and the Frauenkirche and the Kreuzschule. After the destruction of the Kreuzkirche during the Seven Years’ War he worked mainly at the Frauenkirche. Works Homilius predominantly composed church music. He is known for his Passions for services on Good Friday. One of them, a cantata Passion, was printed during his lifetime in 1775. Of four oratorio Passions after

Gottfried Reiche

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Gottfried Reiche (; 5 February 1667 6 October 1734) was a German trumpet player and composer of the Baroque era. Reiche is best known for having been Johann Sebastian Bach’s chief trumpeter at Leipzig from Bach’s arrival there in 1723 until Reiche’s death. Biography Reiche was steeped in trumpet playing from an early age – he was born in the town of Weissenfels, Germany which had a long tradition of trumpet music at its court. He went to Leipzig in 1688, eventually succeeding trumpeter Johann C. Genzmer there as Senior Stadtmusicus in 1719. Reiche was a musician of great skill, if one can judge from the trumpet parts written for him by Bach. They are among the most florid, creative, and difficult trumpet parts of the Baroque era, quite clearly intended for a player of great virtuosity. He is the subject of a famous painting of the era, which was made by Leipzig artist E.G. Haussmann for the occasion of Reiche’s 60th birthday in 1727. In the portrait, Reiche holds a coiled natural trumpet (Ger. Jägertrompete, trans. hunting trumpet) in his right hand. In his left hand, he holds a sheet of manuscript music on which is written a short Abblasen or fanfare. The musical notes are depicte

Gregor Aichinger

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Gregor Aichinger (1564 or 1565 – night of 20/21 January 1628) was a German composer. Karl Proske, in the preface to vol. 2 of his Musica Divina, calls him a priest of Regensburg, and praises him for the devout and ingenuous mastery of his style. Life His epitaph states he died in 1628 aged 63, making his birth year 1564 or 1565. In 1577 he moved to Munich to study under Orlando di Lasso, moving the following year to the University of Ingolstadt, where he studied alongside Jakob Fugger, later Prince Bishop of Constance. This put him in contact with the wider Fugger family of Augsburg, to whom he later dedicated many of his works. Jakob’s main patron was Jakob III. Fugger (1542–1598), who appointed him his organist in 1584, using an instrument he had paid for in 1580 at the Augsburg basilica of St.s Ulrich and Afra. He also made Aichinger his court composer and director of his chamber-music. Fugger also funded a number of Italian trips for Aichinger – in Venice he became one of Giovanni Gabrieli’s first pupils and probably also converted from Protestantism to Catholicism. Fugger granted him more study leave in 1588 during which he studied theology and philosophy back at the Universit

Gregor Werner

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Gregor Joseph Werner (28 January 1693 – 3 March 1766 ) was an Austrian composer of the Baroque period, best known as the predecessor of Joseph Haydn as the Kapellmeister of the Hungarian Esterházy family. Few of Werner’s works survive to the present day, and he is mostly remembered for his troubled relationship with Haydn. Career Werner was born in Ybbs an der Donau. at the court; previously, there had been seven years of relative inactivity following the death of Prince Joseph in 1721; his widow Maria Octavia, serving as co-regent for her young son Paul Anton, had instituted economies in the musical establishment. Robbins Landon and Jones suggest that Werner was hired at the then 17-year-old prince’s instigation. Jones discerns a bifurcated style, with most of the work taking the form of severe, “weighty” contrapuntal pieces, but a minority (written for lighter occasions such as Advent and the Nativity) that “employ a distinctly homespun idiom, invoking elements of Austrian and indeed Eastern European folk music”. which appeared in Augsburg in 1748. and the Esterházy organist Johann Novotný (1718–1765), father of Franz Nikolaus Novotny (1743–1773). Autograph scores and parts by Gr

Hans Sachs

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Hans Sachs (5 November 1494 – 19 January 1576) was a German Meistersinger (“mastersinger”), poet, playwright, and shoemaker. Biography Hans Sachs was born in Nuremberg (). As a child he attended a singing school that was held in the church of Nuremberg. This helped to awaken in him a taste for poetry and music. His father was a tailor. He attended Latin school () in Nuremberg. When he was 14 he took up an apprenticeship as a shoemaker. After the apprenticeship, at age 17, he set out on his Wanderjahre or Walz as a Wandering journeyman, travelling about with companions and students. In 1513 he reached the small town of Wels, where he remained for a time, devoting himself to the cultivation of the fine arts. He married again on 2 September 1561, this time to the young widow Barbara Harscher. The great event of his intellectual life was the coming of the Reformation; he became an ardent adherent of Luther, and in 1523 wrote in Luther’s honor the poem beginning “The nightingale of Wittenberg, which is heard everywhere” (), and four remarkable dialogues in prose, in which his warm sympathy with the reformer was tempered by counsels of moderation. In spite of this, his advocacy of the ne

Heinrich Marschner

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Heinrich August Marschner (16 August 1795 – 14 December 1861) was a German composer best known for his operas. He is considered to be the most important composer of German opera between Weber and Wagner. Biography Marschner was born in Zittau, in southeastern Saxony, and was originally intended for a legal career. After a meeting with Beethoven around 1815–16, he decided to devote himself to music and became a private music teacher in Bratislava. From 1821 he worked as a stage composer and conductor at the municipal theatres in Dresden (from 1821), Leipzig (from 1827), and the Court Theatre at Hanover (from 1830), where the opera Hans Heiling (1833) established his name among the leading German opera composers of the time. He died in Hanover. Legacy Marschner was widely regarded as one of the most important composers in Europe from about 1830 until the end of the 19th century. Marschner did not just toss off these works as an afterthought, but clearly devoted considerable time and effort to writing them. He gave the title “Grand Trio” to each of his works for piano, violin and cello, indicative of the importance he attached to them. In these pieces, one finds all of the emotions pr

Henri Herz

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Henri Herz (6 January 1803 – 5 January 1888 ) was a virtuoso pianist, composer and piano manufacturer, Austrian by birth and French by nationality and domicile. He was a professor in the Paris Conservatoire for more than thirty years. Among his major works are eight piano concertos, a piano sonata, rondos, nocturnes, waltzes, marches, fantasias, and numerous sets of variations. Biography Herz was born Heinrich Herz in Vienna. He was Jewish by birth, but he asked the musical journalist François-Joseph Fétis not to mention this in the latter’s musical encyclopaedia, perhaps a reflection of endemic antisemitism in nineteenth-century French cultural circles. As a child he studied with his father, and in Koblenz with the organist Daniel Hünten, father of the composer Franz Hünten. In 1816 Herz entered the Conservatoire de Paris, where he studied piano with Louis-Barthélémy Pradher, harmony with Victor Dourlen and composition with Anton Reicha. He won first prize in piano in 1818. Herz’s style of playing was, by his own admission, strongly influenced by Ignaz Moscheles. His brother Jacques Simon Herz (born Jacob-Simon; 1794–1880) was a fellow-pupil at the Conservatoire who also became a

Hermann of Reichenau

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Blessed Hermann of Reichenau or Herman the Cripple (18 July 1013– 24 September 1054), also known by other names, was an 11th-century Benedictine monk and scholar. He composed works on history, music theory, mathematics, and astronomy, as well as many hymns. He has traditionally been credited with the composition of “Salve Regina”, “Veni Sancte Spiritus”, and “Alma Redemptoris Mater”, although these attributions are sometimes questioned. His cultus and beatification were confirmed by the Roman Catholic Church in 1863. His feast day is September 25. Names Hermann’s name is sometimes anglicized as Herman or Latinized as Hermannus; it sometimes also appears in the older form Heriman. He is sometimes distinguished as Hermann of Vöhringen (; ) from his birthplace. He is better known as Hermann of Reichenau (; ) from the location of his monastery on Reichenau Island () in Lake Constance. He was traditionally distinguished in Latin as and “either amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or spinal muscular atrophy.” As a result of his disease, he had great difficulty moving and could hardly speak. At age seven, he was placed in a Benedictine monastery by his parents who could no longer look after him.

Hildegard of Bingen

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Hildegard of Bingen (, ; ; c. 109817 September 1179), also known as the Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German Benedictine abbess and polymath, active during the High Middle Ages as a writer, composer, philosopher, mystic, visionary, and as a medical writer and practitioner of the Catholic Church. She is one of the best-known composers of sacred monophony, as well as the most recorded in modern history. A number of scholars have considered her to be the founder of scientific natural history in Germany. Hildegard’s convent at Disibodenberg elected her as (mother superior) in 1136. She founded the monasteries of Rupertsberg in 1150 and Eibingen in 1165. Hildegard wrote theological, botanical, and medicinal works, as well as letters, hymns, and antiphons for the liturgy. There are more surviving chants by Hildegard than by any other composer from the entire Middle Ages, and she is one of the few known composers to have written both the music and the words. One of her works, the , is an early example of liturgical drama and arguably the oldest surviving morality play. She is noted for the invention of a constructed language known as . Although the history of her formal canonization is compli

Hugo von Montfort

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Hugo von Montfort (1357 – 4 April 1423) was an Austrian minstrel of the Late Middle Ages. Life Hugo VII was a scion of the comital house of Montfort at Bregenz, head of an old and influential Swabian family of nobles, holding numerous high administrative posts. By his mother Countess Ursula of Ferrette (Pfirt), he was related with the Austrian House of Habsburg. About 1373 he married the Styrian countess Margaret, granddaughter of Count Ulrich V of Pfannberg and widow of Count Hans of Cilli. With his wife’s estates around Pfannberg in the Mur valley, he vastly increased the area controlled by the House of Montfort. Upon Margarte’s death about 1395, he secondly married Countess Clementia of Toggenburg. In 1399 he also acquired Festenburg Castle in eastern Styria. In 1402 Hugo married, for the third time, the Bohemian noble Anna of Neuhaus, widow of the Styrian governor Hans of Stadeck. As second-born son, he had prepared for an ecclesiastical career, but spent most of his adult life as a politician in the Habsburg service: as commander in chief of the ducal Austrian troops in Italy, as Hofmeister of Duke Leopold IV, as governor of Styria (1412–1415), and as Landvogt in the Thurgau,

Ignaz Moscheles

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Isaac Ignaz Moscheles (; 23 May 1794 10 March 1870) was a Bohemian piano virtuoso and composer. He was based initially in London and later in Leipzig, where he joined his friend and sometime pupil Felix Mendelssohn as professor of piano in the Conservatory. Life Early life and career Moscheles was born 1794 in Prague, Bohemia, the son of Klara Popper (Lieben) and Joachim Moises Moscheles. He was from an affluent German-speaking Jewish merchant family. His first name was originally Isaac. His father played the guitar and was keen for one of his children to become a musician. Initially his hopes fixed on Ignaz’s sister, but when she demurred, her piano lessons were transferred to her brother. Ignaz developed an early passion for the (then revolutionary) piano music of Beethoven, which the Mozartean Bedřich Diviš Weber, his teacher at the Prague Conservatory, attempted to curb, urging him to focus on Bach, Mozart and Muzio Clementi. After his father’s early death, Moscheles settled in Vienna in 1808. His abilities were such that he was able to study in the city under Albrechtsberger for counterpoint and theory and Salieri for composition. At this time he changed his first name from “I

Jacobus Gallus

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Jacobus Gallus (a.k.a. Jacob(us) Handl, Jacob(us) Händl; between 15 April and 31 July 155018 July 1591) was a late-Renaissance composer of presumed Slovene ethnicity. Born in Carniola, which at the time was one of the Habsburg lands in the Holy Roman Empire, he lived and worked in Moravia and Bohemia during the last decade of his life. Life Gallus’s name has been Slovenianized as Jakob Petelin (petelin means ‘rooster’; Handl and gallus mean the same in German and Latin, respectively). However, Gallus never used the name Petelin. He was probably born in Reifnitz (now Ribnica, southern Slovenia), although Slovene folk tradition also claims his birthplace to be at Šentviška Gora in the Slovenian Littoral. He used the Latin form of his name, to which he often added the adjective Carniolus, thus giving credit to his homeland Carniola. Gallus most likely was educated at the Cistercian Stična Abbey in Carniola. He left Carniola sometime between 1564 and 1566, traveling first to Austria, and later to Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia. For some time he lived at the Benedictine Melk Abbey in Lower Austria. He was a member of the Viennese court chapel in 1574, and was choirmaster (Kapellmeister) t

Jakob Suppan

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Jakob Suppan (, July 27, 1734 – April 11, 1810) was a composer and musician from the Holy Roman Empire. Early life and education Suppan was born in Schrötten in the Duchy of Styria in the Holy Roman Empire, now part of the municipality of Hengsberg in Styria, in southeast Austria. He was the second of ten children born to the smallholder Hans Suppan and Benigna (née Höller) Suppan, and he was baptized Jacob Suppan. His surname indicates Slovene ancestry on his father’s side; Slovenes once relocated to the Hengsberg area in large numbers from the Haloze region and the Slovene Hills. He probably received his music education from the local organist Andreas Dämb (1702–1753), and he then entered the Jesuit University of Graz in 1749 as the recipient of a scholarship founded by the Hengsberg parish priest Rupert Brenner. His enrollment at the university is recorded as Suppan Jacob, plebejus Hinspergensis ‘Jacob Suppan, a common man from Hengsberg’. Career Suppan relocated to Kamnik (now in Slovenia) before 1757, where he was initially an assistant to the teacher and organist Valentin Götzl. and in 1760 he became Götzl’s successor as the teacher and choirmaster at the women’s church in .

Joachim Neander

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Joachim Neander (165031 May 1680) was a German Calvinist teacher, theologian and hymnwriter whose most famous hymn is Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation (). The hymn has been described by John Julian in his A Dictionary of Hymnology as “a magnificent hymn of praise to God, perhaps the finest creation of its author, and of the first rank in its class.” Due to its popularity it has been translated several times into English – Catherine Winkworth being one of the translators in the 19th century – and the hymn has appeared in most major hymnals. He regarded as the first hymnwriter in German of the Reformed Church as well as the most notable. The family had changed the family name from the original German Neumann (‘New man’ in English) to the Graeco-Roman form Neander, following the fashion of the time. After the death of his father, he could not afford to study at a famous university. He therefore studied theology in his hometown from 1666 to 1670. At first, his heart was not in it. It was only when he heard a sermon of Theodor Undereyk (shortly before the end of his course) that his beliefs became serious. In 1671 he became a private tutor in Heidelberg, and in 167

Joachim Nicolas Eggert

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Joachim Nicolas Eggert (22 February 1779 – 14 April 1813) was a Swedish composer and musical director. Eggert was born in Gingst on Rügen, at that time part of Swedish Pommern. At a very young age he started studying to play the violin. In Stralsund he continued his musical education in the subjects of violin and composition. These studies were followed, in the first years of the 19th century, by studies in musical theory in Braunschweig and Göttingen, with Johann Nikolaus Forkel as a teacher. In 1802 he got his first appointment as a Kapellmeister at the court theater of Schwerin. A year later he became violinist at the Royal Court Orchestra of Sweden. He soon received his first commissions for compositions. In 1807 he was appointed a member of the Royal Swedish Musical Academy; in the same year he made his debut as a musical director. Between 1808 and 1812 he worked as a Hofkapellmeister at the Royal Court Orchestra. He died at Thomestorp, Östergötland, Sweden, of tuberculosis, at the age of 34 years. The main part of his compositional creations are instrumental works like operas, cantatas, musical dramas and symphonies. He also composed numerous works commissioned by the Swedish

Joannes Baptista Dolar

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Joannes Baptista Dolar ( or Janez Kersnik Dolar, , also Tollar or Thollary; 1620, Kamnik – February 13, 1673, Vienna) was a composer and contemporary of Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Johann Heinrich Schmelzer, Andreas Hofer and Pavel Josef Vejvanovský. Education Dolar attended a Jesuit college in Ljubljana until 1639, when he began studying philosophy and later theology at the University of Vienna. He may have studied music at the time, as well, with local musicians like Antonio Bertali. He also began the process of joining the Jesuit order in 1639, and was ordained a priest in 1652. Career Janez Krstnik Dolar was employed to oversee musical performance at the Jesuit college in Ljubljana from 1656 to 1658. Around 1661 or 162, he returned to Vienna, where he spent the rest of his life. He became the head of St. Ignatius and St. Pancratius Jesuit college, and also served as the musical director for a convent church. Dolar’s compositions are characteristic of European music from the middle of the Baroque period, including use of stile concertato. Works Dolar composed a number of large-scale instrumental and vocal works, many of them as part of his official duties. Only 14 of his wor

Johann Adam (composer)

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Johann Adam (c. 1705 – 13 November 1779) was a German violist and composer of the Baroque era. Life Little is known about Johann Adam’s early years and his birth year is an estimate. In 1733, he was listed as a Jagdpfeiffer at the Royal court in Dresden. External links *

Johann Adolph Hasse

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Johann Adolph Hasse (baptised 25 March 1699 – 16 December 1783) was an 18th-century German composer, singer and teacher of music. Immensely popular in his time, Hasse was best known for his prolific operatic output, though he also composed a considerable quantity of sacred music. Married to soprano Faustina Bordoni and a friend of librettist Pietro Metastasio, whose libretti he frequently set, Hasse was a pivotal figure in the development of opera seria and 18th-century music. Early career Hasse was baptised in Bergedorf near Hamburg where his family had been church organists for three generations. His career began in singing when he joined the Hamburg Oper am Gänsemarkt in 1718 as a tenor. In 1719 he obtained a singing post at the court of Brunswick, where in 1721 his first opera, Antioco, was performed; Hasse himself sang in the production. He is thought to have left Germany during 1722. During the 1720s he lived mostly in Naples, dwelling there for six or seven years. In 1725 his serenata Antonio e Cleopatra, was performed at Naples; the principal roles were sung by Carlo Broschi, better known as Farinelli, and Vittoria Tesi. The success of this work not only earned Hasse many c

Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer

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Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer (some authorities use the spelling Johann Kaspar Ferdinand Fischer) (1656 27 August 1746) was a German Baroque composer. Johann Nikolaus Forkel ranked Fischer as one of the best composers for keyboard of his day; however, partly due to the rarity of surviving copies of his music, his music is rarely heard today. Life Fischer seems to have been of Bohemian origin, possibly born at Schönfeld, but details about his life are sketchy. Fischer was baptized and spent his youth in Schlackenwerth, north-west Bohemia. The first record of his existence is found in the mid-1690s: by 1695 he was Kapellmeister to Ludwig Wilhelm of Baden, and he may have remained with the court until his death in Rastatt. Works Much of Fischer’s music shows the influence of the French Baroque style, exemplified by Jean Baptiste Lully, and he was responsible for bringing the French influence to German music. Fischer’s harpsichord suites updated the standard Froberger model (Allemande - Courante - Sarabande - Gigue); he was also one of the first composers to apply the principles of the orchestral suite to the harpsichord, replacing the standard French ouverture with an unmeasured pre

Johann Christoph Pez

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Johann Christoph Pez, also Petz, (9 September 1664 – 25 September 1716) was a German Baroque musician, Kapellmeister, and composer who worked in the courts of the Electorate of Bavaria and Duchy of Württemberg. Life Pez was born in Munich. From 1676, he was the tower watchman and later the choir director at the Church of Saint Peter in Munich. In 1688, he became a musician at the court of prince Maximilian Emmanuel, Elector of Bavaria who offered him the opportunity to study music under the leading Italian composer Arcangelo Corelli in Rome. In 1694, Pez joined the court of Joseph Clemens, Archbishop-Elector of Cologne at his residence in Bonn, working to improve the prince’s chapel orchestra. In 1695, he became Kapellmeister and advisor to the prince. Returning to Munich in 1701, he remained for five years at the court’s chapel for five years, before Max Emmanuel sent him to study composition and violin in Rome in the 1690s. He also taught the Wittelsbach children music. While in Munich, Pez was notice by the Duke of Württemberg, Eberhard Louis in the winter of 1705–06. This meant that when Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor dismissed the entire Bavarian Hofkapelle by Imperial fiat in

Johann Erasmus Kindermann

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Johann Erasmus Kindermann (29 March 1616 – 14 April 1655) was a German Baroque organist and composer. He was the most important composer of the Nuremberg school in the first half of the 17th century. Life Kindermann was born in Nuremberg and studied music from an early age; at 15 he already had a job performing at Sunday afternoon concerts at the Frauenkirche (he sang bass and played violin). His main teacher was Johann Staden. In 1634/35 the city officials granted Kindermann permission and money to travel to Italy to study new music. Nothing is known about his stay in Italy; he may have visited Venice like several other Nuremberg composers (Hans Leo Hassler, Johann Philipp Krieger). In January 1636 the city council ordered Kindermann back to take the position of second organist of the Frauenkirche. In 1640 he was employed as organist at Schwäbisch-Hall, but quit the same year to become organist of the Egidienkirche, the third most important position of its kind in Nuremberg after St. Sebald and St. Lorenz. Kindermann stayed in Nuremberg for the rest of his life, and became one of the most famous musicians of the city and its most acclaimed teacher. His pupils included Augustin Pfl

Johann Ernst Eberlin

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Johann Ernst Eberlin (27 March 1702 – 19 June 1762) was a German composer and organist whose works bridge the baroque and classical eras. He was a composer of church organ and choral music. Marpurg claims he wrote as much and as rapidly as Alessandro Scarlatti and Georg Philipp Telemann, a claim also repeated by Leopold Mozart - though Eberlin did not live nearly as long as either of those two composers. Biography Eberlin’s first musical training began in 1712 at the Jesuit Gymnasium of St. Salvator in Augsburg. His teachers there were Georg Egger and Balthasar Siberer, who taught him how to play the organ. He began his university education in 1721 at the Benedictine University in Salzburg where he studied law, but from 1723 turned to music. His first breakthrough was in 1727 when he became the organist for Count Leopold von Firmian (then Archbishop of Salzburg). He reached the peak of his career when he was the organist for Archbishop Andreas Jakob von Dietrichstein. By 1749 he held the posts of Hof- und Domkapellmeister (Court and Cathedral chapel master) simultaneously, an achievement which his successors Michael Haydn, Leopold Mozart, and Mozart himself were not to match. Despi

Johann Georg Heinrich Backofen

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Johann Georg Heinrich Backofen (6 July 1768 in Durlach – 10 July 1830? in Darmstadt) was a German clarinetist, composer, and painter. In his time, Backofen enjoyed great fame; he was not only known as a composer and virtuoso of the clarinet but also played the harp, flute, and basset horn. His year of death is not known with certainty; the year 1839 is found in some documents. Selected works * Deux valses et deux allemandes à deux et quatre mains pour le piano (2 Waltzes and 2 Allemandes for Piano 2- and 4-Hands), Op. 1 (published 1834) * Concerto in B major for clarinet and orchestra, Op. 3 (Bonn, 1809?) * 13 Variazioni sull’ aria “Ey mein lieber Augustin” for harp, Op. 4 (Hamburg, 1801) * Concertante for harp, basset horn and cello ad libitum, Op. 7 (Leipzig, 1800?) * Concertante for harp, viola and cello ad libitum, Op. 8 * Quintet in F major for basset horn and string quartet, Op. 9 * Sinfonia concertante in A major for 2 clarinets and orchestra, Op. 10 (Leipzig, 1810?) * 3 Duos concertants for 2 clarinets, Op. 13 (Leipzig, 1803) * Quintet for clarinet and string quartet, Op. 15 (Leipzig, 1805?) * Concerto in E major for clarinet and orchestra, Op. 16 (Leipzig, 1809?) * Concert

Johann Gottlieb Janitsch

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Johann Gottlieb Janitsch (19 June 1708 – c. 1763) There are also many other manuscripts in libraries across Europe. Works Vocal * Cantata “Che debbo rimirar” for soprano, strings and basso continuo * Beati Omnes performed at the coronation of Adolf Frederick, King of Sweden, 1751 * Several Lieder for voice and keyboard * Serenata, performed in Frankfurt an der Oder by the students of the University, 14. November 1729 when his Royal Majesty, Frederick William I of Prussia visited Mass. (Lost) External links *

Johann Heinrich Schmelzer

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Johann Heinrich Schmelzer (c. 1620–1623between 29 February and 20 March 1680) was an Austrian composer and violinist of the middle Baroque era. Almost nothing is known about his early years, but he seems to have arrived in Vienna during the 1630s, and remained composer and musician at the Habsburg court for the rest of his life. He enjoyed a close relationship with Emperor Leopold I, was ennobled by him, and rose to the rank of Kapellmeister in 1679. He died during a plague epidemic only months after getting the position. Schmelzer was one of the most important violinists of the period, and an important influence on later German and Austrian composers for violin. He made substantial contributions to the development of violin technique and promoted the use and development of sonata and suite forms in Austria and South Germany. He was the leading Austrian composer of his generation, and an influence on Heinrich Ignaz Biber. Biography Schmelzer was born in Scheibbs, Lower Austria. Nothing is known about his early years, and most of the surviving information about his background was recounted by the composer himself in his petition for ennoblement of 1673. He described his father as a

Johann Krieger

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Johann Krieger (28 December 1651 – 18 July 1735) was a German composer and organist, younger brother of Johann Philipp Krieger. Born in Nuremberg, he worked at Bayreuth, Zeitz, and Greiz before settling in Zittau. He was one of the most important keyboard composers of his day, highly esteemed by, among others, George Frideric Handel. A prolific composer of church and secular music, he published several dozen of his works, and others survive in manuscript. However, hundreds more were lost when Zittau was destroyed by fire in 1757, during the Seven Years’ War. Krieger’s keyboard music places him among the most important German composers of his time. The two published collections, Sechs musicalische Partien (1697) and Anmuthige Clavier-Übung (1698), contain harpsichord suites, organ toccatas, fugues, ricercars, and other works. Krieger’s contemporaries praised his contrapuntal skill, evident in the extant fugues and ricercars. Johann Mattheson was particularly impressed with Krieger’s double fugues, remarking that he knew nobody who surpassed Krieger in this form, except Handel. Handel himself admired and studied Krieger’s work, even taking a copy of Anmuthige Clavier-Übung with him t

Johann Kuhnau

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Johann Kuhnau (; 6 April 16605 June 1722) was a German polymath, known primarily as a composer today. He was also active as a novelist, translator, lawyer, and music theorist, and was able to combine these activities with his duties in his official post as Thomaskantor in Leipzig, which he occupied for 21 years. Much of his music, including operas, masses, and other large-scale vocal works, is lost. His reputation today rests on his Biblical Sonatas, a set of programmatic keyboard sonatas published in 1700, in which each sonata depicted in detail a particular story from the Bible. After his death, Kuhnau was succeeded as Thomaskantor by Johann Sebastian Bach. Biography Much of the biographical information on Kuhnau is known from an autobiography published by Johann Mattheson in 1740 in his Grundlage einer Ehrenpforte. Kuhnau’s Protestant family were originally from Bohemia, and their name was Kuhn. Kuhnau was born in Geising, present-day Saxony. His musical talents were apparent early, and in around 1670, he was sent to Dresden to study with court musicians there. During the next decade, he studied keyboard playing and music composition, as well as French and Italian. In 1680, an o

Johann Ludwig Krebs

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Johann Ludwig Krebs (baptized 12 October 1713 – 1 January 1780) was a German Baroque musician and composer for the pipe organ, harpsichord, other instruments and orchestras. His output also included chamber music, choral works and concertos. Life Krebs was born in 1713 in Buttelstedt to Johann Tobias Krebs, an organist. At least three of his brothers were musically talented. Krebs was sent to Leipzig to study organ, lute, and the violin. Krebs studied with Johann Sebastian Bach on the organ. Bach (who had also instructed Krebs’s father) held Krebs in high standing. From a technical standpoint, Krebs was unrivaled next to Bach in his organ proficiency. However, Krebs found it difficult to obtain a patron or a cathedral post. His Baroque style was being supplanted by the newer galant music style and the classical music era. Krebs took a small post in Zwickau, Krebs’s Fantasia in F minor for oboe and organ is one of his best-known works, as is the Eight Short Preludes and Fugues that are sometimes attributed to him as well as to his father and J. S. Bach. He is also remembered for two large-scale concertos for lute and orchestra. Krebs’s three sons became well-known performers in thei

Johann Peter Salomon

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Johann Peter Salomon (20 February 1745 baptized – 25 November 1815) was a German violinist, composer, conductor and musical impresario. Although an accomplished violinist, he is best known for bringing Joseph Haydn to London and for conducting the symphonies that Haydn wrote during his stay in England. He also knew and worked with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven. Life Johann Peter Salomon was born in January 1745 into a Jewish family in Bonn (but was baptized as an infant) and was the second son of Philipp Salomon, an oboist at the court in Bonn. His birth home was at Bonngasse 515, coincidentally the later birth home of Beethoven. In 1758, at the age of thirteen, he became a violinist in the orchestra of the Elector Clemens August at Bonn. Seven years later, Salomon went on tour and traveled to Berlin and Frankfort. Following this he arrived in Rheinsberg where he soon became the concert master and composer for the orchestra of Prince Heinrich of Prussia. several art songs, a number of concertos, and chamber music pieces. He is perhaps best known today, however, as a concert organizer and conductor. Haydn wrote his symphonies numbers 93 to 104 for these trips, som

Johann Rudolf Zumsteeg

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Johann Rudolf Zumsteeg (10 January 1760 – 27 January 1802) was a German composer and conductor from the Classical period. Zumsteeg championed the operas of Mozart in Stuttgart, staging the first performances there of Die Zauberflöte, Don Giovanni, and Così fan tutte. He also was a prolific composer of Lieder and ballads. His ballads had a great influence on the young Franz Schubert, who imitated a number of Zumsteeg’s as studies (some even in exactly the same keys) while he was a teenager. Life and early career Zumsteeg was born in Sachsenflur, Lauda-Königshofen, in a military camp to his father Rudolph Zum Steeg. He received an education at the Karlsschule Stuttgart after the death of both parents. Zumsteeg was initially admitted as a stucco worker, however his musical aptitude soon allowed him transfer to the music department. There Zumsteeg became intimate friends with Friedrich Schiller. A setting for Schiller’s drama, Die Räuber (1782) is an example of the type of close collaboration that Zumsteeg undertook with prominent poets. Zumsteeg showed promise as a virtuoso cellist, and in 1778 claimed the highest award in the performance division of the Karlsschule for the sixth time

Johann Schelle

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Johann Schelle (6 September 1648 – 10 March 1701) was a German Baroque composer. Biography Schnelle was born on 6 September 1648 in Geising, Saxony. From 1655 to 1657 he was a choirboy in Dresden and pupil of Heinrich Schütz. From 1657 to 1664 on Schütz’s recommendation he was a singer in Wolfenbüttel. He was the cantor of the Thomanerchor, Leipzig, from 1677 to 1701. In 1689/90 he collaborated on a cycle of chorale cantatas with Leipzig theologian Benedict Carpzov. Leipzig When his former teacher Sebastian Knüpfer died, Schelle succeeded him as Kantor of the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, a post later held by J.S. Bach. He obtained the post on 31 January 1677, and held it until his death. His appointment was made against the wishes of the city mayor, who remained antagonistic to him and the changes he introduced in the musical content of services. The matter came to a head when Schelle replaced the Latin compositions written by Italian masters with music to German texts, especially cantatas. When the city council finally took Schelle’s side on the problem Schelle started the practice of introducing into the Protestant liturgy in Leipzig not only the Gospel cantata to German texts but la

Johann Sebastian Bach

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Early life#

Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, the capital of the duchy of Saxe-Eisenach, in present-day Germany, on 21 March 1685 O.S. He was the eighth and youngest child of Johann Ambrosius Bach, director of the town musicians, and Maria Elisabeth , daughter of a town councillor. The Bach family, traditionally traced to the patriarch Vitus “Veit” Bach (), produced three to four generations of musicians in the Thuringia region, whose insular cultural climate fostered conservative musicianship, with external influences arriving mainly via the courts. Nothing is definitively known about Bach’s early years before 1693; his musical education in particular is highly conjectural. His family, particularly the uncles, were all professional musicians who worked as church organists, court chamber musicians, and composers. Bach’s father presumably taught him the violin, Ambrosius’ own primary instrument, along with basic music theory principles. One uncle, Johann Christoph Bach (1645–1693), may have introduced him to the organ, though this is debated since the uncle may not have been close to Bach’s immediate family. Bach’s mother died in 1694, and his father eight months later in February 1695. The 10-year-old Bach moved in with his eldest brother, Johann Christoph Bach (1671–1721), the organist at St. Michael’s Church in Ohrdruf, Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. There he studied, performed, and copied music, including his brother’s, despite being forbidden to do so because scores were so valuable and private and ledger paper was costly. He also received instruction on the clavichord from his brother. Johann Christoph exposed him to the works of composers of the day, including South Germans such as Johann Caspar Kerll, Johann Jakob Froberger, and Johann Pachelbel (under whom Johann Christoph had studied); North Germans such as Georg Böhm, Johann Reincken and Friedrich Nicolaus Bruhns from Hamburg, and Dieterich Buxtehude; Frenchmen such as Jean-Baptiste Lully, Louis Marchand, and Marin Marais; and the Italian Girolamo Frescobaldi. He learned theology, Latin, and Greek at the local Gymnasium (Germany) . By 3 April 1700 Bach had begun studies at St Michael’s School in Lüneburg, two weeks’ travel north of Ohrdruf. His journey was probably undertaken mostly on foot. He also came into contact with sons of aristocrats from northern Germany who had been sent to the nearby Ritter-Academie to prepare for careers in other disciplines.

Johann Sigismund Kusser

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Johann Sigismund Kusser or Cousser (baptized 13 February 1660 – before 17 November 1727) was a composer born in the Kingdom of Hungary who was active in Germany, France, and Ireland. Life The son of Johann Kusser, a Protestant cantor in Pressburg (then in the Kingdom of Hungary), Johann Sigismund and his parents moved to Stuttgart in 1674 because of religious persecution. Two years later he went to spend six years in Paris and the Palace of Versailles. There he met the French court composer Jean-Baptiste Lully and learned from him how to compose in the French style. Kusser was then employed at the princely courts in Baden-Baden and Ansbach, before taking a trip to Germany in October 1683. In 1690 he became the first Kapellmeister of the in Braunschweig. In the following years, he married Hedwig Melusine von Damm, daughter of a local Ratsherr. Their daughter Auguste Elisabeth married the Braunschweig historian . During his time there, Kusser wrote eight operas, enriching the Italian-influenced repertoire. Disagreements in 1694 with the librettist and court poet Friedrich Christian Bressand led Kusser to move to the Oper am Gänsemarkt in Hamburg. He then left Hamburg at the end of 16

Johann Tobias Krebs

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Johann Tobias Krebs (7 July 1690 – 11 February 1762) was a German organist and composer, today best remembered as the father of Johann Ludwig Krebs, one of Bach’s most accomplished pupils. Krebs was born in Heichelheim and went to school in the nearby Weimar. Nothing is known about his early musical training, but at age 20 Krebs was proficient enough at the keyboard to be invited to become organist at Buttelstedt, another town in the same area. Krebs accepted, but continued his music studies in Weimar, travelling there twice a week to study with Johann Gottfried Walther, and later with Johann Sebastian Bach. In 1721 he was accepted a position at Buttstädt, where he played the organ of Michaeliskirche and taught at the school. Krebs remained in Buttstädt for the rest of his life. He had three sons, and the eldest, Johann Ludwig Krebs, became a well-known composer. Krebs’ surviving works are scarce. A few chorale preludes preserved in manuscripts show a marked fondness for counterpoint. Two of the lesser known pieces from the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis catalogue may have been composed by Krebs: * Chorale prelude Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, BWV 660b, an arrangement of one of Bach’s Leip

Johann Vierdanck

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Johann Vierdanck (also Virdanck, Vyrdanck, Feyertagk, Feyerdank, Fierdanck; ca. 1605–1646) was a German violinist, cornettist, and composer of the Baroque period. Life Vierdanck was born near Dresden. In 1615 he joined the court chapel of Dresden, where he became a student of Heinrich Schütz and of William Brade. His instrumental works were influenced by the Italian violinist Carlo Farina, also active in the Dresden court. After visits to Copenhagen and Lübeck, Vierdanck occupied the post of organist in Stralsund from 1635 until his death. He was buried in Stralsund on 1 April 1646. The group Parnassi Musici has recorded several of his instrumental works, from his 1641 publication, for the CD label Classic Produktion Osnabrück. Compositions *Instrumental **Erster Theil Newer Pavanen, Gagliarden, Balletten vnd Correnten m. 2 V. u. einem Violon nebenst dem basso continuo (1637, Greifswald) *Vocal Music **Erster Theil Geistlichen Concerten für 2 - 4 St. und B.c. (Greifswald, 1641/43) **Ander Theil Geistlicher Concerten mit 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. vnd 9. St. nebenst einem gedoppelten B.c. (Rostok, 1643) **Cantate: Der Herr hat seinen Engeln befohlen **Cantate: Ich freue mich im Herrn (Greifs

Johannes Martini

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Johannes Martini (c. 1440 – late 1497 or early 1498) was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance. Life He was born in Brabant around 1440, but information about his early life is scanty. He probably received his early training in Flanders, as did most of the composers of his generation. Sometime before 1473, he became associated with the ducal chapel in Ferrara, Italy, where Ercole I d’Este was attempting to build a musical establishment on the part of some of the other aristocratic centres in Italy. He was a member of the famous Milan chapel of the Sforza family in July 1474, along with Loyset Compère, Gaspar van Weerbeke, and some of the other composers from northern Europe who were part of the first wave of Franco-Flemish influence in Italy. In November, he returned to Ferrara. What prompted him to leave and return is not known, but since the Milanese chapel was then the most renowned in Europe, it is possible he went to investigate the competition for his employer as much as to improve his own singing and compositional skill. However, he must have returned to Milan, since he is listed along with Jean Japart, Colinet de Lannoy, and Compère, to be given a safe pass for exit

John Frederick Lampe

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John Frederick Lampe (born Johann Friedrich Lampe; probably 1703 – 25 July 1751) was a musician and composer. Life Lampe was born in the Electorate of Saxony, Holy Roman Empire. He came to England in 1724 and played the bassoon in opera houses. In 1730, he was hired by John Rich to be the composer for Covent Garden Theatre. During his time as a bassoonist in London opera houses, in 1727, he played at the coronation of King George II. Like the composer Thomas Arne, Lampe wrote operatic works in English in defiance of the vogue for Italian opera popularized by George Frideric Handel and Nicola Porpora. Lampe, along with Henry Carey and J. S. Smith, founded the short-lived English Opera Project. He became a friend of Charles Wesley, and wrote several tunes to accompany Wesley’s hymns. His works for the stage include the mock operas Pyramus and Thisbe (1745) and The Dragon of Wantley (1734), which ran for 69 nights, a record for the time, surpassing The Beggar’s Opera. From November 1750 until his death, Lampe was based in Dublin and later in Edinburgh. He is buried in Canongate Kirkyard on the Royal Mile. The grave lies to the northeast of the church behind the Fettes vault. Works *Th

Joseph Kreutzer

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Joseph Kreutzer (11 November 1790 – 16 June 1840) was a German composer, conductor, guitarist, and violinist. Kreutzer was born in Aachen, the son of a local music teacher. He lived in Düsseldorf from about 1805, where he established himself among the leading musicians of the city. He is known to have been a violin teacher to Norbert Burgmüller and probably concert master at the local theatre for a time. He died in Düsseldorf. His compositions consisted mostly of chamber music and instructive pieces for bowed strings and guitar. It is for his charming though conservative guitar works that he is still being performed and recorded today. He also penned a lost symphony. Works Guitar * 6 Variations on a Theme from Weber’s “Der Freischütz” op. 6 (for 2 guitars) * 6 Variations on a theme by Mozart op. 7 * Six Variations brillants über das Lied “A Schüsserl und a Reindl” op. 10 * Six Variations in C major op. 11 * Six Variations on “God Save the King” op. 12 * Variationen über das Lied “Kind willst du ruhig schlafen” aus Peter von Winters Oper “Das Opferfest” op. 13 * 8 Variations in A major on a favourite Tyrolean song op. 14 * 12 Pièces amusantes op. 17 * Trois Rondeaux op. 23 * 6 Varia

Karl Keller

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Karl Keller (; 16 October 1784, Dessau – 19 July 1855, Schaffhausen) was a German flautist and composer. His name is sometimes rendered as Charles in English-speaking countries. Keller’s works are mostly oriented towards the usage of flutes in a concert setting as well as a paucal number in guitar exists. Despite this, he was described in the 19th edition of the British music magazine, The Monthly Musical Record, as " c omposer of several pieces". Life Keller was born to the musician, Johann Gotthilf Keller, who died at a very early age. His father’s colleagues and friends later taught music while having an additional benefit of possessing a soprano voice that later became a baritone voice. As he grew up, he developed an interest in acting roles in theaters. This later encouraged conflicts between him and his father’s music-oriented connections who were his music instructors. As this turn of event influenced him, he chose the flute as his primary musical instrument, in which he became an accomplished flautist after two years. His time in Donauschingen was also the moment of his life, in which he was married to the opera singer, Wilhelmine Meierhofer. Keller settled in Schaffhausen

Leonhard von Call

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Leonhard von Call (19 March 1767 – 19 February 1815), sometimes referred to as “Leonhard de Call”, was an Austrian composer and virtuoso on the mandolin and guitar. During his lifetime he focused less on performing and more upon teaching and writing music for others to play. Life He was born in Eppan an der Weinstraße, South Tyrol. Although his village is in northern Italy today, it was part of the Tyrol in the Holy Roman Empire when he was growing up. Following World War I the area became part of Italy in 1919. After participating in the War of the First Coalition, which ran 1792 to 1797, he was awarded the Order Pour le Mérite, and became a civil servant at the Imperial Kammerzahlamt (Imperial Chamber Payments Office). At age 40, he married Maria Wilhelmina Brabee, who was 18 years his junior. They had five children. He died in Vienna. In 2006, the music school in his hometown was named after him. Career in music Von Call had grown up studying music, practicing with mandolin, guitar and flute, and in 1801, he commenced a professional career in Vienna teaching mandolin and guitar. He wrote for these instruments during this time, and Germans appreciated the flowing melodies combine

Leonhardt Schröter

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Leonhardt Schröter (c. 1532 – c. 1601) was a German Renaissance choirmaster, teacher, and composer at Magdeburg. Biography Leonhardt (alternatively spelled “Leonhard” or “Leonhart”) Schröter (or Schroeter) was born in Torgau. His education began in Torgau where one of his teachers was Johann Walter. His subsequent education included schools at Annaberg-Buchholz and following at the Meissen ducal school. He is thought to have died sometime around the year 1601, based on an inscription in Friedrich Weissensee’s “Opus Melicum” from 1602, which describes Schröter’s recent death. Works Schröter composed carols, hymns, motets, a passion, psalms, and a Te Deum which date from 1571 to 1587. He also composed several part-songs dating from 1562, which have been noted for their contrapuntal ability. His style has been described as having the “greatest simplicity”, but also the “highest grandeur,” simultaneously simple and sublime. He employed Reformation polyphony in his chorale settings, and also homophony, most notably in his eight-voice double-choir settings. His choral settings of psalms, while not numerous, are considered an “important contribution” to the Protestant motet tradition. Ref

Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor

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Leopold I (Leopold Ignaz Joseph Balthasar Franz Felician; ; 9 June 1640 – 5 May 1705) was Holy Roman Emperor, King of Germany, King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia. The second son of Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor, by his first wife, Maria Anna of Spain, Leopold became heir apparent in 1654 after the death of his elder brother Ferdinand IV, King of the Romans. Elected in 1658, Leopold ruled the Holy Roman Empire until his death in 1705, becoming the second-longest-ruling emperor (46 years and 9 months) of the House of Habsburg. He was both a composer and a considerable patron of music. Leopold’s reign is known for conflicts with the Ottoman Empire in the Great Turkish War (1683–1699) and rivalry with Louis XIV, a contemporary and first cousin (on the maternal side; fourth cousin on the paternal side), in the west. After more than a decade of warfare, Leopold emerged victorious in the east thanks to the military talents of Prince Eugene of Savoy. By the Treaty of Karlowitz, Leopold recovered almost all of the Kingdom of Hungary, which had fallen under Turkish power in the years after the 1526 Battle of Mohács. Leopold fought three wars against France: the Franco-Dutch War, the Ni

Leopold Mozart

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Johann Georg Leopold Mozart (14 November 1719 – 28 May 1787) was a German composer, violinist, and music theorist. He is best known today as the father and teacher of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and for his violin textbook Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule (1756). Life and career Childhood and youth Mozart was born in Augsburg on 14 November 1719, son of Johann Georg Mozart, a bookbinder, and his second wife Anna Maria Sulzer. From an early age, Mozart sang as a choirboy. He attended a local Jesuit school, , where he studied logic, science, and theology, graduating magna cum laude in 1735. Mozart studied then at the St. Salvator Lyzeum. While a student in Augsburg, Mozart appeared in student theater productions as an actor and singer, and became a skilled violinist and organist. He also developed an interest, which he retained, in microscopes and telescopes. Although his parents had planned a career for Leopold as a Catholic priest, this apparently was not Leopold’s own wish. An old school friend told Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1777, “Ah he Leopold was a great fellow. My father thought the world of him. And how he hoodwinked the clerics about becoming a priest!” Mozart withdrew f

Ludwig August Lebrun

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Ludwig August Lebrun (baptized 2 May 1752 – 16 December 1790) was a German oboist and composer. Life Lebrun was born in Mannheim. The well-known and celebrated oboe virtuoso (a contemporary described being “charmed by his divine oboe”) played with the orchestra at the court of the Prince-Elector Carl Theodor in Mannheim. He started playing with the orchestra at the age of 12 and became a full member at the age of 15. His father, also an oboist probably from present-day Belgium, worked from 1747 at the Mannheim court. He was a contemporary of Carl Stamitz and Anton Stamitz, and belonged to the Mannheim school. In the summer of 1778 he married the soprano Franziska Danzi, one of the most outstanding and well-known singers of the time and the sister of composer Franz Danzi. With her, he travelled extensively across Europe: Milan, Paris, London, Vienna, Prague, Naples, Munich and Berlin. The couple’s playing and singing complemented each other perfectly and arias with obbligato oboe were written for them, as for instance those in Günther von Schwarzburg (1777) by Ignaz Holzbauer, L’Europa riconosciuta (1778) by Antonio Salieri and Castore e Polluce (1787) by Georg Joseph Vogler. The mu

Martin Agricola

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Martin Agricola (6 January 1486 – 10 June 1556) was a German composer of Renaissance music and a music theorist. From 1524 until his death, he lived in the German city of Magdeburg, where he was a teacher or cantor in the Protestant school. Georg Rhau, a publisher and senator in Wittenberg, was Agricola’s close friend and publisher. Agricola’s theoretical writing was valuable in expounding the change from the old to the new system of musical notation. His Musica instrumentalis deudsch (English: German Instrumental Music), published in 1528, 1530, 1532 and 1542, and then heavily revised in 1545, was one of the most important early works in organology and on the elements of music. Agricola was the first to harmonize in four parts Martin Luther’s famous chorale, “Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott” (English: “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”. Notes References ;Attribution * Further reading *Translation of Musica Instrumentalis Deudsch *Classical Composers Database * *

Monk of Salzburg

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The Monk of Salzburg () was a German composer of the late 14th century. He worked at the court of the Salzburg archbishop Pilgrim von Puchheim (1365–96); more than 100 Liederhandschriften (manuscripts) in Early New High German are attributed to him. His name and monastic order is unknown; some of the introductions to the manuscript sources mention the names Herman, Johans, and Hanns and describe him as either Benedictine or Dominican. Despite this confusion, all the manuscripts that contain his works “agree that he was a learned monk who wrote sacred and secular songs”. His compositions overcome the Minnesang traditions and even approach recent polyphonic settings. List of songs, ordered by liturgical calendar Advent * Maria keusche muter zart * Vor anegeng der sunne klar * Joseph, lieber nefe mein * Mein trost, Maria, raine mait * Besniten wirdigkleichen * Eia herre got, was mag das gesein From the Sunday after Epiphany to Lent * Ave, meres sterne * Maria pis gegrüsset * Des menschen liebhaber * Do got in dem throne sas * Maidleich pluem, der jungkfrawn kron * Von unnser vrawen mitleiden Easter season * Die nacht wirt schir des himels gast * Maria stuend mit swidem smerzen * Eia d

Nicola Vicentino

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Nicola Vicentino (1511 – 1575 or 1576) was an Italian music theorist and composer of the Renaissance. He was one of the most progressive musicians of the age, inventing, among other things, a microtonal keyboard. Life Little is known of his early life. Born in Vicenza, he may have studied with Adrian Willaert in Venice, which was close by, and he acquired an early interest in the contemporary humanistic revival, including the study of ancient Greek music theory and performance practice (about which little was known, but was then being uncovered, through the work of scholars such as Girolamo Mei and Giangiorgio Trissino). At some time in the 1530s or early 1540s, he went to Ferrara, which was to become the center for experimental secular music in Italy from the middle to the end of the 16th century. Apparently, he served as a music tutor to the Duke of Ferrara and some of his family members in the House of Este, and some of Vincentino’s music was sung at the court of Ferrara. During the late 1540s, his reputation as a music theorist grew. He established his reputation as a composer with his publication of a book of madrigals in Venice in 1546, and in 1551 he took part in one of the

Nikolaus Decius

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Nikolaus Decius (also Degius, Deeg, Tech a Curia, and Nickel von Hof; c. 1485 – 21 March 1541 ) was a German monk, hymn-writer, Protestant reformer and composer. Biography He was probably born in Hof in Upper Franconia, Bavaria, around 1485. He studied at the University of Leipzig and obtained a master’s degree at Wittenburg University in 1523 and became a monk. Although a monk, he was an advocate of the Protestant Reformation and a disciple of Martin Luther. He wrote in 1523 “Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr”, a German paraphrase of the Latin Gloria, adapted by Luther in 1525. Decius’s version was first sung on Easter Day at Braunschweig on 5 April 1523. Decius’s Low German version first appeared in print in Gesang Buch by Joachim Sluter, printed in 1525. In 1526, Decius became preacher at the Church of St. Nicholas in Stettin at the same time as Paulus von Rhode was appointed preacher at St. James’s in Stettin. In 1535 he became pastor of St. Nicholas and died there in March 1541 after a suspected poisoning. Shortly before his death he wrote the hymn “O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig” (O Lamb of God, innocent) sung on a tune from the 13th century. Decius’s version was first published in A

Philipp Heinrich Erlebach

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Philipp Heinrich Erlebach (25 July 1657 – 17 April 1714) was a German Baroque composer, a prolific writer of church music and secular music. Much of his work is lost due to a fire. Life Erlebach was born in Esens, Lower Saxony, the son of Johann Philipp Erlebach, a musician at the court of Count Ulrich II of East Frisia (1605–1648), the principality where the younger Erlebach received his early musical training. which contains over 75 such pieces. From the more than 120 instrumental works Erlebach is known to have produced, only 13 pieces survive. Surviving works * VI Ouvertures begleitet mit … Airs nach französischer Art, a 5, 6, 1693 * Six sonatas for violin, viola da gamba and continuo, 1694 Further reading *Bernd Baselt and Dorothea Schroeder’s article in New Grove Dictionary of Music * Bernd Baselt: Der Rudolstädter Hofkapellmeister Philipp Heinrich Erlebach, 1963 * Bernd Baselt: Die Musikaliensammlung der Schwarzburg-Rudolstädtischen Hofkapelle unter Philipp Heinrich Erlebach. Traditionen und Aufgaben der hallischen Musikwissenschaft, 1963, pp 105–134 External links * * Sonatas linnrecords.com

Philipp Stolle

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Philipp Stolle (1614 – 4 October 1675) was a German composer, tenor and theorbo player of the Baroque era. Stolle was born in 1614 at Radeburg. He was a pupil of Caspar Kittel. He worked for many years at the Dresden court of Johann Georg I, Elector of Saxony, while Heinrich Schütz was Kapellmeister there. On 16 January 1649 Stolle married Anna Maria Krätzschmar. At the request of the Dresden court poet David Schirmer, Stolle produced musical settings for 68 of Schirmer’s poems, published in 1654 as the songbook Singende Rosen Oder Liebes-und Tugend-Lieder. The settings were for soprano, theorbo or viola da gamba, and basso continuo. Schirmer also included 51 of the songs from Singende Rosen in his famous 1657 collection Poetische Rosen-Gepüsche. Eventually Stolle was transferred into a new ensemble at court, under the musical direction of Giovanni Andrea Bontempi. This was set up by the Elector’s son, the future Johann Georg II, in response to the chronic decline of his father’s Kapelle. However, in 1653, Stolle wrote to Johann Georg II asking to be released, pointing out that after 21 years of service at Dresden, his annual salary of 300 thaler was still not enough for him to pro

Thomas Selle

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Thomas Selle (23 March 1599 – 2 July 1663) was a German baroque composer. Life There is practically no reliable information about the early years of Thomas Selle. Between his birth in 1599 and his matriculation in the University of Leipzig in 1622, there is no documentary evidence of his activities. However, considering his claim from around 1643 in the Kurtze doch gründliche anleitung zur Singekunst (A brief but thorough introduction to the art of singing) of “having been motivated by the late Mr. Seth Calvisius” (“aus antrieb des sel igen H errn Sethi Calvisij”) in applying himself to the art of chanting, he is assumed to be an alumnus of the Thomasschule in Leipzig, where he would have been student of Sethus Calvisius († 1615) and perhaps also Johann Hermann Schein († 1630). By 1624 he is a teacher at the Latin school of Heide, and only a year after he becomes a headmaster in Wesselburen (both Schleswig-Holstein). In his time in Wesselburen he married Anna Weihe, the daughter of a bourgeois family from Husum, and prepared most of his secular songs to appear in print. In 1634 Selle and his wife resettled in Itzehoe, where Selle took on the duties as Kantor with the title of direc

Thomas Stoltzer

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Thomas Stoltzer, also Stolczer, Scholczer (c.1480–1526) was a German composer of the Renaissance. Life Nothing is known of Stoltzer’s early life, though he is thought to have come from the same family as Clemens Stoltzer, who was a town clerk in Schweidnitz, and to have been born in Schweidnitz, Silesia. Stoltzer may have studied with Heinrich Finck; while no concrete evidence of this association exists, he was at the least intimately familiar with Finck’s work since he quotes from Finck’s music copiously. He served as a priest in Breslau from 1519, and was a supporter of the Reformation, though he never made public his sentiments. Louis II appointed him magister capellae in Ofen at the Hungarian court on May 8, 1522. Ludwig’s wife, Mary, asked him to set Martin Luther’s translations of psalms xii, xiii, xxxviii and lxxxvi, which he did between 1524 and 1526. One personal letter of Stoltzer’s is still extant, dated February 23, 1526 and addressed to Albert, Duke of Prussia in Königsberg; in this letter Stoltzer relates the news of a recently completed psalm setting and intimates that he would like to join Albrecht’s court. On this letter, there is additional writing, dated March 15

Valentin Rathgeber

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Johann Valentin Rathgeber (3 April 1682 – 2 June 1750) was a German composer, organist and choirmaster of the Baroque Era. Life Rathgeber was born in Oberelsbach. His father, an organist, gave him his first music lessons. At the beginning of the 18th century, he began studying at the University of Würzburg, initially studying rhetoric, mathematics and law; later he changed direction and continued his studies in theology. His first position was as a teacher at the Julius Hospital in Würzburg. In 1707 he took up the post of chamber musician and servant of the abbot of the Banz Abbey, Kilian Düring. Worklist (selection) * Augsburger Tafel-Confect * Opus I Octava musica clavium octo musicarum in Missis octo musicalibus (mass compositions) * Opus II (vespers) * Opus III (masses) * Opus IV (offertories with instrumental accompaniment) * Opus V (antiphons for the church year) * Opus VI (secular instrumental works) * Opus VII (masses for the church year) * Opus VIII (requiem and Libera) * Opus IX Psalmodia vespertina (vespers cycle) * Opus X (Latin and German arias) * Opus XI (hymns) * Opus XII (rural and town masses) * Opus XIII (Miserere and Tantum ergo) * Opus XIV (offertories cycle in

Vincent Lübeck

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Vincent Lübeck (c. September 1654 – 9 February 1740) was a German composer and organist. He was born in Padingbüttel and worked as organist and composer at Stade’s St. Cosmae et Damiani (1675–1702) and Hamburg’s famous St. Nikolai (1702–1740), where he played one of the largest contemporary organs. He enjoyed a remarkably high reputation in his lifetime, and had numerous pupils, among whom were two of his sons. Despite Lübeck’s longevity and fame, very few compositions by him survive: a handful of organ praeludia and chorales in the North German style, a few cantatas and several pieces for harpsichord, some of which were published during the composer’s lifetime. Of his works, the organ pieces are the most important: influenced by Dieterich Buxtehude and Johann Adam Reincken, Lübeck composed technically and artistically sophisticated works, with frequent virtuosic passages for pedal, five-voice polyphony, and other devices rarely used by most of the composers of the period. Life Lübeck was born in Padingbüttel, a small town some 70 km north of Bremen. His father, also named Vincent, worked as organist first at Glückstadt and then, from 1647, at the Marienkirche in Flensburg, where h

Walther von der Vogelweide

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Walther von der Vogelweide (; c. 1170) was a Minnesänger who composed and performed love-songs and political songs (Sprüche) in Middle High German. Walther has been described as the greatest German lyrical poet before Goethe; his hundred or so love-songs are widely regarded as the pinnacle of Minnesang, the medieval German courtly love song tradition, and his innovations breathed new life into this genre. He was also the first political poet to write in German, with a considerable body of encomium, satire, invective, and moralising. Little is known about Walther’s life. He was a travelling singer who performed for patrons at various princely courts in the states of the Holy Roman Empire. He is particularly associated with the Babenberg court in Vienna. Later in life he was given a small fief by the future Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II. His work was widely celebrated in his time and in succeeding generations—for the Meistersingers he was a songwriter to emulate—and this is reflected in the exceptional preservation of his work in 32 manuscripts from all parts of the High German area. The largest single collection is found in the Codex Manesse, which includes around 90% of his know

Wilhelm Friedemann Bach

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (22 November 17101 July 1784) was a German composer, organist and harpsichordist. He was the second child and eldest son of Johann Sebastian Bach and Maria Barbara Bach. Despite his acknowledged genius as an improviser and composer, his income and employment were unstable, and he died in poverty. Life Wilhelm Friedemann (hereafter Friedemann) was born in Weimar, where his father was employed as organist and chamber musician to the Duke of Saxe-Weimar. In July 1720, when Friedemann was nine, his mother Maria Barbara Bach died suddenly; Johann Sebastian Bach remarried in December 1721. J. S. Bach supervised Friedemann’s musical education and career with great attention. The graded course of keyboard studies and composition that J. S. Bach provided is documented in the Clavier-Büchlein vor Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (modern spelling: Klavierbüchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann Bach), with entries by both father and son. This education also included (parts of) the French Suites, (Two-Part) Inventions, (Three-Part) Sinfonias (popularly known as “Inventions”), the first volume of The Well-Tempered Clavier, and the six Trio Sonatas for organ. At the age of 16 he went to Me

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The sources#

Modern scholars rely on various source materials in writing Mozart’s biography. First, there are about 1500 pages of family letters, often vivid and entertaining, mostly written when travel separated Mozart from his kin. There are also early biographies, written with input from Mozart’s sister Nannerl, his wife Constanze, and others who knew him well. Old documents, such as newspaper stories and government records, have been located in libraries and archives, annotated, and published. Lastly, the composer’s surviving manuscripts shed light on the history and dating of his compositions: there are sketches, drafts, dated autographs of completed works, and Mozart’s personal catalog. Mozart biographers all work from these same sources, but they often disagree on crucial points. The disagreements arise in part from the need to judge how much to believe a source who had strong motivation to diverge from the truth. A source once widely used but now judged untruthful is the publisher Friedrich Rochlitz, who sought to increase posthumous sales of Mozart’s works by publishing false, vivid stories about him. A trend across time, noted in , is for biographers to be less credulous (e.g., in believing Rochlitz), less sentimental, and more sensitive to information about Mozart’s own society and times.

Wolfgang Carl Briegel

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Wolfgang Carl Briegel (21 May 1626 – 19 November 1712, Darmstadt) was a German organist, teacher and composer. Biography Born 21 May 1626, in Königsberg, Bavaria, he was a student in Nuremberg and sang in the Frauenkirche choir. He later studied at the University of Altdorf and became the organist at St. Johannis church and a grammar school teacher in Schweinfurt. In 1650, Duke Ernst the Pious appointed him to his court at Gotha as cantor and music tutor to his family, and he eventually rose to the post of Kapellmeister. He became well-known through his work in Gotha, and it was there that he became acquainted with Johann Rudolph Ahle and members of the Bach family. Duke Ernst’s eldest daughter, the wife of Landgrave Louis VI of Hesse-Darmstadt, called Briegel to Darmstadt as Kapellmeister in 1671. He stayed in this post until his death, but in his later years he was assisted by Christoph Graupner and Ernst Christian Hesse. Music Briegel was prolific in his sacred music output, completing 24 published collections between 1654 and 1709. He also wrote several “occasional” pieces and some secular works. He attracted attention with the publication of his Evangelische Gespräch, a set of

Wolfram von Eschenbach

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Wolfram von Eschenbach (; c. 1160/80 – c. 1220) was a German knight, poet and composer, regarded as one of the greatest epic poets of medieval German literature. As a Minnesinger, he also wrote lyric poetry. Life Little is known of Wolfram’s life. There are no historical documents which mention him, and his works are the sole source of evidence. In Parzival, he talks of (“we Bavarians”); the dialect of his works is East Franconian. On the basis of this and a number of geographical references, the present-day Wolframs-Eschenbach, until 1917 Obereschenbach, near Ansbach in present-day Bavaria, has been officially designated as his birthplace. However, the evidence is circumstantial and not without problems – there are at least four other places named Eschenbach in Bavaria, and Wolframs-Eschenbach was not part of the Duchy of Bavaria (, ‘Old Bavaria’) in Wolfram’s time. The arms shown in the Manesse manuscript come from the imagination of a 14th-century artist, drawing on the figure of the Red Knight in Parzival, and have no heraldic connection with Wolfram. Wolfram’s work indicates a number of possible patrons (most reliably Hermann I of Thuringia), which suggests that he served at a