1749–1832, German Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, greatest of all German poets and dramatists, created what became almost a genre in its own right with his Faust (1808). The theme captured the imaginations of numerous composers and among the 122 operas based on Goethe’s writings, the Faustian legend formed the plot for 20 of them. Goethe did more ...
(Yo-an’-nez Se-kon’-ya) c. 1370–1412 Franco-Flemish composer and theorist Ciconia was active principally in Italy. For many years he was regarded as the main link between Machaut and Du Fay, and although other influential composers have now come to the fore, he is still seen as one of the most important figures of his generation. He wrote songs in French and ...
(Yo-an’-nes O’-ka-gem) c. 1425–97 Franco-Flemish composer Born in St Ghislain near Mons (now in Belgium), Ockeghem is first recorded as a singer at the Church of Our Lady, Antwerp, in 1443. He joined the French royal chapel in 1451, becoming chapel-master by 1454. In 1459 King Charles VII appointed him treasurer of the abbey of St Martin of Tours. ...
(Oz’-valt fun Vol’-ken-shtin) c. 1376–1445 South Tyrolean poet Oswald von Wolkenstein has been called the most important poet writing in German between Walther von der Vogelweide and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832). He is known to have been a singer and was also very active in the political sphere. Well over 100 poems can be attributed to him, but it ...
(Yo-an’-nes Tink’-tôr-is) 1430–after 1511 French theorist Tinctoris attended university at Orléans and worked for most of his adult life at the Aragonese court in Naples. There he produced the most authoritative body of theoretical writing on music of his time. He was familiar with current musical practices, and dedicated one of his treatises to his contemporaries Ockeghem and Busnoys. His surviving ...
(Vol’-ter fun dâr Fo’-gel-vi-da) fl. c. 1200 German Minnesinger Both in his time and in ours Walther von der Vogelweide has been considered the leading figure in medieval German poetry, and his music was mentioned for its excellence by his contemporaries. His poetic works are found in a large number of manuscripts – an indication of his popularity – but ...
(Hin’-rikh Eg’-nats Frants fun Be’-ber) 1644–1704 German composer Biber was a violin virtuoso and one of the most imaginative composers of his time. He was employed at the Moravian court of Kromeriz (near Brno in today’s Czechoslovakia) during the 1660s, but from the early 1670s worked at the Salzburg court of the Prince-Archbishop, where he subsequently became Kapellmeister (‘chapel master’) ...
(Yo’-han Kas’-pâr Far’-de-nant Fish’-er) 1656–1746 German composer Fischer, who was Hofkapellmeister at the court of Baden, contributed to the dissemination of Lully’s French orchestral style with his eight suites published as Le journal du printemps (‘Spring Diary’, 1685). These follow the seventeenth-century French practice of five-part string writing, with the addition of two trumpets. Fischer was an imaginative keyboard composer ...
(Yo’-han Ya’-kop Fro’-bâr-ger) 1616–67 German composer Johann Jacob Froberger was the most important German harpsichord composer of the first half of the seventeenth century. In about 1637, he was appointed as imperial court organist at Vienna, and there he benefited from a sympathetic patron in Emperor Ferdinand III, who was himself a gifted musician. Soon after his appointment, Froberger ...
(Yo’-han Pakh’-el-bel) 1653–1706 German composer Pachelbel held the position of court organist at Eisenach (where he taught J. S. Bach’s eldest brother Johann Christoph) before taking up the same post at Erfurt. It was here that he published his first organ music, Musicalischen Sterbens-Gedancken (‘Musical Meditation on Death’, 1683). In 1690 he moved to Stuttgart and then Gotha before becoming organist ...
(Yo-han Hâr’-man Shin) 1586–1630 German composer Schein trained at Dresden, Naumburg and Leipzig and finally took charge of the music at St Thomas’s, Leipzig, in 1616. His first vocal music collection, Cymbalum Sionium (1615), brings together settings of Latin and German texts in a variety of styles. A more modern outlook, embracing the Italian idiom and demonstrating ...
(Yo’-han Sa-bäs’tyan Bakh) 1685–1750 German composer Johann Sebastian Bach was born into a closely knit musical family of which he was rightly proud. His father Johann Ambrosius Bach (1645–95) had an identical twin brother, Johann Christoph (1645–93), who was like a second father to the young Sebastian. Johann was such a common name that almost all boys called Johann were known ...
(Yo’-han Yo’-sef Fooks) 1660–1741 German composer, organist and theorist There are large gaps in the biographical knowledge of Fux. It is almost certain that he was born into a peasant family somewhere in Germany, but precisely where he acquired his musical skills remains a mystery. Real knowledge of the composer begins from 1698, when Emperor Leopold I appointed Fux ...
(Yo’-han Koo’-nou) 1660–1722 German composer After studying at Dresden and Zittau, Kuhnau went to Leipzig, where he became organist in 1684 and in 1701 Kantor at St Thomas’s Church. He wrote many cantatas and other sacred works which were technically and musically resourceful – with their lyrical lines and powerful fugues – and often dramatic; he also composed much harpsichord ...
(Yo’-han Mat’-te-zon) 1681–1764 German composer and theorist Mattheson was the most important writer on music during the Baroque era. His Die Vernünfftler, which translated the Tatler and Spectator of Addison and Steele, was the first German weekly (1713). He befriended Handel when he arrived in Hamburg in 1703 and sang the leading tenor role in Handel’s first opera, Almira ...
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