Christoph Förster
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. He began organ studies with local organist Johann Philipp Pitzler, with whom he traveled. In 1710 he met Johann David Heinichen in Weissenfels, who at the time was working as a lawyer. With Heinichen, he took lessons in general bass and also began studying composition. When Heinichen went to Italy, Förster moved to Merseburg where he continued his studies with the Kapellmeister and court organist Georg Friedrich Kaufmann. Later, in 1717 he was employed as a chamber musician in the Sachsen-Merseburg Hofkapelle where he played second violin to Johann Gottlieb Graun, whom he later superseded as Konzertmeister. In 1723, Förster ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Johann David Heinichen
Johann David Heinichen (17 April 1683 – 16 July 1729) was a German Baroque composer and music theorist who brought the musical genius of Venice to the court of Augustus II the Strong in Dresden. After he died, Heinichen's music attracted little attention for many years. As a music theorist, he is credited as one of the inventors of the circle of fifths. Biography Johann David Heinichen was born in the small village of Krössuln (currently part of the town Teuchern, in Saxony-Anhalt) near Weissenfels. His father, Michael Heinichen, had studied music at the celebrated Thomasschule Leipzig associated with the Thomaskirche, served as cantor in Pegau and was pastor of the village church in Krössuln. Johann David also attended the Thomasschule Leipzig. There he studied music with Johann Schelle and later received organ and harpsichord lessons with Johann Kuhnau. The future composer Christoph Graupner was also a student of Kuhnau at the time. Heinichen enrolled in 1702 to study law ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Kapellmeister
(, also , ) from German ''Kapelle'' (chapel) and ''Meister'' (master)'','' literally "master of the chapel choir" designates the leader of an ensemble of musicians. Originally used to refer to somebody in charge of music in a chapel, the term has evolved considerably in its meaning and is today used for denoting the leader of a musical ensemble, often smaller ones used for TV, radio, and theatres. Historical usage In German-speaking countries during the approximate period 1500–1800, the word often designated the director of music for a monarch or nobleman. For English speakers, it is this sense of the term that is most often encountered, since it appears frequently in biographical writing about composers who worked in German-speaking countries. During that period, in Italy, the position (Italian: ''maestro di capella'') largely referred to directors of music assigned to cathedrals and sacred institutions rather than those under royal or aristocratic patronage. A Kapellmeister ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hofkapelle
A court chapel (German: Hofkapelle) is a chapel (building) and/or a chapel as a musical ensemble associated with a royal or noble court. Most of these are royal (court) chapels, but when the ruler of the court is not a king, the more generic "court chapel" is used, for instance for an imperial court. In German Hofkapelle (literally: court chapel) is both the word for a royal chapel and any other court chapel. As a musical venture court chapels emerged in 16th century Europe, largely due to the consolidation of more itinerant musical groups initiated by the dukes of Burgundy and their Imperial successors in the 15th century. There was a double objective: continuity and stability of religious ceremony, and showcasing splendour and artistic taste of the court.Alexander J. Fisher"The Munich court chapel."Book review in ''Early Music'', Volume 37, Issue 1, pp. 113-114. Oxford University Press, 2009 The chapels and palaces that were built at the time exhibited the same splendour, and ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Johann Gottlieb Graun
Johann Gottlieb Graun (1702/1703 – 28 October 1771) was a German Baroque/Classical era composer and violinist, born in Wahrenbrück. His brother Carl Heinrich was a singer and also a composer, and is the better known of the two. Johann Gottlieb studied with J.G. Pisendel in Dresden and Giuseppe Tartini in Padua. Appointed Konzertmeister in Merseburg in 1726, he taught the violin to J.S. Bach's son Wilhelm Friedemann. He joined the court of the Prussian crown prince (the future Frederick the Great) in 1732. Graun was later made ''Konzertmeister'' of the Berlin Opera in 1740. He composed over 50 songs and compositions. Graun's compositions were highly respected, and continued to be performed after his death: "The concert-master, John Gottlib Graun, brother to the opera-composer, his admirers say, 'was one of the greatest performers on the violin of his time, and most assuredly, a composer of the first rank'," wrote Charles Burney. He was primarily known for his instrumental wor ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Konzertmeister
The concertmaster (from the German ''Konzertmeister''), first chair (U.S.) or leader (U.K.) is the principal first violin player in an orchestra (or clarinet in a concert band). After the conductor, the concertmaster is the second-most significant leader in an orchestra, symphonic band or other musical ensemble. Orchestra In an orchestra, the concertmaster is the leader of the first violin section. There is another violin section, the second violins, led by the principal second violin. Any violin solo in an orchestral work is played by the concertmaster (except in the case of a concerto, in which case a guest soloist usually plays). It is usually required that the concertmaster be the most skilled musician in the section, experienced at learning music quickly, counting rests accurately and leading the rest of the string section by their playing and bow gestures. The concertmaster sits to the conductor's left, closest to the audience, in what is called the "first chair," " ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles VII (6 August 1697 – 20 January 1745) was the prince-elector of Bavaria from 1726 and Holy Roman Emperor from 24 January 1742 to his death. He was a member of the House of Wittelsbach, and his reign as Holy Roman Emperor thus marked the end of three centuries of uninterrupted Habsburg imperial rule although he was related to the Habsburgs by both blood and marriage. After the death of emperor Charles VI in 1740, he claimed the Archduchy of Austria by his marriage to Maria Amalia of Austria, the niece of Charles VI, and was briefly, from 1741 to 1743, as Charles III King of Bohemia. In 1742, he was elected emperor of the Holy Roman Empire as Charles VII and ruled until his death three years later. Early life and career Charles (Albert) (german: Karl Albrecht) was born in Brussels and the son of Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria, and Theresa Kunegunda Sobieska, daughter of King John III Sobieski of Poland. His family was politically divided during the War of the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Johann Joseph Fux
Johann Joseph Fux (; – 13 February 1741) was an Austrian composer, music theory, music theorist and pedagogy, pedagogue of the late Baroque music, Baroque era. His most enduring work is not a musical composition but his treatise on counterpoint, ''Gradus ad Parnassum#Music and art, Gradus ad Parnassum'', which has become the single most influential book on the Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Palestrinian style of Renaissance music, Renaissance polyphony. Life Fux's exact date of birth is unknown. He was born to a peasant family in Langegg bei Graz, Hirtenfeld, Styria, Austria. Relatively little is known about his early life, but likely he went to nearby Graz for music lessons. In 1680 he was accepted at the Jesuit Ferdinandeum University there, where his musical talent became apparent. From 1685 until 1688 he served as organist at St. Moritz in Ingolstadt. Sometime during this period he must have made a trip to Italy, as evidenced by the strong influence of Arcangelo Corelli, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Antonio Caldara
Antonio Caldara (ca 1670 – 28 December 1736) was an Italian Baroque composer. Life Caldara was born in Venice (exact date unknown), the son of a violinist. He became a chorister at St Mark's in Venice, where he learned several instruments, probably under the instruction of Giovanni Legrenzi. In 1699 he relocated to Mantua, where he became ''maestro di cappella'' to the inept Charles IV, Duke of Mantua, a pensionary of France with a French wife, who took the French side in the War of the Spanish Succession. Caldara removed from Mantua in 1707, after the French were expelled from Italy, then moved on to Barcelona as chamber composer to Charles III, the pretender to the Spanish throne (following the death of Charles II of Spain in 1700 without any direct heir) and who kept a royal court at Barcelona. There, he wrote some operas that are the first Italian operas performed in Spain. He moved on to Rome, becoming ''maestro di cappella'' to Francesco Maria Marescotti Ruspoli, 1st P ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Francesco Bartolomeo Conti
Francesco Bartolomeo Conti (20 January 1681 or 168219 July 1732) was an Italian composer and player of the mandolin and theorbo. He also wrote the oldest mandolin method book that has survived. Little is known about the biography of Conti. He was born in Florence, Italy. By 1700 he was already known as a theorbist not only in his native Florence, but also in other cities such as Ferrara and Milan. The fame he enjoyed by 1701 enabled him to obtain appointment as an auxiliary theorbist at the Habsburg court in Vienna with the same salary as the main theorbist, Orazio Clementi. At the 1706 carnival he made his debut as an opera composer with ''Cleotide'', and in 1713 was appointed as a court composer. In 1708, with the death of Clementi, Conti was promoted senior theorbist, a position he held until 1726. In the same year he was elected a member of the Accademia Filarmonica of Bologna and in 1711 he was appointed ''vice-Kapellmeister'' (''vice-maestro di cappella'') in Vienna. In Ap ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Frederick Anton, Prince Of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt
Frederick Anton of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt (14 August 1692 in Rudolstadt – 1 September 1744 in Rudolstadt) was the ruling Prince of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt from 1718 until his death. Life He was the eldest son of Prince Louis Frederick I of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt and his wife Anna Sophie of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. He had three brothers, along with nine sisters, but in 1713 primogeniture was introduced in the principalities of Schwarzburg, and therefore he became the sole ruling Prince of Rudolstadt in 1718. His education was organized primarily by his grandparents. Frederick Anton was encouraged to study religion and various sciences. He was particularly interested in poetry and wrote some poems himself. Between 1716 and 1731, the country was in the grips of the Balisius Unrest, named after the lawyer Johann Georg Balisius. The government tried to increase the tax burden, leading to unrest in 1716. The people tried every legal means available to fight the increase and demand ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Georg Philipp Telemann
Georg Philipp Telemann (; – 25 June 1767) was a German Baroque composer and multi-instrumentalist. 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. Telemann is one of the most prolific composers in history, at least in terms of surviving oeuvre. He was considered by his contemporaries to be one of the leading German composers of the time, and he was compared favourably bo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Paris Quartets
The Paris quartets is a collective designation for two sets of Chamber music compositions, each consisting of six works for flute, violin, viola da gamba (or cello), and continuo, by Georg Philipp Telemann, first published in 1730 and 1738, respectively. Telemann called his two collections ''Quadri'' and ''Nouveaux Quatuors''. The collective designation "Paris quartets" was only first bestowed upon them in the second half of the twentieth century by the editors of the Telemann ''Musikalische Werke'', because of their association with Telemann's celebrity visit to Paris in 1737–38. They bear the numbers 43:D1, 43:D3, 43:e1, 43:e4, 43:G1, 43:G4, 43:g1, 43:A1, 43:A3, 43:a2, 43:h1, 43:h2 in the TWV (catalog of Telemann's works). History At Michaelmas (29 September) 1737, Telemann finally left Hamburg for a long-delayed journey to Paris, where he had been invited at least seven years earlier by four prominent French musicians: flautist Michel Blavet, violinist Jean-Pierre Guignon, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |