Anton Ferdinand Titz (or Tietz, or Dietz) (1742 – 1811) was a German

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

and

viola d'amore The viola d'amore (; Italian for "viol of love") is a 7- or 6- stringed musical instrument with sympathetic strings used chiefly in the baroque period. It is played under the chin in the same manner as the violin. Structure and sound The viol ...

player, principally now known for his string quartets.

Biography

Titz was born in

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

, initially training as a painter before concentrating on music and becoming musician at

St. Sebaldus Church St. Sebaldus Church (''St. Sebald'', ''Sebalduskirche'') is a Medieval era, medieval church (building), church in Nuremberg, Germany. Along with Frauenkirche, Nuremberg, Frauenkirche (Our Lady's Church) and St. Lorenz, Nuremberg, St. Lorenz, it i ...

. After an unhappy love affair a few years later he went to Vienna, where he played in the opera orchestra. He lived in

St Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

for 40 years, working at the court of

Catherine II of Russia , en, Catherine Alexeievna Romanova, link=yes , house = , father = Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst , mother = Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp , birth_date = , birth_name = Princess Sophie of Anhal ...

. He composed lieder, sonatas, string quartets and symphonies. Some works from his time in St Petersburg have been lost. He began to suffer from mental illness in 1805 which prevented him working.

Recordings

Recordings of his work have been rare, but since 2004 several discs of his chamber music have been released.

References

External links

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Brief biography HOASM
* 1742 births 1811 deaths German violinists German male violinists German Classical-period composers German male classical composers 19th-century German male musicians Musicians from Nuremberg {{Germany-composer-stub