Christiana Mariana von Ziegler (28 June 1695 – 1 May 1760) was a German

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

and writer. She is best known for the texts of nine

cantata A cantata (; ; literally "sung", past participle feminine singular of the Italian verb ''cantare'', "to sing") is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir. The meaning of ...

s, which

Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...

composed after

Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...

of 1725.

Biography

Christiana Mariana Romanus was born in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

, where her father served as mayor in 1701. She began her literary career after the death of her second husband, Captain von Ziegler in 1722. She returned to Leipzig, where she lived in the family home, the Romanushaus, with her mother. Her father had received a long-term prison sentence for financial irregularities. Despite the difficult family circumstances, the house became a literary and musical salon.

Johann Christoph Gottsched Johann Christoph Gottsched (2 February 1700 – 12 December 1766) was a German philosopher, author and critic of the Enlightenment. Biography Early life He was born at Juditten (Mendeleyevo) near Königsberg (Kaliningrad), Brandenburg-Pru ...

encouraged her poetic activity. She became the first woman member of Gottsched's literary society, the ''Deutsche Gesellschaft''. In 1741 she married for the third time and her literary activity ceased. She died in

Frankfurt an der Oder Frankfurt (Oder), also known as Frankfurt an der Oder (), is a city in the German state of Brandenburg. It has around 57,000 inhabitants, is one of the easternmost cities in Germany, the fourth-largest city in Brandenburg, and the largest German ...

Libretti

Bach moved to Leipzig in 1723 to take up the post of

Thomaskantor (Cantor at St. Thomas) is the common name for the musical director of the , now an internationally known boys' choir founded in Leipzig in 1212. The official historic title of the Thomaskantor in Latin, ', describes the two functions of cantor a ...

. In this role he set about composing a large number of

s for performance in the city's churches. There is some uncertainty about who was writing Bach's libretti in his first couple of years in Leipzig. Whoever his original librettist was, Bach appears to have been looking for a new librettist in 1724, and this may be when he met Ziegler. The nine cantatas set by Bach to texts by Ziegler are: * ''Ihr werdet weinen und heulen'', BWV 103, 22 April 1725 * ''Es ist euch gut, daß ich hingehe'', BWV 108, 29 April 1725 * ''Bisher habt ihr nichts gebeten in meinem Namen'', BWV 87, 6 May 1725 * ''Auf Christi Himmelfahrt allein'', BWV 128, 10 May 1725 * ''Sie werden euch in den Bann tun'', BWV 183, 13 May 1725 * ''Wer mich liebet, der wird mein Wort halten'', BWV 74, 20 May 1725 * ''Also hat Gott die Welt geliebt'', BWV 68, 21 May 1725 * ''Er rufet seinen Schafen mit Namen'', BWV 175, 22 May 1725 * ''Es ist ein trotzig und verzagt Ding'', BWV 176, 27 May 1725 The question arises why Bach turned to other librettists. There were still texts by Ziegler unset. She published a cycle of cantata texts in 1728, the texts set by Bach and others not set by him. John Eliot Gardiner suggests that the relationship between the two may have been strained by Bach's habit of amending her texts to suit his purposes.The versions published by Ziegler are slightly different from the texts used in the cantatas, and this is believed to be the result of the composer modifying the libretti with which he was presented. See Gardiner, John Eliot. ''Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven''. There also seem to be some examples of lack of communication when Bach sets Ziegler's words by adapting music he had composed earlier (as for example in ''Er rufet seinen Schafen mit Namen'', BWV 175).

Bibliography

* ''Vermischte Schriften in gebundener und ungebunder Rede'' iscellaneous writings in verse and prose(1739)

References

External links

*
Werke von Christiana Mariana von Ziegler

Zeno.org Zeno.org () is a digital library with German texts and other content such as pictures, facsimile, etc., which has been started by the Directmedia Publishing, Zenodot Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, a German Publishing, publishing house and sister enterpri ...

*
Biografie, Literatur & Quellen zu Christiane Marianne von Ziegler
fembio.org

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 Decemb ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ziegler, Christiana Mariana von 1695 births 1760 deaths Writers from Leipzig People from the Electorate of Saxony German women poets German cantata librettists German salon-holders Women librettists 18th-century German women writers

Biography

Libretti

Bibliography

References

Further reading

External links