Dietrich Becker (ca. 1623 – Hamburg, 12 May 1679) was a German

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

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 ...

ist and

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 ...

. Little is known about Becker's musical education. His first position was as

organist An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ (music), organ. An organist may play organ repertoire, solo organ works, play with an musical ensemble, ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumentalist, instrumental ...

at Ahrensberg. In his second position, in the service of the ''Chapelle Ducale'' (Ducal Chapel) of the Duke Christian-Ludwig at

Celle Celle () is a town and capital of the district of Celle, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town is situated on the banks of the river Aller, a tributary of the Weser, and has a population of about 71,000. Celle is the southern gateway to the Lü ...

, he mainly devoted himself to the

. In 1662 he settled in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

as a violinist in the service of the ''Conseil de la Ville'' (City Council) and in 1667 he was named ''Maître de Chapelle'' (Chapel Master). In 1668 Becker dedicated a collection of pieces entitled ''Musikalischen Frühlingsfrüchte'' (Musical Spring Fruit) to the mayor and members of the City Council. This collection consisted of chamber sonatas and suites for 3 to 5 voices with

basso continuo Basso continuo parts, almost universal in the Baroque era (1600–1750), provided the harmonic structure of the music by supplying a bassline and a chord progression. The phrase is often shortened to continuo, and the instrumentalists playing th ...

. In 1674, his ''Zweystimmigen Sonaten und Suiten'' (Sonatas and Suites for Two Voices) was published. Becker's

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numb ...

was among the most significant instrumental music coming from Germany during this time.

Sources

Dietrich Becker Dietrich Becker (ca. 1623 – Hamburg, 12 May 1679) was a German Baroque violinist and composer. Little is known about Becker's musical education. His first position was as organist at Ahrensberg. In his second position, in the service of the ...

article in French Wikipedia *

article in German Wikipedia

External links

*
Facsimile in The Royal Library, Copenhagen
{{DEFAULTSORT:Becker, Dietrich German classical composers German Baroque composers German classical violinists Male classical violinists German violinists German male violinists 1620s births 1670s deaths 17th-century classical composers German male classical composers 17th-century male musicians