Friedrich Hartmann Graf by Heinrich Eduard von Wintter

Friedrich Hartmann Graf (23 August 1727 – 19 August 1795) was a German

flautist The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

and composer.

Biography

Graf was born 23 August 1727 in

Rudolstadt Rudolstadt is a town in the German federal state Thuringia, with the Thuringian Forest to the southwest, and to Jena and Weimar to the north. The former capital of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, the town is built along the River Saale inside a wide v ...

. He was trained by his father Johann Graf and then served as a drummer in a Dutch army regiment where he was taken as a prisoner of war by the English. After he returned in 1759 he became a flautist and conductor in Hamburg for five years. During that time he toured England, the Dutch Republic, Italy, Switzerland and Germany. He was then made first flautist by his brother Christian Ernst Graf who led the chapel of the stadtholder's court in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

. Later he became the music director of all Protestant churches, and cantor of the school of St. Anna in

Augsburg Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ...

where he founded a civil society concert in 1779. Here he also met Mozart. Graf died 19 August 1795 in Augsburg. {{DEFAULTSORT:Graf, Friedrich Hartmann 1727 births 1795 deaths German Classical-period composers German classical flautists 18th-century classical composers German male classical composers 18th-century German composers 18th-century German male musicians