Gottfried Grünewald (also Grunewald; baptised 15 October 1673 – 19 December 1739) was a German operatic

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

harpsichord A harpsichord ( it, clavicembalo; french: clavecin; german: Cembalo; es, clavecín; pt, cravo; nl, klavecimbel; pl, klawesyn) is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. This activates a row of levers that turn a trigger mechanism ...

ist,

pantaleon Pantaleon, also known as Panteleimon, (Greek: ) was a Greek king who reigned some time between 190–180 BC in Bactria and India. He was a younger contemporary or successor of the Greco-Bactrian king Demetrius, and is sometimes believed to hav ...

virtuoso and composer.

Life

Grünewald was baptised in

Seifhennersdorf Seifhennersdorf ( hsb, Wodowe Hendrichecy) is a town in the district Görlitz, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the border with the Czech Republic, and the Czech towns of Rumburk and Varnsdorf lie across the border to the no ...

near

Zittau Zittau ( hsb, Žitawa, dsb, Žytawa, pl, Żytawa, cs, Žitava, :de:Oberlausitzer Mundart, Upper Lusatian Dialect: ''Sitte''; from Slavic languages, Slavic "''rye''" (Upper Sorbian and Czech: ''žito'', Lower Sorbian: ''žyto'', Polish: ''żyto' ...

, on 15 October 1673. He studied music under his father, a school teacher, and attended the Zittau Gymnasium as a student. In 1696 he began studying at Leipzig University. During his studies, he performed as a bass singer at the Thomaskirche and in various operas. From 1703 he was a

singer and composer at the

Oper am Gänsemarkt The Oper am Gänsemarkt was a theatre in Hamburg, Germany, built in 1678 after plans of Girolamo Sartorio at the Gänsemarkt square. It was the first public opera house to be established in Germany: not a court opera, as in many other towns. E ...

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

. Two of his operas were performed there with him in the title roles: ''Der ungetreue Schäfer Cardillo in'' 1704 and ''Germanicus'' in 1705 which had received its world premiere in Leipzig the previous year. From 1709, he worked as vice ''kapellmeister'' at the court of

Johann Georg, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels Johann Georg, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels (13 July 1677, in Halle – 16 March 1712, in Weissenfels), was a duke of Saxe-Weissenfels-Querfurt and a member of the House of Wettin. He was the third child and first surviving son of Johann Adolf I ...

, where he married Johanna Rosina Krieger, the daughter of

Johann Philipp Krieger Johann Philipp Krieger (also ''Kriger'', ''Krüger'', ''Krugl'', and ''Giovanni Filippo Kriegher''; baptised 27 February 1649; died 7 February 1725) was a German people, German Baroque composer and organist. He was the elder brother of Johann Krieg ...

. Together, they had ten children. From 1711 until his death in 1739, Grunewald served in Dermstadt as vice ''kapellmeister'' under

Ernest Louis, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt Ernest Louis of Hesse-Darmstadt (german: Ernst Ludwig) (15 December 1667 – 12 September 1739) was Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt from 1678 to 1739. His parents were Landgrave Louis VI of Hesse-Darmstadt and Elisabeth Dorothea of Saxe-Gotha-Alte ...

. His good friend

Christoph Graupner Christoph Graupner (13 January 1683 – 10 May 1760) was a German composer and harpsichordist of late Baroque music who was a contemporary of Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg Philipp Telemann and George Frideric Handel. Life Born in Hartmannsdorf ...

served at the same court as ''kapellmeister'' and the two of them shared the composition duties, alternately composing cantata cycles for the Royal Chapel. Graupner also composed a large number of bass cantatas for Grunewald to sing. Grunewald was also proficient on the

(a large hammered dulcimer, popular in the 18th century) and toured parts of Germany giving concerts on the instrument.

Works

His works included numerous cantatas, the operas ''Der ungetreue Schäfer Cardillo'' (1703, lost), given in Leipzig, and ''Die erretete Unschuld, oder Germanicus'' (1704, also lost) as well as the only surviving work: ''7 Partiten'' for harpsichord (''D-DS''; ed. L. Cerutti, Padua, 1994) which are written in the style of the period. Everything else is lost, and most likely burned on the composer's request.

Notes

References

Cited sources

* * * Buelow, G.
Grünewald_[Grunewald
_Gottfried.html" ;"title="runewald">Grünewald [Grunewald
Gottfried">runewald">Grünewald [Grunewald
Gottfried ''Grove Music Online.'' Retrieved 9 Sep. 2022

External links