Peter Griesbacher (25 March 1864 – 28 January 1933) was a German classical composer, organist and bell expert.

Life

Griesbacher was born in

Egglham Egglham is a municipality in the district of Rottal-Inn in Bavaria in Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, a ...

. He studied in

Passau Passau (; bar, label=Central Bavarian, Båssa) is a city in Lower Bavaria, Germany, also known as the Dreiflüssestadt ("City of Three Rivers") as the river Danube is joined by the Inn from the south and the Ilz from the north. Passau's popu ...

and was ordained a priest in 1886. From 1894 to 1895 he was music prefect at the Studienseminar (study seminary) St. Emmeram in

Regensburg Regensburg or is a city in eastern Bavaria, at the confluence of the Danube, Naab and Regen rivers. It is capital of the Upper Palatinate subregion of the state in the south of Germany. With more than 150,000 inhabitants, Regensburg is the f ...

. Due to his reputation as a church composer, he was appointed in 1911 a lecturer at the Kirchenmusikschule Regensburg (School of Church Music) of

, where he taught counterpoint, musical form and stylistic. Around the same time he was appointed

Vicar A vicar (; Latin: ''vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English pref ...

and then canon at the Collegiate St. Johann in Regensburg. In 1930 the chapter elected him dean. He temporarily was director, until

Carl Thiel Carl Josef Thiel (9 July 1862 − 23 July 1939) was a German organist, church musician and professor of music. Life Born in Oleśnica Mała, Thiel was born as the son of the trained miller and grain merchant August Thiel and his second wife ...

succeeded Karl Weinberger. He died in

of gastrointestinal cancer.

Work

Griesbacher composed predominantly Catholic church music. Based on the

a cappella ''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Ren ...

of the Cecilian Movement, he wrote works accompanied by the organ. When orchestra was added, he did not do the instrumentation himself. He tried to combine the strict Cecilian style with late romantic harmonies. His later works are characterised by a rather complex musical language. Griesbacher played a role in the transition of Catholic church music from the 19th to the 20th century. He created about 250 works, including 49

mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

es.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Griesbacher, Peter German composers German organists German male organists 1864 births 1933 deaths People from Rottal-Inn