Johann Baptist Gänsbacher (8 May 1778 in

Sterzing Sterzing (; it, Vipiteno ) is a comune in South Tyrol in northern Italy. It is the main town of the southern Wipptal, and the Eisack River flows through the medieval town. History Origin The town traces its roots to 14 B.C., when Nero Claudius ...

– 13 July 1844 in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n musical composer, was born in 1778 in

in the

County of Tyrol The (Princely) County of Tyrol was an estate of the Holy Roman Empire established about 1140. After 1253, it was ruled by the House of Gorizia and from 1363 by the House of Habsburg. In 1804, the County of Tyrol, unified with the secularised pr ...

. His father, a schoolmaster and teacher of music, undertook his son's early education, which the boy continued under various masters until 1802, when he became the pupil of the celebrated Abbé G. J. Vogler. To his connection with this artist and with his fellow pupils, more perhaps than to his own merits, Gänsbacher's permanent place in the history of music is due; for it was during his second stay with Vogler, then (1810) living at

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...

, that he became acquainted with Weber and

Meyerbeer Giacomo Meyerbeer (born Jakob Liebmann Beer; 5 September 1791 – 2 May 1864) was a German opera composer, "the most frequently performed opera composer during the nineteenth century, linking Mozart and Wagner". With his 1831 opera ''Robert le d ...

, and the close friendship which sprang up among the three young musicians, and was dissolved by death only, has become celebrated in the history of their art. But Gänsbacher was himself by no means without merit. In 1823-24, he was one of the 50 composers who composed a variation on a waltz by

Anton Diabelli Anton (or Antonio) Diabelli (5 September 17818 April 1858) was an Austrian music publisher, editor and composer. Best known in his time as a publisher, he is most familiar today as the composer of the waltz on which Ludwig van Beethoven wrote ...

for ''

Vaterländischer Künstlerverein ''Vaterländischer Künstlerverein'' was a collaborative musical publication or anthology, incorporating 83 variations for piano on a theme by Anton Diabelli, written by 51 composers living in or associated with Austria. It was published in t ...

''. He creditably filled the responsible and difficult post of director of the music at St. Stephen's Cathedral, from 1823 until his death in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

; and his compositions show high gifts and accomplishment. They consist chiefly of church music, 17 masses, besides litanies,

motet In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to Margar ...

s, offertories, etc., being among the number. He also wrote several

sonatas Sonata (; Italian: , pl. ''sonate''; from Latin and Italian: ''sonare'' rchaic Italian; replaced in the modern language by ''suonare'' "to sound"), in music, literally means a piece ''played'' as opposed to a cantata (Latin and Italian ''cant ...

, a

symphony A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning com ...

, and one or two minor compositions of a dramatic kind.

References

External links

* 1778 births 1844 deaths 18th-century Austrian people 18th-century classical composers 18th-century Austrian male musicians 19th-century Austrian people 19th-century classical composers Austrian conductors (music) Male conductors (music) People from Sterzing Austrian Romantic composers Austrian male classical composers 19th-century male musicians {{Austria-composer-stub