Johann Christoph Vogel (also given as Fogel) (18 March 1756, in

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

– 28 June 1788, in Paris) was a German

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 ...

Life

He spent most of his life working in France. He moved to Paris in 1776, and entered the service of the

Duke of Montmorency Duke of Montmorency was a title of French nobility that was created several times for members of the Montmorency family, who were lords of Montmorency, near Paris. History The first creation was in 1551 for Anne de Montmorency, Constable of ...

and then of the

Count of Valentinois The Count of Valentinois was originally the official in charge of the region (county) around Valence (Roman ''Valentia''). It evolved in a hereditary title of nobility, still indicating control of the Valentinois and often of the Diois. The title ...

as a

horn Horn most often refers to: *Horn (acoustic), a conical or bell shaped aperture used to guide sound ** Horn (instrument), collective name for tube-shaped wind musical instruments *Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various ...

player. He composed a great number of

orchestral An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, ce ...

and chamber works but is best remembered for his

oratorio An oratorio () is a large musical composition for orchestra, choir, and soloists. Like most operas, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an instrumental ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias. However, opera is mus ...

''Jephté'', performed at the Concert Spirituel in September 1781, and for his two

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

s. Although his music was received favourably, his works never became extremely popular because they were deemed as 'too complicated and

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 ...

'. Vogel was an enthusiast for the operas of

Gluck Christoph Willibald (Ritter von) Gluck (; 2 July 1714 – 15 November 1787) was a composer of Italian and French opera in the early classical period (music), classical period. Born in the Upper Palatinate and raised in Bohemia, both part of the ...

, and his first opera, '' La toison d'or'', is dedicated to the composer as 'législateur de la musique'. In places it appears to be a faithful stylistic imitation of Gluck's two Iphigenia operas, ''

Iphigénie en Tauride ''Iphigénie en Tauride'' (, ''Iphigenia in Tauris'') is a 1779 opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck in four acts. It was his fifth opera for the French stage. The libretto was written by Nicolas-François Guillard. With ''Iphigénie,'' Gluck took ...

'' and ''Iphigenie auf Tauris '', but with a fuller

orchestration Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra (or, more loosely, for any musical ensemble, such as a concert band) or of adapting music composed for another medium for an orchestra. Also called "instrumentation", orc ...

and a greater lyricism in the arias. The opera was written in 1781 but was not performed until 5 September 1786 at the

Opéra National de Paris The Paris Opera (, ) is the primary opera and ballet company of France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the , and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and officially renamed the , but continued to be k ...

. It played for only 12 performances and was met with limited success since it seemed old-fashioned and contained no

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

. Philippe Desriaux, for many years the secretary of Baron von Tschudi, wrote the librettos for both ''La toison d'or'' and Vogel’s second opera, ''

Démophon ''Démophon'' is a French-language opera by the composer Johann Christoph Vogel, first performed at the Académie Royale de Musique (the Paris Opera The Paris Opera (, ) is the primary opera and ballet company of France. It was founded in 16 ...

''. Its posthumous première (at the Opéra on 22 September 1789) was given only after the première of Cherubini's opera on the same subject. Among the musical qualities of this work are the variety of recitative forms, the treatment of the

woodwind Woodwind instruments are a family of musical instruments within the greater category of wind instruments. Common examples include flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, and saxophone. There are two main types of woodwind instruments: flutes and reed ...

as solo instruments and the harmonic colour of the choruses. The

overture Overture (from French ''ouverture'', "opening") in music was originally the instrumental introduction to a ballet, opera, or oratorio in the 17th century. During the early Romantic era, composers such as Beethoven and Mendelssohn composed overt ...

, composed in monothematic

sonata 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 ...

form, remained popular into the early 19th century, and was incorporated into Pierre Gardel's ballet-pantomime ''Psyché'' (1790), which had more than 1000 performances at the Opéra National de Paris between its première and 1829.

Sources

Arnold Jacobshagen Arnold Jacobshagen (born 30 December 1965) is a German musicologist. He has been teaching at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln since 2006. Career Born in Marburg, Jacobshagen studied musicology, history and philosophy at the Free Universi ...

. The ''

New Grove Dictionary of Opera ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' is an encyclopedia of opera, considered to be one of the best general reference sources on the subject. It is the largest work on opera in English, and in its printed form, amounts to 5,448 pages in four volu ...

'', edited by Stanley Sadie (1992). and

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Vogel, Johann German opera composers Male opera composers 1756 births 1788 deaths 18th-century classical composers German male classical composers 18th-century German composers 18th-century German male musicians