Georg Muffat (1 June 1653 – 23 February 1704) was a
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 ...
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 Def ...
and organist. He is best known for the remarkably articulate and informative performance directions printed along with his collections of string pieces ''Florilegium Primum'' and ''Florilegium Secundum'' (First and Second Bouquets) in 1695 and 1698.
Life
Georg Muffat was born in Megève, Duchy of Savoy (now in France), of André Muffat (of Scottish descent) and Marguerite Orsyand. He studied in Paris between 1663 and 1669, where his teacher is often assumed to have been Jean Baptiste Lully. This assumption is largely based on the statement "For six years ... I avidly pursued this style which was flowering in Paris at the time under the most famous Jean Baptiste Lully." This is ambiguous (in all of the languages in which it was printed) as to whether the style was flourishing under Lully, or that Muffat studied under Lully. In any case, the style which the young Muffat learned was unequivocally Lullian and it remains likely, though unevidenced, that he had at least some contact with the man himself.
After leaving Paris, he became an organist in Molsheim and
Sélestat
Sélestat (; Alsatian: ''Schlettstàdt''; German: ''Schlettstadt'') is a commune in the Grand Est region of France. An administrative division (sous-préfecture) of the Bas-Rhin department, the town lies on the Ill river, from the Rhine and t ...
. Later, he studied law in
Ingolstadt
Ingolstadt (, Austro-Bavarian: ) is an independent city on the Danube in Upper Bavaria with 139,553 inhabitants (as of June 30, 2022). Around half a million people live in the metropolitan area. Ingolstadt is the second largest city in Upper Ba ...
, afterwards settling in
Vienna
en, Viennese
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, registration_plate = W
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, timezone = CET
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, timezone_DST ...
. He could not get an official appointment, so he travelled to
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
in 1677, then to
Salzburg
Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label=Austro-Bavarian) is the fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872.
The town is on the site of the Roman settlement of ''Iuvavum''. Salzburg was founded ...
bishop of Passau
The Diocese of Passau is a Roman Catholic diocese in Germany that is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising.Gottlieb Muffat, also a successful composer.
Works
His works are strongly influenced by both French and Italian composers:
* Sonatas for various instruments (''armonico tributo'' 1682);
*Orchestral
suite
Suite may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
*Suite (music), a set of musical pieces considered as one composition
** Suite (Bach), a list of suites composed by J. S. Bach
** Suite (Cassadó), a mid-1920s composition by Gaspar Cassadó
** ''Suite ...
s (''florilegium primum & secundum'' 1695);
*12
Concerti grossi The concerto grosso (; Italian for ''big concert(o)'', plural ''concerti grossi'' ) is a form of baroque music in which the musical material is passed between a small group of soloists (the '' concertino'') and full orchestra (the ''ripieno'', '' t ...
(''auserlesene... instrumental Musik'' 1701) re-using some thematic material from ''armonico tributo''
*12 Toccatas for the organ as well as other pieces : passacaglia, chaconne, air with variations (''Apparatus musico-organisticus'' 1690);
*some partitas for the harpsichord, kept as a manuscript
*several religious works (notably three masses, Salve Regina, etc.) from which only ''Missa in labore requies'' for twenty-four parts is preserved;
*3 operas, all now lost ("Marina Armena"; "Königin Marianne die verleumdete Unschuld"; "La fatali felicità di Plutone").
Muffat was, as Johann Jakob Froberger before him, and Handel after him, a cosmopolitan composer who played an important role in the exchanges between European musical traditions. The information contained within the ''Florilegium Primum'' and ''Secundum'' is nearly unique. These performance directions were intended to assist German string players with the idiom of the French dance style, and include detailed rules for the tempo and order of bow strokes in various types of movement, as well as more general strategies for good ensemble playing and musicianship. These texts remain extremely valuable for modern historically-interested musicians.
Media
*
Recordings
*''Armonico Tributo'' by Les Muffatti (Ramée RAM0502)
*"Armonico Tributo & Florilegium Primum" by Ars Antiqua Austria & Gunar Letzbor
*''12 Concerti Grossi 1701'' Musica Aeterna Bratislava ( Naxos Records 8.555096, 8.555743)
*"12 Concerti Grossi 1701" by Capella Savaria & Pál Németh
* ''Toccate - Concerti da Chiesa'', Martin Gester, Le Parlement de Musique, (Radio France - France Musique: Tempéraments TEM 316013)
*"Concertos I-VII" by Holland Baroque Society & Matthew Halls
*"Florilegium Secundum, Fasciculus I-IV" by The Academy of Ancient Music & Christopher Hogwood
* ''Apparatus musico-organisticus'' (Complete) by Adriano Falcioni, ( Brilliant Classics 94493)
* ''Apparatus musico-organisticus. Douze toccatas pour orgue'' by René Saorgin, ( Harmonia Mundi HMU966-967)