Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer (1656-1746)
- Ouverture (IV, Suite in d-moll), œuvre première (1695)
Performers: Collegium Dаmiаnum
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German composer. He came from a family of craftsmen and attended the
grammar school run by Piarist friars (the order was founded in Rome in
1617 to promote the education of the poor). It was presumably here that
he received his first lessons in composition, the monastery archive
contains an early work by him, and learnt to play the keyboard and the
violin. He may have been first taught composition by the Kapellmeisters
and court musicians Johann Hönel and Augustin Pfleger, and by Georg
Bleyer. Since Duke Julius Franz sent gifted musicians to receive further
training elsewhere, and had connections with the Dresden court, he may
have acquired his high degree of contrapuntal skill from Christoph
Bernhard in Dresden. There is no evidence that he ever studied with
Lully in Paris. Lully's works were known and performed in Bohemia
through printed scores and from Georg Muffat's visit to Prague in 1677.
Fischer could have made an intensive study of them during his journeys
to Prague and Schloss Raudnitz on the Elbe in the course of his
professional duties. In 1689 or earlier Duke Julius Franz appointed
Fischer to succeed Pfleger as Kapellmeister in Schlackenwerth; his name
appears with that title in financial statements relating to the weddings
of the two princesses in 1690. After the partition of the state at the
end of 1690 Fischer may have been appointed Hofkapellmeister to Margrave
Ludwig Wilhelm of Baden. The margrave had married the heiress of
Schlackenwerth, Princess Sibylla Augusta, and made his residence there
at the time of the war with France. There is clear evidence of Fischer's
position in the titles of his printed works from 1695 onwards. The
court moved to Rastatt in 1705, but because of reductions in the
personnel during the war years Fischer did not accompany it. It was not
until October 1715, after a Piarist foundation had been set up in the
city, that he was finally given a post there, which he held until his
death. After his first wife's early death in 1698 he re-married,
probably at the beginning of 1700, and this marriage lasted until 1732.
Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer served the Baden court for almost 60
years, albeit with the assistance of the man who was to succeed him,
Franz Ignaz Zwifelhofer, towards the end of his career. Sadly
underrepresented in today's concert repertoire, his music reveals itself
on closer study to possess a marked individuality, stylistic diversity
and elaborate harmonies.
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