DEMIGNAUX, Louis Charles (1731-1809) - Sonata en trio (1774)

Louis Charles Demignaux (1731-1809) - Sonata en trio des 'Sonates en trio pour la harpe,

le clavecin ou le piano forte et violon ... Oeuvre IV' (1774)

Performers: Clara Izаmbеrt (harp); Marie van Rhіjn (harpsichord); Maud Giguet (violin)

Drawing: Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827) - The dull husband (1789)

Further info: Hommage a La Dauphine

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Louis Charles Demignaux [De Mignaux, Demigneaux, Mignaux]

(Avignon, 29 December 1731 - Paris, 3 January 1809)

French composer and double bass player. Born into a family of construction artisans, he rose to prominence as a double bassist for the Musique du roi in Versailles, a prestigious post he held from 1762 until his retirement with a full pension in 1785. A well-integrated member of the royal musical circle, he married Louise Hélène Bernard in 1768, raised four children on the Avenue de Saint-Cloud, and served as a legal guardian to the harpist Philippe Joseph Hinner. Beyond his musical duties, Demignaux enjoyed a close proximity to the court, receiving an annual stipend for presenting the Gazette to Queen Marie Antoinette, a relationship that may have facilitated his protege’s own success. Despite his long-standing royal service leading to his denunciation as a "suspect" during the revolutionary period in 1794, he survived the era and remained active in family life in Paris well into the early 19th century, witnessing the marriages of his children. As a composer, he wrote a small number of chamber pieces, primarily for the harp, as well as songs with accompaniment. 

REIMANN, Ignaz (1820-1885) - Pastoral Messe in C

Ignaz Reimann (1820-1885) - Pastoral Messe in C, | für | 4 Singstimmen, 2 Violinen Viola u. Orgel obl. | mit beliebiger Begleitung von | 1 Flaute, 2 Clarinetten, 2 Horn, 2 Trompeten,

Pauken, Tenorhorn, Bassposaune | Violon und Violoncello

Performers: Rosemarie Niеmann (sopran); Hildegard Jonеn (alt); Alfons Jonеn (tenor); Karl Josef Hеppеkausen (bass); Kirchenchor und Streichorchester 'St. Bartolomäus' Urbach/Elsdorf; Peter Wiеnеrs (conductor)

Painting: Christen Dalsgaard (1824-1907) - A Woman's Solemn Churching after Childbirth (1860)

Further info: Ignaz Reimann (1820-1885) - Pastoralmesse in G und D

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Ignaz Reimann

(Albendorf, 27 December 1820 - Regensdorf, 17 June 1885)

German composer. He received early lessons from his father, who was an innkeeper and musician in the Silesian Marian pilgrimage site Albendorf. His school teacher, also a local cantor, noticed his musical talent and trained him to play the organ. From 1838 to 1841 he attended the Catholic school seminar in Breslau. There he came into contact with the so-called Breslau School, founded by Joseph Ignaz Schnabel as a composer. Joseph Ignaz Schnabel's nephew Joseph Schnabel, music director and cathedral music director, gave his pupil the post of music director in the seminary thanks to his outstanding musical skills and achievements. After completing the seminar, Reimann worked for two years as an assistant teacher in Niederhannsdorf near Glatz. In 1843 the Rengersdorf schoolmaster and cantor brought him to his school. After the schoolmaster death in 1852, Reimann took on the dual role of headmaster and cantor. While he had already composed smaller church music works since his time in Wroclaw, a fruitful creative period began as a Rengersdorf cantor. In 1884 Reimann suffered a stroke that partially paralyzed his right arm. He applied for his retirement, which was granted on July 1, 1885. Three days later, he suffered a second stroke that resulted in death two weeks later. As a composer, he wrote about 400 works, mainly sacred and all primarly for his own use. Easy, but pleasing works with a sense for melodic for choirs and orchestras, that are not able to perform difficult works. This made his works in his time widely spread and they were loved bis singers and directors. His son Henry Reimann (1850-1906) was also a teacher and composer.

HEINICHEN, Johann David (1683-1729) - Pastorale per la Notte della Nativitate Christi (c.1720)

Johann David Heinichen (1683-1729) - Pastorale (A-Dur) | per la Notte della Nativitate Christi | 2 Hautbois en Chalmaux. | 2 Hautbois Ripien. | Violini e Violette | con Bassi soliti (c.1720), SeiH 242

Performers: Musica Antiqua Köln

Painting: Matthias Stomer (c.1600-c.1650) - The adoration of the shepherds

Further info: Johann David Heinichen (1683-1729) - Concerto à 7

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Johann David (Davidde) Heinichen [Heinchen, Heinnichen, Heinick]

(Krössuln, nr Weissenfels, 17 April 1683 - Dresden, 16 July 1729)

German composer and theorist. He was the son of David Heinichen who, after an education at Leipzig's Thomasschule and the university, moved to Krössuln for a lifelong career as pastor. Johann David also attended the Thomasschule Leipzig. There he studied music with Johann Schelle and later received organ and harpsichord lessons with Johann Kuhnau. The future composer Christoph Graupner was also a student of Kuhnau at the time. Heinichen enrolled in 1702 to study law at the University of Leipzig and in 1705-06 qualified as a lawyer (in the early 18th century the law was a favored route for composers; Kuhnau, Graupner and Georg Philipp Telemann were also lawyers). Heinichen practiced law in Weissenfels until 1709. However, Heinichen maintained his interest in music and was concurrently composing operas. In 1710, he published the first edition of his major treatise on the thoroughbass. He went to Italy and spent seven formative years there, mostly in Venice, with great success with two operas, Mario and Le passioni per troppo amore (1713). Mario was staged again in Hamburg in 1716 with the German title, Calpurnia, oder die romische Grossmut. In 1712, he taught music to Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen, who took him as composer. The same prince would appoint Johann Sebastian Bach Kapellmeister at the end of 1717. In 1716, Heinichen met in Venice Prince Augustus III of Poland, son of King Augustus II the Strong, and thanks to him was appointed the Royal-Polish and Electoral-Saxon Kapellmeister in Dresden. His pupils included Johann Georg Pisendel. In 1721, Heinichen married in Weissenfels; the birth of his only child is recorded as January 1723. In his final years, Heinichen's health suffered greatly; on the afternoon of 16 July 1729, he was buried in the Johannes cemetery after finally succumbing to tuberculosis.

IVANSCHIZ, Amandus (1727-1758) - Missa Pastoritia

Amandus Ivanschiz (1727-1758) - Missa Pastoritia (G-Dur) a Canto, Alto, Tenore, Basso,

Violinis 2bus, Corn: 2bus Con Organo

Performers: Irena Bааr (soprano); Sabira Hajdаrеvic (alto); Marjan Trcеk (tenor); Zoran Potοcаn (bass);

Musica Antiqua Labаcеnsis; MPZ Te Deum; Simon Rοbinsοn (conductor)

Painting: Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806) - The Visit to the Nursery

Further info: Amandus Ivanschiz (1727-1758) - Missa (ex C) à 4 voci (c.1755)

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Amandus (Matthias Leopold) Ivanschiz [Ivanschitz, Ivanschütz, Ivanscics, Ivančić, Ivančič et al.]

(Wien, bap. 24 December 1727 - Ort?, 1758)

Austrian composer of south Slav extraction. Only fragmentary information about his life is available. He entered the Pauline order in his hometown and choose the name of Amandus likely by the end of 1742. After his novitiate in the Ranna monastery at the age of 16 (1743) he took his monastic vows. He then studied in Maria Trost and Wiener Neustadt, where he was ordained a priest on November 15, 1750. Between 1751 and 1754 he stayed in Rome as an assistant to the Procurator General of the order, from where he returned to Wiener Neustadt. In 1755 he was sent again to the Maria Trost monastery, where he died in 1758, at the young age of 31. He was a prolific and popular composer: there survive about 100 works by him in manuscripts copies, dating mostly from 1762 to 1772 and scattered throughout the Habsburg Empire and in south Germany. His music is characteristic of the transition from late Baroque to early Classical style, and his best works are his masses and symphonies. The masses are mostly scored for four soloists, four-part choir, two violins and bass and a pair of trumpets; some are of considerable dimensions, and they show distinct Neapolitan traits. The symphonies, many of which have four movements, are scored for strings, sometimes with a pair of trumpets or horns. The trios, entitled variously ‘Divertimento’, ‘Nocturno’, ‘Sinfonia’, ‘Sonata’ and ‘Parthia’, are mostly in three movements in the same key; Ivanschiz’s frequent use of the viola as the second solo instrument is a forward-looking trait.

ABEL, Carl Friedrich (1723-1787) - Symphony in D major (1759)

Carl Friedrich Abel (1723-1787) - Symphony in D major from 'VI Symhonies à 4 parties deux violons, alt-viole & basse continue con les haubois et cornes de chasse ... œuvre première' (1759)

Performers: Il Fondamеnto; Paul Dombrеcht (conductor)

Painting: George Stubbs (1724-1806) - The Prince of Wales's Phaeton (1793)

Further info: Carl Friedrich Abel (1723-1787) - Sinfonia a 5 (1767)

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Carl (Karl, Carlo, Charles) Friedrich (Frederico) Abel [Abell, Apel]

(Köthen, 22 December 1723 - London, 20 June 1787)

German composer, impresario, and viola da gamba player. The son of the gambist at the court of Anhalt- Cöthen, Christian Ferdinand Abel (c.1683-1737), grandson of Clamor Heinrich Abel (1634-1696) and brother of Leopold August Abel (1718-1794), he received his early training from his father. Upon the recommendation of Johann Sebastian Bach, he obtained his first post in the Saxon Kapelle in 1748, but a decade later he immigrated to England to become the chamber composer for Queen Charlotte. On 29 February 1764 he performed his first joint concert with Johann Christian Bach at the Carlisle House on Soho Square. Its success began a collaborative series of 10 to 15 annual subscriptions concerts there and later at Hannover Square known as the Bach-Abel Concerts. Although competition began to weaken their appeal beginning with a series of concerts at the Pantheon in 1774, it was the death of his partner, Bach, in 1782 that caused these popular events to cease. At this time, Abel toured Paris and Germany, briefly staying in Potsdam at the court of Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia, ultimately returning to London in 1785. He remained active as a performer on an instrument long out of fashion up until his death. He had a reputation as a generous and likeable person, who offered aid in establishing younger musicians. He also had a penchant for living well. As a soloist, he was particularly praised for his sensitive and lyrical playing, particularly in the slow movements. Charles Burney noted that “the most pleasing, yet learned modulations, the richest harmony and the model elegant and polished melody were all expressed with feeling, taste, and science.” He is also known to have played the keyboard and French horn. His 233 works were almost entirely concentrated on instrumental genres; only a couple of arias and a song exist of his vocal compositions. These include 44 sonatas for viola da gamba and keyboard, 42 symphonies, 39 trio sonatas (two violins, two flutes, and violin/cello with keyboard), 28 miscellaneous pieces for viola da gamba, 24 violin sonatas, 12 piano trios, 12 string quartets, 10 flute quartets, seven flute sonatas, six keyboard concertos, three sinfonia concertantes (including one for two clarinets), two flute concertos, two cello concertos, and a number of miscellaneous keyboard works.