Johann Gottfried Walther (1684-1748)
- Sonate (G-Dur) à 3
Performers: Susanne Ehrhardt (flute); Irene Klein (viola da gamba); Armin Thalheim (harpsichord)
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German organist, composer, theorist and lexicographer. Son of Johann
Stephan Walther, an Erfurt fabric maker, and Martha Dorothea Lämmerhirt,
he studied organ in Erfurt with Johann Bernhard Bach and Johann Andreas
Kretschmar. He became organist of the Thomaskirche there in 1702 and
concurrently studied philosophy and law briefly at the University of
Erfurt. He studied composition with Johann Heinrich Buttstett; after
travel in Germany, he continued his studies with Wilhelm Hieronymus
Pachelbel in Nuremberg (1706), then became organist of the church of St.
Peter and St. Paul in Weimar (1707), a post he held for the rest of his
life. He also served as music master at the ducal court and was made
Hofmusicus of the ducal Court in 1721. Walther assembled a valuable
library of music and books on music, which prompted him to pursue
diligent musical research. This culminated in his great 'Musicalisches
Lexicon' (1732), the first music dictionary to encompass biographies of
musicians of the past and present, musical terms, and bibliographies. He
also left the important treatise 'Praecepta der musicalischen
Composition' (1708), which was not published until the 20th century. He
composed much sacred vocal music, but only one work, 'Kyrie, Christe,
Kyrie eleison über Wo Gott zum Haus nicht giebt sein Gunst', has
survived. However, over 100 chorale preludes for organ are extant. These
place him next to J.S. Bach, his distant relation and lifelong friend,
as a master of the genre. He also prepared valuable manuscript copies of
works by other composers, many of which remain the only known sources.
