Georg Muffat (1653-1704)
- Suite a molti stromenti aus
'Armonico tributo, cioè sonate di camera commodissime a pocchi, o a molti stromenti' (1682)
Performers: Gradus ad Parnassum; Wien
Ton Kοοpman (conductor)
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German composer and organist of French birth. He studied with
Jean-Baptiste Lully and his contemporaries in Paris from 1663 to 1669.
He returned to Alsace to become a student, first at the Jesuit college
at Séléstat in 1669, then in 1671 at a similar institution at Molsheim,
where he was appointed organist to the exiled Strasbourg Cathedral
chapter. Then he held posts in Prague (1677), and Salzburg, where he was
appointed organist and chamber musician to the Archbishop Max Gandolf
in 1678. In the early 1680s, he was granted leave to study in Rome,
where he met Arcangelo Corelli. He returned to Salzburg in September
1682. In 1690, he became Kapellmeister for Johann Philipp, bishop of
Passau in a post he held the rest of his life. As a composer, his 15
orchestral suites model the French manner, while the 12 concerti grossi
(1701) bring out the typical Corellian textures and contrasts of small
and large groups. He also composed 5 sonatas for strings and continuo, a
single violin sonata, 3 lost operas, and a volume of organ music
containing 12 toccatas, a chaconne, a passacaglia, and an aria with
variations. His 1699 treatise, the 'Regulae Concentuum Partiturae', is
one of the best on continuo playing. He considered himself a German,
although his ancestors were Scottish and his family had settled in Savoy
in the early 17th century. He was a prominent composer of instrumental
music who was particularly important for the part he played in
introducing the French and Italian styles into Germany. Three of his
sons worked at the Hofkapelle in Vienna: Franz Georg Gottfried Muffat
(1681-1710), Johann Ernst Muffat (1686-1746) and Gottlieb Muffat
(1690-1770).
