Christoph Graupner (1683-1760)
- Ouverture in G (c.1733)
Performers: Das Kleine Konzert; Hermann Max (conductor)
Painting: Attributed to Jean Baptiste Martin, called Martin des Batailles (1659-1735) - The Siege of Mons
Further info: Christoph Graupner
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German composer. The son of Christoph Graupner (1650-1721) and Maria Hochmuth (1653-1721), he was born into a family of tailors and clothmakers. He received his earliest musical training from the local Kantor Michael Mylius (who early detected Graupner’s exceptional abilities to sing at sight) and the organist Nikolaus Kuster. In 1694 Graupner followed Kuster to Reichenbach, remaining there under his guidance until admitted as an alumnus of the Thomasschule in Leipzig, where he remained from 1696 to 1704. His teachers there included Johann Schelle and Kuhnau, for whom he also worked as copyist and amanuensis. His subsequent studies in jurisprudence at the University of Leipzig were broken off in 1706 through a Swedish military invasion, and he emigrated to Hamburg. In Leipzig he had already made firm and artistically stimulating friendships with G.P. Telemann (then director of the collegium musicum) and Gottfried Grünewald. At Hamburg in 1707 Graupner succeeded J.C. Schiefferdecker as harpsichordist of the Gänsemarktoper. Between 1707 and 1709 Graupner composed five operas for this theatre and possibly collaborated with Reinhard Keiser in the joint composition of another three. His librettists included Hinrich Hinsch (Dido, Königin von Carthago) and Barthold Feind, a jurist-satirist-aesthetician. In 1709, in response to an invitation from Ernst Ludwig, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, Graupner accepted the position of vice-Kapellmeister to W.C. Briegel, whom he succeeded on the latter’s death in 1712. In 1711 he was married to Sophie Elisabeth Eckard, who bore him six sons and a daughter; her younger sister was married to a Lutheran pastor, Johann Conrad Lichtenberg of Neunkirchen in Odenwald, the author of the texts of most of Graupner’s subsequent cantatas.
Under Graupner’s direction the Darmstadt Hofkapelle experienced a period of vigorous expansion. At its peak (1714–18) the Kapelle employed 40 musicians, many of whom, in keeping with practices of the day, were adept in several different instruments. In these early years of his long incumbency, Italian operas were performed frequently and Graupner centred his activities on operatic compositions. Between 1712 and 1721 he also renewed his early friendship with Telemann, then active in Frankfurt. After 1719, however, financial pressures enforced a reduction in the size of the Kapelle and Graupner composed no more operas, concentrating instead on the cantata, orchestral and instrumental forms. During this period most of the orchestral personnel were obliged to find subsidiary employment, often in other court duties, and the relationship between the Landgrave and his musicians deteriorated. In 1722–3 Graupner successfully applied (in competition with J.S. Bach) for the Thomaskirche cantorate in Leipzig, on Telemann’s withdrawal, but when the Landgrave refused acceptance of his resignation, granting him a significant increase in salary and other emoluments, he decided to remain in Darmstadt. There his reputation attracted a number of important composers, including J.F. Fasch, as his students. Until his activities were restricted by failing eyesight and eventually blindness in 1754, Graupner remained extraordinarily prolific, producing 1418 church cantatas, 24 secular cantatas, 113 symphonies, about 50 concertos, 86 overture-suites, 36 sonatas for instrumental combinations and a substantial body of keyboard music.
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