Joseph Umstatt (1711-1762) - Cembalokonzert C-Dur, Nr.7
Performers: Gertrud Jemiller (cembalo); Lukas-Consort
Further info: Bamberger Hofmusik
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Austrian composer. According to the parish register in St Stephen’s,
Vienna, he was the second of five children of the court painter to the
widowed Empress Anna Amalia of Austria. He was probably educated in
Vienna. In 1749 he held an appointment in Dresden as musical director at
the court of Count Brühl, where he became acquainted with J.A. Hasse
and J.C.F. Bach. On 20 October 1752 he was appointed Kapellmeister and
court composer to the Prince-Bishop J.P. von Frankenstein and his
successor in Bamberg. The following years, up to his death, were his
most creative. Umstatt composed in nearly all the forms of his time,
both sacred and secular, and his works demonstrate the gradual change
from Baroque polyphony to the Classical style. This can be seen in his
masses (which include cantata masses in several movements, of both the
missa solemnis and missa brevis types) where fugues stand alongside
homophonic and cantabile sections. In his Missa pastoritia he made
extensive use of folksong melodies and shepherd calls. The ‘stylus
mixtus’ of J.J. Fux is Umstatt’s starting-point, but he also attempted
to develop an individual style. He composed solo concertos for violin,
flute, harpsichord and pantaleon. In his concertos Umstatt modified the
Vivaldian concerto form, giving the solo episodes greater weight and
prolonging them by comparison with the tuttis; virtuoso passages for the
soloist play an important part in the harpsichord concertos. Umstatt’s
use of sequence may be seen as conservative, but various flourishes,
figurations and rhythmical formulas are a part of galant style. His 11
surviving symphonies are mostly in three movements (two have an
additional minuet and trio). Most of his thematic material is of
broken-chord, triadic matter; his music sometimes remains on this
harmonic plane, whereas in the works of his contemporaries (such as Monn
or Wagenseil) melodic lines often follow the opening chordal
flourishes. In most of his symphonic movements there is a second theme
in the dominant key, which does not return later in the movement. His
development sections, in the common manner of the time, consist of
modulating sequences with occasional use of motifs from the principal
theme; and the reprises are short and incomplete, repeating only the
closing section of the exposition. Umstatt’s music is typical of the
older generation of the Viennese school; stylistically, his music stands
alongside that of Monn and other better-known contemporaries, though
Umstatt’s works do not reflect a special personal style.
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