Johann Kuhnau (1660-1722) was a German Baroque composer
and keyboard player, Johann Kuhnau was a man of many
gifts. A learned intellectual, a writer on music,
linguist, philosopher, author of a satiric novel, and
successful lawyer, he is remembered today mostly for
his keyboard compositions. Kuhnau, however, was an
important and influential voice in the German Baroque,
particularly in Leipzig, where he was Bach's immediate
predecessor as Kantor at the Thomasschule. He came from
a family of music...(+)
Johann Kuhnau (1660-1722) was a German Baroque composer
and keyboard player, Johann Kuhnau was a man of many
gifts. A learned intellectual, a writer on music,
linguist, philosopher, author of a satiric novel, and
successful lawyer, he is remembered today mostly for
his keyboard compositions. Kuhnau, however, was an
important and influential voice in the German Baroque,
particularly in Leipzig, where he was Bach's immediate
predecessor as Kantor at the Thomasschule. He came from
a family of musicians and showed an early aptitude for
the art. Kuhnau studied music throughout his youth, was
a chorister at the Kreuzschule in Dresden, and became a
fine organist, but he entered the University of Leipzig
as a law student, getting his degree in 1688. In 1689
he married, and over the course of the years had eight
children. The years that followed, from 1689 until
1699, were very successful. He was well respected as a
musician, particularly as a performer on the organ and
as a teacher of music, and his law practice thrived. He
wrote his satirical novel, entitled Der Musicalishe
Quack-Salber (The Musical Quack), and he studied
mathematics, Hebrew, and Greek, French, and Italian.
In 1701 Kuhnau was appointed Kantor at the Thomaskirche
and Leipzig University's director of music. He taught
music, directed performances, and composed. His
competition in those years included the young Telemann,
who entered law school in 1701. Telemann founded a
collegium musicum, a musical performance association,
to rival that of Kuhnau, and even encroached upon some
of Kuhnau's duties as Kantor. Kuhnau suffered from
severe ill health in his later years, and the city of
Leipzig even offered Telemann Kuhnau's position in the
event of the latter's death. Johann Friedrich Fasch and
Melchior Hoffmann were also active in Leipzig and also
numbered among Kuhnau's rivals; in the case of the
former, who had been Kuhnau's pupil, the sting must
have been especially acute. Nevertheless, Kuhnau was
widely admired by his contemporaries and successors,
and many German composers of the early eighteeth
century either studied with him or otherwise showed his
influence.
Kuhnau composed sacred music, secular vocal music, and
keyboard music, but all that remains of his output are
his keyboard music and his sacred cantatas. The
Biblische Historien (Biblical Histories), his last set
of keyboard works, are his most famous compositions;
these are programmatic works that depict episodes from
the Old Testament. They are extremely complex and
inventive texturally. Also included in his keyboard
works is a set of seven dance suites called the Neue
Clavier Übung; both these and the Biblische Historien
are notable for their incorporation of
instrumental-music devices into keyboard music.
Kuhnau's sacred cantatas likely had some influence upon
Bach's own Leipzig works in the form.
"Wenn ihr fröhlich seid an euren Festen" (If you're
happy at your festivities) was written originally for
Chorus, Wind, Percussion & Strings, I arranged it for
Trumpets (4) & Wind Ensemble (Timpani, Flutes (2),
Oboe, Bb Clarinet, French Horn & Bassoon).
PARTITION