Johann Joachim Quantz

Johann Joachim Quantz ( born January 30, 1697 in Scheden ( Electorate Brunswick- Lüneburg) as Hanß Jochim Quantz, † July 12, 1773 in Potsdam ) was a German flutist, flute maker, composer and flute teacher of Frederick the Great. His contemporaries wrote him Quanz.

Life

Quantz was born the fifth child of the blacksmith Andreas Quantz in Oberscheden in just educated Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg. After the death of their parents ( 1702 and 1707) his uncle Justus Quantz, the town musician in Merseburg took over was, and the husband of his cousin, the organist Johann Friedrich Kiesewetter training. The uncle also died soon and Quantz was trained at his successor Johann Adolf Fleischhack on. In 1713, he came as a " journeyman " Radeberg and 1714 Stadtpfeifer in Pirna. In his training as a town musician, he learned violin, oboe, trumpet, zinc, French horn, trombone, flute, bassoon, cello, viola da gamba and bass. After completion of the training he received in March 1716 a job in the city Staatskapelle Dresden (oboe and flute). After two years in the service of that town musician, he became oboist in the Polish chapel of Augustus II, with whom he regularly traveled to Poland.

In order to professionally further, he studied in 1717 by Jan Dismas Zelenka and Johann Joseph Fux in Vienna; the following year he took in Dresden flute lessons at the French flautist Pierre -Gabriel Buffardin and began to compose. A study trip led him in the years 1724 to 1726 to Italy, where he studied with Francesco Gasparini, the concertmaster of the Lateran in Rome, counterpoint, met in Naples Alessandro Scarlatti befriended the castrato Farinelli and in Venice for his musical role model Vivaldi heard. From 1726 to 1727 he lived in Paris and London, where he was George Frideric Handel urged to stay in England. Through these trips, he also came with the advent of early classical in contact.

In 1728 he was a flutist in the Electoral Saxon and Polish Chapel Royal in Dresden and met the then Prussian Crown Prince Friedrich know, he henceforth gave flute lessons, but what the Soldier King banned immediately. Quantz himself told Nicolai, as he once when one of the controls of Frederick's father had to hide in the closet. 1737 Quantz married Anna Rosina Schindler Carolina. How Marpurg reported that they took the vows on his deathbed starting to return almost immediately to healthy - the marriage was not very happy, it was generally known in Berlin that they bullied her husband. After Frederick became king, he offered Quantz in 1741 so favorable conditions, if he would be chamber musician and court composer that Quantz accepted. At the Prussian court in Berlin and Potsdam he ordered Friedrich daily lessons, conducted house concerts and composed. He enjoyed the privilege to criticize the game the king and accompanied him temporarily to the camp. In addition, he built himself flutes, they improved by addition of the second flap and wrote 1752 The Flute textbook attempt at a statement, the Playing the Transverse Flute ( the flute had prevailed in the French style).

Quantz remained until his death at the court of Frederick. In 1755 appeared in the historical- critical Beyträgen to accommodate the music of Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg an autobiography; Another followed in 1762 on Italian, his grandnephew Albert Quantz honored him in 1877 in particular detail.

The king had Quantz's grave in Potsdam embellish with sculptures by the brothers Räntz. He was initially buried in the suburbs and Nauen 1865 reburied at the Old Cemetery ( Heinrich-Mann -Allee) in the Teltow suburb, its local burial place was completely renovated in 1994.

The compositions Quantz are determined for the most part for flute. Among them are more than 200 flute solo sonatas, about 300 flute concertos, trio sonatas 45 and 9 Horn Concertos.

Next flute duos, trios and quartets - have survived, and next to the new church melodies songs ... (chorale melodies to 22 of Gellert Oden from 1760).

Most of the works are only as manuscripts, as very few pieces have appeared in print. In his birthplace Scheden Regular concerts Quantz's works instead. His textbook attempt at a statement traversière to play the flute (1752 ) is far more than a flute school. Rather, it provides a comprehensive picture of performance practice and musical aesthetics of the late late Baroque. It was still in Munich in 1992 & Kassel newly edited. In a criticism he replied in Marpurg " contributions " in 1755 with Application pour la flute à deux clefs traversière, nd

Writings

• Johann Joachim Quantz, royally. Prussian Kammermusicus, trial a statement, the flute traversiere to play: accompanied with different, for the transport of good taste in the practice music relevant comments, and explained with Exempeln, addition XXIV copper plates. Berlin, J. F. Voss 1752 ( first edition ). Third Edition. Breslau, 1789. Bey Johann Friedrich grain the elder, in the bookstore next to the K. Ober- inch and Accisamte on the big rings (1953 From this third and last German edition of the 18th century is a reprint published by Barenreiter ).
• Autobiographical sketch, first in 1755 Marpurg contributions; reprinted in Kahl ( ed.) autobiographies German musicians of the 18th century. Cologne 1948, Amsterdam 1972