Johann Kuhnau

Johann Kuhnau ( born April 6, 1660 in Geising, † June 5, 1722 in Leipzig ) was a German composer and writer of the Baroque.

Life and work

The son of a carpenter attended on a scholarship from the famous Cross school in Dresden and then studied philosophy and law in Leipzig, before he took a job as a cantor in Zittau. He was standard fare since the Reformation type of cantor academically educated. According to a contemporary judgment he was considered a polymath among the musicians. From Johann Christoph Adelung says of Kuhnau: "I do not know if he brought more honor the Order of Musicians or the other scholars. He was taught in divinity, in the right hand, eloquence, poetry, mathematics, foreign languages and music. "

1682 he returned to Leipzig and two years later was organist at St. Thomas Church. From 1701 until his death he was choirmaster, succeeding Johann Schelle and immediate predecessor of Johann Sebastian Bach. He also held in 1701, the office of the university music director.

Particularly well known Kuhnau was through his works for keyboard instruments. His Musicalische presentation of some biblical histories ( Biblical Sonatas ) for Harpsichord, also partially suitable for organ, can very well already be described as program music. Significant is his New Clavierübung by which his successor JS also Bach was influenced.

In his sacred works Kuhnau was less innovative and is rather the musical language of the late 17th century near. Its versatile and important personality Kuhnau must have exerted a strong impression on his contemporaries.

Its written in the style of Christian musicians Sage novels, however, are considered school examples " enlightened " realistic representation.

Kuhnau is regarded as the author of the Christmas Cantata us a child is born, which was previously attributed to JS Bach as BWV 142.

In his essay The Quack - Salber musicalische Kuhnau explains his idea of the " true virtuoso ". This drawing is mainly characterized by the ability of improvisation. The differing from today's virtuoso concept idea was widespread in the 18th century and appears in a similar way to Andreas Werckmeister, Lorenz Christoph Mizler and Ludwig van Beethoven.

Works (selection)

Selected Church Cantatas, ed. Arnold Schering. Leipzig 1918.
Selected Piano Works, ed. Kurt Schubert. Mainz 1938.
The Quack - Salber musicalische, ed. Kurt Benndorf. . Berlin 1900 ( Ndr d ed Dresden 1700) ( digitized output Dresden 1700: notes and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project. ).

Literature (selection )

Carl von Winterfeld: The Evangelical Church singing ..., Part 3, Leipzig, 1847, pp. XV ( digitized in the Google Book Search ).
Philipp Spitta: Kuhnau, Johann. In: General German Biography (ADB ). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1883, pp. 343-346.
Richard Munnich: Kuhnau's life. In: anthologies of the International Music Company. 3 1901-1902, pp. 473-527.
Susanne Stöpfgeshoff: The musicians novels by Wolfgang Caspar Printz and Johann Kuhnau. Diss Freiburg / B. In 1960.
Lois Evangeline Rimbach: The Church Cantatas of Johann Kuhnau. 2 vols, Diss Rochester 1965.
James Hardin: Realism and the figure of Johann Kuhnau in Caraffa, The musical quack. '" In: Yearbook of International German. 8, 1980, p 44-49.
Frederick W. Riedel: Kuhnau, Johann. In: New German Biography ( NDB ). Volume 13, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1982, ISBN 3-428-00194- X, pp. 270 f ( digitized ).
Jochen Arbogast: Still Critical studies on the piano work of Thomas cantor, Kuhnau. Dissertation. Regensburg, 1983.
Gerhard Dünnhaupt: " Johann Kuhnau ." In: Personal bibliographies on the printing of the Baroque. Vol 4 Hiersemann, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-7772-9122-6, pp. 2463-2469.
Stephen Rose: The Musician in Literature in the Age of Bach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2011, ISBN 978-1-107-00428-3.

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