Johann Paul von Westhoff

Johann Paul von Westhoff (* 1656 in Dresden, buried April 17, 1705 in Weimar ) was a German composer and violinist.

Life

Johann Paul von Westhoff was the son of originally from Lübeck Captain, lutenist and Elector of Saxony, trombonist Friedrich von Westhoff. Because of its special talent for languages ​​Westhoff was 1671 Informator the Saxon princes. Three years later he was accepted at a level of 400 guilders in the Dresden court orchestra. From the same year, he was a teacher of the Saxon Prince Johann Georg Friedrich and August in the Italian, French and Spanish. Trips led him in 1679 to Sweden and the Baltic states. As an ensign of the bodyguard of General Graf von Schulz, he took in 1680 at the siege of Buda against the insurgents under Emmerich Thokoly part. At the behest of the Elector Westhoff receipted in the same year his service. 1684 he undertook art trips to Italy, France, Lower Germany, the southern Netherlands ( Brabant and Flanders) and England. In Paris, two of his sonatas were published in the Mercure Galant, in Vienna awarded him the Emperor for his musical achievements a golden chain of grace. The Travel Johann Gottfried Walther wrote: " ... where he became not only the most famous and most learned people virtuoso known, but so does the wholesale dukes of Florence, and kings been pardoned in France with considerable present ones, and afterwards to 1684 on Kayserl. Done court, alswo you can attach put a gold chain. "

After Augustus the Strong had converted to Catholicism, Westhoff taught modern languages ​​at the University of Wittenberg. In 1699 he came as a chamber secretary, chamber musician and as a language tutor for French and Italian at the court of Weimar.

Westhoff was one lifetime with Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber and Johann Jakob Walther 's leading violinists in the German language area. His style is by the older Walther affected, with whom he worked for several years in the Dresden court orchestra. Since Westhoff for several years as Johann Sebastian Bach at the court of Saxe- Weimar was least active and these consequently had to know Westhoff's work, the Sonatas for Violin without Bass apply from 1696 as an important precursor of the like Bach's Sonatas and Partitas.

Works

  • First dozen allemandes, courantes, sarabande and Dresden Gigues 1682 ( lost)
  • Sonata for violin and basso continuo appeared in Paris Mercure Galant in December 1682
  • 6 Sonate a violino solo con basso continuo Dresden 1694
  • 6 Suites for Solo Violin. Dresden 1696
Staatskapelle Dresden John George IV, Elector of Saxony Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart Integrated Authority File
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