Christian Friedrich Witt
Encyclopedia
Christian Friedrich Witt, or Witte (ca. 1660– 3 April 1717) was a German composer
, music editor
and teacher.
, where his father, Johann Ernst Witt, was court organist; he had come from Denmark around 1650 when a Danish princess
married into the house of Saxe-Altenburg
. Frederick I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg
probably gave Witt a scholarship in 1676 to study in Vienna
and Salzburg
, and then from 1685–1686 to study composition and counterpoint
in Nuremberg
with Georg Caspar Wecker
, returning for a further period of study in 1688. He moved to Gotha
to take up as post as chamber organist to the court in June 1686; he remained there for the rest of his life. He became a substitute for W.M. Mylius, the capellmeister, in 1694, and succeeded him after his death in 1713; Duke Frederick II
was one of his pupils. He is mentioned as a good keyboard
player and capellmeister in J.P. Treiber's Der accurate Organist im General-Bass (1704) and Telemann's Beschreibung der Augen-Orgel (1739). He was also valued by the courts of Ansbach-Bayreuth, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt
, and Saxe-Weissenfels
. While on his deathbed, Johann Sebastian Bach
was commissioned to substitute for him and perform a Passiontide work for the court chapel (the Weimarer Passion
BWV deest (BC D 1)).
s feature instrumental introductions, vocal concerto movements, solos, duets, homophonic chorale chorus
es, and are without recitative
s. Psalmodia sacra is an important hymnal
from the late baroque
; Marpurg wrote that it was the best he knew. It contains 762 hymn
s, 351 with melodies and figured bass
es, and an appendix of 12 more hymns and five more melodies. There are established chorale melodies by sixteenth and seventeenth century Thuringia
n composers along with over 100 new ones believed to have been written by Witt.
's older brother (to whom he committed various manuscripts that found their ways into the anthologies, as well as manuscripts of some of his own early works).
Many other keyboard works have been lost.
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, music editor
Editing
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...
and teacher.
Biography
He was born in AltenburgAltenburg
Altenburg is a town in the German federal state of Thuringia, 45 km south of Leipzig. It is the capital of the Altenburger Land district.-Geography:...
, where his father, Johann Ernst Witt, was court organist; he had come from Denmark around 1650 when a Danish princess
Princess
Princess is the feminine form of prince . Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or his daughters....
married into the house of Saxe-Altenburg
Saxe-Altenburg
Saxe-Altenburg was one of the Saxon duchies held by the Ernestine branch of the Wettin dynasty in present-day Thuringia.-History:The duchy originated from the medieval Burgraviate of Altenburg in the Imperial Pleissnerland , a possession of the Wettin Margraves of Meissen since 1243...
. Frederick I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg
Frederick I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg
Frederick I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg , was a duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. He was the fourth but eldest surviving son of Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Altenburg and Elisabeth Sophie of Saxe-Altenburg.When Ernst inherited the duchy of Saxe-Altenburg , he made Frederick the regent of that duchy...
probably gave Witt a scholarship in 1676 to study in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
and Salzburg
Salzburg
-Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for...
, and then from 1685–1686 to study composition and counterpoint
Counterpoint
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent . It has been most commonly identified in classical music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...
in Nuremberg
Nuremberg
Nuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...
with Georg Caspar Wecker
Georg Caspar Wecker
Georg Caspar Wecker was a German Baroque organist and composer. A minor composer of the Nuremberg school, Wecker is now best remembered as one of Johann Pachelbel's first teachers....
, returning for a further period of study in 1688. He moved to Gotha
Gotha (town)
Gotha is a town in Thuringia, within the central core of Germany. It is the capital of the district of Gotha.- History :The town has existed at least since the 8th century, when it was mentioned in a document signed by Charlemagne as Villa Gotaha . Its importance derives from having been chosen in...
to take up as post as chamber organist to the court in June 1686; he remained there for the rest of his life. He became a substitute for W.M. Mylius, the capellmeister, in 1694, and succeeded him after his death in 1713; Duke Frederick II
Frederick II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg
Frederick II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg , was a duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg.He was the fifth child and first son of Frederick I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg and Magdalene Sibylle of Saxe-Weissenfels....
was one of his pupils. He is mentioned as a good keyboard
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
player and capellmeister in J.P. Treiber's Der accurate Organist im General-Bass (1704) and Telemann's Beschreibung der Augen-Orgel (1739). He was also valued by the courts of Ansbach-Bayreuth, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt
Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt
Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt was a small historic state in present-day Thuringia, Germany with its capital at Rudolstadt.-History:Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt was established in 1599 in the course of a resettlement of Schwarzburg dynasty lands...
, and Saxe-Weissenfels
Saxe-Weissenfels
Saxe-Weissenfels was a duchy of the Holy Roman Empire from 1656/7 until 1746 with its residence at Weißenfels. Ruled by a cadet branch of the Albertine House of Wettin, the duchy passed to the Electorate of Saxony upon the extinction of the line....
. While on his deathbed, Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
was commissioned to substitute for him and perform a Passiontide work for the court chapel (the Weimarer Passion
Weimarer Passion
The work commonly referred to as the Weimarer Passion, BWV deest , is a musical composition among the Passions written by Johann Sebastian Bach, composed in 1717 for at least two solo voices, choir and orchestra with text by an unknown librettist...
BWV deest (BC D 1)).
Vocal
His cantataCantata
A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....
s feature instrumental introductions, vocal concerto movements, solos, duets, homophonic chorale chorus
Strophic form
Strophic form is the simplest and most durable of musical forms, elaborating a piece of music by repetition of a single formal section. This may be analyzed as "A A A..."...
es, and are without recitative
Recitative
Recitative , also known by its Italian name "recitativo" , is a style of delivery in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms of ordinary speech...
s. Psalmodia sacra is an important hymnal
Hymnal
Hymnal or hymnary or hymnbook is a collection of hymns, i.e. religious songs, usually in the form of a book. The earliest hand-written hymnals are known since Middle Ages in the context of European Christianity...
from the late baroque
Baroque music
Baroque music describes a style of Western Classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1760. This era follows the Renaissance and was followed in turn by the Classical era...
; Marpurg wrote that it was the best he knew. It contains 762 hymn
Hymn
A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification...
s, 351 with melodies and figured bass
Figured bass
Figured bass, or thoroughbass, is a kind of integer musical notation used to indicate intervals, chords, and non-chord tones, in relation to a bass note...
es, and an appendix of 12 more hymns and five more melodies. There are established chorale melodies by sixteenth and seventeenth century Thuringia
Thuringia
The Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....
n composers along with over 100 new ones believed to have been written by Witt.
- 65 cantatas: RentweinsdorfRentweinsdorfRentweinsdorf is a municipality in the district of Haßberge in Bavaria in Germany....
cycle, for 4 voiceVoiceVoice may refer to:* Human voice* Voice control or voice activation* Writer's voice* Voice acting* Voice vote* Voice message-In film:* Voice , a 2005 South Korean film* The Voice , a 2010 Turkish horror film directed by Ümit Ünal...
s, 2 violinViolinThe violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
s, 2 violViolThe viol is any one of a family of bowed, fretted and stringed musical instruments developed in the mid-late 15th century and used primarily in the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The family is related to and descends primarily from the Renaissance vihuela, a plucked instrument that preceded the...
s, continuoFigured bassFigured bass, or thoroughbass, is a kind of integer musical notation used to indicate intervals, chords, and non-chord tones, in relation to a bass note...
; other instruments include clarinoClarinois the brand name of a synthetic leather-like material, commonly used in gloves, footwear, handbags, and law enforcement duty gear. Versions are made that simulate suede and top-grain leather. It is manufactured by Kuraray Co., Ltd...
, bassoonBassoonThe bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band and chamber music literature...
, and violoneVioloneThe term violone can refer to several distinct large, bowed musical instruments which belong to either the viol or violin family. The violone is sometimes a fretted instrument, and may have six, five, four, or even only three strings. The violone is also not always a contrabass instrument... - 12 cantatas
- FuneralFuneralA funeral is a ceremony for celebrating, sanctifying, or remembering the life of a person who has died. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember the dead, from interment itself, to various monuments, prayers, and rituals undertaken in their honor...
odeOdeOde is a type of lyrical verse. A classic ode is structured in three major parts: the strophe, the antistrophe, and the epode. Different forms such as the homostrophic ode and the irregular ode also exist...
: Wer kan des Höchsten Rath, for 5 voices (1697) - Psalmodia sacra, oder Andächtige und schöne Gesänge: 356 melodies, of which about 100 are by Witt, for voice and continuo (1715)
Orchestral
- 3 ouvertures in the French style
- 3 suiteSuiteIn music, a suite is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral pieces normally performed in a concert setting rather than as accompaniment; they may be extracts from an opera, ballet , or incidental music to a play or film , or they may be entirely original movements .In the...
s, a 4–6 - 7 sonataSonataSonata , in music, literally means a piece played as opposed to a cantata , a piece sung. The term, being vague, naturally evolved through the history of music, designating a variety of forms prior to the Classical era...
s, a 4–7, 10 - in an Italian concerto grossoConcerto grossoThe concerto grosso is a form of baroque music in which the musical material is passed between a small group of soloists and full orchestra...
style, including a 3-part concertinoConcertino (composition)A concertino is a short concerto freer in form. It normally takes the form of a one-movement musical composition for solo instrument and orchestra, though some concertinos are written in several movements played without a pause.... - 3 marches, a 4, ed. P. Rubardt (Kassel, 1954); ed. G. Zahn (Zürich, 1992)
- ConcertoConcertoA concerto is a musical work usually composed in three parts or movements, in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra.The etymology is uncertain, but the word seems to have originated from the conjunction of the two Latin words...
, for trumpetTrumpetThe trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
Keyboard
Christian Friedrich Witt's Keyboard works were well-known throughout Germany, and in fact appear in many anthologies of the time. One famous example is the inclusion of two of his suites (in C minor and in F-sharp minor) in the so-called Möllersche Handschrift (Möller Manuscript), one of two anthologies compiled by Johann Christoph Bach (1671–1721), Johann Sebastian BachJohann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
's older brother (to whom he committed various manuscripts that found their ways into the anthologies, as well as manuscripts of some of his own early works).
- 6 suites, (1704); selection ed. L. Cerutti and F. Rima (Padua, 1994–1995)
- CanzonaCanzonaIn the 16th century an instrumental chanson; later, a piece for ensemble in several sections or tempos...
, capriccioCapriccio (music)A capriccio or caprice , is a piece of music, usually fairly free in form and of a lively character...
, chaconneChaconneA chaconne ; is a type of musical composition popular in the baroque era when it was much used as a vehicle for variation on a repeated short harmonic progression, often involving a fairly short repetitive bass-line which offered a compositional outline for variation, decoration, figuration and... - PreludePrelude (music)A prelude is a short piece of music, the form of which may vary from piece to piece. The prelude can be thought of as a preface. It may stand on its own or introduce another work...
, 2 fugueFugueIn music, a fugue is a compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject that is introduced at the beginning in imitation and recurs frequently in the course of the composition....
s, menuet - PassacagliaPassacagliaThe passacaglia is a musical form that originated in early seventeenth-century Spain and is still used by contemporary composers. It is usually of a serious character and is often, but not always, based on a bass-ostinato and written in triple metre....
, for organ, wrongly attributed to BachBạchBạch is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as Bai in Chinese and Baek, in Korean.Bach is the anglicized variation of the surname Bạch.-Notable people with the surname Bạch:* Bạch Liêu...
as BWV Anh 182; in J.S. Bach: Werke XLII, ed. E. Naumann (Leipzig, 1894/1947; see Bach Gesellschaft Ausgabe) - Herr Christ, der einig Gottessohn, choraleChoraleA chorale was originally a hymn sung by a Christian congregation. In certain modern usage, this term may also include classical settings of such hymns and works of a similar character....
prelude for organ; in Das Erbe deutscher Musik, 1st series, IX (1937) - Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, chorale prelude for organ; in Der Orgelfreund VIII (Erfurt)
Many other keyboard works have been lost.
Sources
- Bernd Baselt, Karl-Ernst Bergunder, 'Witt [Witte], Christian Friedrich', Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 2007-06-13), http://www.grovemusic.com/
- D.P. Walker and P. Walker: German Sacred Polyphonic Vocal Music between SchützHeinrich SchützHeinrich Schütz was a German composer and organist, generally regarded as the most important German composer before Johann Sebastian Bach and often considered to be one of the most important composers of the 17th century along with Claudio Monteverdi...
and BachBạchBạch is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as Bai in Chinese and Baek, in Korean.Bach is the anglicized variation of the surname Bạch.-Notable people with the surname Bạch:* Bạch Liêu...
(Warren, Michigan, 1992)