Georg Muffat
Encyclopedia

Life

He was born in Megève
Megève
Megève is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France.Megève is a famous ski resort near the Mont-Blanc in the French Alps...

, Savoy
Savoy
Savoy is a region of France. It comprises roughly the territory of the Western Alps situated between Lake Geneva in the north and Monaco and the Mediterranean coast in the south....

, (now in France), and of Scottish descent. He studied in Paris with Jean Baptiste Lully between 1663 and 1669, then became an organist in Molsheim
Molsheim
Molsheim is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Alsace in north-eastern France. The total population in 2006 was 9,382. Molsheim had been a very fast growing city between the French censuses of 1968 and 1999, passing from 5,739 to 9,331 inhabitants, but this increase came to a noticeable halt...

 and Sélestat
Sélestat
Sélestat is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Alsace in north-eastern France.In 2006, Sélestat had a total population of 19,459. The Communauté de communes de Sélestat et environs had a total population of 35,397.-Geography:...

. Later, he studied law in Ingolstadt
Ingolstadt
Ingolstadt is a city in the Free State of Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany. It is located along the banks of the Danube River, in the center of Bavaria. As at 31 March 2011, Ingolstadt had 125.407 residents...

, afterwards settling 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...

. He could not get an official appointment, so he travelled to Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...

 in 1677, then to 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...

, where he worked for the archbishop
Archbishopric of Salzburg
The Archbishopric of Salzburg was an ecclesiastical State of the Holy Roman Empire, its territory roughly congruent with the present-day Austrian state of Salzburg....

 for some ten years.

About 1680, he traveled to Italy, there studying the organ with Bernardo Pasquini
Bernardo Pasquini
right|thumb|Bernardo PasquiniBernardo Pasquini was an Italian composer of opera and church music.He was born at Massa in Val di Nievole . He was a pupil of Antonio Cesti and Loreto Vittori...

, a follower of the tradition of Girolamo Frescobaldi
Girolamo Frescobaldi
Girolamo Frescobaldi was a musician from Ferrara, one of the most important composers of keyboard music in the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods. A child prodigy, Frescobaldi studied under Luzzasco Luzzaschi in Ferrara, but was influenced by a large number of composers, including Ascanio...

; he also met Arcangelo Corelli
Arcangelo Corelli
Arcangelo Corelli was an Italian violinist and composer of Baroque music.-Biography:Corelli was born at Fusignano, in the current-day province of Ravenna, although at the time it was in the province of Ferrara. Little is known about his early life...

, whose works he admired very much. From 1690 to his death, he was Kapellmeister
Kapellmeister
Kapellmeister is a German word designating a person in charge of music-making. The word is a compound, consisting of the roots Kapelle and Meister . The words Kapelle and Meister derive from the Latin: capella and magister...

to the bishop of Passau
Bishop of Passau
The Diocese of Passau is a diocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic church in Germany. It is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of München und Freising. The diocese covers an area of 5,442 km². The current bishop is Wilhelm Schraml.-History:...

.

Georg Muffat should not be confused with his son Gottlieb Muffat
Gottlieb Muffat
Gottlieb Theophil Muffat was an Austrian composer/organist and son of Georg Muffat. He studied with Johann Fux in Vienna from 1711 onward and was appointed court organist in 1717. He assisted in the performance of Fux's opera Costanza e fortezza in Prague...

, also a successful composer.

Works

His works are strongly influenced by both French and Italian composers:
  • Sonatas for various instruments (armonico tributo 1682);
  • Orchestral suite
    Suite
    In 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 (florilegium primum & secundum 1695);
  • 12 Concerti grossi
    Concerto grosso
    The concerto grosso is a form of baroque music in which the musical material is passed between a small group of soloists and full orchestra...

     (auserlesene... instrumental Musik 1701) re-using some thematic material from armonico tributo
  • 12 Toccata
    Toccata
    Toccata is a virtuoso piece of music typically for a keyboard or plucked string instrument featuring fast-moving, lightly fingered or otherwise virtuosic passages or sections, with or without imitative or fugal interludes, generally emphasizing the dexterity of the performer's fingers...

    s for the organ as well as other pieces : passacaglia, chaconne, air with variations (Apparatus musico-organisticus 1690);
  • some partitas for the harpsichord, kept as a manuscript
  • several religious works (notably three masses, Salve Regina, etc.) from which only Missa in labore requies for twenty-four parts is preserved.


Muffat was, as Johann Jakob Froberger
Johann Jakob Froberger
Johann Jakob Froberger was a German Baroque composer, keyboard virtuoso, and organist. He was among the most famous composers of the era and influenced practically every major composer in Europe by developing the genre of keyboard suite and contributing greatly to the exchange of musical...

 before him, and Handel
HANDEL
HANDEL was the code-name for the UK's National Attack Warning System in the Cold War. It consisted of a small console consisting of two microphones, lights and gauges. The reason behind this was to provide a back-up if anything failed....

 after him, a cosmopolitan composer who played an important role in the exchanges between European musical traditions. His music books contain useful indications on musical practice during his life.

Media

Recordings

  • Armonico Tributo by Les Muffatti
    Les Muffatti
    The ensemble Les Muffatti was created in 1996 in and around the Brussels Conservatory by a group of twelve idealistic musicians who wanted to ensure that the Baroque repertoire for string orchestra was sufficiently addressed in their education...

     (Ramée RAM0502)
  • 12 Concerti Grossi 1701 Musica Aeterna Bratislava (Naxos Records
    Naxos Records
    Naxos Records is a record label specializing in classical music. Through a number of imprints, Naxos also releases genres including Chinese music, jazz, world music, and early rock & roll. The company was founded in 1987 by Klaus Heymann, a German-born resident of Hong Kong.Naxos is the largest...

    8.555096, 8.555743)
  • Toccate - Concerti da Chiesa, Martin Gester, Le Parlement de Musique, (Radio France - France Musique: Tempéraments TEM 316013)

External links

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