Gregor Joseph Werner (January 28, 1693 March 3, 1766) was an
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...
n composer. He served from 1728 to his death as
KapellmeisterKapellmeister is a German word designating a person in charge of music-making. The word is a compound, consisting of the roots Kapelle and Meister . Kapelle derives from the Latin word capella. Thus, originally, the word was used to refer to somebody in charge of music in a chapel...
at the Esterházy court in
Eisenstadt----The Schloss Esterházy is a palace in Eisenstadt, Austria, the capital of the Burgenland state. It was constructed in the late 13th century, and came under ownership of the Hungarian Esterházy family in 1622...
. He wrote "
a cappellaA cappella music is vocal music or singing without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato style...
masses in a strict contrapuntal style" (New Grove), as well as church music with instrumental accompaniment,
oratorioAn oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. The oratorio was somewhat modeled after the opera. Their similarities include the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
s, and symphonies.
Werner entered a period of semi-retirement in 1761 when the Esterházy family hired the popular 29-year old composer
Joseph Haydn Joseph Haydn was an Austrian composer. He was one of the most important, prolific and prominent composers of the classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these genres...
as their Vice-Kapellmeister.
Gregor Joseph Werner (January 28, 1693 March 3, 1766) was an
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...
n composer. He served from 1728 to his death as
KapellmeisterKapellmeister is a German word designating a person in charge of music-making. The word is a compound, consisting of the roots Kapelle and Meister . Kapelle derives from the Latin word capella. Thus, originally, the word was used to refer to somebody in charge of music in a chapel...
at the Esterházy court in
Eisenstadt----The Schloss Esterházy is a palace in Eisenstadt, Austria, the capital of the Burgenland state. It was constructed in the late 13th century, and came under ownership of the Hungarian Esterházy family in 1622...
. He wrote "
a cappellaA cappella music is vocal music or singing without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato style...
masses in a strict contrapuntal style" (New Grove), as well as church music with instrumental accompaniment,
oratorioAn oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. The oratorio was somewhat modeled after the opera. Their similarities include the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
s, and symphonies.
Werner entered a period of semi-retirement in 1761 when the Esterházy family hired the popular 29-year old composer
Joseph Haydn Joseph Haydn was an Austrian composer. He was one of the most important, prolific and prominent composers of the classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these genres...
as their Vice-Kapellmeister. The contract by which Haydn was hired shows the family's loyalty to their elderly musical servant by retaining him, at least on a titular basis, in the top post of Kapellmeister. However, after this time Werner's musical duties were limited to church music, and Haydn had the primary duties, with full control over the secular musical events of the household, including the orchestra.
Werner was evidently bitter about Haydn, and a few months before his death (October 1765) he wrote a letter to
Prince EsterházyNikolaus Esterházy was a Hungarian prince, a member of the famous Esterházy family. His building of palaces, extravagant clothing, and taste for opera and other grand musical productions led to his being given the title "the Magnificent"...
denouncing Haydn for his (putative) slackness and laziness in running the Esterházy musical establishment. Werner succeeded completely in getting Haydn into trouble; there were unpleasant exchanges with the Prince's administrator Rahier, and the affair culminated in an official written reprimand.
The episode was responsible for at least two changes in Haydn's practice: he began to keep a draft catalog all his works (the "Entwurf-Katalog"), and (in response to a particular detail of the reprimand) he began writing a great number of works in the Prince's favorite genre at the time, the
barytonThe baryton is a bowed string instrument in the viol family, in regular use in Europe up until the end of the 18th century. It most likely fell out of favor due to its immense difficulty to play. Its size is comparable to that of a violoncello; it has seven or sometimes six bowed strings of gut,...
trio.
That Haydn evidently did not harbor long-term bitter feelings about Werner is suggested by the fact that in his own old age (1804) he published "six introductions and fugues for string quartet, taken from Werner’s oratorios" (New Grove).
Werner died March 6, 1766, in Eisenstadt.