Johann Christian Schickhardt
Encyclopedia
Johann Christian Schickhardt (ca. 1682 – ca. 25 March 1762) was a German composer and woodwind player.

Biography

Schickhardt was born in Braunschweig
Braunschweig
Braunschweig , is a city of 247,400 people, located in the federal-state of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located north of the Harz mountains at the farthest navigable point of the Oker river, which connects to the North Sea via the rivers Aller and Weser....

 (Brunswick) and received his musical education at the Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel court under the patronage of Augustus William
Augustus William, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg
Augustus William, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg ruled over the Wolfenbüttel subdivision of the duchy from 1714 until his death....

, third son and heir of Anthony Ulrich, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel
Anthony Ulrich, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel
Anthony Ulrich was duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and ruled over the Wolfenbüttel subdivision of the duchy from 1685 until 1702 jointly with his brother, and solely from 1704 until his death.-Life:Anthony Ulrich was the second son of Augustus the Younger, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg; he studied at the...

 . In the first decade of the 18th century, he was employed in the Netherlands and associated with Friedrich of Hesse-Cassel
Frederick I of Sweden
Frederick I, , was a prince consort of Sweden from 1718 to 1720, and a King of Sweden from 1720 until his death and also Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel from 1730...

, Henriëtte Amalia van Anhalt-Dessau
Henriëtte Amalia van Anhalt-Dessau
Henriëtte Amalia Maria van Anhalt-Dessau was the daughter of John George II, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau and Henriëtte Catharina of Nassau and the granddaughter of Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange....

 (daughter of John George II, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau
John George II, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau
John George II, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau was a German prince of the House of Ascania and ruler of the principality of Anhalt-Dessau...

 and widow of Henry Casimir II, Prince of Nassau-Dietz) and her son John William Friso, Prince of Orange . In the second decade of the 18th century, Schickhardt lived in Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

, where it is speculated by musicologist Andrew D. McCredie that he was a member of the Hamburg Opera in Gänsemarkt as a flutist or oboist . There is evidence suggesting that, in the 1720s, Schickhardt could have been an occasional oboist with the court orchestra of Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen, employer of 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...

 . By the 1740s, records place Schickhardt at the University of Leiden
Leiden University
Leiden University , located in the city of Leiden, is the oldest university in the Netherlands. The university was founded in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, leader of the Dutch Revolt in the Eighty Years' War. The royal Dutch House of Orange-Nassau and Leiden University still have a close...

 as a student, and at his death in 1762, the university described him as "a master of musical arts and a member of the Academy," although there is no surviving record of his musical activity in Leiden otherwise .

Works

In the first half of the 18th century, numerous works of his, mostly chamber music featuring the treble recorder
Recorder
The recorder is a woodwind musical instrument of the family known as fipple flutes or internal duct flutes—whistle-like instruments which include the tin whistle. The recorder is end-blown and the mouth of the instrument is constricted by a wooden plug, known as a block or fipple...

, appeared in print from publishers Estienne Roger
Estienne Roger
Estienne Roger was a francophone printer and publisher working in the Netherlands.-Life:...

 and Le Cène in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

. At least 30 sets of musical works are known to have been published, some of which are no longer extant. A catalog of Schickhardt's published and manuscript works can be found in David Lasocki's article. With the revival of the treble recorder in the early 20th century, a great interest in suitable repertoire for the instrument developed and some of Schickhardt's works were republished in new editions. It is predominantly through his works for recorder that Schickhardt is known today.

Schickhardt's compositions include sonatas for solo recorder and basso continuo (op. 1 and op. 17) as well as trio sonatas for two recorders and basso continuo (op. 16). Besides these, there are also compositions that stand between the chamber and larger scale concert music styles, e.g., his op. 9 for four recorders and basso continuo and his six sonatas for recorder, two oboes, and basso continuo. Some short works by Schickhardt can also be found in the "The Compleat Tutor to the Hautboy", an oboe tutor published by Walsh and Hare in ca. 1715 . Additionally, Schickhardt wrote a recorder concerto in G minor and "L'Alphabet de la musique" (op. 30, circa 1735), which contains sonatas in all 24 keys .

External links

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