Graupner, (Johann) Christoph

Graupner, (Johann) Christoph, German composer; b. Kirchberg, Saxony, Jan. 13, 1683; d. Darmstadt, May 10, 1760. He studied music in Kirchberg with the cantor Michael Mylius and the organist Nikolaus Kuster, and later at the Thomasschule in Leipzig with Johann Kuhnau and Johann Schelle. He then went to Hamburg, where he became harpsichordist at the Operam-Gansemarkt (1707-09) and also composed 5 operas. In 1709 he was called to Darmstadt as Vice-Kapellmeister to the Landgraf Ernst Ludwig; in 1712 he was appointed Kapellmeister, a post he held until his death. Graupner was a highly industrious composer, numbering 8 operas, some 1,400 church cantatas, 24 secular cantatas, about 100 syms., 50 concertos, 80 overtures, and many instrumental sonatas and keyboard works among his works. Several of his compositions were publ. during his lifetime, including 8 Partien auf das Clavier…erster Theil (Darmstadt, 1718), the Monatliche Clavier Fruchte…meistenteils filr Anfanger (Darmstadt, 1722), and Vier Partien auf das Clavier, unterder Benennung der Vier Jahreszeiten (Darmstadt, 1733); he also brought out a Neu vermehrtes Darmst’ddtisches Choralbuch (Darmstadt, 1728). He was proficient as an engraver, and printed several keyboard pieces in his own workshop. His operas include Dido, Konigin von Carthago (Hamburg, 1707), II fido amico, oder Der getreue Freund Hercules und Theseus (Hamburg, 1708; not extant), L’amove ammalato: Die Krankende Liebe, oder Antiochus und Stratonica (Hamburg, 1708), Bellerophon, oder Das in die preussisch Krone verwandelte Wagenstirn (Hamburg, Nov. 28, 1708; not extant), Der Fall des grossen Richters in Israel, Simson, oder Die abgekuhlte Liebesrache der Deborah (Hamburg, 1709; not extant), Berenice und Lucilla, oder Das tugendhafte Lieben (Darmstadt, March 4, 1710; not extant), Telemach (Darmstadt, Feb. 16, 1711; not extant), and La costanza vince I’inganno (Darmstadt, 1715). Denkmäler Deutscher Tonkunst, LI/LII (1926), contains 17 of his cantatas. An incomplete edition of his works was ed. by F. Noack (4 vols., Kassel, 1955-57).

Bibliography

F. Noack, C. G.s Kirchenmusiken (Leipzig, 1916); M. Witte, Die Instrumentalkonzerte von C. G. (diss., Univ. of Göttingen, 1963); C. Grosspietsch, G.s Ouverturen und Tafelmusiken: Studien zur Darmstädter Hofmusik und thematischer Katalog (N.Y., 1994).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire