Krieger, Johann Philipp
Krieger, Johann Philipp
Krieger, Johann Philipp, eminent German organist, keyboard player, and composer, brother of Johann Krieger; b. Nuremberg, Feb. 25, 1649; d. Weissen-fels, Feb. 6, 1725. He was a pupil of Johann Dretzel and Gabriel Schütz in Nuremberg; went to Copenhagen, where he studied organ with the royal organist Johann Schröder and composition with Kaspar Förster. By 1672 he was court organist in Bayreuth. He went to Italy in 1673, continuing his studies in Venice with Rosenmüller (composition) and G. Volpe (clavier) and in Rome with A. Abbatini (composition) and B. Pasquini (composition and clavier). After playing before the Emperor Leopold I in Vienna, he was ennobled by the monarch in 1675. Krieger was subsequently court organist in Halle (from 1677). When the court moved to Weissenfels in 1680, he went with it as Kapellmeister, retaining that post for the rest of his life. He was particularly important as a composer of sacred cantatas; by introducing madrigal verse for his texts, he came to be regarded as the ‘father of the new cantata/’ He wrote more than 2, 000 such works, only 74 of which are extant. He also composed some 18 operas, but only arias are extant, along with several librettos. His extant publ. instrumental works are Lustige Feld- Music (Nuremberg, 1704; 6 suites for Wind Instruments), 12 suonate for 2 Violins (Nuremberg, 1688), and 12 suonate for Violin and Viola da Gamba (Nuremberg, 1693). For eds. of his extant works, see the following: M. Seiffert, ed., J.P. Krieger: 21 ausgewählte Kirchencomposition, Denkmäler Deutscher Tonkunst, LIII-LIV (1916), idem, ed., J.P. Krieger: Gesammelte Werke für Orgel und Klavier, Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Bayern, XXX, Jg. XVIII (1917), idem, ed., J.P. Krieger: Partie, Sonate, Organum, III/9, 11 (Leipzig, 1925-26; 2nd ed., 1951-52), HJ. Moser, ed., J.P. Krieger: 24 Lieder und Arien, Nagels Musikarchiv, CLXXXIV-CLXXV (1930), H. Osthoff, ed., J.P. Krieger: Triosonate, ibid., CXXXV (1937), and C. Crussard, ed., J.P. Krieger: Sonate a trois, Flores Musicae, VII (1958).
Bibliography
D. Stout, Four Cantatas by J.P. K. (diss., Ind. Univ., 1966).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire