Page:Pratt - The history of music (1907).djvu/493

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masses, 5 cantatas and many psalms, and for the English Church a Morning and Evening Service complete. He also produced several oratorios, including a trilogy on the Entombment, the Resurrection and the Ascension (c. 1826), Das Gesetz des alten Bundes [Mount Sinai] (c. 1810), David, and cantatas for Easter and Whitsunday. He was an enthusiast over Palestrina, but in his superficial facility was quite unable to follow in that master's steps.

Joseph Drechsler (d. 1852), a Bohemian, worked from 1807 in Vienna, first as teacher and opera-director, later as organist and choirmaster, in 1844 following Gänsbacher at St. Stephen's. An indefatigable worker of no small ability, he stands credited with 17 masses, 3 cantatas and many motets for the church, 5 operas and many lesser stage-works, instrumental pieces and songs, an organ-method, a harmony and other instruction-books.

To these may be added several whose work likewise extended into the next period, such as Joseph Blahagk (d. 1846), from 1802 an operatic tenor and from 1824 Preindl's successor at St. Peter's, with numerous works; Ignaz Aszmayer (d. 1862), a pupil of Michael Haydn and at first organist at Salzburg, from 1815 pupil of Eybler and in 1824 his successor at the Schottenstift, from 1825 court-organist, and from 1838 Weigl's assistant and in 1846 his successor as court-choirmaster, with about 60 works, including 15 masses and 3 oratorios; and Franz Schubert (d. 1828), whose sacred works form but a small section of his total production, but are marked by the same charm (see secs. 173-4). Schubert's masses were all written for the parish church of Lichtenthal; the largest of them is that in Eb (1828). His brother, Ferdinand Schubert (d. 1859), was also a considerable sacred composer.

Among the church musicians associated with Dresden, mention has already been made of Morlacchi (d. 1841), choirmaster from 1810 (see sec. 175), and Reissiger (d. 1859), opera-director from 1827 (see sec. 172). With these may be named the eminent contrapuntist August Alexander Klengel (d. 1852), a pupil of Clementi, who was court-organist from 1816. He was a diligent student of Bach and among his works (wholly for the piano) was a set of 48 canons and fugues intended to rival the Wohltemperirtes Clavier.

To this period also belong the Portuguese pianist João Domingos Bomtempo (d. 1842), who, after several years at Paris and London, about 1823 returned to Lisbon, becoming in 1833 court-choirmaster and head of the conservatory, the composer of several masses and a Requiem (1819), besides piano-pieces and a method (1816); and the Spaniards Juan Bros (d. 1852), choirmaster at Malaga, Leon and Oviedo, with many church works of renown in Spain; Francisco Xavier Gibert [Gisbert] (d. 1848), a Madrid priest, said to have had a notable genius for a cappella writing; and Francesco Andrevi (d. 1853), choirmaster at Valencia, Seville and Barcelona (also in 1832-42 at Bordeaux), another strong church writer.


185. The Revival of Protestant Organ Music.—In the circle of German Protestantism the special feature of the period was a notable reawakening of interest in the organ as a vehicle of musical expression. It had seemed as if the early enthusiasm for this instrument in Germany, having reached its culmination in the