A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Kuhnau, Johann

KUHNAU, Johann, a very remarkable old musician, Cantor of Leipzig, and one of the pillars of the German school of the clavier, born at Geysing on the borders of Bohemia in April 1667. As a boy he had a lovely voice and a strong turn for music. He was put to the Kreuzschule at Dresden, where he became a chorister under the quaint title of 'Rathsdiscantist,' and obtained regular instruction in music. On the breaking of his voice he worked the harder, and in addition to his music learned Italian. The plague in 1680 drove him home, but Geysing was no field for his talent, and he went to Zittau and worked in the school, till the excellence of a motet which he wrote for the Rathswahl, or election of the town council, procured him the post of Cantor, with a salary on which he could study at leisure. He began by lecturing on French. His next move was to Leipzig, in 1682, whither his fame had preceded him, and in that city of music he cast anchor for the rest of his life. In 1684 he succeeded Kühnel as organist at St. Thomas's. At the game time he was studying law, and qualified himself for the rank of advocate. In 1700 he was made musical director of the University and of the two principal churches, and then [App. p.693 "in 1701"] Cantor. After this no further rise was possible, and he died June 25, 1722, admired and honoured as one of the greatest musicians and most learned men of his time. He left translations from Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Italian, and French, and wrote satirical poetry of no common order. Of his musical works the following are named:—'Jura circa musicos ecclesiasticos' (Leipzig, 1688); 'Der musickalische Quacksalber … in einer kurtzweiligen und angenehmen Historie … beschrieben' (Dresden, 1700); 'Tractatus de tetrachordo'; 'Introductio ad compositionem'; and 'Disputatio de triade'—the three last in MS. He wrote motets on chorales, and other sacred pieces; but his clavier music is his glory, and he is the greatest figure among German composers for the clavier before Bach, who obliterated all his predecessors. He was the inventor of the sonata as a piece in several movements, not dance-tunes—the first of which, 'Eine Sonata aus dem B,' in three movements, is found in his 'Sieben Partien' (Leipzig, 1695). He followed this with 13 others—'Frische Clavier-Fruchte, oder sieben Sonaten'—(Dresden and Leipzig, 1696); 'Biblische Historien nebst Auslegung in sechs Sonaten'—the last a curious offspring of the musician and the divine, and a very early instance of Programme music. In addition to these he published 'Clavier-übung aus 14 Partien … bestehend' (Leipzig, 1689)—a collection of Suites, that is of dance-tunes. Becker has republished two of Kuhnau's pieces in his 'Ausgewählte Tonstücke'; and Pauer, who introduced several of them to the English public in his chronological performances in 1862 and 63, has printed a Suite in his 'Alte Clavier musik' (Senff) and a Sonata in his 'Alte meister' (Breitkopf).

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