A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Walther, Johann Gottfried

WALTHER, Johann Gottfried, a very skilful contrapuntist^[1] and famous musical lexicographer, born at Erfurt, Sept. 18, 1684; died at Weimar, March 23, 1748; was pupil of Jacob Adlung and J. Bernhard Bach in 1702; became organist of the Thomas Church at Erfurt, and July 29, 1707, town organist of Weimar (in succession to Heintze) and teacher of the son and daughter of the Grand Duke; and in 1720 'Hofmusicus' (Court musician). Walther was a relative of J. S. Bach, and during Bach's residence in Weimar (1708–14) they became very intimate, and Bach was godfather to his eldest son. The meagre notice of Bach in Walther's Lexicon seems to show that the intimacy did not last. Mattheson's judgment of Walther, in his 'Ehrenpforte,' is a very high one; he regards him as 'a second Pachelbel, if not in art the first.' In the arrangement and variation of Chorales on the organ, he certainly stands next to Bach himself. An anecdote preserved by one of Bach's sons shows that he was once able to puzzle even that great player.^[2] He printed the following pieces:—Clavier concert without accompaniment (1741); Prelude and Fugue (1741), 4 Chorales with variations; and a mass of compositions remains in MS. in the Berlin Library and elsewhere. But Walther's most lasting work is his Dictionary—'Musikalisches Lexicon oder musikalische Bibliothek' (Leipzig, 1732), the first to combine biography and musical subjects, a work of great accuracy and merit, and the ground-work to many a subsequent one. This work was the production of his leisure hours only. He published a first sketch, of 68 pages, in 1728, under the title of 'Alte und neue musikalische Bibliothek oder musikalisches Lexikon' (Ancient and Modern Musical Library or Musical Lexicon). Walther had prepared elaborate corrections and additions for a second edition of his great work, and after his death they were used by Gerber in the preparation of his Lexicon. They ultimately came into the possession of the 'Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde' at Vienna.

[ G. ]

1. See the instances given by Spitta, 'Bach' (Novello). ii. 384.
2. Ibid. ii. 388.