Anton Fils

Johann Anton Fils (baptized September 22, 1733 in Eichstätt ; buried March 14, 1760 in Mannheim ; also Filtz, Filz ) was a German composer of the early classical period . All documentary testimonies about him name him in the spelling of his name Fils , while in the printed, posthumously published music editions the spelling Filtz predominates.

Life

Only sparse facts are known about Anton Fils' life. In older reference works it was suspected that it came from Bohemia, but it has been proven since the 1960s that Fils was baptized in Eichstätt in 1733. His father was Johann Georg Fils († 1749), who had been a cellist at the Eichstätter prince-bishop's court orchestra since 1732 . Anton Fils probably received his instrumental lessons from his father. In addition to the father, the Eichstätter Hofkapellmeister Joseph Meck can also be considered as a composition teacher . In any case, Fils is likely to have started his later position in Mannheim as a fully trained cellist and composer. In 1745 and 1749 he was recorded as a student at the Eichstätter Gymnasium, after which there was a gap in the documentary until 1754. Whether Anton Fils is identical to Antonius Ignatius Fils , who was enrolled as a student of theology and law at the University of Ingolstadt in 1753/54 not to be clarified beyond doubt.

1754 Fils was a cellist member of the Mannheim court orchestra of Kurpfälzische prince's court of the Elector Carl Theodor von der Pfalz . Although Fils was not employed as a composer, he, like many other members of this leading orchestra at the time, developed a lively compositional activity. The majority of his works are likely to have premiered at the academies in the Knights' Hall of Mannheim Palace .

In 1757 Fils married Elisabeth Range, and in 1759 the couple bought a house at number 12, square 74 (today F4). Fils died in 1760 at the age of only 26 ½ years. In the face of a lack of sources, legends soon grew up around his untimely death, the most bizarre being that he died from eating living spiders.

Fils is one of the most important symphonic composers of the first generation of pupils at the Mannheim school . Although no direct student relationship with Johann Stamitz can be proven, stylistic influences can be noted, such as the consistently four-movement form of his symphonies . His contemporaries held him in high regard , Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart even considered him “the best symphony writer who has ever lived”.

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The transmission of his works is just as problematic as the sources of his biography. Not a single composition by him has survived in the original manuscript, with the possible exception of a mass in E flat major, which is by no means certain. According to an anecdote handed down by Schubart, Fils is said to have disregarded his notes as soon as they were performed and used them to light a fire. This only changed after his death in 1760, when his widow, probably for economic reasons, sold his works to the Parisian music publisher Louis-Balthazard de La Chevardière (1730-1812). Most of Fils' works were printed by 1765, enjoyed rapidly growing popularity and were reprinted in Amsterdam and London. However, the print editions were unsystematic and without regard to the context of their origins, opus numbers sometimes contradicted each other by various publishers and were soon left out entirely, and there were also many incorrect attributions in the works published under the name Filtz . Of the more than 40 symphonies that have survived under his name, 30 are still seriously attributed to fils by modern music research, and it cannot be ruled out that this number will have to be reduced even further. In view of his untimely death, the scope of his oeuvre remains impressive. His other compositions include instrumental concerts , many of them for his own instrument, the violoncello , as a solo instrument, chamber music and some church music. A complete list of his works is still not available. From his Sinfonia à 8 Sinfonie periodique No. 2 in A major comes the title melody of the BR broadcast Our Land .

literature

• Horst Heussner:  Anton Filtz. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1961, ISBN 3-428-00186-9 , p. 148 ( digitized version ).
• Klaus Walter Littger (Ed.): Johann Anton Fils (1733–1760). A Eichstätt composer of the Mannheim Classic (= writings of the University Library Eichstätt , 2). Schneider, Tutzing 1983, ISBN 3-7952-0406-2 (exhibition catalog, Eichstätt, university library ).
• Rüdiger Thomsen-Fürst:  Fils, Anton. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, personal section, volume 6 (Eames - Franco). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 2001, ISBN 3-7618-1116-0 , Sp. 1161–1166 ( online edition , subscription required for full access)

Web links

• Works by and about Anton Fils in the catalog of the German National Library
• Sheet music and audio files by Anton Fils in the International Music Score Library Project
• Anton Fils in the Bavarian Musicians' Lexicon Online (BMLO)
• Eugene K. Wolf:  Fils, Anton. In: Grove Music Online (English; subscription required).
• List of works (incomplete) on classical works

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b c} Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart: Ideas for an Aesthetics of Tonkunst. Degen, Vienna 1806, p. 141 f. ( Digitized in the Google book search).
2. ^ Rüdiger Thomsen-Fürst: Anton Fils (1733–1760): The "best symphony writer who has ever lived". Booklet text for CD cpo 999778-2, Georgsmarienhütte 2002.
3. ↑ 40 years of “Our Country” . ( Memento of June 7, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) BR-Online, January 15, 2007