August Kühnel

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August Kühnel (born August 3, 1645 in Delmenhorst ; † around 1700) was a German composer and gambist of the Baroque .

August Kühnel was born as the son of the Mecklenburg chamber musician Samuel Kühnel . As early as 1661, at the age of sixteen, after training in Güstrow and studies in France, he was employed as a Violdigambist in the court chapel of Duke Moritz von Sachsen-Zeitz in the Moritzburg Castle there - a position he held until 1681. After his death, Kühnel went to study in England in 1682. In 1686 Landgravine Elisabeth Dorothea von Sachsen-Coburg (1640–1709) appointed him director of instrumental music at the Darmstadt court, where he stayed until 1688. After working in Weimar and Dresden, he finally found a last job from 1695 until shortly before his death around 1700 at the court of Landgrave Karl von Hessen-Kassel .

Kühnel's main instrument was the viola da gamba , for which he also wrote numerous compositions of his own. In 1698 his first collection of trio sonatas for viols was published under the title 14 Sonata ò Partite ad una o due viole da gamba, con il basso continuo , printed in Kassel. This print was the first print of German trio sonatas in Germany itself. Kühnel's music is shaped by French influences.

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SURNAME Kühnel, August
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer and gambist of the baroque era
DATE OF BIRTH August 3, 1645
PLACE OF BIRTH Delmenhorst
DATE OF DEATH around 1700