Christoph Förster (composer)

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Johann Christoph Förster (born November 30, 1693 in Bibra ; † December 6, 1745 in Rudolstadt ) was a German composer and violinist of the late Baroque .

Life

Christoph Förster was the son of a council chamberlain Christian Förster from Bibra. Heinrich is incorrectly given as the middle name in old encyclopedias, only Christoph in the church records of Bibra and Johann Christoph Friedrich Förster in the Rudolstadt register of deaths from 1745.

Förster began his musical training with the local organist Johann Philipp Pitzler. From 1710 he learned composition and counterpoint from Johann David Heinichen in Weißenfels, who worked there as a lawyer. He then became a student of Georg Friedrich Kauffmann , Kapellmeister and court organist in Merseburg . There Förster got a job as a chamber musician in the Sachsen-Merseburg court orchestra in 1717 , soon afterwards he became concert master. In 1719 he visited Heinichen in Leipzig. In 1723 he was in Prague with his employer at the coronation of Charles IV as King of Bohemia. Here he made the acquaintance of the musicians Johann Joseph Fux , Francesco Bartolomeo Conti and Antonio Caldara who worked at the Viennese court . On the occasion of the celebrations, Förster took part in a performance of the opera Costanza e fortezza by Fux and performed as a soloist on harpsichord and violin with a Dutch envoy.

On the birthday of Prince Friedrich Anton von Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt (1692–1744), Förster played as a soloist under the direction of the conductor Johann Graf . Without a permanent position since the death of his employer (1738), he applied for the position of Vice Kapellmeister in Rudolstadt, which he received on May 3, 1743 without a permanent salary.

Förster had numerous contacts with other musicians, for example he was one of the subscribers to Georg Philipp Telemann's " Tafelmusik " and his "Paris Quartet".

Works (selection)

Most of Förster's compositions are considered lost, including numerous manuscripts originally in the holdings of the Breitkopf & Härtel publishing house . In the case of instrumental works, authorship is not always guaranteed. The three-movement symphonies have Italian stylistic features and his overtures correspond to the pattern common in France. Both genres identify Förster as a composer of the gallant style .

In 1743 the opera (Drama in musica) “ Fortuna trionfa, s'annida ” and in 1745 “ Duchessa chi ti mira dé lodare ” were performed at the Rudolstädter Hof .

  • 26 sacred cantatas
  • 11 secular cantatas (located in the libraries of Sondershausen, the Brussels Conservatory and the Berlin State Library)
  • Four-part setting of Psalm 117, (violin principale, 2 violins, viola, 2 trombones, timpani and bc)
  • Four-part mass (2 clarinets, timpani, 2 violins, viola, harpsichord) (Berlin State Library)
  • 6 overtures of 6, 7 and 8 in A, Eb, B, G, D and E, (library of the Thomasschule Leipzig)
  • 6 symphonies of 4
  • 6 symphonies of 6 or 10
  • Numerous solo concerts for harpsichord, violin, horn, oboe, flute and orchestra
  • several double concerts
  • several group concerts
  • 6 sonatas for violin and bc
  • Trio sonata for 2 violins and bc
  • 6 Symphony a due violini, viola, harpsichord e cello con ripieni. (Hafner, Nuremberg)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ MGG , 2nd edition, Vol. 6, Col. 1496-1497
  2. ↑ Curriculum vitae and works on the Musicologie.org website (in French)
personal data
SURNAME Forester, Christoph
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Förster, Johann Christoph; Forester, Christoph Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer of the late baroque
DATE OF BIRTH November 30, 1693
PLACE OF BIRTH Bibra
DATE OF DEATH December 6, 1745
Place of death Rudolstadt