Josef Anton Steffan

Joseph Anton Steffan (actually: Josef Antonín Štěpán , including Giuseppe Antonio Steffani * 13. March 1726 in Kopidlno , Bohemia; † 12. April 1797 in Vienna ) was an Austrian composer of classical music , harpsichordist and music teacher .

Life

Josef Anton Steffan probably received his first musical lessons from his father, a cantor. In 1741 he fled from the Prussian army to Vienna, where he was taken in by the owner of his hometown, Count Schlick. He received composition and harpsichord lessons from Georg Christoph Wagenseil , and was soon considered the best student and most brilliant harpsichordist in Vienna. In 1766 he got a contract as a teacher ("piano master") of the princesses Maria Karolina and Maria Antonia, who later became Queen Marie Antoinette of France. As early as 1775 he was released from court service and retired. The cause was an eye disease that led to his blindness. Although this did not prevent him from continuing his compositional work, it increasingly isolated him socially, so that by his death in April 1797 he was largely forgotten.

plant

Steffan's compositional work includes sacred works, chamber music (e.g. songs), but especially piano music (capriccios, sonatas for harpsichord and fortepiano ) and solo concerts (6 concerts for harpsichord or harp op.3) and a piano concerto in B flat major (composed around 1780–90). His compositions for keyboard instruments (initially for harpsichord, later for fortepiano ), in which he broke the conventional rules of his time and developed an individual musical signature, are particularly important .

Compositions

• 6 capricci for piano
• Concerto for two treble recorders and basso continuo in F major
• 6 Concerts pour clavecin ou harpe avec accompagnement de violons, violoncelles, flûtes et cors de chasse op.3, nos. 1-6
• Divertimenti op. 1 No. 1-6
• Divertimento for 2 pianos, 2 violins and bass in E flat major [originally attributed to Haydn, was Hob: XIV: E flat 1]
• Divertimento in B flat major
• Piano Concerto in B flat major
• Piano trio in C major
• Minuets for piano
• Collection of German songs for the piano
• Sonata in D major p.30
• Sonata in G major p.13
• Sonata in E flat major, p.19
• Sonata in B flat major p.20
• Sonata in A major p.21
• Sonata in G major p.28
• XI Variations on a Well-known Ariette by Johann Christian Bach
• 25 variationsi per il harpsichord di forte piano

literature

• Constantin von Wurzbach : Steffan, Joseph Anton . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 37th part. Kaiserlich-Königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1878, pp. 286–288 ( digitized version ).
• Howard J. Picton: The Life and Works of Joseph Anton Steffan (1726-1797). With special reference to his keyboard concertos . 2 volumes. Garland, New York 1989.

Web links

• Catalog of works Klassika
• Sheet music and audio files by Štěpán, Josef Antonín in the International Music Score Library Project

Individual evidence

1. ^ Wiener Zeitung , April 19, 1797