Johann Gottfried Walther (1684-1748) - Sonate à 3

Alles Gute zum Geburtstag Johann Gottfried Walther! 🥂👑 Composer: Johann Gottfried Walther (1684-1748) Work: Sonate (G-Dur) à 3 Performers: Susanne Ehrhardt (flute); Irene Klein (viola da gamba); Armin Thalheim (harpsichord) Painting: Jean Antoine de Peters (1725-1795) - Scena di concerto HD image: Drawing: Michiel Gillig (1661-1688) - Boy playing the flute HD image: Further info: No available Listen free: No available --- Johann Gottfried (Johannes Godefridus, Giovanni Godofredo) Walther [Walter, Walthero, Waltherus] (Erfurt, 18 September 1684 - Weimar, 23 March 1748) German organist, composer, theorist and lexicographer. Son of Johann Stephan Walther, an Erfurt fabric maker, and Martha Dorothea Lämmerhirt, he studied organ in Erfurt with Johann Bernhard Bach and Johann Andreas Kretschmar. He became organist of the Thomaskirche there in 1702 and concurrently studied philosophy and law briefly at the University of Erfurt. He studied composition with Johann Heinrich Buttstett; after travel in Germany, he continued his studies with Wilhelm Hieronymus Pachelbel in Nuremberg (1706), then became organist of the church of St. Peter and St. Paul in Weimar (1707), a post he held for the rest of his life. He also served as music master at the ducal court and was made Hofmusicus of the ducal Court in 1721. Walther assembled a valuable library of music and books on music, which prompted him to pursue diligent musical research. This culminated in his great ’Musicalisches Lexicon’ (1732), the first music dictionary to encompass biographies of musicians of the past and present, musical terms, and bibliographies. He also left the important treatise ’Praecepta der musicalischen Composition’ (1708), which was not published until the 20th century. He composed much sacred vocal music, but only one work, ’Kyrie, Christe, Kyrie eleison über Wo Gott zum Haus nicht giebt sein Gunst’, has survived. However, over 100 chorale preludes for organ are extant. These place him next to J.S. Bach, his distant relation and lifelong friend, as a master of the genre. He also prepared valuable manuscript copies of works by other composers, many of which remain the only known sources.