Johann Gottfried Walther

18 September 1684, Erfurt – 23 March 1748, Weimar

 

Johann Gottfried Walther was a German music theorist, organist, composer and lexicographer of the Baroque era. Not only was his life almost exactly contemporaneous to that of Johann Sebastian Bach, he was the famous composer’s cousin.

Johann Gottfried Walther – Concerto h-moll • Orgue: Emmanuel Arakélian

Walther was most well known as the compiler of the Musicalisches Lexicon (Leipzig, 1732), an enormous dictionary of music and musicians. Not only was it the first dictionary of musical terms written in the German language, it was the first to contain both terms and biographical information about composers and performers up to the early 18th century. In all, the Musicalisches Lexicon defines more than 3,000 musical terms; Walther evidently drew on more than 250 separate sources in compiling it, including theoretical treatises of the early Baroque and Renaissance. Walther was the music teacher of Prince Johann Ernst von Sachsen-Weimar. He wrote a handbook for the young prince with the title Praecepta der musicalischen Composition (1708).

Johann Gottfried Walther – Concerto in F Major, after Tomaso Albinoni

As an organ composer, Walther became famous for his organ transcriptions of orchestral concertos by contemporary Italian and German masters. He made 14 transcriptions of concertos by Albinoni, Gentili, Taglietti, Giuseppe Torelli, Vivaldi and Telemann. These works were the models for Bach to write his famous transcriptions of concertos by Vivaldi and others. On the other hand, Walther as a city organist of Weimar wrote exactly 132 organ preludes based on Lutheran chorale melodies. Some free keyboard music also belongs to his legacy.

More on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Gottfried_Walther

 

Johann Gottfried Walther –Organ Works • Organist Craig Cramer

 

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Johann Gottfried Walther

18 septembrie 1684, Erfurt – 23 martie 1748, Weimar

 

Johann Gottfried Walther a fost un teoretician, organist, compozitor și lexicograf al muzicii germane din epoca barocă. Nu numai că viața sa a fost aproape contemporană cu cea a lui Johann Sebastian Bach, dar a fost și vărul celebrului compozitor.

Johann Gottfried Walther – Praeludium und Fuge in A • Organ Walter Gatti

În calitate de compozitor de muzică de orgă, Walther a devenit faimos pentru transcrierile sale pentru orgă ale concertelor orchestrale ale maeștrilor contemporani, italieni și germani. A realizat 14 transcrieri ale concertelor de Albinoni, Gentili, Taglietti, Giuseppe Torelli, Vivaldi și Telemann. Aceste lucrări au fost modelele pentru Bach să scrie transcrierile sale celebre ale concertelor de Vivaldi și alții. Pe de altă parte, Walther, în calitate de organist al orașului Weimar, a scris 132 de preludii pentru orgă bazate pe melodii de corale luterane.

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Johann Gottfried Walther – Jesu Meine Freude

 

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