Johann Kuhnau was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

, organist

Organist

An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists...

 and harpsichordist

Harpsichordist

A harpsichordist is a person who plays the harpsichord.Many baroque composers played the harpsichord, including Johann Sebastian Bach, Domenico Scarlatti, George Frideric Handel, François Couperin and Jean-Philippe Rameau...

.

Biography

Kuhnau was born in Geising

Geising

Geising is a municipal subdivision of Altenberg in the Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge district, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is situated in the Ore Mountains, close to the border with the Czech Republic, 13 km north of Teplice, and 32 km south of Dresden. Since 1 January...

, Saxony

Saxony

The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....

. He grew up in a religious Lutheran family. At age nine, he auditioned successfully for the Kreuzschule in Dresden. He sang in the Dresdner Kreuzchor

Dresdner Kreuzchor

The Dresdner Kreuzchor is the boys' choir of the Kreuzkirche in Dresden. It has a seven century history. Today the choir has about 150 members from the age of 9-19 from Dresden and the surrounding region. Most of the boys live in a boarding school. The Choir Boys are also called "Kruzianer". The...

 and studied with Hering and Bental, later with Vincenzo Albrici

Vincenzo Albrici

Vincenzo Albrici was an Italian composer.Vincenzo was born as the son of singer who settled from Marche in Rome. In 1641 he became a student on Collegium Germanicum et Hungaricum under Giacomo Carissimi. In 1647 he was paid as an organist in the Santa Maria in Vallicella...

.

In 1680 he moved to Zittau

Zittau

Zittau is a city in the south east of the Free State of Saxony, Germany, close to the border tripoint of Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic. , there are 28,638 people in the city. It is part of the Görlitz district....

, because Dresden was struck with the plague. He taught and worked in Zittau churches. Kuhnau studied French and Italian, and left translations from Hebrew, Greek, and Latin as well. Kuhnau also studied law, attaining the rank of advocate. In addition to composition, much of his time was spent as a lawyer, a poet, and a non-fiction author. He preceded Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...

 as cantor

Cantor (church)

A cantor is the chief singer employed in a church with responsibilities for the ecclesiastical choir; also called the precentor....

 of the Thomaskirche (St Thomas Church) in Leipzig

Leipzig

Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

, directing the Thomanerchor

Thomanerchor

The Thomanerchor is a boys' choir in Leipzig, Germany. The choir was founded in 1212. At present, the choir consists of 92 boys from 9 to 18 years of age...

 from 1701 to 1722. He was also music director of the Paulinerkirche

Paulinerkirche, Leipzig

The Paulinerkirche was a church on the Augustusplatz in Leipzig, named after the "Pauliner", its original Dominican friars. It was built in 1231 as the Klosterkirche St. Pauli for the Dominican monastery in Leipzig. From the foundation of the University of Leipzig in 1409, it served as the...

. In Leipzig Kuhnau taught Johann David Heinichen

Johann David Heinichen

Johann David Heinichen was a German Baroque composer and music theorist who brought the musical genius of Venice to the court of Augustus the Strong in Dresden...

 and Christoph Graupner

Christoph Graupner

Christoph Graupner was a German harpsichordist and composer of high Baroque music who lived and worked at the same time as Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg Philipp Telemann and George Frideric Handel.-Graupner's life:Born in Hartmannsdorf near Kirchberg in Saxony, Graupner received his first musical...

. Kuhnau died in Leipzig on 5 June 1722.

Work

Kuhnau wrote sacred music on Bible

Bible

The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

 stories, such as The Marriage of David Gideon and The Tomb of Jacob. One of his organ works is titled Der todtkranke und wieder gesunde Hiskias (Hiskias, sick to death and healthy again). Kuhnau is credited as the inventor of the keyboard sonata, elevating the form from simple dance tunes. His Eine Sonata aus dem B (a sonata from the b flat) in three movements is the first known keyboard sonata

Sonata

Sonata , in music, literally means a piece played as opposed to a cantata , a piece sung. The term, being vague, naturally evolved through the history of music, designating a variety of forms prior to the Classical era...

. Kuhnau's secular vocal music is lost, but many of his sacred works have survived, including cantata

Cantata

A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....

s, motet

Motet

In classical music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions.-Etymology:The name comes either from the Latin movere, or a Latinized version of Old French mot, "word" or "verbal utterance." The Medieval Latin for "motet" is motectum, and the Italian...

s, and four sets of keyboard pieces.

The Christmas cantata Uns ist ein Kind geboren, formerly attributed to Bach as BWV 142, is most likely composed by Kuhnau.

External links

• Free Listening of "Neue Clavier-Übung", Books I/II (Leipzig 1689/1692) performed by Fernando De Luca
  Fernando De Luca
  Fernando De Luca is an Italian harpsichordist, teacher and composer.He studied harpsichord with Paola Bernardi.He is the most famous harpsichordist over the Internet, very popular especially in the United Kingdom and United States of America, due to his acclaimed efforts to perform and record, for...
  
  
• Free Listening of "Frische Clavier Früchte", Leipzig 1696 performed by Fernando De Luca
  Fernando De Luca
  Fernando De Luca is an Italian harpsichordist, teacher and composer.He studied harpsichord with Paola Bernardi.He is the most famous harpsichordist over the Internet, very popular especially in the United Kingdom and United States of America, due to his acclaimed efforts to perform and record, for...