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German composer and organist
Andreas Kneller
(variants:
Kniller, Knoller, Knuller
) (23 April 1649 ? 24 August 1724) was a German
composer
and
organist
of the
North German school
.
Life
[
edit
]
Born in
Lubeck
, he was the younger brother of
portrait
painter
Sir
Godfrey Kneller
. Nothing certain is known about his musical education, though he may have learnt from
Franz Tunder
(1614?1667), organist of
St. Mary's Church, Lubeck
, or his own uncle
Matthias Weckmann
(ca. 1616?1674), organist of St. Jacob's Church,
Hamburg
. In 1667, he became organist of the
Marktkirche
in
Hanover
, succeeding
Melchior Schildt
(1592?1667). In 1685, he moved to Hamburg, where he became organist of the Petrikirche. It was there that he made the acquaintance of
Johann Adam Reincken
; he went on to marry his daughter Margaretha Maria in 1686. Kneller's son-in-law Johann Jacob Hencke became his assistant in 1717, and succeeded in him in 1723. Kneller was well respected as a musician, and often acted as an examiner of organs and organists. He was part of the group that examined the candidates for organist at the Jacobikirche, Hamburg, in 1720, which included
J.S. Bach
(though he did not appear for an audition, he was still chosen for the post but had to decline).
Works
[
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]
His surviving compositions consist of a few works for organ, typical of the
North German
baroque
toccata
form: free passages alternating with fugal sections; this style was described as 'a free way of composition, not subject to any constraints' by
Athanasius Kircher
(1601-1680), and is thus a sort of
stylus phantasticus
.
These are preludes and fugues in D minor, G major and F minor, originally written in
tablature
, at the church of
Mylau
,
Saxony
. They are published in an edition by K. Beckmann, Wiesbaden, 1987. He also wrote a partita with eight
variations
on
Nun komm der Heiden Heiland
(Come now, saviour of heathens) (2 var. published in K. Straube:
Choralvorspiele alter Meister,
Leipzig, 1907). Three other fragments of preludes also survive. An organ
Te Deum
attributed to 'A. Kniller' is believed to be the only known work by a different composer by the name of Anton Kniller.
Further reading
[
edit
]
- W. Apel: Geschichte der Orgel- und Klaviermusik bis 1700 (Kassel, 1967; English translation, 1972)
- G. Frotscher: Geschichte des Orgelspiels und der Orgelkomposition (Berlin, 1966)
- J.G. Walther: Musicalisches Lexicon, oder Musicalische Bibliothec
- J.R. Shannon: The Mylauer Tabulaturbuch: a Study of the Preludial and Fugal Forms in the Hands of Bach’s Middle-German Precursors (dissertation,
University of North Carolina
, 1961)
- A. Edler: Der nordelbische Organist (Kassel, 1982)
Sources
[
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]
Scores
[
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]
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