Briegel, Wolfgang Carl

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Briegel, Wolfgang Carl

Briegel, Wolfgang Carl, German organist and composer; b. Königsberg, May 1626; d. Darmstadt, Nov. 19, 1712. He received his musical training in Nuremberg; from 1645 to 1650 he was active in Schweinfurt. In 1650 he was appointed cantor at the court of Gotha, and in 1671 he went to Darmstadt, where he served as court Kapellmeister until his death. He dedicated himself primarily to sacred choral composition, and publ, a number of collections for the Lutheran church service, among them Evangelische Gespräch, in 3 parts (1660, 1662, 1681), Geistliche Arien, in 2 parts (1660–61), Evan-gelischer Blumengarten, in 4 parts (1666–69), Evangelischer Palmen-Zweig (1685), Evangelische Harpfen (1685), Apos-tolische Chormusik (1697), and Letzter Schwanengesang (1709). He also wrote instrumental works in dance forms, for instruments and voices, under such inviting Baroque titles as Musicalisches Tafelkonfekt (1672); a Sing-spiel, Das triumphierende Siegespiel der wahren Liebe; and other theatrical music.

Bibliography

K.F. Hirschmann, W.C. B.(Giessen, 1936); E. Noack, W.C. B.: Ein Barock-Komponist in seiner Zeit (Berlin, 1963).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire

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