Pez or Petz, Johann Christoph
Pez or Petz, Johann Christoph
Pez or Petz, Johann Christoph, German singer, instrumentalist, and composer; b. Munich, Sept. 9,1664; d. Stuttgart, Sept. 25,1716. He first studied at the choir school of St. Peter in Munich, and then pursued studies at that city’s Jesuit school, where he sang in its choir and played in its orch. After singing tenor at St. Peter, he served as its choirmaster (1687–88). He then was made a chamber musician at the court of the Elector Max Emanuel, who provided for the completion of his studies in Rome (1689–92). Following a brief return to the Munich court, he was called to Bonn by Joseph Clemens, Archbishop-Elector of Cologne and Bishop of Liège, to reorganize its music establishment in 1694. In 1696 he became Kapellmeister there. With the outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession, he returned to the almost moribund Munich court in 1701, where he led its church music. From 1706 he served as Kapellmeister at the Wiittemberg court in Stuttgart, where he remained until his death. While his music ws greatly influenced by his Italian sojourn, his output also owes much to Kerll. He composed various dramatic scores, school operas, instrumental music, and sacred vocal pieces. He publ, a set of 12 sonatas (Augsburg, 1696) under the title Duplex Genius sive Gallo-italus Instrumentorum Concentus; also a Psalm. Two of his operas were produced in Bonn.
—Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire