Muffat, Georg
Muffat, Georg
Muffat, Georg, eminent French-born German organist and composer of Scottish descent, father of Gottlieb (Theophil) Muffat; b. Mégève, Savoy (baptized), June 1,1653; d. Passua, Feb. 23,1704. He went to Alsace in childhood, and after studies with Lully and others in Paris (1663–69), he returned to Alsace as a student at the Jesuit college in Séléstat and continued his studies in Molsheim (from 1671), where he was made organist of the exiled Strasbourg Cathedral chapter. By 1674 he was in Ingolstadt as a law student. With war imminent, he went to Vienna and found a patron in Emperor Leopold I. After a sojourn in Prague (1677ndash;78), he became organist and chamber musician to Archbishop Max Gandolf, Count of Kuenberg, in Salzburg; during his tenure, he was allowed a leave of absence to pursue his training with Pasquini in Rome, where he was befriended by Corelli. In 1690 he was appointed Kapellmeister at the court of Johann Philipp of Lam-berg, Bishop of Passau. Muff at was a significant composer who helped introduce the French and Italian styles of his era to the German-speaking lands. He wrote the valuable treatise Regulae concentuum partiturae(c. 1699; ed. by H. Federhofer, Musicological Studies and Documents, IV, 1961).
Works
Armonico tributo, 5 sonatas for Strings and Basso Continuo (Salzburg, 1682); Apparatus musico-organisticus, 12 toccatas, a ciaccona, a passacaglia, and an aria with variations for Organ (Salzburg, 1690); Suavoris harmoniae instrumentons hyporchematicae florilegium primum, 7 suites for Orch., a 4 or 5, and Basso Continuo (Augsburg, 1695); Florilegium secundum, 8 suites for Orch., a 4, and Basso Continuo (Passau, 1698); Ausserlesene Instrumental-Music, 12 concerti grossi (Passau, 1701); other extant works include a Sonata for Violin and Basso Continuo (1677) and various preludes and dances for Keyboard.
Bibliography
L. von Stollbrock, Die Komponisten G. und Gottlieb M.(Rostock, 1888); W. Kolneder, G. M. zur Aufführungspraxis(Strasbourg, 1970); I. Stampfl, G. M.: Orchesterkompositionen: Ein musikhistorischer Vergleich der Orchestermusik, 1670–1710(Passau, 1984).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis Mclntire