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Al" JOHANN ANTON KOBRICH'S WOHLGEUBTER ORGANIST THESIS Presented to the Graduate Council of the North Texas State University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF MUSIC By Nancy Warlick Carnes, B.M. Denton, Texas May, 1982 Carnes, Nancy W., Johann Anton Kobrich's "Wohlgefbter Organist". Master of Music.(Musicology), May, 1982, 151.pp., 3 plates, 9 examples, critical notes, bibliography, 44 titles. Johann Anton Kobrich (1714-1791) was the priest and or- ganist of the parish church of Landsberg am Lech in upper Bavaria from 1730 until his death. A prolific composer, Kobrich wrote several works for organ, including the Wohl- geubter Organist (1762), a three-part collection of preludes, fugues, and toccatas. The major portion of this thesis con- sists of an edition of twenty-six selected pieces from the original fifty-eight in this collection. Also included are a bibliography of Kobrich, a dis- cussion of his significance among other contemporary composers, and a survey of the organs and organ music of eighteenth-century southern Germany. In addition, there is an analysis of the Wohlgeubter Organist and a commentary on its significance. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF EXAMPLES......... ........ 0 . iv LIST OF PLATES ........ ......... V PART I. COMMENTARY Chapter I. JOHANN ANTON KOBRICH: HIS LIFE 0.0 .0 . ..0.0 AND WORKS . 0 .0 . II. THE ORGAN AND ORGAN MUSIC OF EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY SOUTHERN GERMANY........... ........ .. .. ....... 12 BIBLIOGRAPHY,,,,-. ..... .. .. .... .. 51 PART II. EDITION AND CRITICAL NOTES WOHLGEUBTER ORGANIST . 55 Prelude 5 Toccata 1 Prelude 7 Toccata 9 Prelude 10 Toccata 12 Prelude 11 Toccata 13 Prelude 17 Toccata 15 Prelude 19 Toccata 16 Prelude 20 Toccata 17 Prelude 21 Toccata 18 Prelude 23 Toccata 19 Prelude 24 Toccata 20 Fugue 2 Fugue 5 Fugue 10 Fugue 11 Fugue 13 Fugue 14 CRITICAL NOTES -. .0 0 9 . .. 5 0 iii LIST OF EXAMPLES Example Page 1. Johann Anton Kobrich, Wohlgeubter Organist, Prelude 5, measures 3-6, 17-21, 32-35...... .. .0 .0 .0 .0 .0 24 2. Johann Anton Kobrich, Wohlgeubter Organist, Prelude 23, measures 48-53........... .... 25 3. Johann Anton Kobrich, Wohige bter Organist, Fugue 5, measures 1-14...................... .0 27 4. Johann Anton Kobrich, Wohlgeibter Organist, Fugue 2, measures 26-31.................. 28 5. Johann Anton Kobrich, Wohlgeubter Organist, Fugue 11, measures 48-56....................... .0 .0 . 29 6. Johann Anton Kobrich, Wohlgeubter Organist, Fugue 14, measures 1-11....................... .. 30 7. Johann Anton Kobrich, Wohlgeubter Organist, Fugue 13, measures 5-8..................... .. .. 31 8. Johann Anton Kobrich, Wohlge*bter Organist, Fugue 13, measures 10-12................... .. 31 9. Johann Anton Kobrich, Wohlgeibter Organist, Toccata 9, measures 1-4..................... 33 iv LIST OF PLATES Plate Page 1. Title Page from Johann Anton Kobrich's Wohlgeu*bter Organist . vier und zwanzig gro~e Praeludia.......................... vi 2. Title Page from Johann Anton Kobrich's Wohlgeiibter Organist . Fugen fur die Orgel. ...... vii 3. Title Page from Johann Anton Kobrich's Wohlgeubter Organist XX. Toccata fur die Orgel . .viii V ellk4 ~7i2K I,~C7 -YY. r -cl 11 0 IIK-'--7 vi ( r* -ic aa ) t) 9 4 0 - 0 /44 0 4 4J 4 .- g)-- 0."9V;V,' vii zej -94-J L. )U -4-J -PH, 4 o4 0 o /r 'IL 3 (d K77r 44- \40 04 ~ Q OLOP ep 44 viii CHAPTER I JOHANN ANTON KOBRICH: HIS LIFE AND WORKS In investigating the organ music of southern Germany of the eighteenth century, one encounters many composers whose names and contributions to organ liter- ature are no longer widely known. One such person is Johann Anton Kobrich, a prolific composer and organist well known to his contemporaries but now forgotten. A study of his music will help us understand the organ music of this period and make a portion of Kobrich's organ works available to modern organists. Kobrich's life seems to have centered around his hometown of Landsberg in upper Bavaria. According to the inscription on his gravestone, Kobrich was born May 30, 1714, in Landsberg, although Fdtis gives his date and place of birth as c. 1720 at Raudnitz in Bohemia.1 Kobrich came from a musical background. His father, Maximilian Adam Kobrich, was organist at the Stadtpfarrkirche in Landsberg, and perhaps the younger Kobrich received his musical train- ing from his father. When his father died in 1730, Johann 1. F.J. Fetis, Biographie Universelle des Musiciens, 2nd ed., 8 vols. (Paris: Librarie de Firmin Didot Freres, 1870), V, 68. 1- 2 succeeded him as organist at the Stadtpfarrkirche and served in this position until his own death in 1791. Kobrich's gravestone notes this service of sixty-one years as organist at that church. Interestingly, Eitner tells us that Kobrich also served as the village priest.2 No fur- ther information is available concerning whether he was that church's sole priest, or if he shared these priestly duties with another. One can only speculate as to how he could carry out both jobs. Whatever his clerical duties, Kobrich seems to have found plenty of time for composition. His musical output ranged from masses to string methods, and from lit- anies to organ preludes. Logically enough, many of his compositions are sacred in nature. Litanies, Masses, Offertories, Psalms, Vesper services and sacred songs are all listed among his works.3 Most of these were published by either Johann Jakob Lotter in Augsburg or Johann Ulrich Haffner in Ncrnberg. Besides his sacred works, Kobrich produced 2. Robert Eitner, "Kobrich, Johann Anton," Quellen-Lexikon der Musiker und Musikgelehrten (Leipzig: Breitkopf und Hrtel, 1912-13-1914/16), repr. ed., 11 vols. (New York: Musurgia, 1946-47), V, 398. 3. For a complete listing of Kobrich's works see Karlheinz Schlager, ed., "Kobrich, Johann Anton," Rpertoire Inter- national des Sources Musicales, Series Al (Kassel: Bdrenreiter, 1975), V, 61-67. 3 several instrumental and pedagogical works. Among the lat- ter is Der clavierspielende Schdfer, which was published in two parts by Lotter in 1758 and 1768. According to the title page of Part I, the work was intended for either church or home use.4 Kobrich's Grindliche Klavierschule, which F6tis called a piano method, was published in 1782 by Rieger of Augsburg; it even enjoyed a second edition in 1788.5 In addition to the keyboard treatises, Kobrich pro- duced a violin method, the Praktisches Geig-Fundament of 1786 which was also published by Rieger. Kobrich's keyboard compositions include XXXVI kurtze Praeludia, LXIV kurtze Fugen oder sogenannt Verset- ten und XVI Praeambula, VI leichte und angenehme Clavier- Parthien (1748), and the Wohlgeibter Organist (1762); all of these were published by Haffner. 6 The VI Sonaten vor die Orgel und Clavier (1762) were published by Lotter in Augsburg. Kobrich's reputation suffered at the hands of contemporary critics. In reviewing the Wohlgeiibter Organist, 4. Karlheinz Schlager, ed.,, "J.A. Kobrich, " Rdpertoire In- ternational des Sources Musicales, Series Al (Kassel: Barenreiter, 1975), V, 66. 5. F5tis, op._cit., V, 68. 6. August Scharnagl, "Kobrich, Johann Anton," Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 16 vols., ed. Friedrich Blume (Kassel: Bdrenreiter, 1958), VII, 1287. 4 that is, the Well-Practiced Organist, Forkel suggests that it would have been better titled the Unpracticed Organist. 7 Cramer, writing in the Magazin der Musik, labelled Kobrich's Grndliche Clavierschule (1782) an "obscurity in clavier 8 instruction." He carps that Kobrich's question-and- answer method of instruction is hackneyed and old-fashioned. In comparing the style of the musical examples to those of the Wohlgejbter Organist, he laments that Kobrich's style seems not to have changed in the twenty years between the two works. Ernst Gerber barely summarizes Kobrich's works and fails to mention specific titles, because, as he says, he finds these works "no great loss to forget." 9 Friedrich Marpurg was no kinder to Kobrich. Am- plifying the vituperations of Forkel, Marpurg suggests that the Wohlgeiibter Organist would have been better titled "(The) Unpracticed and In-Need-of-Instruction Organist." Writing specifically of the twenty-four preludes in Part I of the work, he declared them to be "absurd" and "hack- neyed," consisting of "an endless racket with broken 7. J.N. Forkel, Musikalischer Almanach fUr Deutschland auf das Jahr 1784 (Leipzig: Schwickert, 178 5. 8. C.F. Cramer, Magazin der Musik, 2 vols. (Hamburg: Musicalische Niederlage, 1783-1786), 1309. 9. Ernst Ludwig Gerber, Historisch-Biographisches Lexikon der Tonkiinstler (Leipzig, 1790), repr. ed., 2 vols. (Graz: Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt, 1977), I, 740. 5 passages, unprepared dissonances, unresolved dissonances, fifths and octaves, empty phrases, incorrect bass lines . ." Perhaps, writes Marpurg, the twenty-four preludes could be best used by someone needing "twenty- four musical quodlibets for the barrel-organ."1 0 Noting the overall decline in organ music in Roman Catholic Ger- many of the eighteenth century, he refers critics to Kobrich's music for a source of prime examples. In contrast to these critics, later commentators have been somewhat kinder to Kobrich. Fdtis (1870) char- acterizes Kobrich's compositions as having " . a certain 1 1 easy grace," but Eitner merely reports the events of Kobrich's life and refrains from any direct evaluation. Frotscher discusses the characteristics of Kobrich's style 1 2 but draws no conclusions, while in one of the few posi- tive references to Kobrich, Fellerer mentions the popularity 1 of his rural church music. 3 The most critical of modern 10. Friedrich W. Marpurg, Kritische Briefe, 2 vols. (Berlin: Birnstiel, 1760-63), II, 173-74. 11. Fetis, a. cit., V, 68. 12. Gotthold Frotscher, Geschichte des Orgelspiels und der Orgel Komposition, 2 vols., (Berlin: Max Hess, 1935), II, 1109, 1115. 13. Karl Gustav Fellerer, ed., Geschichte der Katholischen Kircheniusik, 2 vols.