Johann Friedrich Christmann (Composer)

Born: September 10, 1752 – Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Died: May 21, 1817 - Heutingsheim, near Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

Johann Friedrich Christmann was a German Lutheran clergyman, composer of church songs and chamber music, pianist, flautist and writer on the theory of musio. He studied since 1770 in Tübingen, and after two years became an apostolic vicariate. He worked as a tutor in 1777 in Winterthur (Switzerland) and in 1780 in Karlsruhe. In 1783¹ or 1784² he was appointed minister of Heutingsheim, where he worked for the rest of his life..

Johann Friedrich Christmann’s great work Elementarbuch der Tonkun8t is in two parts (Spire, 1782 and 1790) with a book of examples. He was joint editor of the Spire Musikalische Zeitung; in which, among other articles of interest, he detailed a plan (February 1789) for a general Dictionary of Music. This scheme was never carried out. He was also a contributor to the Musikalische Zeitung of Leipzig. Christmann composed for voice and piano, and with Justin Heinrich Knecht arranged and edited a valuable collection for the Duchy of Würtemberg, entitled Vollständige Sammlung... Choral –melodien. Many of the 266 hymns were his own composition. He was a friend of the Abbe Vogler.

Sources:
1. Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1952 Edition, Author: Mrs. Walter Carr). Franz Gehring)
2. BBKL Website (Autor: Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz), English translation by Aryeh Oron (August 2011)
Contributed by Aryeh Oron (August 2011)

Johann Friedrich Christmann: Short Biography | Arrangements/Transcriptions: Works | Recordings

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