1653–1704 · Germany · Baroque
Georg Muffat was a Baroque composer and organist who lived from 1653 to 1704. He studied in Paris and Rome, worked in Salzburg and Passau, and joined French and Italian styles in his music. His organ pieces include toccatas, and the site offers his Toccata prima.
Georg Muffat was born in 1653 in Megève, in the Duchy of Savoy, which is now part of France. His father's ancestors came from Scotland. Muffat is described as a German composer and organist of the Baroque era; his son Gottlieb also became a composer.
As a boy Muffat went to Alsace and then to Paris, where he studied from 1663 to 1669. There he got to know the style of Jean-Baptiste Lully. For a musician such a journey was an exception: musicians were usually not sent to France to study, and instead French violinists and oboists were brought to the Protestant courts.
Muffat completed his education at Jesuit colleges, first in Schlettstadt (now Sélestat) and from 1671 in Molsheim. In Molsheim he was appointed organist of the Strasbourg cathedral chapter, which was then living there in exile.
Because of the war waged by Louis XIV as part of his policy of reunions, Muffat fled from Alsace. From 1674 he studied law in Ingolstadt, as the university register shows.
From Ingolstadt Muffat moved to Vienna, but he could not obtain an official appointment there. According to a document from St Stephen's Cathedral, in 1677 he married Anna Elisabetha Vollin in Vienna, the orphaned daughter of a steward from Waidhofen near Ingolstadt. In that same year, 1677, he went to Prague, and from there in 1678 to Salzburg.
In Salzburg Muffat received a post as cathedral organist and chamber musician under Archbishop Max Gandolph von Kuenburg. Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber served alongside him. Seven of Muffat's children were born in Salzburg.
In 1682 the archbishopric celebrated the 1100th anniversary of its founding, and works by the court composers were printed for the occasion, among them Muffat's collection Armonico tributo. When Biber became Kapellmeister in 1684, his earlier duties of providing instrumental music probably passed to Muffat.
After the archbishop's death in 1687 Muffat continued his work under his successor, Johann Ernst von Thun und Hohenstein. For the presentation of the pallium he composed the opera La Fatali Felicita di Plutone, which is now lost. As early as 1685 Muffat had wished to move from Salzburg to Vienna, as a letter to Count Harrach shows; he taught the count's daughter Rosa Angela the harpsichord and singing.
In the early 1680s the archbishop made it possible for Muffat to go to Rome and study with Bernardo Pasquini. The date of his arrival in Italy is fixed by a quarantine, starting in October 1681, on the border with the Republic of Venice; in September 1682 Muffat left Rome to return to Salzburg. In Italy he met Arcangelo Corelli and held his compositions in very high regard.
At the start of 1690 Muffat was in Augsburg for the coronation of Joseph, the eldest son of Emperor Leopold, as King of the Romans. There he presented his Apparatus musico-organisticus to Leopold, the dedicatee. In the same year, 1690, he visited Munich and met his future employer to discuss the terms of employment.
From 1690 Muffat was Kapellmeister at the court of Bishop Johann Philipp von Lamberg in Passau and a private tutor to the court pages. After town fires and the death of Georg Kopp in 1666, the level of composition in Passau had remained low. Muffat provided a varied repertoire and had music by Melchior d'Ardespin, Biber and Johann Caspar von Kerll acquired. Officially he was responsible only for the court music, but he sought influence over the cathedral music as well.
Muffat probably hoped for a post in Vienna, but he did not obtain one. Two more of his children were born in Passau. Three of his sons worked in the court chapel in Vienna: Franz Georg Gottfried (1681–1710), Johann Ernst (1686–1746) and Gottlieb (1690–1770). Georg Muffat died in Passau on 23 February 1704.
Muffat's music absorbed both French and Italian traditions. His works, together with those of his contemporaries, became an important step towards the musical language of the late Baroque, where Italian and French traits were joined. Muffat studied in Paris and in Rome and met Corelli; in his concerti grossi he fused the French instrumental suite with the Italian concerto.
The collection of sonatas Armonico tributo appeared in 1682. In 1695 and 1698 came two collections of orchestral suites in the French taste, Florilegium primum and Florilegium secundum, early examples of the genre in Germany. Muffat added detailed performance directions to them, explaining how fast to play and how to order the bow strokes in various kinds of movement, along with broader advice on ensemble playing. Musicians interested in historical performance still find these texts of great value. The twelve concerti grossi were printed in 1701 in Passau, and they reuse some of the thematic material from Armonico tributo.
For the organ Muffat wrote the collection Apparatus musico-organisticus (1690), with twelve toccatas as well as a passacaglia, a chaconne and an air with variations. There are also some partitas for the harpsichord, preserved in manuscript.
Of his three masses only one survives, Missa in labore requies for twenty-four parts. Muffat's three operas are all lost.
The Belgian Baroque orchestra Les Muffatti is named after the composer. The site has his Toccata prima for organ, at the level Intermediate+.