1639–1694 · Germany · Baroque
Johann Christoph Pezel (1639-1694) was a German violinist, trumpeter and composer. He worked as a town musician, first in Leipzig and later in Bautzen. He is known for suites and sonatas; our catalogue has two of his sonatas, Sonata 21 and Sonata 24, at the level Intermediate+.
Johann Christoph Pezel was born on 5 December 1639 in Kłodzko, a town known in German as Glatz. His surname was spelled in several ways, among them Petzold and Pecelius.
He attended the grammar school in Bautzen and received his musical training from, among others, Nikolaus Leuterding, a town musician of that city.
Pezel worked in Leipzig as a violinist. On 20 June 1665 he married Susanna Janson, the daughter of the Leipzig dancing master Antonius Janson. The couple had four children.
In 1668 he began to receive a special salary for playing the trumpet at the Nikolaikirche, and in 1669 he was appointed Stadtpfeifer, a municipal musician. That same year his first substantial work, Musica vespertina lipsica, was printed. Pezel dedicated it to his benefactor Gabriel Rudolff, an influential citizen of Halle.
In 1672 Pezel joined an Augustinian monastery in Prague, but he soon left it to become a Protestant. From 1672 he directed the Collegium musicum.
In 1675 and 1679 Pezel applied in vain for a post as a council musician in Dresden. His bid for the position of Thomaskantor in Leipzig in 1677 failed as well.
In 1681 Pezel became a town musician in Bautzen. There, as earlier in Leipzig, he served the city as Stadtpfeifer and Stadtmusicus.
Pezel died in Bautzen on 13 October 1694.
Pezel was famous as a violinist and as a player of the clarino trumpet. Between 1669 and 1686 he put out a good many collections, mostly of instrumental music, including Musica vespertina lipsica (1669), Musicalische Seelenerquickungen (1675) and Musica curiosa lipsiaca (1686). He also left some sacred vocal music and writings on theory.
Pezel's compositions follow the tradition of the older German suites, and their melodies often show French and Italian traits. He had an influence on how instrumental forms and orchestral writing developed.
His first major work, Musica vespertina lipsica of 1669, is also known as the Leipzig evening music. It consists of suites for two violins, two violas and basso continuo. The collection has 101 movements in all, and they can be arranged by key into twelve suites. Each suite opens with a sonata, sonatina or capriccio and ends with a gigue.
Among his other publications are Hora decima musicorum Lipsiensium (1670), with sonatas for wind or string instruments, Schöne, lustige und anmuthige neue Arien (1672), and Fünfstimmige blasende Music (1685), sonatas for three trombones and two cornetts. In 1686 Balthasar Christoph Wust printed his Opus musicum sonatarum praestantissimarum, 25 sonatas for strings, in Frankfurt.
Our catalogue has two pieces by Pezel, Sonata 21 and Sonata 24. Both are marked at the level Intermediate+.