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★ Follow music ► Composer: Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer (1656-1746) Work: Ouverture (IV, Suite in d-moll), œuvre première (1695) Performers: Collegium Dаmiаnum Painting: Franz de Paula Ferg (1689-1740) - Jahrmarkt mit Tempel und Maibaum HD image: Further info: Listen free: No available --- Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer (Schönfeld, 6 September 1656 - Rastatt, 27 August 1746) German composer. He came from a family of craftsmen and attended the grammar school run by Piarist friars (the order was founded in Rome in 1617 to promote the education of the poor). It was presumably here that he received his first lessons in composition, the monastery archive contains an early work by him, and learnt to play the keyboard and the violin. He may have been first taught composition by the Kapellmeisters and court musicians Johann Hönel and Augustin Pfleger, and by Georg Bleyer. Since Duke Julius Franz sent gifted musicians to receive further training elsewhere, and had connections with the Dresden court, he may have acquired his high degree of contrapuntal skill from Christoph Bernhard in Dresden. There is no evidence that he ever studied with Lully in Paris. Lully's works were known and performed in Bohemia through printed scores and from Georg Muffat's visit to Prague in 1677. Fischer could have made an intensive study of them during his journeys to Prague and Schloss Raudnitz on the Elbe in the course of his professional duties. In 1689 or earlier Duke Julius Franz appointed Fischer to succeed Pfleger as Kapellmeister in Schlackenwerth; his name appears with that title in financial statements relating to the weddings of the two princesses in 1690. After the partition of the state at the end of 1690 Fischer may have been appointed Hofkapellmeister to Margrave Ludwig Wilhelm of Baden. The margrave had married the heiress of Schlackenwerth, Princess Sibylla Augusta, and made his residence there at the time of the war with France. There is clear evidence of Fischer's position in the titles of his printed works from 1695 onwards. The court moved to Rastatt in 1705, but because of reductions in the personnel during the war years Fischer did not accompany it. It was not until October 1715, after a Piarist foundation had been set up in the city, that he was finally given a post there, which he held until his death. After his first wife's early death in 1698 he re-married, probably at the beginning of 1700, and this marriage lasted until 1732. Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer served the Baden court for almost 60 years, albeit with the assistance of the man who was to succeed him, Franz Ignaz Zwifelhofer, towards the end of his career. Sadly underrepresented in today's concert repertoire, his music reveals itself on closer study to possess a marked individuality, stylistic diversity and elaborate harmonies.
