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★ Follow music ► Composer: Johann Samuel Endler (1694-1762) Work: Sinfonia D-Dur Performers: Joachim Pliquett (trumpet); Deutsches Symphonieorchester Berlin; Hartmut Haenchen Painting: Cornelis Troost (1696-1750) - Inspectie van een regiment cavalerie, wellicht door Willem van Hessen-Homburg (1742) Further info: Listen free: --- Johann Samuel Endler (Olbernhau, 26 July 1694 - Darmstadt, 23 April 1762) German composer. His father was organist and schoolmaster at Olbernhau. No documents concerning Endler's schooling are known, but many circumstances, including his connections to Christoph Graupner, suggest that he attended the Thomasschule in Leipzig. He enrolled at the university there in 1716. Archival documents regarding the Neukirche show Endler, still a student, substituting there as organist and director of church music in 1720. From 1721 to 1723 he directed Fasch's collegium musicum. While Graupner was in Leipzig in connection with his application for the post of Thomaskantor, he evidently offered Endler a post at Darmstadt, and the latter was installed at the court in 1723 as an alto singer and violinist. He was promoted to Konzertmeister before 1740 and then (before 1744) to vice-Kapellmeister under Graupner. After Graupner's death in 1760 Endler succeeded to his position, which he held until his own death two years later. Three early church cantatas and one secular cantata (the political satire Der Raritätenmann, written in 1747 for the birthday celebration of Landgrave Ludwig VIII) survive; another secular cantata, Der Nachtwächter (1746), has been lost. Endler's remaining extant works are orchestral. Two-thirds of the sinfonias were written for special festivities and first performed between 1748 and 1761 at the landgrave's favourite hunting castle, Kranichstein. Often richly orchestrated, they exploit skilfully the court's especially large group of virtuoso brass and wind players. They consist of a modern Allegro movement followed by a suite of up to six further movements with dance, tempo and, occasionally, character titles. Concertante elements are apparent, except in the first movements. The overtures are similar, except that the first movement is in the form of a French overture, tonal unity is maintained throughout the cycle and a larger selection of dance movements is found. The autograph manuscripts of Endler's compositions, together with his excellent copies of other 18th-century works, are in the Hessisische Landes- und Hochschulbibliothek, Darmstadt.
