Johann Friedrich Agricola
This article is about the 18th century German composer. For other people with the same name, see Agricola (disambiguation).Johann Friedrich Agricola (
January 4,
1720 –
December 2,
1774) was a
German composer, organist, singer, teacher and writer on music. He sometimes wrote under the pseudonym
Flavio Anicio Olibrio.
Johann Friedrich Agricola was born in
Dobitschen (current
Thuringia).
While a student of law at
Leipzig he studied music under
Johann Sebastian Bach. In
1741 he went to
Berlin, where he studied musical composition under
Johann Joachim Quantz.
He was soon generally recognized as one of the most skillful organists of his time. The success of his comic opera,
Il Filosofo convinto in amore, performed at
Potsdam in
1750, led to an appointment as court composer to
Frederick the Great. In
1759, on the death of
Karl Heinrich Graun, he was appointed conductor of the royal orchestra. He married the noted operatic soprano Benedetta Emilia Molteni, a marriage of which the king apparently disapproved.
He died in
Berlin.
Agricola wrote a number of Italian operas, as well as
Lieder,
chorale preludes, various other keyboard pieces and church music, especially
oratorios and
cantatas. His reputation chiefly rests, however, on his theoretical and critical writings on musical subjects. In
1754 he jointly wrote an obituary of J. S. Bach with
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. His
1757 Anleitung zur Singekunst (translated as
Introduction to the Art of Singing) is
Pier Francesco Tosi's
1723 treatise
Opinioni de' cantori antichi e moderni with Agricola's own extensive comments.
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