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Johann Georg Kreising (Composer, Harpsichord, Bach's Pupil?) |
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Born: c1700
Died: no later then 1753 - Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany |
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Johann Georg Kreising was from 1722 to 1726 harpsichordist with Jakub Henryk Flemming in Dresden and Warsaw; later court musician in Schwerin? In 1753 he gave guest performance in Zerbst. Further whereabouts unknown.
The manuscript Am.B. 511/2, which was apparently owned by Johann Philipp Kirnberger was made by a copyist - by Blechschmidt / Wutta as "J. Theile II" - who apparently was not directly related to Berlin. However, his characteristic manuscript can be found several times in the holdings of the Mecklenburg State Library in Schwerin. It is striking that all the well-known works by a writer named Johann Georg Kreising, also based in Schwerin, come from the pen of this writer, including one Dedication manuscripts by harpsichord works "pour S. A. S. Madame la Princesse de Meclenburg" and "Pour S. A. Royale Msr. le Prince De Prusse". It is therefore obvious that the writer "J. Theile II "is to be equated with the Schwerin musician Johann Georg Kreising. This provisionally still hypothetical identification is confirmed above all by the fact that Kreising had a penchant for composing canon of puzzles, which, in obvious reference to Theile's art book, he had with small ones Encrypted explanations in the form of distichs. Unfortunately, there is hardly any data available about Kreising's living conditions; there is also uncertainty about a possible relationship with Hinrich Conrad Kreising, who was the organist of the English Church in Hamburg around 1735, whose only surviving composition, FUGA pour le Orgue, also from "J. Theile II" is written. As an authority in counterpoint setting, Johann Georg Kreising was occasionally mentioned in Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg's treatise on Fugue; in 1728 Georg Philipp Telemann included two suites named "Kreysing der Jüngere"in his collection Sammlung Der getreue Musikmeister. Since two sources written written sources by "J. Theile II " come from Johann Gottfried Müthel's estate, but he finally left Schwerin in 1753 to settle in Riga, assuming the correctness of the presumed identification - it could be assumed that Johann Georg Kreising died at the latest in 1753 and that manuscripts from his estate could be acquired from Johann Gottfried Müthel before he left for Riga.
The search for further clues to Johann Georg Kreising's biography finally draws attention to Hans Löffler's collectors to the students of J.S. Bach. There, under number 80, the name Kreisings with the second one can be found Edition of Schilling's Universal-Lexikon der Tonkunst, which goes back "that he was" a worthy pupil "of J.S. Bach in Köthen around 1720. Since documentary evidence for this claim cannot be found at present, only the musical sources can speak for now. One of the manuscripts already mentioned, which goes back to Johann Gottfried Müthel's possession - Mus. ms. Bach P 400a - contains a copy of J.S. Bach's organ transcription of a violin concerto by Duke Johann Ernst von Sachsen-Weimar (BWV 592). Interestingly, both the style of these concertos, which was strongly based on Antonio Vivaldi, and J.S. Bach's transcription technique had a lasting influence on Kreising's own compositional method - his unaccompanied concertos for harpsichord solo look like pure style copies of these templates. The compositions of Kreising strongly relate to the concerto style associated with Weimar and that of J.S. Bach and his cousin Johann Gottfried Walther's cultivated practice of arranging keyboard instruments leads our considerations back to the copy of Theile's art book associated with Kreising; because the most important branch of tradition for the theoretical writings of the master of counterpoint in Naumburg is directly linked to Johann Gottfried Walther.
Löffler's characterization of Kreising as J.S. Bach's pupil is based on a confusion with Hinrich Conrad Kreising (A-19) according to a statement by Gerber from 1813, who gave no first names. In the biography of J.G. Kreising, which can be reconstructed only sparsely, there are no indications of a pupil relationship with J.S. Bach, but there is a striking interest in the counterpoint.
References: Koska: C-11; Bach Digital: 00003246 |
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Sources:
1. Article by Peter Wollny in Jahrbuch des Staatlichen Instituts für Musikforschung (SIM) Preußischer .Kulturbeisitz 1998, edited by Günther Wagner (Metzler Musik), pp 148-149, English translation by Aryeh Oron (February 2020)
2. Bernd Koska: Bachs Privatschüler in Bach-Jahrbuch 2019, English translation by Aryeh Oron (May 2020)
Contributed by Aryeh Oron (February 2020, May 2020) |
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Links to other Sites |
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Kreising, Johann Georg (Bach Digital) |
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Bibliography |
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Sources 1: Gerber NTL, Bd. II, Sp. 643; Löffler 1929/31, Anh. Nr. 6; Löffler 1953, Nr. 80; P. Wollny, Anmerkungen zu einigen Berliner Kopisten aus dem Umkreis der Amalienbibliothek, in: Jahrbuch SIM 1998, S. 143–162, speziell S. 148f.; MGGo; R. Pfeiffer, Johann Friedrich Fasch: 1688–1758. Leben und Werk, Wilhelmshaven 1994, S. 53; S. Paczkowski, Bach and Poland in the Eighteenth Century, in: Understanding Bach 10 (2015), S. 123–137, speziell S. 129
References 2: NBA V/9.1, 10, 12 |
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