Waltershausen, Hermann Wolfgang (Sartorius), Freiherr von

Walther, Ignaz.

Walther, Johann.

Walther, Johann Gottfried

In 1697 Walther went to the Ratsgymnasium where he received a humanistic education. In summer 1702 he obtained his first position as an organist at the Thomaskirche in Erfurt. He entered the University of Erfurt to attend lectures in philosophy and law, but soon decided to devote himself entirely to music. He began a lifelong study of music theory, reading the treatises of Werckmeister, Fludd and Kircher, and for a brief period he studied composition with Buttstett. In autumn 1703 he started to travel, going first to Frankfurt (probably to the book fair) and Darmstadt. The following autumn he went to Magdeburg and also to Halberstadt, where he met Andreas Werckmeister, one of the most distinguished names in German music at that time, an organist and a writer of major works on music theory. Werckmeister was sympathetic to young Walther, presented him with a gift of Baryphonus’s treatise Pleiades musicae (Halberstadt, 1615), and subsequently corresponded regularly and sent him music, including the keyboard works of Buxtehude. In Halberstadt Walther also visited his friend Johann Graff, who had been a student of Johann Pachelbel in Erfurt. In 1706 he went to Nuremberg to study with Pachelbel’s son Wilhelm Hieronymus, whom he had known during their childhood together in Erfurt.

Walther’s years of apprenticeship ended on 29 July 1707 when he was appointed organist at the Stadtkirche (St Peter und St Paul), Weimar, a post he retained until his death. Immediately upon coming to Weimar he was made the music teacher of Prince Johann Ernst, nephew of the reigning Duke Wilhelm Ernst; the former was a gifted musician, and after he had returned from the University of Utrecht in 1713, Walther also taught him composition. Walther dedicated his manuscript treatise Praecepta der musicalischen Composition (1708) to Johann Ernst, and the prince’s early death in 1715 was a severe loss to Walther.

In 1708 J.S. Bach, Walther’s cousin, joined the ducal court Kapelle, and there began a friendship of great mutual benefit for these exceptionally gifted colleagues, who were almost of equal age. In 1712 Bach became godfather to Walther’s eldest son. Of Walther’s eight children, two daughters and two sons survived him; the younger son, Johann Christoph (1715–71), followed his father’s career of organist (he was appointed to the cathedral at Ulm in 1751). The final important professional appointment in Walther’s career occurred in 1721 when he was asked to join the ducal orchestra as Hofmusicus. Much of Walther’s career centred on his duties as organist and his instruction of many private pupils. He wrote sacred vocal music, numerous chorale preludes and other organ music. Particularly valuable for his continuing impact on music history was his energetic pursuit of musical knowledge and his collecting of a remarkable library of music and books on music. His enthusiasm led to the idea of publishing a dictionary of musicians and musical terms, the monumental Musicalisches Lexicon (Leipzig, 1732/R).

Walther's last years were marked by ever-increasing disillusionment. His private pupils diminished in number. He did not receive, for reasons that are not clear, a position of greater distinction and remuneration, although more than one opportunity arose for him to become Kantor of the church in which he was organist. Similarly, when Bach left the Weimar court to accept a post at Cöthen, Walther was passed over in the search for Bach’s successor. His financial position worsened and he was forced to sell much of his extensive library. Finally, in autumn 1745 his health declined so seriously that he asked his younger son Johann Christoph to return from Jena, where he was a student, in order to substitute for his father as organist. A final blow to Walther’s pride came when Duke Ernst August refused his request to make his son his successor as organist in Weimar.

Walther is a notable figure in German Baroque music history. His greatest contribution is the Musicalisches Lexicon, the first major music dictionary in German and the first in any language to include both musical terms and biographies of musicians from the past and present (see illustration). To the continuing gratitude of music historians, it serves as a still unexhausted repository of facts about musical conditions, concepts, performing practices, the major composers and writers on music up to the first decades of the 18th century. Walther’s gift in codifying musical knowledge was based on a number of earlier musical dictionaries of various kinds, most particularly, as he himself made clear, the work of Sébastien de Brossard (Paris, 1703). However, Walther conceived his work as a comprehensive collection both biographical and bibliographical in nature as well as fully representative of European musical terminology as he knew it. The Musicalisches Lexicon includes more than 3000 musical terms; more than 200 authors and 250 sources are drawn upon, first and foremost Mattheson, to whose works more than 200 references are made. Walther’s consummate command of the materials of music theory and history are evident in the wide range of these sources, including most of the 17th-century European treatises, and also earlier treatises from the Renaissance as well as works from antiquity quoted from Meibom’s Antiquae musicae of 1652 (see Eggebrecht’s valuable article). Walther continued to work on his dictionary after its publication and hoped to publish a second, revised edition, for which he completed a manuscript (in A-Wgm). Many of Walther’s revisions and supplementary entries were subsequently incorporated by E.L. Gerber into his Lexicon der Tonkünstler (Leipzig, 1790–92).

As a theorist Walther is represented by a treatise written early in his career, probably as a manual of instruction for Prince Johann Ernst. The Praecepta der musicalischen Composition is an important compilation of theoretical concepts drawn largely from treatises of the 17th century. It is divided into two large parts, the first discussing the rudiments of music such as notation and scales, and including a brief, alphabetically arranged list of musical terms, an obvious first stage towards the subsequent music dictionary. More important, however, is part ii, entitled Musicae poëticae, an instructive record of mid-Baroque German concepts of the art of composing, both in the practical application of the materials of music, such as intervals, consonance and dissonance, chords and contrapuntal procedures, and also in the stress on the techniques appropriate to expressing the affective connotations of words. Walther’s work includes an important explanation of the musical-rhetorical figures which played an important part in the compositional practices of German Baroque composers. Walther apparently never intended to publish his treatise, which he frequently drew upon in writing his dictionary (see Benary’s edition and his important discussion of the work).

As a composer, Walther reported in his autobiography that he wrote ‘92 vocal and 119 keyboard works based on chorales’ as well as 78 works by other composers that he arranged for keyboard. Only one vocal work survives, Kyrie, Christe, Kyrie eleison über Wo Gott zum Haus nicht giebt sein Gunst (in D-Bsb). Most of Walther’s organ works have been published (DDT, xxvi–xxvii; see Breig for comments regarding works falsely attributed to Walther in this edition). They are mainly chorale preludes – over 100 – that range from brief two-manual, three-part settings to extensive chorale partita arrangements and chorale fugues. These superbly varied pieces display most of the chorale variation techniques developed by German composers beginning with Pachelbel and including Böhm, Buxtehude and, of course, Bach. Walther’s chorale variations are uniformly of the highest merit, perhaps the only ones comparable to Bach's examples of the genre (see Seiffert’s discussion of Walther’s chorale preludes). The close personal friendship with Bach undoubtedly influenced Walther’s treatment of the chorale, but his compositions are nevertheless highly personal in style. Walther’s sensitivity to the affective connotations of the melodies, his rich harmonic variety, the brilliant keyboard technique rooted in motivic counterpoint, and the strength of the contrapuntal ideas are all worthy of comparison with Bach’s organ chorales.

WRITINGS

WORKS

Edition: J.G. Walther: Gesammmelte Werke für Orgel, ed. M. Seiffert, DDT, xxvi–xxvii (1906/R) [W]

Musicalische Vorstellung zwey evangelischer Gesänge, nemlich Meine Jesum lass ich nicht und Jesu meine Freude, kbd (Erfurt, 1712), lost; most music in MSS, W

Harmonische Denck- und Dankmahl, bestehend aus VIII Vor-Spielen über das Lied: Allein Gott in der Höh sey Ehr, kbd (Augsburg, 1738), W

Monumentum musicum concertam repraesentans (G), kbd (Augsburg, 1741), W

Preludio con Fuga (A), kbd (Augsburg, ?1741), W

Vorspiele über das Advents-Lied Wie soll ich dich empfangen? Und wie begegn’ ich dir?, kbd (Augsburg, 1741), W

Kyrie, Christe, Kyrie eleison über Wo Gott zum Hauss nicht giebt sein Gunst, 4vv, bc; Güldener Friede uns wohl ergetzet, 8vv, ?bc [only S extant]; Öffnet die Thüre, macht weiter die Thore, 5vv [only 2nd S extant]: all D-Bsb

c65 multiple and 53 single chorale variations (incl. some of the printed works), kbd, mostly autograph, Bsb, NL-DHgm, W [see MGG1 for misattribs.]

3 preludes and fugues (C, d, A), kbd; toccata and fugue (C), kbd; fugue (F), kbd: all D-Bsb, NL-DHgm, W

14 concs. by other composers, arr. kbd, all D-Bsb, NL-DHgm, W

Canone infinito gradato à 4 voci sopra ‘A solis ortus cardine’, kbd, Bsb*, ed. in P. Spitta: Johann Sebastian Bach (Leipzig, 1873–80/R)

For lost works see Brodde, p.56

BIBLIOGRAPHY

GEORGE J. BUELOW