December 12, 1731 - January 20, 1798 born in Mannheim, Germany,
composed during the Classical period A prolific composer,
Christian Cannabich was also a violinist and conductor who
presided over the Mannheim court orchestra during its period of
greatest glory, helping it perfect the carefully gauged
crescendos and decrescendos that became a trademark of the
Mannheim school of composition. His early violin training from
his father was so thorough that Cannabich entered the Mannheim
orchestra at age 12. He studied composition as well as violin
with the orchestra's director, Johann Stamitz, whose family was
developing a new, pre-Classical style of music coming out of
Baroque models. Cannabich spent the early 1750s under the
tutelage of composer Niccolò Jommelli, first in Rome and then in
Stuttgart; during this period, Cannabich discovered the music of
such Italians as the Sammartini brothers, which would influence
his own work. He was back in the Mannheim orchestra by 1756, and
was joint concertmaster by 1759; t