Born: April 24, 1721 Died: July 27, 1783; Berlin, Germany Johann
Philipp Kirnberger was among the leading theorists and
commentators on music of the eighteenth century, but as a
composer, he is of lesser importance. Although he wrote keyboard
and chamber music, songs, and a small amount of church music,
these struck listeners then and now as uninspired. David Mason
Green wrote that the music has "an excess of theory" and wryly
adds, "It would have won him a foundation grant today."
KirnbergerRead more had a conventional musical and general
education that included organ studies with J.P. Kellner and
Henirich Nicolaus Gerber, but the high point of his training was
the two years he spent studying performance and composition with
Johann Sebastian Bach. From 1741 to 1751, he lived in Poland and
worked for various noblemen of that country. He returned to
Germany, was engaged by the Prussian royal chapel, voluntarily
took a higher position in a lower establishment (that of Prince
Heinrich of Prussia), and in 1758 ob