Schroter, Christoph Gottlieb

1699-1782

 

German musician; born at Hohenstein, Saxony. When seven years old he went to Dresden as a chorister, Schmidt becoming his teacher, and having lost his voice entered as a pupil of the Kreuzschule, where he took up thorough-bass. In 1717 he went to Leipsic to study theology, and later became coypist for Lotti. Having experimented with the harpsichord and clavichord he invented in 1717 a system of double-hammer action and placed his model before the court in 1721. The invention of the piano, however, is now credited to Cristofori. He traveled with a German baron in Germany, Holland and England for about four years, and 1724 went to Jena University, where he lectured for two years. In 1726 he was appointed organist at Minden, and from there went in the same capacity to Nordhausen, where he spent the rest of his life. Schroter composed seven sets of cantatas for the church years; four settings of the Passion and one to his own words, Die seiben Worte Jesu; secular cantatas; serenades; concertos; overtures; symphonies; sonatas for piano and other instruments; and organ preludes and fugues. His writings include critical and controversial letters for Mizler's Bibliothek and Marpurg's Kritische Brief e; Epistola gratulatoria de musica Davidica et Salomonica, published in 1716; Deutliche Anweisung zum Generalbass, 1772, which set forth for the first time the idea that major and minor triads are the only fundamental chords; and Letzte Beschaftigung mit musikalischen Dingen, 1782.