Kuhnau, Johann

1660-1722

A German scholar and musician, widely known and beloved in his time. Was the predecessor of Bach as cantor at Leipsic. He was the son of a Bohemian fisherman and was born at Geising, about 1660, though the date is not positively known. As a boy he went to school at Dresden and became a chorister there, returning home in 1680 on account of the plague. Finding, however, that his native town lacked the proper opportunities for exercising his genius, he went to Zittau, where he gave French lectures and assisted at the school for his living. Soon a motet which he composed for a town election attracted so much attention that he was set on his feet financially, and went to Leipsic where he was already well known. In 1684 he became organist at the Thomaskirche; in 1700 took charge of the music at the University and in 1701 became cantor, a position which he held with honor until his death. Aside from being a thorough musician, he was a good lawyer, a scholar and philologist, and a poet. The greatest work he did along musical lines was to invent a sonata form in several movements. He wrote fourteen of these sonatas, among them Eine Sonata aus dem B, having three movements; Frische ClavierFrüchte, oder sieben Sonaten; and Biblische Historien nebst Auslegung in sechs Sonaten. He also wrote some admirable dance-music.