Schauensée, Franz Joseph Leonti Meyer von

1720-1790

Organist, dramatic and church coposer, born at Lucerne. He studied the organ at Lucerne, and afterward succeeded him as organist at the convent of St. Liudgard there, and was also a pupil of Galimberti. In 1731 he went to the Benedictine Abbey of St. John to finish his studies and learned to play on the harpsichord, violin and violoncello. He next studied composition and, after a period passed in the Cistercian Convent at St. Urban, he enrolled in a Swiss regiment in the service of the King of Sardinia, and was taken a prisoner at Nice during the campaign of 1742. Schauensee wrote eight operas and several concertos, besides a large number of church compositions, including seven masses; motets; many offertorios; litanies and hymns.