| |
Johann
Friedrich Fasch (1688-1758)
1688
15 April: Johann Friedrich Fasch is born in
Buttelstedt near Weimar; he is the first child of
school principal Friedrich Georg Fasch (died
1700) and his wife, Sophia Wegerig (also
Wegerich), daughter of a Lutheran pastor.
1700
After his father's death Fasch is raised by
chaplain Gottfried Wegerig, one of his mother's
brothers. Kammermusicus and tenor soloist Scheele
arranges for him to become a choral scholar at
the Weissenfels Court, an important performance
venue of early German opera. Court Kapellmeister
Johann Philipp Krieger (1649-1725), a renowned
composer of early German operas, fosters Fasch's
musical talent.
1701-1707
Fasch attends St. Thomas's School in Leipzig
during Cantor Johann Kuhnau's (1660-1722) tenure
as principal. Fasch teaches himself how to play
the Clavier and the violin and composes his first
vocal works, setting to music texts by Menantes
(C. F. Hunold). Fasch composes, among other works
ouverture suites modelled after those of G. P.
Telemann which are successfully performed by the
Collegium musicum, an orchestral force consisting
of university students.
1708
Fasch studies law in Leipzig and founds the
"second ordinary Collegium musicum";
among its members are J. D. Heinichen, G. H.
Stölzel and J. G. Pisendel. Fasch composes
numerous incidental works.
1710
Fasch and his Collegium Musicum are requested to
perform regularly on the occasion of worship
services and other festive academic events at the
University of Leipzig.
1711-1713
Fasch receives commissions from Duke Moritz
Wilhelm of Sachsen-Zeitz to compose operas for
the Peter and Paul Fair in Naumburg and later for
the Court of Zeitz ("Clomire",
"Lucius Verus" and "Die getreue
Dido"). Fasch requests financial support for
a study trip to Italy from the Duke but receives
a recommendation to the Court of Gotha instead.
1713-1715
A musical study trip takes Fasch through the
southern and western parts of Germany (Gotha,
Kassel, Frankfurt/Main, Ansbach, Bayreuth, Gera
and others). Fasch receives 14 weeks of
complimentary composition lessons from his former
St. Thomas's School prefect, Court Kapellmeister
Christoph Graupner at Darmstadt, and from his
concertmaster Gottfried Grünewald. After his
trip, Fasch takes on a position as
"secretary and administrative
assistant" in Gera in 1715.
1717
On 16 November Fasch marries Johanna Christiane
Laurentius, a pastor's daughter, in Roben near
Gera.
1719
On 7 May Fasch resumes a position as town clerk
(later also working as organist) in Greiz.
1720
Fasch's oldest daughter Sophia Maria is born ca.
22 January in Greiz. From May 1732 on she attends
the "FräuleinStifft" (a private school
for girls) in Coethen and dies on 13 May 1746.
On 4 October Fasch's wife passes away, having
given birth to their son Christian Friedrich; he
dies on 15 March 1721.
1721
On 29 September Fasch leaves Greiz for personal
and professional reasons. He accepts a position
as "Componist" to Count Morzin in
Prague for whom he continues to compose works
throughout his career. In 1725 Antonio Vivaldi
dedicated his Four Seasons to Morzin's orchestra.
1722
Upon the recommendation of his friend and
colleague in Gotha, G. H. Stölzel, Fasch assumes
the position of Court Kapellmeister of
Anhalt-Zerbst on 29 September. In December Fasch
declines the vacant position of Thomaskantor in
Leipzig in favour of the Zerbst post. Fasch's
work load is extremely heavy: he sets to music a
double cycle of church cantatas, a passion, and
secular vocal music (serenatas), and he composes
instrumental works on the occasion of ducal
festivities.
1727
During a sabbatical in Dresden Fasch sets to
music sacred Latin texts and composes
instrumental works which his childhood friend J.
D. Heinichen, Dresden's Court Kapellmeister,
proofreads. Fasch attends undercover bible
studies disguised as Tafelmusiken, led by Pietist
Nikolaus Ludwig Count of Zinzendorf, with whom
Fasch regularly corresponds during the 1730's.
Fasch meets Johanna Helena Simers, a pastor's
daughter from Kmehlen (died 1734) at these
meetings, and marries her on 21 July 1728 in
Groß-Kmehlen.
1728
On 16 June Fasch writes to Johann Mattheson,
editor of the music periodical "Der
musicalische Patriot" in Hamburg, requesting
to be put in touch with colleagues who are
willing to exchange cycles of cantatas. An
"exchange of musical compositions"
begins, with Zerbst, Dresden, Darmstadt and other
cities participating.
Around 1730
Fasch provides numerous instrumental works for
the Dresden Court Capelle at least until 1755,
the year in which his friend J. G. Pisendel, the
orchestra's concertmaster, dies. Fasch's second
daughter, Johanna Friedericka, is born before May
1732. His Pietistic orientation brigns Fasch into
conflict with the Orthodox Lutheran religious
circles of Zerbst.
1736
On 18 November 1736 Carl Friedrich Christian
Fasch is born. His older brother August Friedrich
Christian (born 1735) most likely died as an
infant. Fasch junior secured his rank in music
history by founding the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin.
1743
In March Fasch records the compositions of the
Zerbst ducal music library in an inventory
("Concert=Stube des Zerbster
Schlosses"). It includes numerous works of
the Hamburg music director G. P. Telemann as well
as compositions of French and Italian masters, in
particular works by A. Vivaldi.
1745
Fasch composes a serenata on the occasion of the
marriage of princess Sophie Auguste Friederike of
Anhalt-Zerbst with Duke Peter of Russia on 1
September. (In 1762 she ascends the Russian
throne as Catherine II.)
1753
Fasch travels to Dresden with his son Carl
Friedrich Christian to visit J. G. Pisendel. They
attend a Catholic mass which deeply moves and
impresses Fasch's son.
1755
On 29 October Fasch applies for the position of
music director and Cantor at Freiberg but is
rejected because of his advanced age. Throughout
his life, Fasch has been experiencing financial
difficulties.
1758
Owing to the Seven Years War Carl Friedrich
Christian Fasch, second harpsichordist to
Frederick the Great of Prussia since 1756, and
his colleague Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach spend the
summer and the fall in Zerbst. Bach composes
works for piano. He and Fasch's son may have
helped out the ailing father by composing sacred
works.
Fasch dies on 5 December 1758 in Zerbst. His
daughter Johanna Friedericka arranges his
funeral.
Carl Friedrich Christian
Fasch (1736-1800)
1736
18 November: Carl Friedrich Christian Fasch is
born in Zerbst as the youngest of three children
born to the Zerbst Court Kapellmeister Johann
Friedrich Fasch (1688-1758) in his second
marriage with Johanna Helena Simers (d. 1743).
prior to 1747
Carl receives his first instruction in clavier
and general musicianship from his father. He
composes in his head and performs his works on
the piano when his father is not present.
ca. 1747
Carl Höckh (1707-1773), concertmaster and friend
of his father, gives Fasch violin lessons. His
father permits him to attend performances at the
Zerbst court and at the court chapel. Fasch
composes his first sacred works but destroys them
soon after.
1750
Carl receives instruction in violin playing from
the Strelitz concertmaster Johann Christian
Hertel (1699-1754). In addition, Fasch studies
music theory and organ playing, substitutes for
the organist, composes fugues and develops
excellent accompanying skills.
1751
Fasch accompanies on the clavier the violinist
Franz Benda (1709-1786), a member of Frederick
the Great's orchestra who is visiting Strelitz.
Fasch returns to Zerbst. He attends the Kloster
Bergen School near Magdeburg.
1753
Fasch has occasional work with the Zerbst court
orchestra. He prepares additional contrapuntal
exercises and writes sacred compositions, pieces
for Clavier and violin, sinfonias and motets.
ca. 1755
"As a nineteen-year old (he could be)
considered a useful and accomplished
composer." (Karl Friedrich Zelter's
biography of Carl Friedrich Christian Fasch,
1801)
1755
Father Fasch travels to Dresden with his son.
After attending a high mass at the Catholic court
chapel Carl finds himself "swimming in
tears". His father forbids any future
participation in Catholic worship services as he
is reminded of Dresden Court Kapellmeister Johann
Adolf Hasse (1699-1783) whose conversion to
Catholicism, to the disgust of Fasch senior.
1756
Upon recommendation of Franz Benda, Fasch assumes
a position as second harpsichordist of Friedrich
II (1712-1786) in Potsdam in the spring of 1756.
He alternates with Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
(1714-1788) who has served Friedrich II since
1738, as accompanist of the flute-playing king.
Bach, a friend of the family, grants Carl shelter
after dispelling his father's religious
reservations toward the enlightened spirit
fostered at the Prussian court.
During the Seven Years War and Friedrich II's
lengthy absence from Potsdam, Fasch earns a
living as a music instructor.
He composes numerous works but again destroys
them; moreover, Fasch writes canons and figured
bass exercises for his students.
1761/62
Fasch is ordered by Friedrich II to travel to
Leipzig, paying his own way. He decides to resign
his position as soon as the war ends.
1763
Friedrich II ignores Fasch's request to be
released from his post.
1774
Fasch assumes the position of director of the
Royal Opera in Berlin for two years, succeeding
Johann Friedrich Agricola (1720-1774).
Fasch's oratorio "Giuseppe
riconosciuto", set to a libretto of the
imperial court poet Pietro Metastasio
(1698-1782), is performed by the court orchestra
at St. Hedwig's Cathedral in Berlin.
1783
Fasch is introduced to Karl Friedrich Zelter
(1758-1832), later a close friend and his
successor as director of the
"Singe-Academie". Inspired by the mass
for sixteen voices by Orazio Benevoli (1605-1672)
which the Berlin Court Kapellmeister Johann
Friedrich Reichardt (1752-1814) had brought with
him from Italy, Fasch writes his own mass for
sixteen voices in a few weeks. He composes the
work in order to be remembered by posterity.
Attempts to perform the mass in Potsdam,
employing royal singers as well as Berlin school
choirs, remain unsatisfactory, to Fasch's sorrow.
1786
Following King Friedrich II's death Fasch burns
all wordly possessions that remind him of his
earlier life.
1789
Fasch begins to direct rehearsals with his male
and female voice students in a private house.
These practices soon develop into regular
meetings including professional singers and an
ever increasing number of participants. Thus
originates the "Singe-Academie".
1791
24 May: Fasch introduces the first
"Präsenzbuch" (lit. "presence
book"; it provides lists of attendees and of
the works rehearsed). Later on the
"Singe-Academie" considered this their
founding date and acknowledged Carl Friedrich
Christian Fasch as their founder: "His
intention was and remained none other than: to
found a kind of art corps for sacred music which
can certainly be called an academy." (Karl
Friedrich Zelter 1801)
Among the compositions written by Fasch for the
Singakademie is " a Miserere for eight
voices which will ensure the immortality of
Fasch's name as long as music remains an
art." (Karl Friedrich Zelter 1801)
1793
22 October: The Singakademie is allowed to move
its rehearsals to a large room in the "Royal
Academy of Arts". Soon after the chorus
begins calling itself "Singe-Academie";
Fasch introduces a firm internal organisational
structure.
Fasch lets go of all his students in order to
dedicate himself exclusively to the Singakademie;
he composes works and copies out all parts
himself.
Johann Gottlieb Naumann (1741-1801), Johann
Friedrich Reichardt and Friedrich Heinrich Himmel
(1765-1814) compose works for the Singakademie as
a sign of their friendship with Fasch.
1800
3 June: Fasch feels close to death and, for the
last time, participates in a rehearsal of the
Singakademie. After 3 June Fasch prepares himself
for death: he burns all his letters and and all
of his works composed prior to the mass for
sixteen voices.
1800
3 August: Fasch dies.
7 August: Fasch is buried at the Jerusalem
Church's cemetery near the Hallesches Tor.
18 November: The Singakademie performs the mass
for sixteen voices in his memory, members of the
executive gather for a supper in his memory.
1801
Karl Friedrich Zelter's biography on Fasch
appears in print; it provides the foundation for
all later biographical publications on Fasch.
|
|
