Johann Christian Cannabich 1731 - 1798
Johann Christian Innocenz Bonaventura Cannabich was the son of a flute-player and composer, Martin Friedrich Cannabich. Christian was born in Mannheim, in 1731, and was a pupil of Johann Stamitz. He joined the court orchestra as a 'scholar' at the age of 12, in 1744. In 1746/1747 he was formally appointed a violinist in the orchestra. The Elector Carl Theodor gave Cannabich a royal scholarship to study music in Italy, and he travelled there to begin studies with Niccolò Jomelli in 1750, and stayed with the older opera composer in Rome until 1753. Cannibich also went with Jomelli to Stuttgart, but then left his teacher and went back to Italy in 1754; he stayed there until he was appointed the leader of the Mannheim court orchestra upon the death of Stamitz in 1757. Cannabich married Elisabeth de la Motte, lady of the bedchamber of the Duchess of Zweibrüchen, in 1759. Cannabich used his wife`s position to try to get Duke Christian IV to influence the spreading of Mannheim music into Paris. Cannabich travelled with the Duke to France in 1764, and lived there in the Duke`s palace in Paris. He went back to France in 1766, where he had six symphonies and six trios printed. While there, in 1766, he met Leopold Mozart and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. After his 1766 success, the majority of Cannabich`s works were published in Paris and issued. In 1772, on another visit to Paris, he appeared as soloist at the Concert Spirituel and won a medal for the composition competition.
In 1774, Cannabich fully replaced Stamitz as director of instrumental music, becoming the conductor and trainer for the most famous and celebrated orchestra in the world. He experienced a time of tremendous success and fame, and the court moved to Munich in 1778. Cannabich had an open house to musicians, and had many musical friends, including Wolfgang Mozart. Mozart wrote in a letter to his father Leopold: 'I cannot tell you what a good friend Cannabich is to me.' Wolfgang Mozart actually lived for a time in Cannabich`s home, and gave daily keyboard lessons to the older composer`s daughter, Rosa. For her, Mozart composed his sonata in C, K. 309.
The 1790s saw cutbacks in musical activities and spending, and Cannabich — along with such colleagues as Toeschi and Fränzl — complained about the lessened funds, especially in the areas of withheld wages. In the last year of his life, Cannabich`s salary was cut to about a third of its previous amount, and he was forced to conduct tours to supplement his income. Cannabich passed away on 20 January, 1798, in Frankfurt am Main, while
visitting his son Karl. Today, Cannabich is remembered mainly as conductor of the Mannheim orchestra, but he was a prolific composer who experienced great success, and his works were admired tremendously in Mannheim and Paris. After 1758, when he came back to Germany from Milan, he worked with the court ballet-master Etienne Lauchery, and together they brought about a huge growth in dramatic ballet in Mannheim and Schwetzingen. Dr. Charles Burney was most impressed with Cannabich`s La foire de village hessoise, which he saw at Schwetzingen in 1772. Many people have asserted that ballet was Cannabich`s compositional forté, a belief reinforced by the less enthusiastic response directed towards most of his symphonies, which are sometimes considered 'Too Mannheim'. Wolfgang Mozart took note of the fact that almost all of Cannabich`s symphonies began alike, with long notes and huge leaps in unison (a Mozart letter of 20 November 1777). However, Mozart did admire the the highly skilled instrumentations, and praised some of Cannabich`s later symphonies. Mozart in fact used a few of Cannabich`s 'signatures' in several works during this period, such as the Paris symphony and Sinfonia Concertante K. 364. Mozart had great personal respect and affection for 'Cannabich, who is the best director I have ever seen, [and] has the love and awe of those under him' (letter of 9 July 1778).
Source: <A HREF="http://www.artaria.com/"Artaria</A
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Updated 6/06/05