Lorenz Christoph Mizler
Lorenz Christoph Mizler
Person from Germany
Genres: german, 18th century
Johann Michael Dischner
About Lorenz Christoph Mizler
Lorenz Christoph Mizler von Kolof (also known as Wawrzyniec Mitzler de Kolof and Mitzler de Koloff; 26 July 1711 – 8 May 1778) was a German physician, historian, printer, mathematician, Baroque music composer, and precursor of the Enlightenment in Poland. Mitzler, an amateur composer, was deeply interested in music theory, advocating the establishment of a musical science based firmly on mathematics; philosophy; and the imitation of nature in music. He translated Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum into German (the original was in Latin), having written of it that "this methodical guide to musical composition [is] among all such works the best book that we have for practical music and its composition." Mitzler was a polymath: his interests encompassed music, mathematics, philosophy, theology, law, and the natural sciences. He was influenced in philosophy by the ideas of Wolff, Gottfried Leibniz, and Gottsched. The journal Musikalische Bibliothek [de] [musical library], which he published between 1736 and 1754, is an important document of the musical life in Germany at the time, and includes reviews of books on music written from 1650 up to its publication. Mizler himself contributed commentaries and criticisms on the writings of Wolfgang Printz, Leonhard Euler, Johann Adolf Scheibe, Johann Samuel Schroeter, Meinrad Spieß [de], Gottsched, and Mattheson; especially the latter two's Critische Dichtkunst (1729) and Vollkommene Capellmeister (1739). His essays were detailed and perceptive and offer a useful musicological resource for present-day scholars of Baroque music. He founded the Correspondierende Societät der musicalischen Wissenschaften [Corresponding Society of the Musical Sciences] in 1738. Its aim was to enable musical scholars to circulate theoretical papers in order to further musical science by encouraging discussion of the papers via correspondence. Many of the papers appear in the Musikalische Bibliothek. The entry requirements of this society resulted in both the famous 1746/1748 Haussmann portrait of Bach and his Canonic Variations on "Vom Himmel hoch da komm' ich her" for organ, BWV 769. Membership was limited to twenty. Belonging to the society were: 1738: Giacomo de Lucchesini L. C. Mizler (permanent secretary) Georg Heinrich Bümler 1739 Christoph Gottlieb Schröter Heinrich Bokemeyer G. P. Telemann G. H. Stölzel 1742: Georg Friedrich Lingke 1743: Meinrad Spieß Georg Venzky 1745: G. F. Handel Udalricus Weiss 1746: C. H. Graun 1747: J. S. Bach G. A. Sorge Johann Paul Kunzen 1748: J. C. F. Fischer 1751: Johann Christian Winter 1752: Johann Georg Kaltenbeck 1755: L. Mozart (invitation declined) Compositions Sammlung auserlesener moralischer Oden, zum Nutzen und Vergnügen der Liebhaber des Claviers I (Leipzig, 1740), II (Leipzig, 1741), III (Leipzig, 1743). Facsimiles published (Leipzig, 1971)
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