Franz Aspelmayr
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Franz Asplmayr (1 April 1728 – 29 July 1786) was an Austrian
composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...
and
violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...
ist. There are many variants of his name, including Franz Aspelmayr, Franz Aschpellmayr and Franz Appelmeyer. He is best known for an opera on Greek myths and for a few symphonies and string trios which were once attributed to
Joseph Haydn Franz Joseph Haydn ( ; ; 31 March 173231 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions ...
. Among the few scholars who have studied his music, there are differing opinions as to the quality.
J. Murray Barbour James Murray Barbour (1897–1970) is an American acoustician, musicologist, and composer best known for his work ''Tuning and Temperament: A Historical Survey'' (1951, 2d ed. 1953). As the opening of the work describes, it is based upon his unpub ...
says of Asplmayr's 80
minuet A minuet (; also spelled menuet) is a social dance of French origin for two people, usually written in time. The English word was adapted from the Italian ''minuetto'' and the French ''menuet''. The term also describes the musical form tha ...
s "scored mostly for oboes, horns, and strings, without violas" that "all are extremely boring, as if written between beers". Temperly, on the other hand, finds advances "with respect to harmony and developmental techniques". Asplmayr was born in
Linz Linz (Pronunciation: , ; ) is the capital of Upper Austria and List of cities and towns in Austria, third-largest city in Austria. Located on the river Danube, the city is in the far north of Austria, south of the border with the Czech Repub ...
. His father taught him violin and, by the 1750s, he had steady employment playing violin in
Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
. In 1761, he took over
Christoph Willibald Gluck Christoph Willibald (Ritter von) Gluck (; ; 2 July 1714 – 15 November 1787) was a composer of Italian and French opera in the early classical period (music), classical period. Born in the Upper Palatinate and raised in Bohemia, both part of th ...
's duty of writing ballet music for the German troupe. Although he was paid to write symphonies, few of those scores have survived.


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* 1728 births 1786 deaths Austrian male composers Austrian classical violinists Austrian male classical violinists 18th-century Austrian composers 18th-century Austrian male musicians Composers from Linz 18th-century classical violinists {{Austria-composer-stub