Franz Xaver Witt (February 9, 1834 – December 2, 1888) was a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

, church

musician A musician is someone who Composer, composes, Conducting, conducts, or Performing arts#Performers, performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general Terminology, term used to designate a person who fol ...

, and

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 ...

. He was a leading figure in the Cecilian movement for the reform of Catholic church music in the second half of the 19th century.Williamson, John, 2004, '' The Cambridge Companion to Bruckner'', Cambridge University Press, p 57 & 267, . Witt was born in Walderbach,

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

. His father was a school teacher. Witt was taught

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

and singing from a young age. He studied theology and science at the

seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological college, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called seminarians) in scripture and theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as cle ...

Regensburg Regensburg (historically known in English as Ratisbon) is a city in eastern Bavaria, at the confluence of the rivers Danube, Naab and Regen (river), Regen, Danube's northernmost point. It is the capital of the Upper Palatinate subregion of the ...

. He sang in the seminary's choir, which was under the direction of Joseph Schrems.

Catholic Encyclopedia ''The'' ''Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church'', also referred to as the ''Old Catholic Encyclopedia'' and the ''Original Catholic Encyclopedi ...

He was ordained as a priest in 1856 and taught

Gregorian chant Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainsong, plainchant, a form of monophony, monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in Latin (and occasionally Greek language, Greek) of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed main ...

at the seminary at Regensburg. In 1867 was appointed inspector of the seminary of St. Emmeram.Randel, Don Michael, 1996, ''The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music'', Harvard University Press, p. 991, . In 1868 Witt founded the Caecilia Society in order to revive the use of Gregorian chant and polyphony, and to promote the composition of new liturgical music in an older style in Catholic churches.Ogasapian, John, and Orr, N. Lee, 2007, ''Music of the Gilded Age'', Greenwood Press, p.85, .

Pope Pius IX Pope Pius IX (; born Giovanni Maria Battista Pietro Pellegrino Isidoro Mastai-Ferretti; 13 May 1792 – 7 February 1878) was head of the Catholic Church from 1846 to 1878. His reign of nearly 32 years is the longest verified of any pope in hist ...

recognized the society in 1870.Westermeyer, Paul, 2005, ''Let the People Sing: Hymn Tunes in Perspective'', GIA Publications, p. 227, . He died in

Landshut Landshut (; ) is a town in Bavaria, Germany, on the banks of the Isar, River Isar. Landshut is the capital of Lower Bavaria, one of the seven administrative regions of the Free state (government), Free State of Bavaria, and the seat of the surrou ...

References

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* * 1834 births 1888 deaths People from Cham (district) 19th-century German Roman Catholic priests 19th-century German composers {{Germany-composer-stub