Peter Griesbacher (25 March 1864 – 28 January 1933) was a German classical composer, organist and bell expert.

Life

Griesbacher was born in

Egglham Egglham is a municipality in the district of Rottal-Inn in Bavaria in Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps ...

. He studied in

Passau Passau (; ) is a city in Lower Bavaria, Germany. It is also known as the ("City of Three Rivers"), as the river Danube is joined by the Inn (river), Inn from the south and the Ilz from the north. Passau's population is about 50,000, of whom ...

and was ordained a priest in 1886. From 1894 to 1895 he was music prefect at the Studienseminar (study seminary) St. Emmeram in

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 ...

. Due to his reputation as a church composer, he was appointed in 1911 a lecturer at the Kirchenmusikschule Regensburg (School of Church Music) of

, where he taught counterpoint, musical form and stylistic. Around the same time he was appointed

Vicar A vicar (; Latin: '' vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English p ...

and then

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the material accepted as officially written by an author or an ascribed author * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western canon, th ...

at the Collegiate St. Johann in Regensburg. In 1930 the chapter elected him dean. He temporarily was director, until Carl Thiel succeeded Karl Weinberger. He died in

of gastrointestinal cancer.

Work

Griesbacher composed predominantly Catholic church music. Based on the

a cappella Music performed a cappella ( , , ; ), less commonly spelled acapella in English, is music performed by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Rena ...

of the

Cecilian Movement The Cecilian Movement for church music reform began in Germany in the second half of the 1800s as a reaction to the liberalization of the Enlightenment. The Cecilian Movement received great impetus from Regensburg, where Franz Xaver Haberl had ...

, he wrote works accompanied by the organ. When orchestra was added, he did not do the instrumentation himself. He tried to combine the strict Cecilian style with late romantic harmonies. His later works are characterised by a rather complex musical language. Griesbacher played a role in the transition of Catholic church music from the 19th to the 20th century. He created about 250 works, including 49

mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

es.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Griesbacher, Peter German composers German organists German male organists 1864 births 1933 deaths People from Rottal-Inn