Johann Philipp Krieger

German composer

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History

Johann Philipp Krieger (baptized Feb. 27, 1649, Nürnberg—died Feb. 6, 1725, Weissenfels, Saxony) was a German composer known especially for his church cantatas, fugues, and keyboard suites.

Krieger studied at Nürnberg and Copenhagen and became court organist at Bayreuth in 1670. Later he studied and toured in Italy, working with Johann Rosenmüller in Venice and Bernardo Pasquini in Rome. After a brief return to Bayreuth, he became chapelmaster to the court of Halle in 1677; the court moved to Weissenfels in 1680.

Only about 80 of Krieger’s 2,000 cantatas are extant. Like his fugues, they represent an important stage in the development of their genre from the earlier Baroque style to that of J.S. Bach. Krieger was one of the principal composers of keyboard suites of his day. He also composed a number of suites for wind instruments and about 200 secular strophic airs, or songs.