Born: February 1667 (baptised: February 17, 1667) - Hamburg, Germany
Died: March 1720 (buried: March 8, 1720) - Hamburg, Germany

Georg [Jürgen] Bronner was a German composer and organist. In 1688 and 1689 respectively he succeeded his father, Christoph Bronner, as sacristan and organist of the Heilig Geist hospital, Hamburg, and held these positions until 1719. Although his name was put forward for the post of organist of the cathedral and although he also acted as deputy at the Nikolaikirche between 1696 and 1701, he was never appointed to a more important position. This is the more noteworthy in that he was obviously not inferior to other musicians in Hamburg. He was also the only organist there to have connections with the Hamburg opera, of which he was co-director in 1699 and for which he composed a series of works (some in collaboration with Johann Mattheson and Schiefferdecker) between 1693 and 1702. These operas, which received J. Mattheson's critical approval, are lost, as are two oratorios by him that provoked a protest from the Hamburg city council.

In Georg Bronner's book of chorales (1715) each melody is set in three different ways - with figured and unfigured basses and as vocal trios, which are notable for their effective part-writing and interesting harmonies. Of Bronner's other music, all of it sacred, the manuscript chorale cantatas show that the strict cantus firmus tradition was beginning to relax its grip: the outer movements, based on the chorale melody, employ simple, traditional techniques, while the inner movements, freed from the chorale, are in up-to-date aria forms. The six sacred concertos (1696) are more important and occupy a special place in north German music of about 1700 in that they survive in print. The collection contains three works for soprano and three for soprano and bass and relies mainly on the psalms for its texts. In illustrating the transformation of the sacred concerto for few voices into cantata-like forms these works also typify the final stage of the genre before madrigal texts began to be used. In them a sound compositional technique, richly ornamented lines and colourful harmony are allied to expressive word-setting.

Works

Dramatic:
Echo und Narcissus (1693, Hamburg) [lost]
Venus oder Die siegende Liebe (1694, Hamburg) [lost]
Procris und Cephalus (1701, Hamburg) [lost]
Der Tod des grossen Pans (1702, Hamburg) [+ Johann Mattheson] [lost]
Beatrix (1702, Hamburg) [Philippus Herzog von Mailand] [+ Johann Mattheson?]
Victor Herzog der Normannen (1702, Hamburg) [+ J.C. Schiefferdecker, Johann Mattheson] [lost]
Berenice (1702, Hamburg) [?] [lost]

1 oratorio (1705, Hamburg) [lost]
Der Gott liebenden Seelen Wallfahrt, oratorio (1710, text, Senatsarchiv, Hamburg) [lost]

Sacred:
VI geistliche Concerten, 1, 2vv, 3 insts (Hamburg, 1696)
6 deutsche Cantaten … nach italienischer Manier, 1v, 5 insts (Leipzig, 1699); lost, cited in Göhler
Das … vollkommene Musikalisch-Choral-Buch, 1v, bc (Hamburg, 1715)
Nun lob mein Seel den Herren, 4vv, 2 vn, 2 ob, bc; Nun lob mein Seel den Herren, 2vv, 2 vn, bc: D-Bsb
Es woll uns Gott genädig sein, 3vv, 2 vn, 2 va, vle/bn, bc, Bsb , LUC (dated 1714)
3 sacred works; lost, indicated by text incipits in the legacy of A. Meissner, St Ulrich, Halle

Source: Opera Glass Website; Grove Music Online, © Oxford University Press 2006, acc. 5/24/06 (Author: Friedhelm Krummacher)
Contributed by Aryeh Oron (April 2006), Teddy Kaufman (May 2006); Thomas Braatz (May 2006)

Use of Chorale Melodies in his works

Title

Chorale Melody

Year

Es woll uns Gott genädig sein for Cantus, Tenore, Basso, 2 Violins, 2 Violas, Violone (Bassoon) and bc. dated 1714, but incorrectly attributed to N. A. Strungk

Es woll uns Gott genädig sein

1714

Links to other Sites

Opera Composers - B (Opera Glass)

Bibliography

WaltherML
J. Mattheson: Der musicalische Patriot (Hamburg, 1728/ R)
J. Mattheson : Grundlage einer Ehren-Pforte (Hamburg, 1740); ed. M. Schneider (Berlin, 1910/R )
C. von Winterfeld : Der evangelische Kirchengesang , iii (Leipzig, 1847/R )
F. Chrysander : ‘Matthesons Verzeichnis Hamburgischer Opern’, AMZ , new ser., xii (1877), 198–200
A. Göhler: Verzeichnis der in den Frankfurter und Leipziger Messkatalogen der Jahre 1564 bis 1759 angezeigten Musikalien (Leipzig, 1902/R )
L. Krüger : Die Hamburgische Musikorganisation im 17. Jahrhundert (Strasbourg, 1930)
H.C. Wolff: Die Barockoper in Hamburg 1678-1738 (Wolfenbüttel, 1957)
M. Blindow : Die Choralbegleitung des 18. Jahrhunderts in der evangelischen Kirche Deutschlands (Regensburg, 1957)
R. Brockpähler: Handbuch zur Geschichte der Barockoper in Deutschland (Emsdetten, 1964)
F. Krummacher : ‘Über das Spätstadium des geistlichen Solokonzerts in Norddeutschland: Bemerkungen zu einem Druckwerk von Georg Bronner’, AMw, xxv (1968), 278-88; xxvi (1969), 63–79
F. Krummacher : Die Choralbearbeitung in der protestantischen Figuralmusik zwischen Praetorius und Bach (Kassel, 1978), esp. 224-8
A. Edler: Der norddeutsche Organist: Studien zu Sozialstatus, Funktion und Komposition (Kassel, 1982), esp. 179-81, 257-63

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