|
|
Johann Heinrich Zang (Composer, Organ, Bach's Pupil) |
|
Born:, April 15, 1733 - Zella St Blasii, near Gotha, Thuringia, Germany
Died: August 18, 1811 - Würzburg, Franconia, Northern Bavaria, Germany. |
|
Johann Heinrich Zang was a German composer and organist. He was born the son of Johann Georg Zang (lieutenant, white tanner). He was probably a pupil of J.S. Bach in Leipzig in 1748-1749; in 1749 he spent some time in Coburg and took lessons from J.K. Heller. In 1749/1750 he worked as a clerk in Kloster Banz and organist in Schloß Hohenstein (near Coburg); in 1751/1752 he was Kantor in Walsdorf (near Bamberg); and from 1752 Kantor in Mainstockheim (retired in 1801).
Most of Johann Heinrich Zang's music is lost; but his own writings make clear that he composed two complete cycles of cantatas for the church year and some keyboard music. The style of the surviving cantatas is typical of the generation after J.S. Bach, with recitatives and de capo arias, little choral polyphony and a preference for madrigalian poetry rather than biblical or chorale texts. Zang edited the collection Singende Muse am Mayn under the pseudonyms ‘Forceps’ in Würzburg and ‘Ighnaz’ in Nuremberg (both 1776). His Der vollkommene Orgelmacher oder Lehre von der Orgel und Windprobe, first published in Nuremberg in 1804 (later editions 1810 and 1829), provides an interesting insight into the preferred organ sound at the turn of the century. Zang favoured fundamental stops, rejecting Quint and Tierce stops alone or in combination; he largely abandoned the Werkprinzip and used the pedal division exclusively for the bass part, though the specifications that he quotes in his examples are more traditional.
In Johann Heinrich Zang's biography, published in 1808, it says: "Schon als ein siebenzehnjähriger Jüngling wanderte er nach Leipzig, wo er sich unter der Anleitung des berühmten Kapellmeisters, Johann Sebastian Bach, zwey Jahre lang in der Tonkunst besser ausbildete" (Already as a seventeen-year-old boy he emigrated to Leipzig, where he trained better in the art of music under the guidance of the famous conductor, Johann Sebastian Bach, for two years). In fact, Zang was only 15 to 16 years old at the time. Contact with the Thomaskantor may have come about through long-standing family relationships: In 1698, a Johann Justin Zang from Ohrdruf was one of J.S. Bach's classmates at the Ohrdruf's school.
References: Koska: A-58 |
|
Works |
|
Vocal::
?100 church cantatas, including:
Also hat Gott die Welt geliebet, S, S, T, B, SATB, 2 bassoon, 2 horn, timpani, strings, bc (1756)
Mache dich auf, werde licht, B, SATB, 2 horn, timpani strings, bc (1756)
Machet die Thore weit!, S, A, T, B, SATB, 2 horn, strings, bc (1758)
Halleluja! der Sieg ist da, T, B, SATB, 2 horn/trumpet, timpani, strings, bc (1759)
Es ist nur ein Gott, S, T, B, SATB, 2 horn, timpani, strings, bc (1771)
Nach dem Ungewitter lässest du die Sonne wieder scheinen, S, A, T, B, SATB, strings, bc (1774)
Denen zu Zion wird ein Erlöser kommen, S, A, T, B, SATB, strings, bc ( 1777)
all in D-Mbs
others lost
Instrumental:
Keyboard: 6 sonatas
12 trios, organ with obbligato pedal: all lost |
| |
|
Sources:
1. Grove Music Online (Author: Johannes Heinrich, Accessed: June 18, 2014) Copyright © Oxford University Press 2007-2014
2. Bernd Koska: Bachs Privatschüler in Bach-Jahrbuch 2019, English translation by Aryeh Oron (May 2020)
Contributed by Thomas Braatz (June 2014), Aryeh Oron (May 2020) |
|
Links to other Sites |
| |
|
Bibliography |
|
EitnerQ | GerberNL
Artistisch-literarische Blätter von und für Franken, i (Würzburg, 1808), 135–7
H. Löffler: ‘Die Schüler J.S. Bachs und ihr Kreis’, Zeitschrift für evangelische Kirchenmusik, viii (1930), 130
Mitteilungen der Johann-Heinrich-Zang-Gesellschaft (Mainstockheim, 1986–)
Sources 2: Neue artistisch-literarische Blätter von und für Franken 1808, S. 155–157; Gerber NTL, Bd. IV, Sp. 625–627; Löffler 1929/31, Nr. 53; Löffler 1936, S. 118; A. Oertel, Erstveröffentlichung der Matrikel des Lyceums illustre Ordruviense, Ohrdruf 1950, S. 8f.; Löffler 1953, Nr. 71; MGGo |
|
|
