Essay Sample about Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg

Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg was born November 21, 1718, in Seehausen, Prussia and he died at the age of 77 on May 22, 1795, in Berlin. He was a German music critic, composer and music theorist. He is most remembered for his theoretical and critical writing on music. 

Marpurg was born into a well-established family, his grandfather being the mayor of Seehausen for 32 years. It was said that had gone to university in Berlin and later studied composition with Mendelssohn and Hauptmann at Leipzig. Though all efforts to trace Marpurg’s childhood or activity prior to the mid-1740s have been without result connecting more to the belief that Marpurg was a mysterious person. His next appearance would be his feud with Johann Philip Kirnberger a Fugue composer whose work was critiqued in Marpurg’s very famous piece named “Abhandlung von der Fuge nach den Grundsätzen und Exemplen der besten Deutschen und Ausländischen Meister (Treatise on the Fugue based upon theories and examples of the best German and foreign masters). Let’s just say that Kirnberger did not fully agree with the critique, leading the two to rivalry. Kirnberger would even go on to write a multitude of letters exposing Marpurg's bout of financial instability in the 1750s and how Marpurg supposedly begged Kirnberger to support him.

While Marpurg had one hater he also had many valued fans and is one of the most renowned musical writers. Marpurgg was friends with countless biography writers which is surprising considering he never once had a biography written about him. One of his most famous supporters was Fredrick The Great. (Anna Amalia’s Brother, the same one who locked up her lover) Marpurg was even employed under the court in 1763 and travelled to Paris to become the private secretary of General von Rothenburg who was Fredrick The Great’s favourite general. Other than that long-term job Marpurg has only ever been noted to work at one more place which was the Prussian state lottery till he was 75 years of age. 

Marpurg was also an avid composer and played many instruments including the violin, the organ and the clavier. He wrote many pieces primarily for the keyboard, organ and the cembalo from the 1750s to the 1790s in many genres including sonatas, sacred pieces, character pieces and even some dance suites. Some of his most famous works include 6 Sonaten für das Cembalo and Fughe e caprice but he is more renowned for his writings. Marpurg was allegedly always straying away from the regular Latin style of music as many German composers thought that German could not have musical expression and Marpurg thoroughly disagreed.  The piece Rondeau is one of his more know compositions is an upbeat piece written in 1762.

Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg is very prominent in the music world. Though it is more for his musical writings and less for his compositions he is still recognized and his pieces are still played today.