Johann Ernst Eberlin

(b Jettingen, Bavaria, bap. 27 March 1702; d Salzburg, 19 June 1762). German composer. He was an organist at Salzburg Cathedral from 1726 and by 1749 court and cathedral Kapellmeister. Among his many vocal works, the operas, intermezzos, music for school plays and oratorios are mainly italianate. He also wrote organ pieces and, most influential, sacred works (including c70 masses); Leopold Mozart thought highly of these.

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• Period: Baroque (1600-1749)
• Country: Germany
• Born: March 27, 1702 in Jettingen, Bavaria
• Died: June 19, 1762 in Salzburg, Austria

Biography

A near-contemporary and friend of Leopold Mozart, Johann Ernst Eberlin was a versatile composer, turning out works in various vocal and instrumental genres, but exerting influence on succeeding generations only in his sacred vocal compositions.

Eberlin was born in the small Bavarian town of Jettingen in 1702 and was schooled in Augsburg. Little is known of his early musical education; at nineteen he enrolled in the Salzburg Benedictine University, where he studied for two years (1721-23).

Leaving with no degree, he must already have become an accomplished keyboardist, for he would be appointed to an alternate organist post at the Salzburg Cathedral in 1726. Moreover, some of his earliest surviving organ compositions date to around this period.

While his theater music cannot be traced back that far, his attraction to the genre reaches back to his childhood. Thus, it is little surprise that Eberlin would soon produce more than ninety works for the stage, many of which were performed at the Salzburg Court Theater. He also produced music for school plays, most of it coming after 1741, however. These school play productions were often staged at St. Peter's Abbey, where Eberlin had strong connections with the clergy, and at the Benedictine University.

Among the most successful of these efforts was Sigismundus, rex Burgundiae (1753), a colorful work whose lavish 1761 performance featured the participation of the young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who would later express great admiration for Eberlin's vocal writing.

In 1749, Eberlin, who had steadily risen in rank at the Cathedral and at the Salzburg Court, was appointed Kapellmeister for both, under the Archbishop of Salzburg. Five years later he was given the title of ‘Princely Steward' in recognition of his high reputation as a composer/musician in Salzburg.

Eberlin maintained his renown in the last years of his career and seemed to remain active up to the time of his death in 1762. Though he has been largely forgotten, recent performances and recordings of his church music have convinced some that he may be substantially underrated.

Ironically, though Eberlin's music was performed often and usually well received, and though he produced over 300 church compositions, including masses, psalm settings and hymns, as well as numerous organ pieces and other works, his only compositions to be published in his lifetime were his keyboard fugues.

~ Robert Cummings, All Music Guide

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