The Mannheim school of composers was one of the most prominent musical groups of the 18th century. With a revolutionary court orchestra created by the Elector Palatinate of Mannheim, the Mannheim court inspired many famous musicians such as Haydn and Mozart. This is a list of composers usually associated with the Mannheim school.
| Name | Year born | Year died | Works/comments | Portrait |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carlo Grua [1] | 1700 | 1773 | 2 surviving operas and sacred works, including many oratorios. He is best known for his position as Kapellmeister of the Mannheim orchestra. | |
| Franz Xaver Richter [2] | 1709 | 1789 | 80 extant symphonies, several concertos for soloist and orchestra, and 39 masses. He was the prime sacred music composer of his time. |  |
| Ignaz Holzbauer [2] | 1711 | 1783 | 196 symphonies. He was a prime exponent of the Sturm und Drang style. | |
| Johann Stamitz | 1717 | 1757 | 58 symphonies, 10 orchestral trios (symphonies for string orchestra), many concertos, most famously his one for clarinet, and 8 vocal works. He was the first to expand the symphony's instrumentation and longevity. For this, he is known as being a founding father of the school. |  |
| Johann Baptist Wendling [2] | 1723 | 1797 | 14 flute concertos, 30 trios for flute, violin, and cello, 36 flute duets, and other works relating to the flute. He was one of the greatest flute virtuosos. |
| Name | Year born | Year died | Works/comments | Portrait |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Christian Cannabich | 1731 | 1798 | 76 symphonies, 30 sonatas for violin and piano, and several concertos and trios. He is known for being Stamitz's successor and bringing the Mannheim orchestra to its zenith. He was a friend of Mozart and directly influenced the symphonies of Haydn and Leopold Hofmann. |  |
| Anton Fils [2] | 1733 | 1760 | 34 surviving symphonies and several concertos, mostly for cello and flute. He, although very overshadowed today, was an eminent cellist and composer in the Mannheim court. | |
| Franz Ignaz Beck [2] | 1734 | 1809 | 24 symphonies, a few operas, and miscellaneous pieces for keyboard. He spent most of his time in France, apparently after a duel which caused him to leave Mannheim. |  |
| Ignaz Fränzl [3] | 1736 | 1811 | 2 symphonies, 6 violin concertos, and several string quartets. He was heavily praised by Mozart, mostly for his violin technique. |  |
| Carl Stamitz [2] | 1745 | 1801 | 50 symphonies, 38 surviving sinfonia concertante, and more than 60 concertos for various instruments. He, along with Cannabich, was a stand-out representative of the Mannheim school. |  |
| Wilhelm Cramer [2] | 1746 | 1799 | 6 violin concertos and 23 violin sonatas, distributed in various opus numbers. He was the father of the more famous Johann Baptist Cramer, a virtuosic English pianist. |  |
| Georg Joseph Vogler [2] | 1749 | 1814 | 8 surviving masses, 4 string quartets, and a few operas. He also received patronage from Gustav III of Sweden and Louis I, Grand Duke of Hesse. His travels extended as far as remote areas of Asia and Africa, and even Greenland. |  |
| Anton Stamitz | 1750 | 1809 | 15 symphonies distributed in four opus numbers and concertos for violin, flute, and viola d'amore. He, although not as well known as his father and brother, participated in the development of the Mannheim orchestra and was the violin teacher of Rodolphe Kreutzer. | |
| Ludwig August Lebrun [2] | 1752 | 1790 | 6 oboe concertos, a concerto for clarinet, and other woodwind pieces. He was a celebrated oboe virtuoso and toured extensively across Europe. | |
| Peter Winter [2] | 1754 | 1825 | 30 operas. He is regarded as a bridge between Mozart and Weber in the history of German opera. |  |
| Francesca Lebrun [2] | 1756 | 1791 | 12 keyboard sonatas with violin accompaniment. She is more known as a soprano and had many relationships with other Mannheim musicians, such as L. A. Lebrun (her husband) and Franz Danzi (her brother). |  |
| Franz Tausch | 1762 | 1817 | 2 clarinet concertos and 2 double clarinet concertos. He was the teacher of Heinrich Baermann. | |
| Franz Danzi [2] | 1763 | 1826 | 9 woodwind quintets in 3 opus numbers, 2 horn sonatas, and concertos for many instruments. He knew Mozart in his youth, studied with Vogler, was a contemporary of Beethoven, and a tutor to the young Weber. He was a key figure in the transition between the Classical era and the Romantic era. |  |
Mannheim, officially the University City of Mannheim, is the second-largest city in Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, the state capital, and Germany's 21st-largest city, with a population of around 317,000. The city is the cultural and economic centre of the Rhine-Neckar, Germany's seventh-largest metropolitan region, with nearly 2.4 million inhabitants.
Carl Philipp Stamitz was a German composer of partial Czech ancestry. He was the most prominent representative of the second generation of the Mannheim School.
Mannheim school refers to both the orchestral techniques pioneered by the court orchestra of the Elector Palatine in Mannheim in the latter half of the 18th century and the group of composers of the early classical period, who composed for the orchestra of Mannheim. The father of the school is considered to be the Bohemian composer Johann Stamitz. Besides him, two generations of composers wrote compositions for the orchestra, whose reputation was due to its excellent discipline and the individual skill of its players; the English traveler Charles Burney called it "an army of generals". Their performance style included new dynamic elements, crescendos and diminuendos. Composers of the Mannheim school played an important role in the development of the classical period's genres and of the classical symphony form.
Johann Wenzel Anton Stamitz was a Bohemian composer and violinist. His two surviving sons, Carl and Anton Stamitz, were composers of the Mannheim school, of which Johann is considered the founding father. His music is stylistically transitional between the Baroque and Classical periods.
Georg Joseph Vogler, also known as Abbé Vogler, was a German composer, organist, teacher and theorist. In a long and colorful career extending over many more nations and decades than was usual at the time, Vogler established himself as a foremost experimenter in baroque and early classic music. His greatest successes came as performer and designer for the organ at various courts and cities around Europe, as well as a teacher, attracting highly successful and devoted pupils such as Carl Maria von Weber. His career as a music theorist and composer however was mixed, with contemporaries such as Mozart believing Vogler to have been a charlatan. Despite his mixed reception in his own life, his highly original contributions in many areas of music and influence on his pupils endured, and combined with his eccentric and adventurous career, prompted one historian to summarize Vogler as "one of the most bizarre characters in the history of music".
Charles Theodore was a German nobleman of the Sulzbach branch of the House of Wittelsbach. He became Count Palatine of Sulzbach at the age of six following the death of his father Johann Christian in 1733. With the death of his cousin, Charles III Philip, he became Prince-elector and Count Palatine of the Rhine in 1742, being eighteen. In his fifties, he became Prince-Elector of Bavaria at the death of another cousin, Maximilian III Joseph, in 1777.
Johann Christian Innocenz Bonaventura Cannabich, was a German violinist, composer, and Kapellmeister of the Classical era. A composer of some 200 works, he continued the legacy of Johann Stamitz and helped turn the Mannheim orchestra into what Charles Burney described as "the most complete and best disciplined in Europe.". The orchestra was particularly noted for the carefully graduated crescendos and diminuendos characteristic of the Mannheim school. Together with Stamitz and the other composers of the Mannheim court, he helped develop the orchestral texture that paved the way for the orchestral treatment of the First Viennese School.
Ignaz Jakob Holzbauer was an Austrian composer of symphonies, concertos, operas, and chamber music, and a member of the Mannheim school. His aesthetic style is in line with that of the Sturm und Drang "movement" of German art and literature.
Peter Winter, later Peter von Winter, was a German violinist, conductor and composer, especially of operas. He began his career as a player at the Mannheim court, and advanced to conductor. When the court moved to Munich, he followed and later became kapellmeister of the opera there. His opera Das Labyrinth, a sequel to Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, was premiered in Vienna in 1798, and his Maometto at La Scala in Milan in 1817. His work has been regarded as a bridge between Mozart and Weber in the development of German opera.
The University of Mannheim, abbreviated UMA, is a public research university in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1967, the university has its origins in the Palatine Academy of Sciences, which was established by Elector Carl Theodor at Mannheim Palace in 1763, as well as the Handelshochschule, which was founded in 1907.
FranzXaver Richter, known as François Xavier Richter in France was an Austro-Moravian singer, violinist, composer, conductor and music theoretician who spent most of his life first in Austria and later in Mannheim and in Strasbourg, where he was music director of the cathedral. From 1783 on, Haydn's favourite pupil, Ignaz Pleyel, was his deputy director.
Mannheim National Theatre is Germany's biggest theatre that records over 3,000 artistes from different surrounding theatres.
Franz Ignaz Beck was a German violinist, composer, conductor and music teacher who spent the greater part of his life in France, where he became director of the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux. Possibly the most talented pupil of Johann Stamitz, Beck is an important representative of the second generation of the so-called Mannheim school. His fame rests on his 24 symphonies that are among the most original and striking of the pre-Classical period. He was one of the first composers to introduce the regular use of wind instruments in slow movements and put an increasing emphasis on thematic development. His taut, dramatic style is also remarkable for its employment of bold harmonic progressions, flexible rhythms and highly independent part writing.
Johann Ignaz Ludwig Fischer, commonly called Ludwig Fischer, was a German opera singer, a notable bass of his time.
Ignaz Fränzl was a German violinist, composer and representative of the second generation of the so-called Mannheim School. Mozart, who heard him at a concert in November 1777, wrote of him in a letter to his father: He may not be a sorcerer, but he is a very solid violinist indeed. Fränzl carried the Mannheim violin technique, established by Johann Stamitz, one step further to real virtuosity. Mozart, quite a good violinist himself and thoroughly acquainted with the instrument, praised Fränzl's double trill and said he had never heard a better one.
Ferdinand Fränzl was a German violinist, composer, conductor, opera director, and a representative of the third generation of the so-called Mannheim school.
A court chapel is a chapel (building) and/or a chapel as a musical ensemble associated with a royal or noble court. Most of these are royal (court) chapels, but when the ruler of the court is not a king, the more generic "court chapel" is used, for instance for an imperial court.
Johann Baptist Wendling was a flute player and composer of the Mannheim School. He held the position of principal flute in the Mannheim and Munich court orchestras under directors Johann Stamitz and Christian Cannabich, and was acknowledged as one of the finest virtuosos of his time.
Otto Heinrich von Gemmingen zu Hornberg was a member of the aristocratic Gemmingen family. He was a diplomat and enlightenment writer, a Freemason and a friend of the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Isabel Andrea Cademartori Dujisin is a German politician who was elected as Member of the Bundestag for Mannheim in the 2021 federal election.
