Neefe, Christian Gottlob

Christian Gottlob Neefe – Partita in E-Flat Major

(b. Chemnitz, 5. February 1748 – d. Dessau, 26. January 1798)

Premiered: 1774, Leipzig, Saxony

Early Life
Born in Chemnitz, Saxony, Christian Gottlob Neefe’s passion for music was kindled at a young age. He excelled as a chorister in Chemnitz’s principal church, receiving the best musical training available in the area. At the age of twenty-one, with 20 thalers and a stipend of 30 thalers per annum from the magistrates of Chemnitz, Neefe settled in Leipzig to attend university lectures and to study of the works of Marpurg and C.P.E Bach.

The biggest influence on Neefe was Johann Adam Hiller (1728-1804), first Kapellmeister of the Leipzig Gewandhaus and successor of J. S. Bach as cantor of the Thomaskirche and conductor of the Thomanerchor, one of the oldest boychoirs in Europe (founded in 1212). Hiller introduced Handel’s Messiah to the German public and is now considered the creator of Singspiel, a type of German comic opera with spoken dialogue, in which Neefe also excelled. As a young pupil, Neefe had suffered from rickets which left him a lifelong hypochondriac with low confidence, acute anxiety, and severe depression. Neefe’s writings suggest that this strengthened his bond with Hiller as he was afflicted with the same anxieties. Hiller reviewed Neefe’s compositions and writings in his musical Wöchentliche Nachrichten [Weekly News], offered Neefe opportunities to assist with operatic composition, and provided professional advice. Several of Neefe’s choral motets were originally published as part of Hiller’s volumes of motets and arias for choirs: five volumes of these have been recently edited by Uwe Wolf and issued in new editions by Carus-Verlag (Stuttgart). …

Read full English and German preface > HERE