Gottfried Reiche
Encyclopedia
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
player and composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
of the Baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
era. He is best known for having been Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
's chief trumpeter at Leipzig from Bach's arrival there in 1723 until Reiche's death.
Biography
Reiche was steeped in trumpet playing from an early age – he was born in the town of Weissenfels, which had a long tradition of trumpet music at its court. He went to LeipzigLeipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
in 1688, eventually succeeding trumpeter Johann C. Genzmer there as Senior Stadtmusicus in 1719.
Reiche was a musician of great skill, if one can judge from the trumpet parts written for him by Bach. They are among the most florid, creative, and difficult trumpet parts of the Baroque, quite clearly intended for a player of great virtuosity.
He is the subject of a famous painting
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
of the era, which was done by Leipzig artist E.G. Haussmann
Elias Gottlob Haussmann
Elias Gottlob Haussmann was a German painter in the late Baroque era. Haussmann served as court painter at Dresden, and from 1720 as the official portraitist at Leipzig...
for the occasion of Reiche's 60th birthday in 1727. In the portrait, Reiche holds a coiled natural trumpet
Natural trumpet
A natural trumpet is a valveless brass instrument that is able to play the notes of the harmonic series.-History:The natural trumpet was used as a military instrument to facilitate communication ....
in his right hand. In his left hand, he holds a sheet of music manuscript on which is written a short "abblasen" or fanfare
Fanfare
A Fanfare is a relatively short piece of music that is typically played by trumpets and other brass instruments often accompanied by percussion...
. The musical notes are depicted accurately on the painting, and the fanfare has been transcribed and performed by several artists. It has also served for many years as the theme music to the U.S. television show CBS Sunday Morning.
While Reiche himself composed many such "abblasen
Abblasen
Abblasen is a trumpet fanfare attributed to Gottfried Reiche. In Haussmann's famous portrait of Reiche, he is seen holding a scrap of paper with two lines of melody written on it. Abblassen is a reconstruction of what appears to be on the manuscript in Haussmann's painting...
" and other "tower music" (turmmusik) (most of which is lost), some scholars believe that the style of the music in the portrait hints at possibly being composed by J.S. Bach himself, perhaps as a birthday gift for his chief trumpeter.
Reiche died of a stroke, collapsing in the street while walking home one night. A contemporary account attributed the stroke to the strain of having played trumpet the previous evening, with "his condition having been greatly aggravated from the smoke given off by the torch-lights." Over time, this account became distorted and exaggerated into an "urban legend
Urban legend
An urban legend, urban myth, urban tale, or contemporary legend, is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories that may or may not have been believed by their tellers to be true...
" of sorts amongst trumpeters, to the effect that he actually collapsed and died while performing. Some of these legends even specified the actual work and passage that spelled his demise (from the opening chorus of the secular cantata BWV215, later reworked by Bach as the "Hosanna" movement of his Mass in b minor).
After his death, Reiche was succeeded by Christoph Ruhe.
Literature
- Don SmithersDon SmithersDon Leroy Smithers , music historian and performer on natural trumpet and cornetto. He is a pioneer for the revival of the authentic, uncompromised natural trumpet.-Biography:...
, Gottfried Reiches Ansehen und sein Einfluß auf die Musik Johann Sebastian Bachs, Bach-Jahrbuch 73, p.113-150, 1987 - Don SmithersDon SmithersDon Leroy Smithers , music historian and performer on natural trumpet and cornetto. He is a pioneer for the revival of the authentic, uncompromised natural trumpet.-Biography:...
, Bach, Reiche and the Leipzig Collegia Musica, Historic Brass Society Journal 2, p.1-51, 1990 - The Ewald Brass Quintet's recording of the complete Vierundzwanzig neue Quatricinien (1696): Hungaroton HCD 32451