- Jakob Adlung
Jakob Adlung, or Adelung, (
14 January 1699 -5 July 1762 ) was a German organist, teacher, instrument maker, music historian, and music theorist.Biography
He was born in
Bindersleben , nearErfurt , to David Adlung, an organist and his first teacher, and the former Dorothea Elisabetha Meuerin, fromTondorf . He attended the St Andreas lower school in Erfurt from 1711, moving on to the Erfurt Gymnasium in 1713, during which time he lived in the household ofChristian Reichardt , who also taught him organ. He studiedphilosophy ,philology , andtheology at theUniversity ot Jena from 1723 to 1726, where he studied the organ further withJohann Nikolaus Bach . At this time, he became friends withJohann Gottfried Walther inWeimar , and borrowed his works onmusic theory ; he later wrote some books on the subject, most of which were destroyed, along with his house, in afire in 1736. He returned to Erfurt in 1727 where he succeededJohann Heinrich Buttstedt as organist of the Prediger church after his death, a post he retained for the rest of his life. He was also professor of languages at the Erfurt Gymnasium and taught, by his own estimate, 218 organ students and 284 language students between 1728 and 1762. He was also a maker of keyboard instruments, and completed 16 of the same. He married Elisabeth Ritter in 1732, who was the daughter of themayor ofGross-Wanzleben , nearMagdeburg .Work
He is one of a group of excellent scholar-musicians of the mid-18th century, along with
Johann Mattheson ,Lorenz Christoph Mizler , andJohann Gottfried Walther , who all wrote important and comprehensive studies of the theory,aesthetics , and practice of music; their works are rich and still partly untapped sources of information today, particularly aboutbaroque music andperformance practice ."Anleitung zu der musikalischen Gelahrtheit" records and collates all knowledge he could find about
music history , mathematics in relation to music,temperament ), more about the organ, othermusical instrument s,singing ,thoroughbass , thechorale and choraleprelude s,improvisation , Italiantablature , and composition.Writings
His
autobiography is in the 'Vorrede' of part II of "Musica mechanica organoedi".*"Musica mechanica organoedi", 1726 (
Berlin , 1768); a modern edition is by C. Mahrenholz (Kassel , 1931) - effectively a comprehensive organ builder's encyclopedia, with descriptions of more than 80 German organs. The edition made byJ.L. Albrecht andJ.F. Agricola provides an insight intoJohann Sebastian Bach 's opinions on organ building and design through the editorial notes, drawn from their student-teacher relationship.
*"Anleitung zu der musikalischen Gelahrtheit" (Erfurt , 1758, 1783)
*"Musikalisches Siebengestirn, das ist Sieben zu der edlen Tonkunst gehörige Fragen" (Berlin, 1768)ources
*George J. Buelow/Quentin Faulkner: 'Adlung [Adelung] , Jakob', Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed
2007-06-13 ), http://www.grovemusic.com/
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