Benedict Anton Aufschnaiter

Benedict Anton Aufschnaiter (baptised 21 February 1665, Kitzbühel, County of Tyrol – buried 24 January 1742, Passau) was an Austrian Baroque composer.

Life and career Aufschnaiter received much of his musical education in Vienna, where he lived for several years. Later he got a post at the band near to the emperor's court. On 16 January 1705, he was appointed Kapellmeister at the Passau court by Bishop-Cardinal Johann Philipp von Lamberg as a successor to Georg Muffat. Aufschnaiter died there in January 1742.

He was married twice and from the second marriage, he had a son.

Most of Aufschnaiter's 300 surviving works are sacred. In his Regulæ Fundamentales Musurgiæ, he named Giacomo Carissimi, Orlande de Lassus, Johann Kaspar Kerll and Adam Gumpelzhaimer as his idols.

List of selected works

Theoretical works Regulæ Fundamentales Musurgiæ (Fundamental rules on composing good music)

Compositions Concors discordia op. 2 (Nürnberg 1695) – six serenades for orchestra Dulcis Fidium Harmoniæ op. 4 (Augsburg 1703) – eight string sonatas Memnon sacer ab oriente op. 5 (Augsburg 1709) – Vesper psalms Alaudæ V op. 6 (1711) – five masses Aquila clangens op. 7 (Passau 1719) – twelve offertories Cymbalum Davidis op. 8 (Passau 1728) – four Vesper psalms Miserere pro tempore quadragesimae op. 9 (unpublished, 1724) Concerto o parthia della cortesia Kommt, beschaut die Weisoheit – Pastorella-Trio sonata Litaniae Lauretanae Requiem in C major (1738) Serenada della pace in C major Sonata gloriosa