Johann Friedrich Gräfe

Johann Friedrich Gräfe (7 May 1711 – 5 or 8 February 1787) was a German civil servant and an amateur composer, whose works are still known today.

Life and career He was born in Braunschweig and baptized on 7 May 1711 in Nauen. Gräfe studied law and spent most of his life in Braunschweig, except for brief stays in Halle and Leipzig. While a dilettante of music, he may have studied under Conrad Friedrich Hurlebusch and Carl Heinrich Graun. He was a (court councillor), a member of the court of the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. He was quite recognized at the time as an amateur composer. Gräfe was also a poet. His daughter Louise Gräfe married the writer Johann Arnold Ebert.

Gräfe composed several lied collections, cantatas, some instrumental pieces, and an opera . The attribution of his works is not always certain. Wolfgang Plath showed in 1973 to be a forgery.

Stage works Herkules auf dem Oeta (1782), Singspiel in one act; text by Benjamin Michaelis Michaelis. (also attributed to Anton Schweitzer and Joseph Aloys Schmittbaur)

Selected works . (1737, 1739, 1741, 1743) 4 works in 1 volume, Hildesheim: Olms 2008 (Dokumentation zur Geschichte des deutschen Liedes 13). . Leipzig: Breitkopf, 1744. . Leipzig, 1755; Facsimile Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1919. . Braunschweig: Fürstl. Waysenhaus. Buchhandlung; Leipzig: Breitkopf, 1760.