Johann Stamitz

Johann Wenzel Anton Stamitz (; 18 June 1717 – 27 March 1757) was a Czech composer and violinist. Stamitz is considered the founding father of the Mannheim school, a composition style that his two surviving sons, Carl and Anton Stamitz, continued. His music is stylistically transitional between the Baroque and Classical periods and he is recognised for many innovations.

Life Stamitz was born in Deutschbrod, Bohemia (now Havlíčkův Brod, Czech Republic), into a family that came from Marburg (now Maribor, Slovenia).

Stamitz spent the academic year 1734–1735 at the University of Prague. After only one year, at the likely age of seventeen he left the university to pursue a career as a violin virtuoso. His activities during the six-year period between his departure from the university in 1735 and his appointment in the German city of Mannheim around 1741, are not known in detail and historical accounts of his life contain many presumptions or approximations.

He was appointed by the Mannheim court in 1741 or 1742, likely at the age of twenty-four. His engagement there most likely resulted from contacts made during the Bohemian campaign and coronation of Charles VII of Bavaria, a close ally of the Elector Palatine. In January 1742, Stamitz performed before the Mannheim court as part of the festivities surrounding the marriage of Charles Theodore, who succeeded his uncle Karl Philipp as Elector Palatine less than a year later. Carl Albert, who became the Holy Roman Emperor on January 24, was among the wedding guests.

Stamitz married Maria Antonia Luneborn on 1 July 1744. They had five children together, Carl Philipp, Maria Franziska, Anton Thadäus Nepomuk, and two children who died in infancy.

The chief innovation in Stamitz's symphonic works is their four-movement structure: fast – slow – minuet and trio – dashing presto or prestissimo finale. While prior isolated four-movement symphonies exist, Stamitz was the first composer to use it consistently: well more than half his symphonies and nine of his ten orchestral trios are in four movements. He also contributed to the development of sonata form, most often used in symphonic first movements, but occasionally in finales (when not in rondo form) and even slow movements (when not in ABA ternary form) as well.

Stamitz adapted and extended traits originally developed in Italian opera in his instrumental works as well. He added innovative dynamic devices such as extended crescendos, simple tutti chordal textures, and slow harmonic rhythm. Stamitz's compositions have a strong sense of rhythmic drive and distinctive thematic material, a characteristic similar to Italian operas.

Selected works Trios, Op. 1 Symphony in G major "Mannheim No. 1" Symphony in A major "Mannheim No. 2" Symphony in B-flat major "Mannheim No. 3" Symphony in D major, Op. 3 No. 2 Symphony in D major, "La Melodia Germanica" Op. 11 No. 1 Symphony in E-flat major, "La Melodia Germanica" Op. 11 No. 3 Symphony in E-flat major, "La Melodia Germanica" Op. 11 No. 5 Symphony in F major Missa Solemnis in D major Litaniae Lauretanae in C major Violin Concerto in C major Violin Concerto in B-flat major Clarinet Concerto in B-flat major Flute Concerto in C major Flute Concerto in D major Flute Concerto in G major Notturno in D major