Agricola, Johann Friedrich

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Agricola, Johann Friedrich

Agricola, Johann Friedrich, German organist, teacher, and composer; b. Dobitschen, Jan. 4, 1720; d. Berlin, Dec. 2, 1774. He went to Leipzig, where he studied law at the Univ. (1738–41), and was a student of Bach. In 1741 he settled in Berlin and completed his training with Quantz. He was made a court composer in 1751, the same year that he married Benedetta Emilia Agricola (née Molteni). In 1759 he became music director of the Opera. He was a proponent of Italian musical taste and publ. pseudonymous pamphlets of a polemical nature (1749). He also translated and edited Tosi’s singing treatise of 1723 as Anleitung zur Singkunst (Berlin, 1757; Eng. tr. and commentary, 1995, by J. Baird).

Works

DRAMATIC: Opera: II filosofo convinto in amore (Potsdam, 1750); La ricamatrice divenuta dama (Berlin, Nov. 1, 1751); Cleofide (Berlin, Carnival 1754); La nobiltà delusa (1754); Achille in Sciro (Sept. 16, 1765); Amor e Psiche (Oct. 1767); II re pastore (1770); Oreste e Pilade (1772; rev. as J greci in Tauride, Potsdam, March 1772). OTHER: Oratorios, sacred cantatas, songs, odes, and keyboard music.

Bibliography

H. Wucherpfennig, J. F. A. (diss., Univ. of Berlin, 1922).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire

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