Fromm, Andreas

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Fromm, Andreas

Fromm, Andreas, German composer; b. Planitz, near Wusterhausen, 1621; d. Prague, Oct. 16, 1683. A son of a Lutheran pastor, he studied theology and in 1649 became a cantor in Stettin. He was subsequently in Rostock (1651), Wittenberg (1668), and Prague, where he turned to the Roman Catholic Church. His principal musical work was an “actus musicus,” Die Parabel von dem reichen Mann und dem armen Lazarus (1649). The opinion that it was the first German oratorio (cf. R. Schwartz, “Das erste deutsche Oratorium,” Jahrbuch der Musikbibliothek Peters 1899) is discounted by later analysts .

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire

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Fromm, Andreas

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