Murschhauser, Franz Xaver Anton

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Murschhauser, Franz Xaver Anton

Murschhauser, Franz Xaver Anton, German music theorist and composer; b. Zabern, near Strasbourg (baptized), July 1, 1663; d. Munich, Jan. 6, 1738. He studied with J.K. Kerll in Munich, where from 1691 he was music director of the Frauenkirche there. He wrote the theoretical treatise Academia musico-poetica bipartita, oder Hohe Schule der musikalischen Compositions, the first part of which appeared in 1721, provocatively described as being intended “to give a little more light to the excellent Herr Mattheson.” The latter retaliated with such devastating effect in his Die melopoetische Licht-Scheere (Vol. I, Critica musica, 1722) that Murschhauser refrained from publishing the second part of his work. His compositions for organ are reprinted in Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Bayern, XXX, Jg. XVIII (1917), ed. by M. Seiffert, with a biographical sketch.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire