CD 89
Kirchensonaten
In 1703 Benedikt Anton Aufschnaiter (1665-1742) published his opus 4 in Augsburg, which was probably the leading place of publication in southern Germany at the time for contemporary instrumental music. The Kitzbühel-born composer wrote this remarkable cycle of eight church sonatas, which should be counted among Aufschnaiter’s best works, in Vienna, where he stayed for many years. Two years after their publication, he was appointed to succeed the famous Georg Muffat as the director of the court and cathedral music of the cardinal prince-bishop of Passau, a very desirable position that he held until his death in 1742. Aufschnaiter dedicated his church sonatas to the four Church Fathers, St Gregory the Great, St Ambrose, St Augustine and St Jerome, and to the four Evangelists. Aufschnaiter’s series of eight church sonatas is thus a cycle of musical portraits or saints’ legends comparable to innumerable examples in the iconography and literature of his day.
Track 6, 2:18
Dulcis fidium harmonia [...]
Sonata Sancti Marci