# Georg Riedel(1676-1738)



## Ariasexta (Jul 3, 2010)

A german baroque composer and close contemporary of JS Bach, was born in Königsberg and worked there untill his death. He is today musicologically interesting because according to the early 20th century musicologist Georg Küsel(1877-1952), he left around 3000 pieces of sacred vocal works in manuscripts found in library of Königsberger Unoversity, but sadly only about 50 works survived the WW2. The enormous musical collection of his works was discovered by chance by Georg Küsel in the early 20th century in the library of Königsberger Unoversity among the collection of*City Archiv of Königsberg or Königsberger Stadtarchiv*. This particular archiv is now considered permanently lost because shortly before the retaliation British Bombing in 1944, the german commander in east Preussia Erich Kock (1896 - 1986)did not authorize the evacutaion of the Archiv. The greater possibility is that those enormous musical collection was permanently destroyed by fire, however there is still hope that some would survive out of that sheer amount of music. The rediscovery of his lost music would become the next great event in the Revival of Baroque Music after the recovery of Bach Family manuscripts from Sing-Akademie zu Berlin.

His music was highly praised by early 20th century musicologists.

His collection of works according to Georg Küsel in 1923:

Passionskantate (1719)

Reformationskantate (Text von Johann Christoph Gottsched) (1723)

Evangelium Sanct Matthäi (1721) (Vertonung des gesamten Matthäusevangeliums [*1158 works*])

Psalmen Davids […] auff alle Sonn- u. Fest Tage (1724) (Vertonung des gesamten Psalters [*734 works*])

Die geistreiche geheimte Offenbarung des Evangelisten Johannis (1734) (Vertonung der gesamten Offenbarung [*710 works*] )

Harmonische Freuden frommer Seelen (Kasualmusik) [einziges erhaltenes Werk/*The only surviving works*] (Ausgabe: Das Erbe Deutscher Musik)

Gelegenheitskompositionen (Occasional works *140 works*)


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## Ariasexta (Jul 3, 2010)

It seems that the order of Erich Koch directly caused the lost of the City Archiv, since a similar archiv known as *Prussian State Archive Königsberg* survived in a large percentage of 85% thanks to effective evacuation before the 1944 bombing. Further reading finds that Rich Koch was one of the rare openly christian or lutheran nazi commanders, it would be strange for a christian not taking interest in such a huge collection of historical musical materials of religious nature. Whether the huge collection of music was totally destroyed remains a question, as a considerable amount of books and musical materials which formed parts of other pre-war Königsberg libraries resurfaces recently.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Never heard from this composer, thanks you for this info.


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## Ariasexta (Jul 3, 2010)

Pugg said:


> Never heard from this composer, thanks you for this info.


You are welcomed, he is almost unheard of because the immense loss of his works, there is a project called Königsberger Projekte launched by Osnabrück University engaging in retrieving the lost books from former libraries of Königsberg. Hopefully we will see more good news in near future.


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