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Composer: Johann Melchior Molter (1696-1765)
Work: Sinfonia F-Dur, No. 99 (c.1750) [MWV 7.14 / IJM 116]
Performers: Dresden PhiIharmonic Chamber Orchestra; AIеxandеr Pеtеr (conductor)

Painting: Georg Lisiewski (1674-1750) - Tabakskollegium Friedrich Wilhelms I
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Johann Melchior Molter
(Tiefenort, 10 February 1696 - Karlsruhe, 12 January 1765)

German composer. Like many German musicians of the first half of the 18th century, he came from the Thuringian-Saxon area. His father, Valentin Molter, was a teacher and Kantor in the village of Tiefenort, and Johann Melchior probably received his earliest musical education from him. Later he attended the Gymnasium in Eisenach, where J.S. Bach had earlier been a pupil; he also belonged to the Chorus Symphoniacus under the directorship of Kantor J.C. Geisthirt, which brought him into contact with the music cultivated in Thuringia, especially that of the Eisenach court orchestra founded in 1708 by Telemann. He apparently left Eisenach in 1715; in autumn 1717, as a violinist, he entered the service of the Margrave Carl Wilhelm of Baden-Durlach who had moved that year from Durlach to the newly-founded and rapidly growing city of Karlsruhe. There, in 1718, Molter married Maria Salome Rollwagen; they had eight children. The young Hofmusicus rapidly won the margrave's favour and he was sent to Italy with full salary to study the Italian style. Molter spent 1719-21 in Venice and Rome, and may have come into contact with such artists as Vivaldi, Albinoni, the Marcello brothers, Tartini and Alessandro Scarlatti. In 1722, after his return to the Baden residence, the margrave appointed him court Kapellmeister in succession to Johann Philipp Käfer. This activity came to an abrupt end in 1733 when, at the outbreak of the War of the Polish Succession, the margrave dissolved his Kapelle and fled to Basle in exile. Molter was dismissed but retained his title. The next year, however, he obtained the post of Kapellmeister at the court of Duke Wilhelm Heinrich of Saxe-Eisenach, which had fallen vacant on the death of Johann Adam Birckenstock. His duties in Eisenach were the same as those in Karlsruhe except that there were no opera productions. The many works of these years include sacred and secular vocal compositions.

Molter's wife died in 1737, and a second visit to Italy later that year may be connected with this; artistically, the reason for the journey lay in Molter's wish to acquaint himself with the new developments in Italian music, associated with such composers as Pergolesi, Leo and Sammartini. While in Italy, in 1738, Molter received news of the Margrave Carl Wilhelm's death, and hurried to Karlsruhe where he honoured his former patron with a performance of funeral music. He returned to Eisenach, and at some time before 1742 he married Maria Christina Wagner. In 1741 Duke Wilhelm Heinrich died without issue (Molter supplied the funeral music) and Saxe-Eisenach passed to the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, who dissolved the Eisenach Kapelle. Molter went to Karlsruhe in 1742 and obtained employment there the next year, with the additional obligation to teach music at the Gymnasium. Financial conditions, however, were less good than before 1733, and the small orchestra was appropriate only for modest undertakings. Molter overcame this situation by composing many chamber works. No change occurred until Carl Wilhelm's grandson and successor, Margrave Carl Friedrich (1728-1811), reached his majority and assumed government. In 1747 he commissioned Molter to develop a plan for the reorganization of the court's musical establishment, with which he subsequently agreed in most respects. Molter could now perform any kind of music, especially as several musicians were not only virtuosos on their own instruments but also played a second (among them the clarinet and viola da gamba). In the following years Molter wrote a vast quantity of cantatas, symphonies, concertos and chamber music. Works of other composers, German, Italian and French, were also performed. Court music at Karlsruhe flourished, though opera production was not resumed. Molter occupied this post until his death, and it may have been as a tribute to Molter that the margrave left his post vacant for a whole year despite the existence of a suitable candidate.

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