[41]It was Professor Gesner who wrote in one of his works upon ancient music: “I, my Fabius, who am in other respects an admirer of antiquity, am of opinion that my Bach and others like him unite in their own persons many Orpheuses and twenty Arions.”
[42]Hohenfriedberg is a town in Silesia where Frederick the Great in 1745 defeated the Austrians and Saxons under Prince Charles of Lorraine. In the same year he defeated the Austrians at Sohr, in Bohemia; and 121 years later the Prussians defeated the Austrians at the same place.
[43]Karl Heinrich Graun was born at Wahrenbrück, Saxony, in 1701, and died in 1757. He was appointed chapelmaster when Frederick ascended the throne, and was also commissioned to organize a company of Italian opera singers in Berlin. He wrote operas for this company and several flute concertos for the King.
Johann Joachim Quantz, born January 30, 1697, died in 1773, was not only chamber musician and court composer, but Frederick’s flute teacher.
Johann Friedrich Agricola, born January 4, 1720, died in 1774, was a pupil of Sebastian Bach and later of Quantz, and succeeded Graun in 1759 as director of the royal chapel.
[44]Johann Adolf Hasse was born near Hamburg in 1699, and began his career as a tenor singer. He wrote his first opera in 1723. In 1731 he was concert-master of the Royal Opera at Dresden. His “Artaxerxes” was produced in 1730. He wrote over one hundred operas.
Porpora was born in 1686 and died in 1766. He was a famous composer and singing teacher, and a rival of Handel in London.
Handel’s “Faramondo” was produced for the first time at King’s Theatre, London January 7, 1738. It was only given five times.
[45]Frederick assisted Graun in writing “Galatea.”
[46]Count Heinrich von Brühl was a Saxon statesman under Augustus III. He became prime minister in 1747, and induced Augustus III to take sides against Prussia in the Seven Years’ War.