Georg Joseph Vogler

Georg Joseph Vogler, also known as Abbé Vogler (June 15, 1749 – May 6, 1814), was a German composer, organist, teacher and theorist. In a long and colorful career extending over many more nations and decades than was usual at the time, Vogler established himself as a foremost experimenter in baroque and early classic music. His greatest successes came as performer and designer for the organ at various courts and cities around Europe, as well as a teacher, attracting highly successful and devoted pupils such as Carl Maria von Weber. His career as a music theorist and composer however was mixed, with contemporaries such as Mozart believing Vogler to have been a charlatan. Despite his mixed reception in his own life, his highly-original contributions in many areas of music (particularly musicology and organ theory) and influence on his pupils endured, and combined with his eccentric and adventurous career, prompted one historian to summarize Vogler as "one of the most bizarre characters in the history of music".

Vogler was born at Pleichach in Würzburg. His father Jared Vogler was a violin maker and instrument-maker for the Prince-Bishop of Würzburg. The young Vogler studied law and theology in Würzburg and Bamberg, however he had possessed a prodigious talent and interest in music from childhood and continued to pursue that interest as a university student. In the late 1760s he was introduced to the Elector Palatine Karl Theodor, receiving appointment as the latter's almoner at the court in Mannheim in 1770. Vogler became active in composing and performance there, and in 1771 his first major theatrical piece Singspiel Der Kaufmann von Smyra was performed for the court. In 1773 he was sponsored by the court to study under the Padre Martini in Bologna. Dissatisfied with the method of that learned theorist, he studied for five months under Francesco Antonio Vallotti at Padua, and met Johann Adolph Hasse in Venice. He afterwards proceeded to Rome, where, having been ordained priest, he was admitted to the famous Academy of Arcadia, made a knight of the Golden Spur, and appointed protonotary and chamberlain to the pope.

...
Wikipedia