Molter, Johann Melchior

The first music lessons Molter received from his father, singer and teacher, Valentine Molter. Later, while studying at the Lyceum in Eisenach , Molter became acquainted with the music of Telemann , who for four years was the court conductor in this city. In 1715, he left Eisenach, and two years later he entered the post of violinist at the court of Margrave Charles III, Wilhelm of Baden-Durlach. In 1719, he takes a vacation and leaves for Italy , where he has been studying composition theory for two years. Upon his return, he received the position of court conductor in Karlsruhe and remained in that position until 1733 , when, due to the outbreak of the Polish inheritance war , during which hostilities between France and Austria took place just in the Rhineland region, the local count was forced to flee to Basel . Over the next ten years, Molter served as conductor in Eisenach, and when the choir was disbanded, he returned to Karlsruhe, where, in addition to his musical activities at the court, he taught at the gymnasium and composed a lot. In 1747, Count Karl Friedrich of Baden-Durlachsky invites Molter to take part in the re-creation of the Baden Court Chapel , which the composer directed until his death.

Molter is the author of more than 600 compositions: three operas, 14 cantatas, 169 symphonies, as well as numerous concerts, among which are concerts for trumpet and four concerts for the minor clarinet , which are considered the first solo compositions for this instrument, a concert for recorders ; concerto for clarinet, two violins, viola and basso continuo ; Concerts for Four (trumpet, two oboes and bassoon ); Concert for cello and other works.

Molter dedicated clarinet concerts to Johann Reusche, the soloist of the Durlach chapel, the first clarinet virtuoso of the currently known ones. He played the small clarinet in D. Researcher U. Teplits ^[1] believes that the clarinet was originally in this structure, which also speaks of the early stage of writing concerts for this then completely new instrument.

Molter’s creative period lies between the dominance of the baroque and classical musical styles. It is not surprising that in his work baroque stylistic features are strong and many researchers attribute it to this era. But even at first glance, Molter can distinguish features of the “new time”: the creation of a score and the designation of strokes in it, which was not, for example, in the urtexes of JS Bach.

The analysis of his clarinet concerts revealed the following features of Molter’s early classical unique compositional style. The first thing that needs to be emphasized is the division into periods (which was not the case in baroque music, where the melody was represented as a comet: theme-core and a long improvisational loop). The second is the division into orchestral and solo expositions (as is known, the introduction of double exposition into the concert is associated with the Viennese classics and Mozart ), this is quite a clear division into main and side parts. It is necessary to say about the nature of its initial themes - energetically rich and brief, anticipating the Haydn first elements of the main parties. The tonal plan formed by orchestral performances is also indicative: it implements the regularity of the tonal sequences T - D - S - T that developed at that early classical time (the extreme ones are in the main key, the second in the dominant sphere, the third most often in the subdominant sphere).

It is necessary to say about the degree of influence of the Baroque era on the Molter’s composing style. Here the role of the development methods of musical-thematic material is still small, variation is dominant, extremely rich and skillful (the middle section-episode instead of development speaks about this). Exposure prevails (characteristic of concerto grosso), but the dominant tonality of its orchestral side parts can also be attributed to it (this tonal ratio seems to be borrowed from the fugue). Signs of the Baroque are visible in the frequent absence of the connecting party, which, as is well known, serves as a significant indicator of the development of the sonata form. As a result, the exposures are rather brief, sometimes look like one big construction divided by light caesuras into stages corresponding to the parts of the sonata form.

There are many opinions that composers very carefully used the capabilities of the clarinet at its early stage. In Molter's concerts, the sounds of upper register, large interval jumps, juxtaposition of strokes and sound quality of the instrument (live, bright and muted, melancholic musical images) are often found. Obviously, based on the performance qualities of Royshi and the peculiarities of his artistic taste, conductor Molter, long before Haydn and Mozart, was going to create not only a new genre of solo concert, but also created a prototype of the German school of clarinet performance.

• 169 symphonies
• 95 concerts, including:
  • Concerto for horn and orchestra in D major
  • Concerto for cello and string orchestra C major
  • Concerto for oboe number 7 in B-flat major
  • Concerto for bassoon in B-flat major
  • Bassoon Concerto in G Major
  • Bassoon Concerto in G Minor
  • Concerto for flute and string orchestra No. 2 in D major
  • Concerto for flute, string, oboe and horns number 1
  • Concerto for clarinet in A major
  • Concerto for clarinet in D major
  • 6 concerts for clarinet, string orchestra and basso continuo
  • Concerto for trumpet, string orchestra and bass
  • Concerto for viola, string orchestra and bass in A major
  • Concerto for transverse flute, viola and bass in D major
  • Concerto for transverse flute, viola and bass in E minor
  • Concerto for trumpet, string orchestra and bass in D major
• 66 sonatas
• 14 cantatas
• 3 operas

• Klaus Hefner. Der badische Hofkapellmeister Johann Melchior Molter (1696-1765) in seiner Zeit. Dokumente und Bilder zu Leben und Werk. - Karlsruhe : National Library of Baden, 1996 - ISBN 3-88705-041-X .
• Klaus Hefner. Molter, Johann Melchior - Berlin: New German Biography, 1997. - Vol. 18 - P. 11 - URL: URL