Georg Joseph Vogler

Georg Joseph Vogler was a German composer, organist, music theorist, and influential pedagogue who lived in the late 18th century. He composed music animated by innovative harmonies, dramatic Mannheim orchestral gestures, and the stormy tendencies of the music of his time and place. His operas Castore e Polluce and Samori received popular acclaim, while his overture to Hamlet hinted at the coming programmatic overture genre. Vogler was deeply involved with religious life, even becoming a priest, and producing numerous masses as well as many motets, such as Hosianna Davids Sohn. His Funeral Music for Louis XVI was recorded by the Gutenberg Kammerchor and Neumeyer Consort in 2022. The London Mozart Players have recorded his symphonies, while the Freiburger Barockorchester included the overture to Der Kaufmann von Smyrna on Mozart’s Mannheim (2023).