Gottlieb Muffat

Gottlieb Muffat, son of Georg Muffat, served as Hofscholar under Johann Fux in Vienna from 1711 and was appointed to the position of third court organist at the Hofkapelle in 1717. He acquired additional duties over time including the instruction of members of the Imperial family, among them the future Empress Maria Theresa. He was promoted to second organist in 1729 and first organist upon the accession of Maria Theresa to the throne in 1741. He retired from official duties at the court in 1763.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article on Gottlieb Muffat.

From the period sources

August Gottlieb Muffat, son of the “noteworthy comp.” Georg Muffat (A Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 1900), was born in Passau on April 17, 1683, and died in Vienna on December 10, 1770. He was a pupil of Johann Josef Fux, who, according to Brown’s Biographical Dictionary (1886), “affected most good” through his theoretical work, Gradus ad Parnassum. Muffat himself became Imperial court organist at Vienna in 1717 and music-master to the royal children, retiring on a pension in 1764 (Grove’s Dictionary, 1904). He published “72 Versetten oder Fugen, sammt 12 Toccaten” for organ in 1726, and “Componimenti musicali” for harpsichord in 1727, which included a treatise on graces (A Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 1900). This latter work, dedicated to Emperor Charles VI, was later republished by Chrysander as a supplement to his Handel edition, noting that Handel had “appropriated ideas or portions” from Muffat’s harpsichord pieces (Grove’s Dictionary, 1904). Indeed, Grove’s Dictionary (1906) explicitly states that themes from Muffat’s works were among those Handel “drew largely and unhesitatingly on” for his choruses.