Liebhold, -

Liebhold (who died in Gotha around 1730) was a German composer. His first name and birthdate are unknown. According to Johann Gottfried Walther, Liebhold was a "rough man, who spent time only in villages, went to no church and enjoyed no sacraments." He played violin and waldhorn (bugle). He excelled as a poet as well. Walther says that he froze to death near Gotha around 1730.



Considering his level of fame an extraordinarily large amount of his sacred vocal music has been preserved. All in all 130 cantatas and 22 motets can be found in various libraries and church archives. Liebhold's compositional style is simple, almost naive, and is distinguished by an often very colorful instrumentation. He also used rather rare instruments for church music of the period, for example the waldhorn, "corno per force", "corno da caccia" and "clarino sourdino." Unfortunately, Liebhold's compositional talent was not highly valued in the eighteenth century.