Galliard, Johann Ernst 01/01/1687 - 01/01/1749

Johann Ernst Galliard (1687-1749) was trained as an oboist and from 1698 on was a member of the court orchestra in Celle (modern-day Germany). He also studied composition with Jean-Baptiste Farinelli and Agostino Steffani in Hanover. His compositions follow the line of Händel and show him to be a skillful master of counterpoint. Charles Burney said of him: "I never saw more correctness or less originality in any author that I have examined of the present century (in: A General History of Music IV, London 1789).



At the age of 15 he received his first commission in composition for Steffani Farinelli, the music director of the dukedom of Hanover. Later he became a chamber musician at the court of Prince George of Denmark and followed the monarch to London after his marriage to Queen Anne in 1706, where he became the successor (at age 19!) of the singer and composer Antonio Draghi. He was also organist at Somerset House and active as a composer for the London theater between 1712 and 1736.



His 1712 opera Calypso and Telemachus remained unfortunately largely unsuccessful. In 1726 he cofounded the Academy of Ancient Music, which dedicated itself to the promotion of vocal and instrumental music. In 1713 he joined Händel's Italian opera as an oboist, and it is probable that Händel wrote the difficult oboe passages in „The Aria of Agilea“ for him. In 1742 he translated from Italian into English Pier Francesco Tosis Opinioni de' Cantori Antichi, e Moderni o sieno Osservazioni sopra il Canto Figurato, an important contemporary essay on the art of singing.



Among his early compositions may be found a Te Deum, a Jubilate and three anthems, which were performed at the Chapel Royal and at the St. Paul’s Cathedral on the occasion of military victory celebrations. He also composed cantatas, songs and sonatas for strings and bassoon. In 1745 he composed another composition for 24 bassoons and four double basses for a concert in the Lincoln’s Inn Fields Theatre, in which he used as choruses the two tragedies „Brutus“ and „Julius Caesar“.