Johann Pezel

Baroque German Composer and Trumpeter

German composer, violinist, and trumpeter (December 5, 1639, Glatz, Poland - October 13, 1694, Bautzen, Germany) Names are also written like: Pezelius, Betzel, Betzeld, Petzold, Petzel oder Bässel. Not to be confused with Johann Christoph Pez, German musician, Kapellmeister and composer (1664 – 1716). Pezel lived in Leipzig from 1661 to 1681, with an interruption in 1672 when he entered an Augustinian monastery in Prague, which he left soon after to become a Protestant. His later years were spent at Bautzen, where (as at Leipzig) he was in municipal employment as Stadtpfeifer and Stadtmusicus. He was renowned as a violinist and clarinet player and published a considerable number of collections between 1669-86, chiefly of instrumental music, such as Musica vespertina lipsica (1669), Musicalische Seelenerquickungen (1675), Deliciae musicales, oder Lustmusik (1678), Musica curiosa lipsiaca (1686), etc.; also some sacred vocal music and theoretical works. He was influential in the evolution of instrumental forms and the style of orchestral writing.