Philipp Heinrich Erlebach

Biography

Philipp Heinrich Erlebach (b 25 July, 1657 Esens / Ostfriesland, d. 17 April 1714 Rudolstadt / Thueringen) was a German baroque composer.His compositions include orchestral and chamber music, operas, cantatas, Masses and oratorios.

Erlebach was a prolific composer, but most of his works (over 1000 compositions), which had been acquired by the court from Erlebach's widow after his death, were destroyed in 1735 during a fire in Rudolstadt. This caused Erlebach’s music to be almost completely forgotten. Only 70 compositions (about 7 percent of his working output) survived, some only in handwritten manuscript form, which later had to be transcribed. Much of his posterity is dependent upon published editions of his works.

Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.