Muller, AE :: Concerto for Flute in E minor

Concerto for Flute in E minor

Muller, AE

In 1885 the music editor and bibliographer Robert Eitner described the many works of August Eberhard Muller as "victims of the progressive spirit of the age", but added that "they were a great source of pleasure, inspiration and education for their listeners during their time, and his efforts and work were not in vain". As a performer, composer and concert director, Muller was an influential figure in German musical life. Born in 1767 in Northeim, as a young boy he deputized for his father on the organ; on one occasion Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach heard him and took him to the court in Buckeburg for tuition. At the age of fourteen Muller began to travel, earning his living by performing as an organist, pianist, and flautist. His first position was in Magdeburg in 1789, but in 1794, at the suggestion of the composer and writer Johann Friedrich Reichardt, he moved to Leipzig and took up the post of principal flautist in the Gewandhaus Orchestra. Shortly afterwards he also became organist of the Nikolaikirche, and in 1804 was appointed Kantor of the Thomaskirche.

Muller is credited with eleven flute concertos, all, understandably, following the Mozartian model. In the absence of an autograph it is difficult to date the composition of the present concerto, but, from its numbering as op. 19, it would appear to be fifth in the sequence; the plate number indicates an early issue from the Bureau de Musique of C.F. Peters in Leipzig, probably in 1800 or 1801.