Canzona VIII

Gottlieb (Theophil) Muffat (1660–1770), an important Austrian Baroque composer and organist, was the son of the famous Franco-German composer Georg Muffat. He received his first musical instruction from his father, whose success in combining French and Italian musical styles within the German-speaking world also influenced his own music. Following his father’s death, he moved as a young man from Passau to Vienna, where his brother Franz Georg was already a musician in the court orchestra. He became a pupil of the court Kapellmeister Johann Joseph Fux and, at the age of 27, was appointed court organist and music teacher to members of the imperial family, including the young Maria Theresa, who would later become Empress. In 1764, he retired with a substantial annual pension. Perhaps at that time he may have influenced the design of the new organ at the Kirche am Hof and also played this instrument from 1763 onwards https://organindex.de/index.php?title=Wien,_Kirche_am_Hof_(Kirche_zu_den_9_Ch%C3%B6ren_der_Engel). The stop configuration of this historical Baroque organ (IIP/24) led to the choice of the instrument from Giubiasco for the performance of his Canzona VIII. It is one of three canzonas that were initially classified as fugues of Girolamo Frescobaldi by Muzio Clementi in his *Selection of Practical Harmony*, WO 7, Volume 2. Recent research corrects this (*A Note on Three Fugues Attributed to Frescobaldi*, Susan Wollenberg, *The Musical Times*, Vol. 116, No. 1584 (Feb. 1975), pp. 133–135 (3 pages), Published by: Musical Times Publications, Ltd., https://www.jstor.org/stable/1193915).

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