Two Duets for two Flutes (Playing Score)

Richter Two Duets for two Flutes (Playing Score)

Franz Xaver Richter was born in Bohemia on the 1st of December 1709.  Nothing is known about the first thirty years of his life.  In 1740 he was given the post of vice-Kapellmeister in the royal abbey of Kempten.  In 1747 Richter joined the chapel of the Electorate court in Mannheim as a singer and violinist.  In the services of the Electorate Prince of the Pfalz Karl Theodor he became court composer.  In 1769 he was appointed Kapellmeister of the Strasbourg Minster where he remained as music director until his death on the 12th of September 1789.

Richter was a prolific and versatile composer, one of the most outstanding representatives of the Mannheim School.  His known instrumental compositions include about seventy symphonies, six harpsichord concertos, flute concertos, several string quartets, trios, duets and works for solo instruments.  His numerous vocal compositions are almost without exception sacred works: an Oratorio, more than thirty Masses, two Passions, about fifty motets, several cantatas, lamentations, a Te Deum and much more.  He was also the author of an extensive theoretical thesis: "Harmonische Belehrungen oder gri.indliche Anweisung zu der mus. Ton-Kunst oder reguliiren Composition".

Our edition of the duets is based on the only surviving copy of a Dresden print by Hilscher which is kept in the Royal Library in Stockholm.