AIBLINGER, JOHANN KASPAR

AIBLINGER, JOHANN KASPAR. – Composer, born at Wasserburg am Inn on 23 February 1779, died in Munich on 6 May 1867. He completed his musical studies in Munich and then, in 1802, with Simone Mayr in Bergamo; from 1803 to 1811 he lived in Vicenza, then in Milan as deputy chapel master to the viceroy; in Germany, from 1819, he was director of the Italian opera and from 1826 chapel master in Munich, where he died after a brief return to Bergamo. Some of his theatrical works met with little success, whereas his numerous religious compositions (masses, litanies, requiems, psalms, offertories, etc.) were rightly esteemed; in them, harmonic sweetness is combined with the strictest contrapuntal style. He is also associated with the fruitful reform movement in sacred music, and through his work contributed to the revival of performances of the works of the ancient Italian polyphonists.