Johann Baptist Vanhal
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Johann Baptist Vanhal (Jan Křtitel Vaňhal) also spelled Wanhal or Wanhall (May 12, 1739 - August 20, 1813) was an important classical music composer.
Born in Nechanice, Bohemia to a Czech peasant family, Vanhal received his early training from a local musician. From these humble beginnings he was able to earn a living as a village organist and choirmaster. The Countess Schaffgotsch, who heard him playing the violin, took him to Vienna in 1760 where she arranged lessons in composition with the great Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf. Further patronage helped him to travel and gain further knowledge of music and by the age of 35, he was moving in exalted musical company: it is reported he played quartets with Haydn, Mozart and Dittersdorf.
He was reported to have suffered from an unspecified "nervous disorder" (possibly depression, or bipolar disorder) which eventually went away, but the quality of Vanhal's compositions is said to have deteriorated with the disappearance of his condition.
So famous did he become that he was probably the first musician to earn a living entirely from composing without any appointment or patronage. He had to be a prolific writer to meet the demands made upon him, and attributed to him are 100 quartets, at least 73 symphonies, 95 sacred works, and a large number of instrumental and vocal works. The symphonies, in particular, have been committed increasingly often to compact disc in recent times, and the best of them are comparable with many of Haydn's.
Such was his success that within a few years of his symphonies being written, they were being performed around the world, and as far distant as the United States. In later life, however, he rarely moved from Vienna where he was also an active teacher.
Dr. Paul Bryan prepared a thematic catalog of Wanhal's music; this was published in 1997 by Pendragon Press. This thematic catalogue of Wanhal's symphonies includes incipits of all the movements and all the copies, both manuscript and printed. This catalog provides significant additions to our knowledge of both Wanhal, his contemporaries, and their modi operandi are provided by studies of the manuscript copies themselves. Included is a record of the groups of copyists, along with summaries and samples of the individual copyists' hands, and the papers they used. The descriptions of the manuscripts are complemented by a study of the publishers and their confusing opus-number systems as well as pertinent information about the individual symphonies. For those interested in Wanhal himself, the lists of his autographs and analysis of his handwriting should also be useful.
