Anton Fils

Anton Fils (also Antonín Fils, Johann Anton Fils, Johann Anton Filtz) (baptized September 22, 1733 in Eichstätt (Germany); died at 26 years of age and was buried March 14, 1760 in Mannheim) was a German classical composer.

Long thought to have been of Bohemian origin (e.g., Racek 1956), despite having been described as "from Bavaria" by Marpurg in 1756, his true origins were discovered in the 1960s (Wolf 2001). Fils studied law and theology at the University of Ingolstadt, and in 1754 became part of the "Mannheimer Hofkapelle" as a cellist (Wolf 2001). The Mannheim orchestra at the time was led by Johann Stamitz (Würtz & Wolf 2001). In 1757 Filtz married Elizabeth Range, and in 1759 the couple bought a house (Wolf 2001).

Even though he died at only 26, he left an extensive body of work, including at least thirty-four symphonies (Wolf 2001) which he wrote for the Mannheimer Hofkapelle, and about thirty concertos, mainly for cello and for flute, though only about half have survived (Wolf 2001).

Numerous contemporary accounts say that his premature death was caused by his habit of eating live spiders, which he claimed tasted like fresh strawberries.

His music was mostly forgotten and has only been recently rediscovered.

References

• Littger, Klaus Walter (1983). Johann Anton Fils—ein Eichstätter Komponist der Mannheimer Klassik. Tutzing: H. Schneider. ISBN 3-7952-0406-2.  (German)
• Racek, Jan. 1956. "Beitrag zur Frage des 'mozartschen' Stils in der tschechischen vorklassischen Musik". In 'Internationale Konferenz über das Leben und Werk W.A. Mozarts, edited by Václav Dobiáš, Pavel Eckstein, and Antonín Sychra. Prague: Svaz Československých Skladatelů.
• Sondheimer, Robert (1925). Die Theorie der Sinfonie und die Beurteilung einzelner Sinfoniekomponisten bei den Musikschriftstellern des 18. Jahrhunderts. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel.
• Townsend, Douglas (1987). Foreword to the score of Filtz's String Symphony No. 2 in C major, Opus 2. New York: Henmar Press
• Wolf, Eugene K. (2001). "Fils [Filtz, Filz], (Johann) Anton". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
• Würtz, Roland, and Eugene K. Wolf (2001). "Mannheim". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.

External links

• Free scores by Anton Fils at the International Music Score Library Project