Franz Xaver Richter

Born in either Bohemia or Holleschau, Moravia (now Holešov, Czech Republic) on 1 December 1709, conservative Franz Xaver Richter bridged the baroque to the classical. Beginning his life as something of a square, if not a bumpkin, he wasn't the first, since Bavaria was bound between the Holy Roman Empire (HRE) to the west, Poland to the east and Austria (HRE) to the south, and was backward of the rest of Europe, even Russia, due to war, especially the Thirty Years' War of 1618 to 1648 from which recovery was agonizingly slow. It was at least a couple generations or so before Bohemian (basically Czech) composers began making their presence known amidst the rest of Europe. Johann Kuhnau wasn't born until 1660, Jan Dismas Zelenka in 1679 and Bohuslav Matěj Černohorský in 1684. Come František Tůma in 1706 and Franz Benda (the elder) in 1709 only nine days before Richter. Other Bohemian (Czech) composers born during the baroque or late baroque (transitioning to galant and classical) include Josef Seger born in 1716, Johann Stamitz in 1717, Georg Benda (the younger) in 1722, Josef Mysliveček in 1737, Leopold Koželuch in 1747 and Karel Blažej Kopřiva in 1756. Bavaria would also be the scene of the Silesian Wars between Austria and Prussia from 1740 to 1763, those during Richter's lifetime.

Even without the contest between Catholics (HRE) and Protestants beginning with Luther in the early 16th century, Europe was a highly complex world rarely free of war as the House of Habsburg (HRE) faced enemies on multiple fronts including the Ottoman Empire. The largest European armies at Richter's time were Austrian (HRE), French (antagonistic) and Russian (European in context) with the Kremlin in Moscow too far off to easily target. It was during Richter's lifetime that the Great Northern War (1700-21) was waged between Russia and Sweden for control over the Baltic region including Finland. Among Sweden's losses was the capture of Nyenschantz in 1703 which became St. Petersburg. Though founded by Tsar Peter the Great who built St. Petersburg upon western European models modern at the time, St. Petersburg was named after the apostle, Peter, in accord with Eastern Orthodox Christianity. It was also around Richter's time that conducting began. In the portrait above, he uses a rolled sheet of score paper for a baton. Albeit born at a time when only Poland was more rustic and undeveloped than Bohemia, according to Prussia's Frederick the Great (a composer), by the end of Richter's life he would be highly regarded as both a musician and theorist who published and toured as far away as France, the Netherlands and England while composing some 80 simphonies among other works including sacred.

Richter doesn't show up in any documents until 1740 when he was appointed deputy kapellmeister at the Fürststift Kempten [Deutsch] in Allgäu in southern Germany (Bavaria), a Benedictine abbey run by Prince Abbot Anselm Reichlin von Meldegg. The Fürststift Kempten [English] was a Princely abbey of imperial immediacy, meaning that its direct authority was the Holy Roman Emperor rather than such as a local lord. The role of Holy Roman Emperor was at this time in dispute. The death of Charles VI on 20 October 1740 sparked the War of the Austrian Succession from 1740-48. The Habsburgs had ruled the HRE for the last three centuries and would continue until 1806. Charles VI was the last male Habsburg who had decided his successor should be a daughter of his own did he bear no sons per the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713. When Charles Albert, a less direct heir as husband of a niece of Charles VI, was elected Emperor as Charles VII, Maria Theresa, firstborn of Charles VI, immediately went to war, sending Austrian troops to Munich where Charles VII held court. The succession of a Habsburg heir wasn't but a family affair; such had consequences worldwide. Frederick II of Prussia used the death of Charles VI to invade Silesia and found an ally in Louis XV of France where the HRE could ever count on antipathy. Spain joined France against Britain and the Dutch as Maria Theresa invaded hostile locales in Italy such as Naples. The War of Austrian Succession found its way to as far off as India and North America before Charles VII died in Munich on 20 January 1745. Later that year Maria Theresa married Francis I with whom she kept the throne as of the 1748 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (Treaty of Aachen). In the meantime, it was common for monasteries to have choirs, and there may have existed something of an orchestra at Kempten as well. Richter is thought to have written his earlier 'Te Deum' during this period at Fürststift Kempten in 1742. This 'Te Deum' is baroque as distinguished from his later 'Te Deum' of 1781 which flows galant (further below).

In 1787 Richter was eighty-seven years old, yet took a trip to Munich to visit acquaintances of the Mannheim school, both the court and school since relocated there. Richter also met Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's father there, having met Mozart himself back in 1763 in Schwetzingen when Mozart was nine years old, and in 1778 in Strasbourg. As of their meeting in 1778 Mozart had written his father complimenting Richter's music while lamenting his age (78) and remarking upon Richter's heavy consumption of wine.

Richter died in Strasbourg on 12 September 1789 four months after the beginning of the French Revolution (1789-1799) on 5 May that year.