A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Griesinger, Georg

1504644A Dictionary of Music and Musicians — Griesinger, Georg


GRIESINGER, Georg August, deserves a word of grateful mention for his charming little work on Haydn—'Biographische Notizen über Joseph Haydn' (126 pages)—which was originally communicated to the Allg. Musik. Zeitung from July to Sept. 1809, and then published by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1810. Griesinger was a 'Legations-Rath' of the Saxon government, and possibly attached to the embassy at Vienna. At any rate he was on intimate terms with Haydn for the last ten years of the life of the latter, and he claims to report directly from his lips, often in his very words. His work was used by Framery for his 'Notice sur Haydn' (Paris, 1810), but Griesinger complains that his statements have often been widely departed from, and in one case an absolute invention introduced.

Whether he was the same Griesinger who founded singing societies and public concerts in Stuttgart 10 or 12 years after Haydn's death, is not apparent. He died April 27, 1828.
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