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CARL HEINRICH See also: German musical composer, the youngest of three See also: brothers, all more or less musical, was See also: born on the 7th of May 1701 at Wahrenbruck in See also: Saxony
.
His See also: father held a small See also: government See also: post and he gave his See also: children a careful See also: education
.
See also: Graun's beautiful See also: soprano See also: voice secured him an See also: appointment in the choir at See also: Dresden
.
At an early age he composed a number of sacred cantatas and other pieces for the See also: church service
.
He completed his studies under Johann Christoph
See also: Schmidt (1664–1728), and profited much by the See also: Italian operas which were performed at Dresden under the composer See also: Lotti
.
After his voice had changed to a tenor, he made his debut at the See also: opera of See also: Brunswick, in a See also: work by Schurmann, an inferior composer of the See also: day; but not being satisfied with the arias assigned him he re-wrote them, so much to the satisfaction of the See also: court that he was commissioned to write an opera for the next season
.
This work, Polydorus (1726), and five other operas written for Brunswick, spread his fame all over See also: Germany
.
Other See also: works, mostly of a sacred character, including two settings of the Passion, also belong to the Brunswick See also: period
.
See also: Frederick the See also: Great, at that See also: time See also: crown See also: prince of Prussia, heard the See also: singer in Brunswick in 1735, and immediately engaged him for his private See also: chapel at Rheinsberg
.
There Graun remained for five years, and wrote a number of cantatas, mostly to words written by Frederick himself in French, and translated into Italian by Boltarelli
.
On his accession to the See also: throne in 1740, Frederick sent Graun to See also: Italy to engage singers for a new opera to be established at Berlin
.
Graun remained a See also: year on his travels, earning universal applause as a singer in the chief cities of Italy
.
After his return to .Berlin he was appointed conductor of the royal orchestra (Kapellmeirter) with aSee also: salary of 2000 thalers (goo)
.
In this capacity he wrote twenty-eight operas, all to Italian words, of which the last, See also: Merope (1756), is perhaps the most perfect
.
It is probable that Graun was subjected to considerable humiliation from the arbitrary caprices of his royal master, who was never tired of praising the operas of See also: Hasse and abusing those of his Kapellmeister
.
In his See also: oratorio The See also: Death of Jesus Graun shows his skill as a contrapuntist, and his originality of melodious invention
.
In the Italian operas he imitates the florid See also: style of his time, but even in these the recitatives occasionally show considerable dramatic power
.
Graun died on the 8th of See also: August 1759, at Berlin, in the same See also: house in which, See also: thirty-two years later, See also: Meyerbeer was born
.
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