Lesser-Known Composer of the Month: Sylvius Leopold Weiss

Wait, Who?

The most celebrated lutenist of the eighteenth century, Weiss was also probably the most prolific composer in the history of the instrument.  At one point he was assaulted by a jealous violinist who attempted to bite off his thumb. 

As a young man Weiss spent several years in Italy, serving as musician and valet to the Polish prince Alexander Sobiesky, who lived for a time in Rome with his mother, Queen Maria Casimira.  There Weiss would have known Alessandro and Domenico Scarlatti, who both served for a time as composer to the queen's household.

After the prince's death in 1714, Weiss returned to Germany and in 1718 was employed as a member of the Dresden Hofkapelle, where he spent the rest of his career.  By 1744 he was the highest-paid instrumentalist in the court.  Aside from serving as a soloist, he also served as a continuo player, as attested by notes he left in the continuo parts of several Hasse operas.

In 1739, Weiss visited Bach in Leipzig.  It was probably not their only meeting, as Wilhelm Friedemann Bach was employed in Dresden at the time.  Bach was evidently favorably inclined towards him, as BWV 1025 is an arrangement of Weiss's sonata no. 47.

Weiss's works consist entirely of pieces for the lute.  Most of what still exists are sonatas (in the older sense of the word) for the lute alone, but he is known to have written concertos and chamber music for the instrument as well.  The lutenist Richard Stone has recorded reconstructions of several concertos with string and continuo parts he derived from the surviving lute tablature.

His pieces, much like Bach's, show a German synthesis of French and Italian styles. Particularly in his later works he was harmonically adventurous to the extent allowed by the diatonic tuning of the lute's bass strings.  In some movements of the later sonatas, the degree of thematic and harmonic cohesion resembles Classical sonata form.