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Krebs was an organist and composer from a highly musical family. His father, both brothers, and his three sons all received formal musical training; his son Johann Gottfried was also an extremely prolific composer.
Best remembered as a pupil of Bach, Krebs was educated at the Thomasschule in Leipzig, as were his brothers. The oft-repeated story that Bach punningly referred to him as the finest crayfish in his brook (Krebs im Bach) is apocryphal, but Bach did provide a written testemonial as to his skill in composition and in playing the keyboard, lute, and violin.
Over his career Krebs held three organ posts, all in the viscinity of Leipzig: first at the St Marien church in Zwicken, then at the castles of Zeitz and, finally, Altenburg.
His status as a student of Bach has tended to shade assessments of his compositions. Although many of his choral works do stick very close to the Bach model, elsewhere he blends a conservative love of counterpoint with more up-to-date galant sensibilities.
Krebs left a substantial body of works for organ, the majority of them being chorale settings, but also including larger-scale preludes, toccatas, fugues and trios. There are also several fantasias for organ and solo instrument (four for oboe and one each for oboe d'amore, flute, and trumpet). Works for other keyboard instruments include suites and sonatas, mostly published during his lifetime.
A substantial body of chamber and orchestral music also survives, including solo sonatas, sinfonias, and concertos for lute and keyboard.
Sacred vocal works include cantatas and motets, full and partial Mass settings, and a funeral oratorio written in honor of Maria Josepha of Austria, Electress of Saxony and Queen of Poland.
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