A Pioneering Man Johann Wenzel Anton Stamitz by Jacob Stanfield Stamitz was born in the Bohemian town of Deutschbrod on June 19, 1717. From his father, an organist and teacher, he received his first instruction in music. Later he took courses in music at a Jesuit school (Sadie 262). He showed marked talent for both composition and the violin. In 1741 he was acclaimed for his violin performance during festivities attending the coronation of Emperor Charles VII in Prague (Slonimsky 3446). The Elector Palatine, Duke Carl Theodor, hired him to join his electoral orchestra in Mannheim. Soon after receiving this appointment, Stamitz gave a remarkably successful violin recital in Frankfurt am Main (Sadie 263). In 1744 he married in Mannheim. Of the four children born to Stamitz, two became successful musicians (Ewen 357). By 1745 Stamitz had risen in Mannheim to the post of concertmaster or leader of the court orchestra and director of the court chamer music. He was required to write for and direct orchestral performances at the ducal palace. In his post as the leader of the orchestra Stamitz made musical history by establishing what many now regard as the first modern symphony orchestra and by defining for the first time some of the functions of the orchestral conductor (Randel 862). His carefully prepared rehearsals, his rigid discipline, and his concern for details inaugurated a new era in orchestral performance (Slonimsky 3446). Those who heard the Mannheim Orchestra under Stamitz marveled at a virtuosity and technique said to be without parallel at that time – the way in which crescendos, diminuendos, and tremolos were produced; the manner in which the ensemble passed from pianissimo to fortissimo; the singing quality produced by the violins and the richness in tone of the winds. Stamitz’s first opus appeared in 1750. It was a set of orchestral trios, which initiated a new age of orchestral music. After that Stamitz produced a whole library of orchestral...