Johann Melchior Molter

Abstract

Among young musicians there is not much motivation to "go outside the box". We are so used to seeing from a young age the same books and the same typical pieces. All this just to get in front of a jury and play the same passages that we started to study since we were 12 years old. But it is inevitable that a hurricane of questions sweeps through your head when you see that a composer from the 18th century you didn't know wrote a concerto for your instrument. Which instrument did the composer play? In which stylistic period can we place him? Who was the concerto written for? Do we know if there is another concerto for my instrument? This is what my research is about, to study the life as well as the bassoon concertos of the German composer Johann Melchior Molter, born in Karlsruhe in 1696, unknown to me until a year ago. He was chapel master in Karlsruhe, he travelled around the cultural centres of Europe, which gave him a unique and varied style that is present in all his works.