Johann Ulich

Johann Ulich, the younger (Wittenberg, 1677-Zerbst, 1742) was a German organist and composer in Zerbst, and music teacher to the princely family.[1]

Ulich was born in 1677 in Wittenberg, Germany. His father, also called Johann Ulich (1634-1712), was organist and Kantor, director of music for Wittenberg's churches, and teacher at the city school.[2] Ulich studied with his father[3] and then from 1695 at the University of Wittenberg. He was employed at the court in Zerbst from 1708 (although his official contract [4] is dated 6 March 1709, the accounts of the St. Bartholomäikirche[5] show that he was paid at least one quarterly salary installment and some of the bonuses that all permanent staff there enjoyed annually in 1708). Almost immediately he started composing music for the court;[6] on 24 June 1708, his cantata "Glückselige Stunden! gesegnetes Licht"[7] for the birthday of Princess Sophia (wife of Prince Carl Wilhelm) was performed and, at least for some years, Ulich seems to have been considered the court composer.[8] This changed in 1716 when Johann Baptist Kuch was appointed Capell Director. When Kuch suddenly vanished from Zerbst in 1722, Ulich temporarily seems to have taken charge of music again.[9] This was short lived as the renowned Johann Friedrich Fasch was appointed court Kapellmeister that same year. Ulich was to work under the younger man as "Organist und Cammer Musico" (according to a petition by his widow for financial assistance to bring up the couple's five children)[10] until his retirement.

Surviving Works

Johann Ulich Sr.

  • hymns "Meinen Jesum laß ich nicht", first published "Sieben-Fache Welt- and Himmels-Capell" (edited by Michael Schernak) Wittenberg, 1674; it still appears in the standard Lutheran hymnbook, EKG: 251; "Davidisches Berg-Lied ... An statt eines Täglichen Denck-[,] Danck- und Schuld-Opffers ... abgefasset, und ... mit absonderlicher Melodie bethönet" (Wittenberg, 1687)
  • wedding music "Wann die goldne Sonne lacht" (Wittenberg, 1674), "Auf die Gottschalckisch-Frimelische Hochzeit ... verfertigte Aria" (Brieg, 1683), "Gleich und gleich gesellt sich gerne" (Wittenberg, 1686), "Wann die goldne Sonne lacht" (Wittenberg, 1700)
  • "Deo dicamus gratias" (SSATB, 2 trumpets, "tamburi", basso continuo; Wittenberg, 1682) [See footnote 3]
  • funeral music "Jesu meiner Seelen Wonne" (1685)
  • cantata "Zweierlei bitt' ich von dir Herr mein Gott"

Johann Ulich Jr.

  • three solo cantatas for soprano and basso continuo
  • four sonatinas, two fantasies, two suites, and two sonatas for keyboard (one is specifically for organ)
  • 6 sonatas for recorder and basso continuo (the latter part was rediscovered 2002 in the Russian State Library)

Recordings

References
  1. Johann Friedrich Fasch und sein Wirken für Zerbst Konstanze Musketa, Barbara M. Reul, Internationale Fasch-Gesellschaft Zerbst. 1997 p.54 "Ganz vergessen hat Engelke den seit 1708 als Hoforganisten und Hofmusiker angestellten Johann Ulich. Ulich, der u. a. für den Musik-Unterricht der fürstlichen Familie bezahlt wurde, hatte auch maßgeblichen Einfluß bei dem Bau der neuen Orgel in der Schloßkapelle durch den Quedlinburger Orgelbauer Caspar Sperling. Von Ulich haben sich drei Solokantaten für Sopran-Solo und Cembalo, vier Sonatinen, zwei Fantasien, zwei Suiten und zwei Sonaten con Suite für Cembalo, alle handschriftlich, erhalten.* Sämtliche Werke stammen aus den Jahren 1711 ... Ihr hellen Sterne, á Soprano Solo con Clavessin, J. Ulich [Datierung] Zerbst d. Ж Maj 1711. Cantata. Hoffnung ..."
  2. Premiere für vergessenen Komponisten "Über Ulich selbst ist nicht sonderlich viel bekannt. Nicht mal bei seinen Lebensdaten herrscht Einigkeit. Er soll 1677 als Sohn des gleichnamigen Musikers Johann Ulich geboren worden sein. Der Vater (1634 bis 1712) war Kantor in Wittenberg, Organist und Director Musices in der Stadtkirche sowie Lehrer an der Stadtschule. Von ihm ist die Kantate "Meinen Jesus lass ich nicht" überliefert. Vom Vater erlernte der kleine Johann die musikalischen Grundlagen."
  3. Perhaps Ulich senior's "Kurtze Anleitung zur Singe=Kunst" (Wittenberg, 2nd - expanded - edition, 1682) grew out of his teaching activities; it also contains two hymns: "Wer nun den lieben Gott läst walten" (SSATB, Basso continuo) and "Wer seinen JESUM hält" (SATB, basso continuo). Digital copy available here.
  4. Landesarchiv Sachsen-Anhalt, Aussenstelle Dessau, Z92 2898, ff. 653-655
  5. Pfarr-Archiv St. Barth. Zerbst IV, 714, ff. 136v and 138v ("an dem ietzigen Organist H. Ulichen"); other portions were paid to the estate of his predecessor, Johann Burckhardt Meÿer. In addition to these two regular payments, the organist at the church received "Speisegeld" (money for food) twice a year, a coal allowance, and payments in kind (rye, meat and wood), and Ulich also received an additional payment in lieu of house rent. The organist was not a court employee in Zerbst, but they did receive payments in kind; the 1708/09 accounts show that both Meyer and Ulich received 20 Thaler - Ulich is even noted as "the new organist"; Landesarchiv Sachsen-Anhalt, Aussenstelle Dessau, Z92 Kammerrechnungen 1708/09, p. 62
  6. He was paid an honorarium of 4 Thaler for compositions in January of that year according to the court accounts ("4 [Reichsthaler] dem Organist Joh: Ulichen zum recompens wegen componirten Arien den 7. Jan[uarÿ], Nr. 1037), which he may perhaps have submitted in support of an application to work in Zerbst; Landesarchiv Sachsen-Anhalt, Aussenstelle Dessau, Z92 Kammerrechnungen 1707/08, p. 119
  7. Copy of the libretto at Francisceum library in Zerbst, A.11.n pp. 218-219; this is possibly why he was paid 6 Thaler "wegen unterth[änig]st übergebenen Musicalischen Sachen den 23. Julÿ 1708, Nr. 940", Landesarchiv Sachsen-Anhalt, Aussenstelle Dessau, Z92 Kammerrechnungen 1707/08, p. 124.
  8. For example, he supplied church pieces for Carl Wilhelm's and Sophia's birthdays in 1713 and 1714; cf. Landesarchiv Sachsen-Anhalt, Aussenstelle Dessau, Z92 Kammerrechnungen 1713/14 fol. 63v, and 1714/15 fol. 54v, where Ulich is called "HoffMusico und organist".
  9. Landesarchiv Sachsen-Anhalt, Aussenstelle Dessau, Z92 Kammerrechnungen 1722/23 p. 143 under "Gevatter Geschencke" (a category in the accounts listing discretionary payments by the princely family) "pro Sereniss[imo] beÿ dem Organist, Ulichen".
  10. Landesarchiv Sachsen-Anhalt, Aussenstelle Dessau, Z88 F13, Nr. 29, ff. 262-3.
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