Johann Kaspar Kerll - Life

Life

Kerll was the son of Caspar Kerll and Catharina Hendel (married 1626). He was born in 1627 in Adorf, where his father served as organist of the Michaeliskirche (appointed after building the church organ with Jacob Schädlich). Caspar Kerll probably gave his son music lessons and apparently Johann Kaspar demonstrated exceptional musical abilities; by 1641 he was already composing and sometime later during the early 1640s he was sent to Vienna to study under Giovanni Valentini, court Kapellmeister and composer. Kerll's professional career started in Vienna, where he served as organist, and continued in approximately 1647/8, when Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria (then the governor of the Spanish Netherlands) employed him as chamber organist for the new residential palace in Brussels.

During the following several years Kerll was somehow able to combine travelling with working in Brussels without losing his job. First, Leopold Wilhelm sent him to Rome to study under Giacomo Carissimi. This was around 1648/9; Kerll must have met Johann Jakob Froberger and might have studied with him. Returning to Brussels for a brief time, he left again in the winter of 1649-1650, travelling to Dresden. He also attended the wedding of Philip IV of Spain and Marie-Anne of Austria, visited Vienna several times in 1651 and 1652 and spent some time in Göttweig and Moravia. Abraham van den Kerckhoven substituted for Kerll while he was away and ultimately succeeded him in 1655, when Kerll left.

In February 1656 Kerll accepted a temporary post of Vice-Kapellmeister at the Munich court under Elector Ferdinand Maria. In March he succeeded Giovanni Giacomo Porro as court Kapellmeister. Kerll's fame started growing rapidly as he was given more and more important tasks. Particularly important of these are his opera Oronte (now lost), which inaugurated the Munich opera house in January 1657, and a vocal mass composed in 1658 for the coronation of Emperor Leopold I at Frankfurt.

While in Munich, Kerll married Anna Catharina Egermayer in 1657. The couple had eight children, but only one of them, the youngest son, pursued a career in music. The Munich years were especially important for Kerll: he was apparently favoured by Ferdinand Maria, who would provide support for the rest of Kerll's life; in 1664 he was ennobled by the emperor; in 1669 his first published works appeared: Delectus sacrarum cantionum, a collection of vocal music, and a Missa pro defunctis, both dedicated to Ferdinand Maria. Kerll gave up his post in Munich in 1673 for unclear reasons - it is believed that there was a particularly serious quarrel with other court musicians (Italian singers) which made him leave. Kerll did, however, maintain contact with Elector Ferdinand Maria until his death.

In 1674 Kerll moved to Vienna. A pension was granted to him in 1675 by the emperor, who in 1677 employed him as one of his court organists. Although it has been suggested that Kerll might have worked at the Stephansdom, there is no proof. If he did, however, Johann Pachelbel would have been his deputy organist there. The 1679 plague, commemorated by Kerll in Modulatio organica, a collection of liturgical organ music, resulted in Anna Catharina's death. He married Kunigunde Hilaris in 1682/3 and stayed in Vienna for the next 10 years, surviving the Turkish invasion of 1683, which he also commemorated in music in Missa in fletu solatium. He visited Munich several times between 1684 and 1692, publishing his Modulatio organica (1686) and Missae sex (1689, dedicated to the emperor) there. At the end of 1692 Kerll relinquished his Vienna position and returned to Munich, where he died shortly afterwards.