Born in Thuringia, Johann Philipp Kirnberger was from 1758 employed as a court musician by Princess Anna Amalia, sister of Frederick the Great, in Berlin, with friends who included Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and others employed at the court in Potsdam. He is known rather as a generally conservative theorist than as a composer, expressing in his writing the differences he held with the theories of Rameau, to which he proposed alternative interpretations of harmonic practice.

Keyboard Music

Kirnberger’s compositions include works for harpsichord and for organ. These, often in conventional forms, offer only limited interest.