Editing Carl Friedrich Abel (section)

== Life ==
[[File:Karl Friedrich Abel by Thomas Gainsborough.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|Abel holding his viol, painted by Gainsborough, {{circa}} 1765]]
Abel was born in [[Köthen]],<ref name="Harvard Bio">{{cite book|editor-last=Randel|editor-first=Don Michael|title=The Harvard biographical dictionary of music|year=1996|publisher=Belknap Press of Harvard Univ. Press|location=Cambridge, Mass.|isbn=0-674-37299-9|pages=[https://archive.org/details/harvardbiographi00rand/page/n18 1]–2|chapter=Carl Friedrich Abel|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/harvardbiographi00rand}}</ref><ref name="CBD" />{{rp|7}} where his father, [[Christian Ferdinand Abel]], had worked for years as the principal [[viol|viola da gamba]] and [[cello]] player in the court orchestra of [[Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen]]. In 1723 Abel senior became director of the orchestra, when the previous director, [[Johann Sebastian Bach]], moved to [[Leipzig]]. The young Abel later boarded at [[St. Thomas School, Leipzig]], where he was taught by Bach.

On Bach's recommendation in 1743 he was able to join [[Johann Adolph Hasse]]'s orchestra at the [[Dresden court]], where he remained for fifteen years.<ref name=EB /><ref name=Grove>{{cite encyclopedia |editor-last=Sadie |editor-first=Stanley |date=2001 |encyclopedia=The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians |title=Carl [Karl] Friedrich Abel |edition=2nd |publisher=Grove's Dictionaries Inc. |location=New York, NY |pages=15–18 |isbn=1-56159-239-0 |volume=I A-Aristotle}}</ref><ref name="Zadow" /> In 1759<ref name="Zadow" /> (or 1758 according to ''Chambers''),<ref name="CBD" />{{rp|3}} he went to England and became chamber-musician to [[Queen Charlotte]], in 1764.<ref name=EB/><ref name=Grove/> He gave a concert of his own compositions in London, performing on various instruments, one of which was a five-string cello known as a [[pentachord (instrument)|pentachord]], which had been recently invented by [[John Joseph Merlin]].<ref>Freiberg, Sarah. [http://www.cello.org/Newsletter/Articles/merlin.htm Conversation with Magical Merlin], Internet Cello Society. Retrieved 29 January 2009.</ref>

In 1762, [[Johann Christian Bach]], a son of J. S. Bach, joined him in London, and the friendship between him and Abel led, in 1764 or 1765, to the establishment of the famous Bach-Abel concerts, England's first subscription concerts.<ref name="Zadow" /> In those concerts, many celebrated guest artists appeared, and many works of [[Haydn]] received their first English performance.<ref name=EB />

For ten years the concerts were organized by [[Teresa Cornelys]], a retired Venetian opera singer who owned a concert hall at [[Carlisle House, Soho#Carlisle House, Soho Square|Carlisle House]] in [[Soho Square]], then the height of fashionable events. In 1775 the concerts became independent of her, to be continued by Abel and Bach until Bach's death in 1782. Abel still remained in great demand as a player on various instruments new and old. He traveled to Germany and France between 1782 and 1785, and upon his return to London, became a leading member of the Grand [[Professional Concerts]] at the [[Hanover Square Rooms]] in [[Soho]]. Throughout his life he had enjoyed excessive living, and his drinking probably hastened his death.<ref name=EB>{{cite encyclopedia |editor-first=Dale H. |editor-last=Hoiberg |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. |title=Abel, Carl Friedrich |edition=15th |year=2010 |volume=I: A-ak Bayes |location=Chicago, IL |isbn=978-1-59339-837-8 |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Carl-Friedrich-Abel|access-date=30 March 2018}}</ref>

Abel died in London on 20 June 1787.<ref name="Harvard Bio" /><ref name=EB /><ref name="Zadow" /> He was buried in the churchyard of [[St Pancras Old Church]].