Editing Thomas Baltzar

{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name                = Thomas Baltzar
| background          = non_vocal_instrumentalist
| birth_name          = 
| alias               = 
| birth_date                = 1630s
|birth_place =[[Free City of Lübeck]], [[Holy Roman Empire]]
| death_date                = 24 July 1663
|death_place =[[Kingdom of England]]
| genre               = [[Baroque music]]
| occupation          = violinist, composer
}}
'''Thomas Baltzar''' (''[[Wiktionary:circa|c]]''. 1630 – 24 July 1663) was a German [[violin]]ist and composer. He was born in [[Lübeck]] to a musical family; his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather were all musicians.<ref name="Grove">Holman, Peter. "Baltzar, Thomas". ''[http://www.grovemusic.com Grove Music Online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516041031/http://www.grovemusic.com/ |date=16 May 2008 }}'' (subscription required). ed. L. Macy. Retrieved on May 31, 2008.</ref> Sources suggest an array of music teachers who may have taught him in his early years. According to the writings of [[Samuel Hartlib]], composer and violinist [[Johann Schop]] was one of those instructors. Baltzar may have studied the violin with [[Gregor Zuber]] and [[Musical composition|composition]] with [[Franz Tunder]]. He may have also received instruction from composer and violinist [[Nicolaus Bleyer]], who taught Baltzar's younger brother.<ref name="DNB">Walls, Peter (2004). "[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/1253 Baltzar, Thomas (c.1630–1663)]". ''[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]'' (subscription required). [[Oxford University Press]]. Retrieved on May 31, 2008.</ref>

Through contacts at Germany's embassy in Sweden (where, by 1653, Baltzar was employed), he may have come in contact with English musicians accompanying [[Bulstrode Whitelocke]]'s mission to [[Christina of Sweden|Queen Christina]]. This possible encounter may have been the impetus for Baltzar's decision to emigrate to England in 1655, leaving behind his newly attained position of ''Ratslutenist'' of Lübeck (he had returned briefly to his home city, probably shortly after Christina's abdication in June 1654). Hartlib's writings indicate that the Swedish ambassador to England, [[Christer Bonde]], took in Baltzar.<ref name="DNB "/>

Baltzar's arrival in England was met with acclaim. On 4 March 1656 he performed the violin at the residence of [[Roger L'Estrange]], where [[John Evelyn]] was in attendance. Evelyn wrote in his ''[[John Evelyn's Diary|Diary]]'' that night:<ref name="DNB "/>

<blockquote>
This night I was invited by Mr. Rog: L'Estrange to {{sic|hide=yes|hear|e}} the incomperable ''Lubicer'' on the Violin, his variety upon a few notes & plaine ground with that {{sic|hide=yes|wonderful|l}} dexterity, as was admirable, & though a very young man, yet so perfect & skillful as there was nothing so crosse & perplext, which being by our Artists, brought to him, which he did not at first sight, with ravishing sweetenesse & improvements, play off, to the astonishment of our best Masters: In Summ, he plaid on that single Instrument a full Consort, so as the rest, flung-downe their Instruments, as acknowledging a victory.
</blockquote>

In September 1656, Baltzar was listed as one of the musicians who helped premiere ''[[The Siege of Rhodes]]'' in [[London]],<ref name="Grove "/> thought to have been the first all-sung English opera.<ref>Price, Curtis. "Siege of Rhodes, The.". ''[http://www.grovemusic.com Grove Music Online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516041031/http://www.grovemusic.com/ |date=16 May 2008 }}'' (subscription required). ed. L. Macy. Retrieved on May 31, 2008.</ref> Two years later, according to [[Anthony Wood (antiquary)|Anthony Wood]], he was employed as a private musician for Sir Anthony Cope at [[Hanwell House]] in [[Banbury]].<ref name="Grove "/> Wood, who had heard Baltzar play at a performance in Warden [[John Wilkins]]'s lodgings at [[Wadham College, Oxford|Wadham College]], [[Oxford]], described his "very great astonishment" at the German's skill.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Henderson |first=P. A. Wright |title=The Life and Times of John Wilkins |publisher=William Blackwood and Sons |year=1910 |location=Edinburgh and London |pages=90}}</ref><ref name="DNB "/> "[I] saw him run his fingers to the end of the [[Fingerboard|finger-board]] of the violin, and run them back insensibly," he wrote, "and all with alacrity and in very good tune, which [I] nor any in England saw the like before."<ref name="DNB "/> Also in attendance was [[John Wilson (composer)|John Wilson]], a professor of music at the [[University of Oxford]], who, according to Wood, bowed at Baltzar's feet after the performance.<ref name="DNB "/> However, Wood also observed of Baltzar that "he was given to excessive drinking."<ref name=":0" />

On 23 December 1661 Baltzar entered [[Charles II of England|Charles II]]'s service as a leader of the king's private music ensemble, the "four and twenty fiddlers," succeeding [[Davis Mell]] in the post.<ref>{{cite DNB |wstitle=Mell, Davis|first=Heron-Allen|last=Edward|authorlink=Edward Heron-Allen|volume=37|page=220}}</ref> He was given an annual salary of [[Pound sterling|£]]110, a high figure for the time.<ref name="Grove "/> Some of Baltzar's surviving compositions, including a work in [[C (musical note)|C]] [[Major scale|major]] that may be the earliest [[suite (music)|suite]] for three violins,<ref name="Grove "/> require virtuosity and technical mastery. According to Wood, Baltzar's drinking habits contributed to his death. He was buried in the [[cloisters]] of [[Westminster Abbey]] on 27 July 1663.<ref name="DNB "/>

==References==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
{{EB1911 poster|Baltzar, Thomas}}
* {{cite DNB|wstitle=Baltzar, Thomas|volume=3}}
*{{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p43567|label=Thomas Baltzar}}
*{{IMSLP|id=Baltzar%2C_Thomas}}
*[http://www.mutopiaproject.org/cgibin/make-table.cgi?Composer=BaltzarT Free scores] [[Mutopia Project]]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baltzar, Thomas}}
[[Category:1630s births]]
[[Category:1663 deaths]]
[[Category:German classical violinists]]
[[Category:German male classical violinists]]
[[Category:German violinists]]
[[Category:German male violinists]]
[[Category:German Baroque composers]]
[[Category:Musicians from Lübeck]]
[[Category:17th-century German classical composers]]
[[Category:German male classical composers]]
[[Category:17th-century male musicians]]