Joseph Willibald Michl

Classical Composer and Violinist of the 18th Century

German composer; b. Neumarkt, Upper Palatinate, July 9, 1745; d. there, Aug. 1, 1816. He was the son of the composer Johann Anton Leonhard Michl (1716–1781), choirmaster and organist in Neumarkt, and brother of (1) Johann Joseph Ildefons Michl and (2) Ferdinand Michl. He studied at the electoral Gymnasium and Lyceum in Munich, and was an accomplished double bass player in the Jesuit church of St Michael until about 1767. In the 1760s Elector Maximilian III Joseph sent him to Freising to study for two years under Placidus von Camerloher. By the beginning of 1771 Michl was named a composer to the electoral chamber. His opera buffa “Il barone di Torre” (1772) was remarkably successful, and in 1774 he travelled to Italy at the elector’s expense. In 1776 he wrote within four weeks (in place of the ill Josef Mysliveček) the Carnival opera “Il trionfo di Clelia” for the Munich court. With the succession of the new elector, Carl Theodor, in January 1778 Michl was dismissed. In July 1779 he was granted a privilege to publish music in manuscript; he seems to have restricted this activity to his own works. From about 1784 to 1 September 1803 he lived with his brother-in-law, Johann Baptist Moser, a judge at the Augustinian prebendary institute at Weyarn, and wrote sacred works as well as symphonies and school dramas for the monastery. In 1786 he also taught composition at the Benedictine abbey at Tegernsee. Michl was a talented composer, known particularly for his sacred works. These include numerous extant liturgical works as well as six Lenten meditations, performed at the Congregatio Latina Major in Munich between 1768 and 1772, which are now lost. Also lost are numerous works for school theatres, though several larger stage and vocal works remain, some of which were possibly composed by Johann Michael Michl, the musical director of F.J. Moser’s theatrical troupe. Michl’s instrumental output includes a wide range of orchestral and chamber works, and his abilities as a composer are attested by Burney, who, having heard a quintet performed in Munich (1772), wrote that few works showed more genius and invention or demanded more skill in performance.