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In 1709, Graupner accepted a post at the court of Hessen-Darmstadt. He became the court orchestra’s conductor and composer (Hofkapellmeister ) in 1711. In March 1723, on the request of his employer the landgrave (earl), he turned down a prestigious position that was offered him: that of cantor —choir and organ master— of the Church of Saint Thomas in Leipzig. This, incidentally, enabled Johann Sebastian Bach to accept this position officially on 5 May 1723. In his letter declining the appointment, Graupner made unprompted mention of Bach’s name, expressing a positive opinion of the musician. This gesture, which was not customary at that time, is an indication of the modesty and uprightness that marked his personality. He was to remain at the court of Darmstadt for the remaining thirty-eight years of his life.
Graupner was modest to the point of requesting that all his music be destroyed after his death. The inevitable legal battle that ensued, between his heirs and the Court of Darmstadt, ended in 1819 with the recognition of the latter’s rights of title over the composer’s music. Graupner’s hand-written scores and original manuscripts therefore remained at the castle of Darmstadt and today belong to the Hessische Landes -und Hochschulbibliothek (Hessen State and University library) in that town.
A prolific and tireless composer, Graupner had a reputation among others for the excellent calligraphy of his original manuscripts and copies, to which he devoted the closest attention. Mattheson remarked on this in 1740: “his handwritten scores are of such beauty that one could take them for engravings”. In addition to a large number of original manuscripts, there are handwritten copies of works by contemporaries: Vivaldi, Telemann, Fasch, Stamitz, Richter and others. It is known that Bach copied the music of his predecessors as much as he did that of his contemporaries, but only with a view to furthering his own learning.
After the fashion of J. S. Bach, and in accordance with the social obligations of the professional eighteenth century composer, Graupner toiled humbly and ceaselessly, accomplishing several tasks at once, without ever giving a thought to posterity.
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