Sylvius Leopold Weiss

Biography

Silvius Leopold Weiss (12 October 1687 – 16 October 1750) was a German composer and lutenist. He was born in Silesia (in present-day Poland) to the lutenist Johann Jacob Weiss, who taught the lute to his children. Weiss was a child prodigy and played for Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor c. 1694. He was employed by nobility including Charles III Philip of Palatinate-Neuburg and Alexander Sobieski, travelling with them to various courts and cities in Europe.

From 1718, Weiss was a musician at the Dresden court of Augustus the Strong, the Elector of Saxony and King of Poland. He played the lute and the theorbo on many occasions. He was acquainted with Johann Sebastian Bach, who frequently visited Dresden, and on occasion they played music together, reportedly competing in playing fantasias and fugues. Bach's trio in A major for violin and harpsichord BWV 1025 is based on a sonata by Weiss.

At the time of his death, Weiss was the highest-paid instrumentalist at the Dresden court. He left the largest known corpus of music for lute and is recognised as one of the greatest lutenists of all time.

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