Composer, born in Savoy. As a boy he
studied in Paris with
Lully
and others in 1663-69; he was appointed organist at Molsheim
Cathedral in 1671, then went to Ingolstadt to study law. He
later traveled to Vienna but could not obtain an official
appointment and subsequently appeared in Prague (1677),
ultimately finding a position in Salzburg in the service of
Archbishop Max Gandolf, a post he held for over ten years. He
was given leave to travel in the 1680s and studied in Rome with
Pasquini
; some of his compositions were performed in
Corelli
's house. From 1690 until his death he was
Kapellmeister
to Johann Philipp von Lamberg, Bishop of Passau.
Muffat was instrumental in bringing the
French and Italian styles into German- speaking countries,
prefaces to his published works provide details about
Lully
's and
Corelli
's practice for his German audience. His
Armonico tributo
(Salzburg, 1682), with its careful use of the letters T and S
to indicate tutti and solo passages, belongs to the early
history of the concerto grosso, these compositions later
appeared in modified form in
Ausserlesene Instrumental-Music
(Passau, 1701). The two volumes of orchestral suites (
Suavioris harmoniae instrumentalis hyporchematicae
florilegium primum,
Augsburg, 1695;
Florilegium secundum,
Passau, 1698) are particularly fine examples of French
influence on a German composer -- Muffat (along with Kusser)
was one of the first to incorporate the French overture into
the German suite.