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Johann Friedrich Alberti (Composer) Born: January 11, 1642 - Tönning, Schleswig, Germany Died: June 14, 1710 - Merseburg, Germany Johann Friedrich Alberti was a German composer and organist. A versatile man, he studied theology at Rostock, intending to enter the ministry. Dogged by ill-health he read law instead at Leipzig University, concurrently studying music with Werner Fabricius to such good purpose that Duke Christian I of Saxony appointed him organist at his court and at Merseburg Cathedral. Alberti also studied with Vincenzo Albrici An apoplectic stroke caused paralysis, which incapacitated him for the last 12 years of his life. Although Johann Friedrich Alberti apparently wrote much sacred and keyboard music, unfortunately only four chorale compositions survive. They are in various manuscripts, mainly in libraries in Berlin, and they have been included in several modern anthologies of organ music such as Orgelmeister des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts, ed. K. Matthaei (Kassel, 1933); 80 Choralvorspiele des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts, ed. H. Keller (Leipzig, 1937); and EDM, 1st ser., ix (1937); for some lost works see Seiffert in AMw, ii, 1920, p.371. In both Herzlich lieb hab' ich dich, O Herr and Gelobet seist du the first chorale line alone is stated in skilful association with two contrasting countersubjects, giving, particularly in the former, a sense of singular intimacy. The two-movement Te Deum consists of a ricercare-like double fugue on the first two chorale lin